Lucas and I went on our 2nd Father Son Trip to Mexico in July 2016.

While all-inclusive resorts aren’t my thing, since I won the trip how could I refuse to go! I also knew that Lucas would have a great time since he just loves playing in the water and in the sand.

To make the trip a bit more exciting for me, I set up a visit to a UNESCO World Heritage Site that I had yet to visit, Chichen Itza, located in Mexico’s Yucatan.

During the visit, I committed what I’d consider to be the biggest family travel mistake I’ve made to date.

I like to say that Kim, Lucas and I are quite good at the family travel thing. We have a lot of experience and have enjoyed a few trips already with our newest addition- Theo.

Lucas and I went on our first Father- Son Trip to Poland back in April. Things went smoothly and the trip was a big success. We also both really enjoyed the country and would like to revisit in the future. (Find out 8 Things I Learned from Visiting Poland.)

Back to my big mistake and family travel tip…

Lucas and I left early for our trip to Chichen Itza and didn’t have time to go for breakfast. However, I anticipated this happening and brought along 3 mini cereal boxes and a small bag of cookies.

During our ride to Chichen Itza (around 2.5 hours from Cancun), Lucas and I shared two of the cereals. Lucas then went to sleep for the bulk of the ride.

When we got to Chichen Itza, I asked Lucas if he wanted me to bring the extra cereal and/ or cookies in my backpack and he said nah… BIG MISTAKE!

I had the snacks in a separate plastic bag and should’ve just squeezed them into my backpack. Instead, I left them on our seat in the van (BAD MOVE) since we were told that we’d head back to Cancun in the same vehicle.

Once the tour got going (not our favorite way to visit a site), Lucas started to complain that he was hungry. I mentioned that the snacks were in the van but that we would have lunch soon.

Lucas is a great traveler but after this, all I heard was “when will the guy stop talking”, “can we leave, this is not fun,” and other things along those lines. Lucas loves taking pictures, but I couldn’t get one photo of him smiling while at Chichen Itza!

Going into the visit, Lucas was looking forward to seeing “real pyramids” and “exploring”. But this wasn’t his day and I take the blame for breaking the cardinal rule- ALWAYS BRING SNACKS!

When I pick up Lucas from school, I usually have a snack in my car. When we go out for the day, we bring snacks. Heading to the park, bring a snack. I think you get the point.

I’ll take our visit to Chichen Itza as a learning experience and a reminder to myself- BRING SNACKS!

That’s my Family Travel Tip of the day, week, year… always! Be prepared for when hunger sets in for the little ones. Don’t let this mess up their or your experience!