As a family who loves to travel, I knew our kids would eventually want to branch out and travel without us. 

But when my teenage daughter announced that her school’s foreign language program was partnering with a leading educational tour company to offer students and teachers a spring break trip to Japan, and she ABSOLUTELY HAD TO GO ON THE TRIP(!), I still experienced mild panic. 

Reflexively, I thought, she’s not ready yet. But after talking with her, the parents of her fellow students and her teacher, I knew my argument didn’t hold up. After we acquiesced, I was in awe of her willingness to immerse herself in a completely different culture, excited that she would learn a great deal from the experience and nervous that I wouldn’t be there to help her through issues as they arose. 

As I cycled through my emotional journey, my daughter got down to business: “Let’s talk about how we’re going to prepare for my trip to Japan.” As we talked, my already abundant pride toward her grew—she’d given much thought to things we could do to help prepare her, what she might need while she was there and questions causing her anxiety. 

We had many conversations in the months before the trip—which, spoiler alert, went extremely well—and as a result of those conversations and her encounter, I offer the following five tips to help your child thrive on a travel experience without you.

One: Create a travel visual guide, including photos and a detailed itinerary, and walk through it to give your child a comfort level for where they’ll be visiting and where to go for questions and support when there. Make it as specific as possible and incorporate key numbers such as local emergency numbers and after-hours hotlines for the travel agency or program through which your child is traveling.

Two: Introduce them to their travel destination through your local culture. We visited a local Japanese restaurant and went to the Washington DC Cherry Blossom Festival, since Cherry blossoms would be in bloom in Japan during her trip.

Three: Anticipate and address beforehand key stressors, including: 

• Access to cash: To supplement the cash she took with her, the educational travel company recommended using Till, a financial banking app that allows parents to quickly send cash electronically to their children, which they can access online or through a Till debit card. Till was pretty good—when she first arrived in Japan, the card did not work, but we overcame the challenges by the next day. There are many other options, some of which have international capabilities. 
• Medicine restrictions and requirements: Research beforehand whether a travel destination restricts any medicines and send the original written prescription with them.
• Language barriers: My daughter used various language learning sources—including textbooks, workbooks and Duolingo—to understand basic Japanese words and phrases. It gave her a foundation to feel comfortable upon arrival. 
• Technology concerns: Invest in a portable charger, as well as a power adapter and international calling plan if your child is traveling internationally.

Four: Plan regular check-ins. Because she was traveling with schoolmates and teachers, neither my daughter nor I expected her to miss us, but she did! Fortunately, our planned check-ins helped her during those lonely times. 

Five: Stress the importance of sleep and guide them on how to get it. My daughter had full days of activity on her trip, so she needed sleep to prepare for the next morning. But because of the significant time difference between Japan and DC, early in the trip, sleep proved elusive. Her chaperones did provide her low doses of melatonin for the first nights and we counseled her on reading, clearing her mind and limiting her device usage before bed.

Upon returning, my daughter was tired but happy with her experience and herself. She even had a great suggestion to improve our family travel experiences. She said, “When we travel as a family, we usually already have our plans set. But in Japan, we had time set aside each day just for our own fun—like shopping or going to a convenience store. We need to do that too! We learned a lot about the local culture, and it was relaxing.” Wise words to travel by.

With thanks to my daughter Emma, who rocked Japan, for adding her insights to this article.