9 hour car journey with 2.9 and 1.9 year old. Are we mad?

[Piggy]

We are thinking about driving up to stay with my parents in a couple of weeks time. They live 450 miles away and it's usually a 9 hour drive including stops. My 2 dses (2.9 and 1.9) are very active and I do think we might be mad to contemplate this. However, we have lots of story cds and those portable dvd players that hang on the headrests. We did a 5.5 hour journey in June and it was almost bearable.

We would leave at about 7am. They have a sleep (1 - 2 hours) late morning so they would sleep for a little bit of the journey. I would also plan to take a picnic and stop off somewhere for lunch and try to give them a run around.

Has anyone else tried this? Would you do it? Are we nuts?

Thanks Waynetta - lots of good advice.

I will pack the car the day/night before so I hope that the last minute stuff won't take too long. I am horribly organised so it should be ok.

And you are so right about the stops taking so long. We went to Cornwall in June - with children 5.5 hours. Pre children 3.25 hours!

Give the kids the big back bit with the comfy bed

I've got a better idea. I'll have it!

It won't be as bad as you imagine. We drove from Paris to Berlin when my two were the same age as yours - I was dreading it, but it was actually fine. We've just driven from Berlin to England a back for a holiday (kids are now 6 and 4) I was dreading it again, but again it was fine. I echo all the advice about having lots of little treats for the journey (and don't reveal them til you need them) and be prepared to stop more frequently than you would if you were on your own. We always pack the car up the night before and have as much ready as possible - wake the kids at the last minute so you can put them straight in the car - so much less stressful than loads of faffing about before you set off.
A final tip if you ever do fly, never put your car seats on a plane - we've lost ours twice and its so inconvenient for the sake of a few extra quid on the hire car.

we are travelling Cornwall to Hull with ds1 3.6 and dts 17 weeks. We have found that leaving at 3pm the best option for us. Ds1 has been worn out during the day, we drive til teatime than have a picnic. Then drive til 6.30pm children all in bedclothes and babies have their feed. Then we drive on and they all fall asleep and get transfered into bed at the other end.

I drive through the night to start at about 3 am so I go to bed early DH stays up with children till they go to sleep then transfer them into car I drive till 8 when they wake up we stop and have breakfast and a run round the do the last bit with several stops for fun

They do go wild the other end for an hour though

We drove to France during the night. One of the worst things I ever did!!! Kids full of beans in the morning; we were absolutely knackered!! Awful.

Well Piggy, you should drive through the night, and drive through the day. You should extend the journey over two days with a stopover in between. You should stop off at lots of interesting places on the way. You shouldn't even think about driving but remember you will be fine driving. You should entertain the children with dangerous dvds. Finally, you should fly and hire a car, taking the train in on the way.

Is that all clear now?

Quattro - but you forgot a doggy toilet stop!

LOL @ quattro!

I'm definitely taking this with me to cheer me up en route.