Travel With Kids: Picky Eater Edition

Family travel with kids gets easier when picky eaters become adventurous! Learn 8 strategies to help your children try new foods while traveling.

Struggling with picky eaters on family trips? You're not alone. In this episode of Family Travel Unpacked, Melissa shares practical strategies for encouraging kids to try new foods while traveling - without the mealtime battles.

From choosing the right timing to starting with local sweets, these proven techniques have helped countless families transform their travel dining experiences. Whether you're heading to Costa Rica, Japan, or just planning your next family vacation, these tips will help you navigate unfamiliar cuisines with confidence when you travel with kids.

Episode Highlights:

• Why timing matters when introducing exotic foods to kids
• The "sweets first" approach that actually works
• How cooking classes create adventurous eaters
• Strategic accommodations that respect kids' boundaries
• How to prevent mealtime power struggles

Perfect for parents planning family travel with young kids, tweens, or teens. Real stories, honest advice, and actionable strategies from 13+ years of family travel experience.

Don't miss this inspiring, practical travel with kids podcast hosted by family travel expert Melissa Conn, founder of The Family Voyage, certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, and mom of two who proves family travel is achievable for everyone.

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Transcript

0:02

Hey there and welcome back to Family Travel Unpacked. I'm your host, Melissa, and as always, you can find tons of detailed destination guides, travel tips, hacks, and more on my website, thefamilyvoyage.com. Today we're tackling a topic that I know stresses out a lot of parents, myself included: dealing with picky eaters when you're traveling. I was talking to a friend recently- she's actually scheduled to be a guest on this show soon'cause she's a real travel expert- and she told me about how hard it is with her 10-year-old son. This family travels everywhere, sometimes for two months at a time all over the world. But her youngest? He only likes pizza, hot dogs and french fries. Even after spending so much time on other continents, he won't try anything unfamiliar. The rest of the family wants to sit down for a local feast, experience the cuisine, and really immerse themselves. But the youngest just won't eat anything new or different. That creates real tension and makes everyone stressed. And you really can't take a heavy handed approach when you've already taken your kid out of their comfort zone to a place where so much is outside of their day-to-day experience. You've gotta work together. Before I dive into strategies, let me share where we're coming from on this. We've been really fortunate that both of our kids are pretty open-minded eaters. They'll try a lot of different things and they've developed fairly diverse palates through our travels, though to be totally transparent, there are still some things they won't touch. Don't try to give Shoshana hotdog and definitely don't give Jacob fresh fruit. I know. Crazy, right? But their flexibility didn't happen overnight, and we've definitely had our challenging moments along the way. So let's talk about strategies that we've used to overcome their particular eating. First up raising kids who will eat their way around the world ideally starts right at your own kitchen table. My husband and I love Indian food, Chinese food, Thai food, Persian food, and of course staples like Italian. We never stopped eating those things, even when our kids were little, so they were exposed to it all from an early age. Now that doesn't mean they always liked them, but they were at least a little familiar. And at home the kids were comfortable and we had plenty of backup food options. So when they were really little, we might give them a bite or two of our food and then let them continue with their own meal. Sometimes they refused, and that's just the way it goes. But at least they've been exposed to some of those really distinctive flavors and scents from the get go. Next up, timing matters more than you might think. Make sure your kid is in a good mood- they're not hangry, exhausted, or overstimulated- when you try to introduce something that they might think is exotic. When we landed in Japan after a 15 hour flight, our son was already beyond tired. We did a private food tour- that was a good idea- but we scheduled it about 12 hours after we landed. Let's just say that was a phenomenally bad idea, even though the tour itself was great. Jacob's normally a really easygoing traveler, but he had a complete meltdown. He was 11 at the time, so it wasn't something we expected. Look, kids are already outside of their comfort zone when you're traveling, so choose a time when they're happy and excited to give everyone the best chance of success. Maybe that's after a fun morning activity when you're all feeling good. Maybe it's at a relaxed lunch when you're not rushing anywhere. Or maybe it's after you've been in the country for a few days and they're really settled in. But read your kids' mood and energy level. If they're tired, overwhelmed, or already dealing with a lot of new experiences, adding food pressure on top of that is probably gonna backfire on you. Now, here's another strategy that worked really well for us: start with dessert. Plenty of countries have unique desserts as part of their cuisine, so lean into that. Most kids are more inclined to try a sweet than say blood sausage or sweet breads. Mochi over sushi alfajores over empanadas, macarons over frog legs. Local desserts might be less adventurous than other delicacies, but they're a gateway to a more diverse palate. This has worked particularly well for our daughter who has a massive sweet tooth. In France she was all about trying different pastries, which might have familiar tastes, but different textures. In Argentina, she discovered alfajores and she was thrilled. In Thailand, mango sticky rice became a favorite, and once she's feeling good about trying new sweet things, she's more open to trying savory dishes too. But just to be clear on one important thing: try not to make the sweets contingent on eating other food. Don't say,"if you try this curry, you can have dessert". That can create negative associations with the main food and turns dessert into a reward rather than part of the experience. Just offer dessert as part of exploring the local cuisine. Let them try it and enjoy their excitement. Trust that their adventurousness will expand from there. My next suggestion is to involve kids in the process. One of the best things we ever did was a family cooking class in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We started with shopping at the market- the kids were carrying baskets and collecting all our ingredients. It was super cute, and then we moved to the classroom. Our kids were involved in making four different dishes, and they had so much fun that they were willing to try them all. When you spent time chopping the vegetables, mixing the sauces, and actually cooking something, you're way more invested in tasting it. We've done similar cooking classes in Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Morocco, and even in Costa