Best time to drive 10h in car with 2 yr old

[jasmin93]

Hello you lovely people!
Thanks to Corona, i have not seen my family in Germany in a long while!
We are concerned travelling by plane as airports must be hotspots for the virus .
We could drive from London to Germany within less than 10 hours...
But what is the best time to go with a 19 months old?
At night when he sleeps it through but we might struggle staying awake or see the right way.
During the day before his nap?

Let me know, what you think!
Thank you

Unless you are used to, I wouldn't drive at night. Too dangerous.
Better have an early start like 4 am. Put your child to sleep in his clothes, carry him half asleep to his carseat and he will sleep at least a couple of more hours.
Do breaks, bring a ball as some resting areas have a small grassy patch so he can run a bit, download a zillion movies, some crisps, and then
a couple of changes in a separate bag than suitcases,
a towel and wipes
plastic bags
because he might become car sick if you are not prepared .

It will be ok, he will be bored, ask are we there yet 267 times but you will get there. avoid books and games on iPad as increase chances of motion sickness. Buy a headrest car holder so child's head is straight.

Thank you @LeGrandBleu
We never took our little one for a long drive before. Starting at 4am sounds like a good plan.
Just really nervous. Once you commited to a time, you have to go through with it...

Can anyone tell me at what time NOT to go. Any real life stories?

Don't leave mid morning. Kids are still bouncing off the walls and you've barely got further than your normal commute before you have to stop.

I agree something like 4-5am is a good time to leave. If they are still taking bottles, consider giving them a bottle before transferring to car, keeps them going past normal breakfast time.

And the day before you go, take them out as much as possible and just try to physically tire them out, they should sleep a bit more in the car then.

And pack an overnight bag, with everything all of you need to just crash into bed when you get to your destination.

Change little one into pyjamas when you think you've reached your last stop so you don't have to do it on arrival.

If there is somewhere to aim for around half way, national trust, zoo, green area, aim for there and just accept a 3-4 hour stop. Makes the rest of the journey more tolerable and I hate service stations with small kids. In normal times, we'd find a local soft play which works a treat.

Pack fuck loads of snacks, but not chocolate (it's like giving my kids double espressos, not fun)

Accept it will be long and hellish and about half the time you'll be pleasantly surprised by how okay it was.

All the above is tried and tested on my own kids, we're the veterans of many a long journey!!

Good luck!!!!

Work back from first shuttle (are they running? as that will be exciting.
Ideal is leave 5am with snack. Stop at 9/9.30 ish for 1 hr break and food. Try and push on as far as you can - try for all the way but conceed you might need another break after 3 hours. One of you sitting in the back may help.

I agree - aim for a 4/5 am start and try to transport dc to the carseat while still semi asleep. Loads of snacks, ipad, comics, books, ball/frisbee for stops and try to go off tbe beaten track even if just by 5/10 mins for breaks so that dc can have a proper run round rather than just stopping at a generic motorway service station

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences.
10h drive already sounds exhausting for my husband (i have no licence), so stretching the journey time even longer for longer stops might not go down well with him.
However, I do like the idea of going to soft play parks for stops to tire our son out. Not sure whether we will do it this time with Corona?
I was also hoping to keep him awake until the eurotunnel (snacks, toys & youtube kids - 1.5h drive). Then walk around the train (despite not really allowed at the minute....). Then for him to fall asleep for his daily afternoon nap (2h sleep). Then we have 4 hours left with him awake.
Oh dear....

I don't mind driving for long stretches as long as I have something to listen to , so download podcast you like, think about double or multiple chargers for the car if you are going to put charger for the iPad and your phones.

Freeze some bottles of water (remembering to empty them a bit) so midway in your trip you still have cool water.

I agree with doing short pause no longer than 30 min. Look up nice resting area with cafe and playground. At some point, you really want to arrive. Try to keep going and only stop if you really have to.

Car temperature matters, so when you stop, if there is no shade, put a car sun shade and maybe a towel on the boy's side and turn AC on 5 min before you start your journey again. In Summer, a car will overheat quickly.

Not sure about softplay. Even without covid, you don't want to pick other bugs and be sick while at your parents' house,
Seriously, a screen is your best friend. You can download netflix shows so buy a free trial month, download hours and hours of Thomas the train or postman pat and drive.

@LeGrandBleu, thank you! You really cheer me up and make it sound possible.
These are good ideas i would not have thought of (frozen bottle ).
Lets see. Maybe its even going to be fun

Well, fun.... I am not sure... or yes it will be fun to be at your parent's house and the mean to get there is the car, so yes, there is some fun involved.

The thing you will want to avoid is being carsick.

I have 3 kids , well, all taller than me now, and DS2 was always carsick (and plane sick) when young. Always sick. Always.
What I have learnt over the years is :

• no books
• no games on iPad
• no drawing or any activity with head down
• movie with head straight and not on lap
• leave window open even if AC is on (which you can't do on plane!)

To entertain with the head up, I always found the reusable stickers for the car window to be great. Something like this www.amazon.com.au/Reusable-Stickers-Toddlers-Incredible-Clings/dp/B076XTYZX1?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

and be careful with too much snacking and favour savoury over sweet. Milk is the worst to cause vomit and also to clean, and if you miss a spot, two days later, the car will smell so badly. Lollies are to be avoided. So no matter how tempting it might be, to just snack to kill time and boredom, the less food the better . Avoid fried food at rest areas (no chips)

Another thing is don't start fussing over him unless he needs it. So don't ask how he is doing, if he is hungry , thirsty (just hand his water bottle from time to time)_ , if he want a toy/a movie/ a unicorn or whatever, if he want to sing a song, don't start singing a song or playing with puppets. . Some children are perfect travel companions, I sometime forgot I had my DD in the car. The boys would be bickering, moaning and she would just sit happily.

To keep the water bottle frozen as long as possible, wrap them in a tea towel, they will de-freeze a bit, but keep the centre a big block of ice, to which you can add the warm water from other bottles.

We have travelled in Europe when my kids were 4 and 18 months. We did it differently and set off at midnight. The kids slept for a good six or seven hours and were relatively good.
Roads are clearer at night and to be honest it took us longer on the Uk roads due to road works , crap roads etc
We are going again this year and it's an 11 hour drive. Don't be put off.

Overnight. You miss the traffic. Why would you not be able to see where to go? There are reflectors and/or lights on junctions. We tend to drive from Germany to the UK and we leave at about midnight. The UK roads are the worst so you absolutely want to avoid rush hour(s) in the UK. French/Belgian/German roads are all absolutely fine. Try to time it so that you avoid stretches of motorway which are ringroads of the city centre (e.g. Brussels) at rush hour. But TBH if we're about to hit that traffic we just do a longer stop.

Google maps will warn you about traffic jams :)

Put their car seat on recline, dress them in pyjamas. Stop about every 3 hours but stretch to 4 if he's asleep and you feel comfortable that he's OK (breathing etc) in seat. Keep stops as short as poss planning maybe one long(ish) stop in. We prefer ferry to tunnel, but it depends whereabouts you are in the UK and where it falls in your trip. It's about halfway time wise for us even though it's 60-70% through distance wise, because the UK roads are so bad! So we use the ferry as a long break.