Celebrity mum Myleene Klass recently claimed that her daughter had travelled to 56 countries by the time she was just three. While most UK toddlers will not have travelled quite to this extent, it seems that we are a nation of baby backpackers, according to new research from flight comparison site Skyscanner.
Parenting on Female First
The survey reveals that the majority of UK toddlers have been to double the number of foreign destinations than their parents had at the same age with the average three-year-old having visited a massive 13 cities worldwide.
A preference for overseas travel was highlighted in the survey of over 1300 UK parents, which revealed that the average child aged 3-5 has visited more overseas cities.
The survey also revealed that only a mere 12 per cent of four-year-olds have not yet travelled outside of the British Isles. Is this evidence that the traditional UK holiday is being shunned in favour of sunnier climes?
Skyscanner’s Mary Porter, mother of one, said: “It appears that parents are increasingly educating their youngsters to become well-cultured jetsetters by initiating an appetite for travel during their earliest years.”
One respondent in the survey claimed that their child had visited an impressive 20 cities in the first 12 months of their life, while another parent of a four-year-old stated their child had visited over 100 cities in their short lifetime.
Mary added: “The number of destinations that some young children have visited is mind-boggling – having said that my son took his first flight abroad at just 10 weeks old so it is easy to see how the number of trips can rise in a relatively short space of time.
“Unlike many of us who saw air travel as a luxury when we were children, with today’s low cost airlines offering such a range of destinations and families dispersed around the globe, travel abroad has become the norm – even for the youngest of holidaymaker,” she said.