Travel tips with small children

[DueyCheatemAndHow]

Flying to Tenerife on Tuesday and very nervous. Children and 4 and 2 and lively. Flight is in the evening.

Any tips gratefully received.

I travelled with similar age children last year and bought crayola mess free colouring and some new books from the works and produced them on the plane so it was exciting as it was new. I’d also recommend plenty of snacks and patience when they’re grumpy through changes in sleep routine

Download a film onto a tablet, and headphones.
Small snacks.
Take their empty drinks bottles through security and top up over side

If the 4yo still wears pull ups or night... they will come in very useful!

We're flying to Lanzarote on Thursday! I've flown with my two for years now and advice is forget any sort of rules you may have when it comes to gadgets - as long as they have headphones, obviously - I've let mine use theirs. I also get small little treats (like small toys or a chocolate, puzzle books, colouring pens) wrap them and give them out every half an hour. It's been just enough time for them to play with the new thing and get bored of it.

Let them walk up and down the aisle, as long as they are not touching anyone, other people will understand.

But the biggest thing? Be kind to yourself!! There will always be people who will judge, but there are more people out there who will give you a hand if you need anything.

Have a wonderful time!

"Let them walk up and down the aisle, as long as they are not touching anyone, other people will understand."

Honestly, people want to be able to pass as do the crew. Don't do this OP. Gadgets (with headphones) snacks and stuff to play with. I think you'll be surprised at how well they sit.

If you get them a tablet each (Amazon fire) and download programmes onto iPlayer and Netflix whilst at home they can watch it offline. It'll come in handy for the rest of your trip too

OK. We don't have the money to buy them a tablet each but we have 2 they can have access to. Will get on the downloads. I'm really hoping they sleep?!?!

The wrapping up is a great idea. Thanks.

They're only £50 on Amazon, I bet if you went on marketplace or asked on fbook you'd get one for very little.

Download bbc iPlayer and whatever other streaming services you've access to and download the programmes whilst on WiFi at home.

Do it on all your devices, phones etc too. And buy a powerbank! Screen time is your friend here

Within reason, if kids need to walk up and down, they should be allowed. Having worked as crew for years, my experience tells me that everyone on that plane would prefer that over screaming children. I agree, snacks, gadgets, books and games should be plenty to keep them entertained and happy. But all I meant was, don't feel like you must make them be sat down the whole way.

I hope they have lots of fun though, flying is so exciting for them! And im sure everything will go really well, it does majority of the time

They probably will. Mine are a bit older now, but at that age I'd always take a change of clothes - maybe take their pjs? Try and replicate a little of their usual bedtime routine.

I also give mine a lollipop for takeoff - it seems to help with their ears. I use to time giving them their bottle when they were little.

It will be fine. Ive been flying return to New Zealand regularly with mine since they were little. And they are wildcards even on a good day. My best advice is take travel size paracetamol/calpol (horrible experience with sudden temp toddler taught me this) and be prepared to be the entertainer. It honestly will be fine. People are always lovely.

Oh yeah, if they're screaming blue Murder and walking will stop them but tbf that's only the 2 year old really. A 4 year old will be fine.

Calpol is travel sized anyway, don't buy anything special! It's under 100ml

I agree with all of the above. We have a place in lanzarote and are out monthly - going back on Tuesday. Mine are 1 and 3. My youngest loves walking up and down the aisle and I think that because people are bored they're more inclined to be friendly towards them from experience 😂

My eldest loves being able to have access to a screen for 4 hours and I couldn't care less - we don't have much screen time out with flying. But anything for an easy life!

Surely if you have two tablets and two children then they have one each? You might have to find something else to occupy your time during the flight if you’d planned to use one yourself.

No we won't use one

Pack some small toys but don't get them out at once. Stickers are a hit. Can you let them buy a new toy in the airport?

I travel with my 1 and 3 year old on my own quite a bit as I live abroad from my parents. We had a 20 hour delay recently when I was travelling on my own with them.

Don't be nervous. I find when I'm travelling there are no distractions like laundry, wfh, chores, etc etc. So I'm very focused on them, chatting about every little thing with them, and they love it. Plus everyone is very supportive and helpful in my experience.

I usually pick up cbeebies magazine or similar, sticker books are good. A couple of story books is good too. I do a lot of 'this little piggy' etc.

Making it fun and working as a team will set them up for more fun travels in the future. My son loves the adventure now he is 3 and gets excited the week before.

Enjoy it, I hope it goes well :)

Tablets

Snacks

Lots of patience

Go to a charity shop. Spend a tenner or less on a bag of small toys/books. Sticker books work particularly well. Hand them out at intervals during the journey.

Plus snacks. Lots of snacks.

I'm not against screentime - Lord knows my kids watch screens, but we have never used them for travelling and it's actually really nice. You're stuck together with nothing to do so you end up talking and playing in ways you wouldn't normally.