Traveling with kids: Bring some surprises, snacks and toys for them. Make sure that you talked about and planned for things that they will enjoy too. If they enjoy the trip, you can enjoy it as well. If they don’t enjoy it, it will be miserable for you.

On the serious side, don’t forget that if you are allowing your minor child to travel with your grand parents, aunts, uncles, etc…, or even if the child is traveling with only the mom or the dad, a permission letter authorizing such travel is required. This is to prevent a parent from abducting the child and traveling out of reach of the local authorities. It is also important to provide the person(s) traveling with your minor children with the appropriate authority to deal with medical situations. Sample of Permission Letter for one Parent. Sample of Permission Letter for someone other than the parents. Sample of Medical Treatment Authorization Permission Letter.

All of these documents were created in Microsoft Word so they are simple to open and modify as needed. To read more about it, check out our blog.

One last thing. If your minor child is traveling unaccompanied by a parent or legal guardian, especially out of the country, the child will also need a passport, maybe a visa too, and of course, a Permission letter. This permission letter needs to be notarized. In some countries, the permission letter may have to be translated into the appropriate language. Check with the Department of State for more information for specific countries. Why would my child travel unaccompanied to a foreign country, you ask? Maybe as a foreign exchange student, maybe for a sports activity that you may not be able to attend, or at least maybe you are not be able to travel with the team, etc…