Recently, I did something that took quite a bit of courage – I went overseas with my daughters for the first time, sans the helper or the husband. Yes, I took an overseas trip with children BY MYSELF. While the idea sounded daunting, the idea of taking my little ones to Disneyland in Hong Kong was an opportunity I could not pass up.

Traveling with kids is never easy. So when you factor in travelling alone with children, I figured it was best to be prepared for whatever may happen ahead of time. And guess what? Not only did we all survive, we had fun! All the time I spent meticulously planning helped make our trip a tremendous success and one we will remember for a lifetime.

Since there will inevitably come a day when you are in a similar situation, I’ve put together 7 tips based on my experience to help your first trip with kids go smoothly.

1. Book Ahead

When you travel alone with children, this is NOT the time to be super spontaneous. Instead, you need to be the exact opposite of spontaneous. You need to plan as much ahead as possible. For example, I booked my flights and my hotel far in advance.

I also took it a bit further. I made sure to review the check-in times so that I could plan ahead for my kids’ naptimes and meal times. Any mum will tell you that the trip starts to go bad when the kids get off their schedules, so do your best to plan around their schedules.

2. Pre-buy Attraction Tickets

I took Lauren and Georgia to Hong Kong to visit Disneyland. Since this is a major tourist attraction, I chose to use Changi Recommends to pre-buy tickets for the theme park. This made it so much easier than arriving and having to wait in the lengthy queue just to buy tickets. Trust me, you will do enough waiting once you are inside! By using Changi Recommends, we got to skip the ticketing queue and saved a bit of money. The rates on Changi Recommends is better than the tickets bought on site. It was one less thing for this mum to worry about during our holiday.

3. Plan your transportation

There are several ways to travel around Hong Kong, so you want to have an idea ahead of time for how you plan to travel. Will you use taxis or travel using the MTR public transportation system? Another thing to factor in is airport transfer. Changi Recommends offers airport transfer services that will pick you up from the airport, load your baggage into the vehicle, and then drive you to your destination.

Plus, they make travelling with car seats a breeze. Since both of my girls are under 6 years old, they recommend using child or booster seats. Changi Recommends makes it easy to pre-book child and booster seats through the initial booking process.

4. Travel Light

I cannot emphasize this tip enough! When you are travelling on your own with little ones, you need to travel light. Trust me – shed the excess; you won’t need it. I only packed one pair of shoes!

Pack everything in a big check-in luggage and put the absolute essentials in a hand-carry bag. Just go ahead and purchase check-in luggage allowance when you’re flying budget. You are absolutely going to want to leave your hands free to handle the kids. And keeping with travelling light, just leave the bulky stroller at home. Hong Kong is not an easy place to navigate with your giant pram.

5. Stay Connected

What would we do without the internet? One of the wisest decisions I made for this trip was booking ChangiWiFi. The ChangiWiFi is a WiFi router that is just as good (or even better) than roaming internationally.

Even though I have spent a lot of time in Hong Kong prior to this trip, I relied on ChangiWiFi for accessing Google maps to get our crew around the city. Getting lost is NOT an option when you’re travelling with kids. In addition to using the service for Google maps, I was able to search for nearby restaurants, update my Instagram story with exciting moments from our trip, and make VOI calls. I never felt disconnected from those back home.

The girls could even FaceTimed their daddy from Disneyland!

6. Check the Weather

Before you start to pack for your trip to Hong Kong, check the weather. For example, August is typically the wettest month, but it would be a pain if you packed a ton of rain gear that went unused and just took up space in your luggage. You also want to make sure you pack for the temperature as there are several months that are hot and humid. Visit the Hong Kong Observatory website for up to date weather information.

7. Have Fun!

You have planned ahead as much as possible, so now you can just focus on having fun with your kids. If you have booked everything in advance, you should be able to get from point A to point B without losing your mind – and hopefully, have fun along the way.

Happy travels, friends!