With 4 Kids, We Were Just Looking For Fun Ways To Spend Time With Them…
As you may already know, reading reviews to find age-appropriate activities with kids can be… daunting. Sometimes the information isn’t clear – yes, it’s claims to be “kid-friendly” but how old are the kids?! – and other times it sounds family-inclusive but actually is not.
These hit-and-miss activities, (blindly) guided our first few months of Hawaii living. For example, we’d find information on a toddler-friendly hike, only to realize 15~20 minutes into the trail that our idea of “toddler-friendly” was different from the reviewer. What I mean is, for my toddler in my Ergo carrier, I might call the hike “toddler-friendly,” but for our wobbly kid, I wouldn’t call a path with one side facing a drop-off (slightly exaggerated, but not by much), an “easy, enjoyable trail for the whole family.” However, maybe for the reviewer’s hike-savvy kid, it was fine?
In the end, because of the terrain, we ended up carrying our 2-year-old in a back carrier for about half of the 2-hour hike. (Which, I can guarantee you was NOT part of the plan!)
Ha…good times. Anyway, through many, many of these experiences we discovered how subjective ratings and reviews can be. Over time, I actually decided, in the case of kid activities, more information is usually better than less. When I can browse through a variety of reviews and opinions, more information makes more more comfortable about what activities might work for my family (no judgment to the other reviewers!)
So, whether you decide to blaze a trail, visit a park, or swim at a beach, we hope we can provide one more perspective or tip for you to make the most of your family trip. Happy traveling with kids!
Aloha!
We are Lym and Faith. We have four kids ranging from elementary to high school. Faith is originally from Oahu and Lym is a transplant. We moved to Oahu when just had 3 kids – at that time, toddlers to early elementary – so we’ve had LOTS of experiences with all kinds activities over the years.
Like many parents, we have a love-anxiety relationship with children and traveling. We love the travel, we love the kids, but sometimes kids + travel requires different kinds of planning and considerations.
Is that show/luau/tour age appropriate for my 1/10/15 year old? Can my 3-year-old hike that trail? Is there anything to do with a infant in tow? Does it make sense to bring my stroller/baby carrier on this tour?
Even with all the information out there, it still can be hard to find the right information for us. In our case, we just started taking pictures and documenting a lot of our own trips, sharing our ups and downs with our family and friends via our socials. Overtime, other parents would ask us for suggestions for their own families, which led us to create this blog. Hopefully, over time, we can add enough information to make one of the tools you can use to plan your own Hawaii vacation, stay-cation, or simply to get ideas of what to do with kids on a rainy day!
So, whether you’re visiting Hawaii for your first or 20th time, visiting your Hawaii family with your own kids, or a local family looking some family-friendly ideas, we hope we can add value to your experience in the Hawaiian Islands.
Thanks so much for taking the time to visit our site!
Contact Us
You can reach us at hawaiifamilylife (at) gmail dot com.
Enjoy Hawaii Travel
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We are based in Hawaii and are currently traveling in East Asia.
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