Bike touring routes for families

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This week we have a big update to our biking page - we created a list of recommended bike touring routes. It is inspiring us to get out on a tour this year and we hope it does the same for you! This list was created with help from the families in the Bicycle Touring with kids Facebook page - we highly recommend joining that group for more info on bike touring with kids. This list can also be viewed directly in the Google Sheet. If you have more routes to add, fill out this form to have them added.…

When to Start Doing Outdoor Activities With Your Kids

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When we had our first kid, we didn't have a good roadmap of when we could start doing outdoor activities with kids. Many times I felt like we were winging it and also that we were pushing to do it faster than society suggests. We've been lucky to meet many people over the years who also took their babies on outdoor adventures as we did. Here is a summary of what I wish we knew when we had our first kid - it's part of our General Advice page in the When to Start section. Hiking: Start hiking as soon…

Hiking Food for Kids and Babies

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This week's post is a new section for the Hiking Page that covers the topic of what food to bring while hiking. As always, this is intended to be a living document and we'll add in any new tips we get from comments or from any interviews we do, so please give us improvement ideas! Having the right food can be the difference between a joyful hike with kids and a miserable slog. Kids don't understand "powering-through" when you're running low on food and almost at the trailhead or don't like the food you bring. They can often just refuse to…

Choosing Camping Gear for Families

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This week's post is a new Gear Selection section of the Camping page.  We hope it's helpful, and as always, we love feedback! This section is a summarization of the gear tips for camping that are included in the different camping sections, with some additional tips added. Since the philosophy of this website is to not recommend certain specific gear band instead to give criteria of what to look for when selecting gear, that is what you'll find here. General: Packing for car camping is a lot faster if you are not filling up every square inch of your car when packing. If you…

New parent survival guide

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How am I ever going to keep climbing / backpacking / skiing / camping / biking after I have kids? I can’t push myself as hard as I used to or go as far as I used to now that I’m pregnant! It will never be fun again! My friends / coworkers were right, I’ll never do anything outdoors again! Life is over!Obviously most of that is not true, exploring the outdoors with kids is amazing. It is just a lot different - sometimes much harder and sometimes way better. Here are some tips on adjusting to being an outdoor…

Bike touring with kids

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Bike touring can be a really fun way to explore new places with kids, including small kids. Our biggest concern was to find a place with bike paths or roads that we felt were safe enough to take kids on for longer distances. Ideally we wanted a place where we could go camping as well. ​ Since we were visiting family in Europe, we decided to try bike camping in France, which is famous for bike camping on the canals. We spent 10 days bike camping in Brittany, with a 3 year old and a 6 year old and all four…

How to keep your kid moving down the trail

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The biggest challenge to hiking or backpacking with kids is keeping them moving. It's so important, because we all need to be able to count on completing our hikes before dark or making it to our campsites in time for dinner. Here are the tips we have compiled over the years of hiking with our kids and with our friends:Get the right pacing and timing of breaks: Take enough breaks:  Try to time breaks to milestones based on distance or time Plan for longer breaks to play/play cards every certain time/distance But don’t take too many breaks - experiment to find…

How to take your baby backpacking

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​Taking your baby on a backpacking trip is a great introduction to outdoor parenting. We took our daughter on her first backpacking trip when she was about 9 months old. It was only one night and just a two mile hike but we loved being able to give her the experience of being in the backcountry with us from an early age. Here are some of our tips on how to make it happen: Recommended age/weight for these trips: Your baby should be small/light enough that you can carry him/her in a baby backpack and ideally with an extra 5…