Get the card on day one

Almost every city has a stored-value transport card or a contactless system that removes ticket buying entirely. Get one for each person on the first morning, before you need it.

Buying tickets for five people at a machine, in a language you do not read, while somebody needs the toilet, is the exact situation that ruins an afternoon. Twenty minutes on day one prevents it every time.

In many cities you can simply tap a bank card or phone, and in some the fare is capped daily or weekly, which is better value than any tourist pass.

Check whether children travel free and up to what age, because it varies a great deal and is often generous.

Tourist travel passes, usually not

City passes bundling transport and attractions are frequently poor value unless you are genuinely going to visit four attractions in two days, which with children you are not.

Do the arithmetic on the attractions you would actually visit rather than the ones listed. It rarely survives contact with a real family itinerary.

A daily or weekly transport cap is usually the better purchase, and the attractions are better bought individually with timed entry.

When to just take the taxi

Five single fares add up faster than people expect. In many cities a short taxi ride costs about the same as five metro tickets and takes a third of the time with none of the stairs.

Take the taxi when it is late, when it is raining, when somebody has had enough, when there are stairs and luggage, or when the alternative involves two changes.

The money saved by taking the metro with an exhausted six year old is not a saving. It is a purchase of a bad hour.

Airport transfers with luggage are almost always worth a car, particularly on arrival when nobody knows where anything is.

Ride hailing abroad

Availability varies enormously. Uber operates in many places and not in others, and in some cities it is legally restricted or exists only for licensed taxis.

Local apps are often better. Bolt in much of Europe, Grab in Southeast Asia, Free Now in parts of Europe, and various local equivalents. Download before you travel rather than in a car park.

Check whether child seats are required and available. In some countries the law requires them and ride hailing cannot supply them, which is a genuine planning problem people discover on arrival.

The advantage of an app abroad is not the price, it is that the destination is entered rather than explained, and the fare is agreed rather than negotiated.

The rules that catch people out

Validation. In much of Europe you must stamp or tap your ticket before boarding, and an unvalidated ticket is treated as no ticket. Inspectors are frequent and fines are immediate and not negotiable.

Front doors only on some buses and trams, and boarding through the wrong door can mean you cannot validate.

Zones. Many city systems are zoned and a ticket bought for the centre does not cover the airport or the suburb your apartment is in.

Night services frequently run on a different network with different tickets.

Enforcement is real and being a confused visitor is not a defence anywhere I have been.

Walking, which is usually the answer

Most European city centres are smaller than they look on a transport map, and the walk between two things is often fifteen minutes while the metro journey is twenty five once you have found the station.

Look at the walking route before defaulting to transport. Families consistently take trains for distances they would happily walk at home.

And walking is where you see things. Nobody remembers a metro tunnel.

A simple rule

Walk if it is under about twenty five minutes and everybody is fresh. Take public transport for the long legs and when the route is simple. Take a taxi when anybody is tired, it is late, it is wet, or there is luggage.

Applied honestly, that rule costs slightly more money and saves a great deal of the thing that actually runs out on a family trip, which is patience.

Questions people actually ask