Kristy Scott is not just a filmmaker but a tastemaker, who traverses the world with her husband, Desmond, and two young boys, Westin and Vance at her side. As the family creates content around their endless adventures abroad and sweet life at home in Texas, Kristy’s known to her millions of Instagram fans as one mom who’s got this whole travel thing figured out. So naturally as travel seasons kicks into high gear, we had to get the scoop from Kristy on how she manages to keep it all together while on the road with her kids.

Desmond and I travel a lot. We actually got back from Paris last night! When we take our kids with us, one of biggest hacks for me is to over-prepare. Because we hav two toddlers, it’s insanity. So I’ll buy toys like fidget spinners and all this crap for airplane so they’re quiet and occupied for a little while. Since it’s four of us in a hotel room, I always ask for four beds in one room. We’ll put a twin mattress on the floor, or even two, and a crib. We all want to be comfortable. If you’re not sleeping well, it’s not a vacation.

Also my boys have grown accustomed to the idea that getting on a flight means it’s quiet time. One good hack traveling hack is to book night flights or flights around the nap. We book our flights in a very structured way around the usual nap time in afternoon or bed time. If it’s more than a six hour flight, you can pretty much be assured they’ll be sleeping.

Also the carseat is such a pain to travel with, let alone two. Whenever I’m planning a vacation with them, I call the hotel in advance to get a ride from the airport in a car with a carseat.

When I traveled while pregnant, I dealt with a lot of nausea. So I brought all my nausea snacks on the flight. Apart from that, a pregnancy pillow helped me a lot. But since you can’t really travel with one, as soon as I got to the hotel, I got one for that trip. It’s all about having what you need, however you need to get it there,

When we’re traveling with both boys, the easiest thing to do is find a resort that has it all and doesn’t require to have much. Especially if it’s family vacation. Our most recent trip with the boys had the food, but it also had playground, the kids activities, adult activities, and the beach. The beach is our favorite destination when traveling with the boys. It keeps them occupied all day. And stay somewhere that doesn’t require too much walking. You get the scenery at the resort and you don’t have to travel for it.

Just seeing their reactions to seeing something new. We went to the beach for first time. Of course they see these things on television or whatever, but they don’t realize it’s real. Being able to see their reaction to something as simple as sand was amazing. Oh, also, buy toys in advance based on where you’re going. We were in Turks and Caicos in July and got sand toys from Amazon and packed them. The kids were occupied for hours.

Try to stay on their routine. Even on vacation, stay true to their nap time so they have sense of routine even if you’re in a new place. Also bring some of their go-to toys. Try to keep thing as familiar as possible even though you’re in a different place. Kids like expecting what’s going to happen.

New environments can be stressful for them. Prepare them mentally that we’re going to be o a plane. It’s quiet time on a plane. Offer gentle reminders leading up to the day. Tantrums can be from stressful but a result of abrupt change.

On one of our flights, we got upgraded with the boys. I thought it would be awesome. My youngest child threw a massive tantrum. He was screaming nonstop for about three minutes.

The person in front of us said to her husband, ‘I didn’t pay all this money to be listening to screams.’ She said it loud enough for me to hear. It made me so bad and so guilty. When a kid is screaming in a confined space. you can’t do much. But you’re worried about everybody else and what they’re thinking.

Try not to over complicate the process and don’t over think it. You don’t want to end up being more stressed on a vacation. Prepare as much as you can, but don’t end up bringing too much stuff. so stressful. You don’t need the Dock-a-Tot. Take the essentials and leave the clunky stuff.