Rica. Every single time the kids were happy to try things they might have refused in a restaurant. This works even better if you start your kids young, even at three or four they can take part in kitchen activities. They can wash vegetables, stir things, and do simple tasks that make them feel involved. I'll call this next strategy"Small steps instead of big leaps". Instead of presenting your kiddo with a huge feast of all new tastes, smells, and colors, try pushing them just a hair past their comfort zone. One thing I know I mentioned on my episode about Icon of the Seas is that we did a specialty dining meal at Izumi Sushi. There was so much that was unfamiliar to my 4-year-old niece who's a more particular eater. She tends to turn up her nose at anything that isn't a Dino nugget or a treat. We decided to try Chicken Ramen for her, and initially she refused. That's four right? But we convinced her to give it a whirl by telling her, accurately I might add, that it was just chicken noodle soup. She started with a little broth and agreed that it was yummy. So then she moved on to a noodle or two. When that wasn't offensive she finally tried a little bit of the chicken too. Even though it was something new, it felt close enough to something old that we were able to make some headway. She got exposed to a different style of broth and a different texture of noodle than she'd had before. So I'll call it a success. Here's another idea, whether you wanna call it peer modeling or peer pressure, letting kids see other kids that they trust trying new foods can be a huge help. Going back to that same Japanese meal on the cruise, my 7-year-old nephew was also with us. He's gotten a little more adventurous than his sister over the last few years, but not a ton. We sat him across from my son, the revered big cousin, and we let proximity work its magic. When Jacob's huge tray of sushi came and he started digging in, my nephew got kind of curious. So we gave him a little sushi to try. I mean, really just a nibble. I think I split off a piece that was about the size of a pea. He didn't love the salmon that we gave him first, and I was honest with him and said that it's not my favorite either. But then my son offered a little bit of his tuna to test out, and the little dude immediately asked for a full piece. Now, I don't think he's about to start asking for sushi every single day- his parents will be grateful- but he saw another kid eating it and liking it, and that helped him feel safer and more confident to give it a try. Sometimes this strategy can work with siblings, but I think it's even better if it's a friend or a cousin. Now for another strategy: try to respect kids' preferences while still getting them to branch out. Every kid has food preferences, just like adults, and that's okay. When our son was younger, he didn't usually, like his meat served in thick sauces. Plenty of adults feel the same way, so we thought that was reasonable. Instead of forcing him to eat things he genuinely didn't enjoy, we'd order dishes where he could control how much sauce he used, or maybe we'd request the sauce on the side; small accommodations that let him feel in control without completely limiting what we could experience. Another way to handle that is to let your kids try part of a dish rather than the whole thing visiting Thailand. Before you tell your kids to order a delicious steaming bowl of tom kha gai, let them just sample the broth from yours. Then they can see what the flavor profile is like without all those things in there. The key is distinguishing between,"I don't like this type of food" versus"I won't try anything new". The first is a preference we can work with and adults have them too. The second is something that our family gently pushes back on. We also learned to look at menus in advance and identify some dishes that would likely work for each kid. Not every meal has to be a culinary adventure. Sometimes the kids just want pasta with butter, and that's fine. The goal isn't to force your kids to love every single thing. It's just to gradually expand their comfort zone while respecting their genuine preferences, just like you would for an adult. My final suggestion is to have realistic expectations. I'm gonna be really honest here. Not every kid is gonna become an adventurous eater just because you travel. I have friends whose kids have traveled all over the world and they still prefer chicken nuggets and pizza. That's okay. It's not a failure of parenting or of travel. That's just who those kids are right now. The goal isn't to turn your 8-year-old into a food critic. The goal is to expose them to different foods, different ways of eating, different culinary traditions, and trust that even if they don't embrace it all now, those experiences are still valuable in shaping them. Maybe your kid won't eat paella in Spain, but they'll remember being in that restaurant with the whole family, the energy and excitement, even if they ate plain bread and butter. Maybe they won't try the street food in Thailand, but they'll remember those colorful markets, the smells, the experience of being somewhere completely different. Food is just one part of travel, and please don't let food struggles ruin the experience. Honestly, sometimes you're just in survival mode. You're exhausted, everyone's cranky, and you need to find something, anything that your kid will eat so you can get through the day. Don't look at one takeout order as a permanent defeat. It's not. Give yourself grace and remember that not every meal has to be perfect. Let me wrap this up with a few final thoughts. Eating should be fun, especially when you travel and have the opportunity to experience flavors you can't find at home. Frame it as an adventure, not a test."Let's see what this tastes like" is very different from"you need to eat this". One is curious and low pressure, the other's stressful and creates resistance. So celebrate those small wins. Your kid tried one bite of something new that's progress. Don't focus on what they didn't eat, focus on what they were willing to try and build on that. And finally, remember that food is just one part of travel. We tend to romanticize these ideas of families gathering around tables full of local delicacies, everyone trying everything, having these perfect bonding moments over meals. And sometimes that happens, but sometimes your kid eats noodles for the third night in a row while you enjoy a really special meal, and that's okay too. The beautiful thing is that food can be one of the most memorable connecting parts of travel. Some of our best family experiences involve meals. Not fancy restaurants necessarily, but simple moments of discovering something delicious together. Those are the memories your kids will carry with them. Thanks for listening to Family Travel unpacked. If you've got strategies that have worked for your family, I'd love to hear them. And if you wanna share your picky eater travel disaster stories, I'm here for those too. We've all been there. I'd absolutely love it if you could take 30 seconds to leave a rating or review wherever you're listening to this podcast. It really helps other families find the show when they're planning their own adventures. And be sure to hop over to thefamilyvoyage.com for in-depth guides to travel with kids. Until next time, happy travels!