HELP - ABBYMUMSNET NEEDS YOUR HOLIDAY SURVIVAL TIPS

[AbbyMumsnet]

Hi all,
I'm doing a couple of pieces for a travel web-site that I need your help with.
The first is focusing on holiday "survival" tips. For example: surviving the family packing without incurring massive excessive baggage fees - so what are the essential items you shouldn't travel without and what can you leave behind? Surviving the journey itself - tricks to make the time fly/what must come in your flight bag and so on. Surviving the heat... and the insect life - so tips on good child-friendly products and sun protection clothing that won't make your kids look dead weird. Surviving foreign food when you're child's a fussy eater... It's not a very long piece, but if you have any top tips please send them my way. I'll use your MN names if I use your tips.
Also, I'd be really interested for any tips and anecdotes re' what elements combine to make the perfect beach holiday for a family? And how do you ensure that you keep varying ages of kids happy?
Thanks in advance. x

Sorry, the Mark Warner resort in San Agostino, which is in Greece near Levkas

Leave the kids at home.

shhhhh, keep it to yourselves - * is perfect, perfect crescent of sand, perfect fish & chip shop, steam railway. No, sorry i can't bear to reveal it. It's in the UK though.

Woolacombe in North Devon has lots going for it Abby. Unspoilt, but with good facilities (clean loos, showers for hosing down sandy wetsuits and their occupants); mixture of sand and wilder, craggier beaches; lovely National Trust countryside behind; family vibe.
Against it - not a wide choice of eating places as it is only small; hideous traffic if travelling there.
The DCs love, love, love it.

Take a nanny with you

Most important. Don't think that you can have the same holiday that you had Before Children. If they are happy, you'll have a good time.

They will not die if they only eat ham sandwiches and fruit for a week (tested with ds)

Spread out the entertainments, give them to them all at once and you have a V messy car and bored kids within the hour.

When you stop for a loo break, set them the challenge of tidying up the back of the car for an (un-named) reward....trust me this really works!

Keep it all as simple as possible. For the longest time kids will be happy with sand and sea. Then at the end of the day, when they zonk out, treat yourself to a nice cold glass of white wine.

Consider camping or caravaning (! I know but trust me). Costs less and the kids run round, getting grubby and being kids, just like we did when we were little. And while they are doing this you can have that nice chilled glass of wine.

Perfect Beach Holiday - Beach front villa at the St James Club, Antigua.

make sure you take talc on the beach this is brill for kids to use when that sand is sticking to them a few squeezes takes all the sand off i know it leaves you white but at least no sand

Absolutely agree on the small bundle of multi-use practical kit. As well as talc/earplugs/mosq. net (as others have said) we ALWAYS take a couple of those foam horseshoe-shaped door-stoppers (Boots do them). Also small medicine kit - plasters, Savlon, antihistamine, Calpol, Neurofen, have been the items most used. The bundle lives ready-packed in a cupboard so I can grab it without having to think.

Used to take a battery-operated little nightlight too, but don't bother with that now (kids 8 & 6).

I also keep an old school-reading-folder-full (each) of stockingfiller type toys, crayons, & notebooks, which only come on holiday (so each time ds & dd fall on their folders with cries of nostalgic delight).

Finally, though this may be controlfreakish, I keep a standard packing list on computer, which I started when I had just one baby & have updated with each holiday - so that each time I have a good idea it's there to remind me the next. Means that I remember things like, say, sunglasses, which I'd otherwise forget.

Oh yes - I meant to say - the folders full of distraction items fit neatly into ds & dd's own mini-backpacks - so my big tip is: make them carry (at least some of) their own luggage as soon as they possibly can (which is at about four).

ooh bink that spreadsheet list sounds good can i get a copy i used to haveont but my pc crashed my email is [email protected] thank yu

write children's friends/relatives names and addresses on stickers before you leave, and buy postcards, let them stick them on and draw suitable pictoral representation of your holiday. hey presto, happy relatives with little effort

always take 2 swimsuits for you/children as they're horrid to put on wet

ready mixed gin & tonics for the first night, with your fish n chips

Cefn Sidan sands, the largest beach in Wales takes some beating

Must have: one of the video ipods - takes up no space in handluggage, battery lasts for over 6 hours, and you can plug junior into his favourite DVDs or even download from Freeview (20+ hours of viewing came to less than 10GB of an 80GB memory).

hire a buggy when yo get there to avoid having it snapped in half on flight!, ring company beofre hand(i know a fab one in majorca?!) and they may(this one did) drop it at hotel for your arrival!

bump

If flying - use up the useless 2 + hours wait at the airport by bringing a pic - nic ( usually yummy stuff from M and S for us!!) and lots of colouring books etc

If staying in Self Catering in the UK - pre - order a Sainsbury's/Tesco/Asda on - line shop for all the essentials - saves you lugging it in to the car and you can use that space for really essential items - like wine and beer to tide you over 'til the order arrives at the rental property !!

filtered - re packing list: I think where I am now with my 8&6 year olds mightn't work for you - also it's a bit ropey & not on a spreadsheet - but I'll dig out one from when I was in baby+toddler-land & put the skeleton of it on a separate thread. I think there was one, ages ago, about packing lists, though it got a bit jumped on by those who thought the whole idea OTT ... will do a link from here when I've put the pieces together!

thanks bink

Thanks for all your help so far. Any favourite suggestions for a brand of sun protection clothing that doesn't make kids look freaky?

all of it does tbh

did abby just use the word FREAK????

Ozone are my fave Abby - like the Edwardian-bathing-togs stripy look and they are mainly cotton, for younger ones.
We have a spreadsheet too bink and an essential kitchen pack consisting of Klippits, proper corkscrew and can opener, swivel peeler, two small sharp knives, kitchen timer, matches, j cloth, scrubbing pad, ice-cube bags, all packed in a Tupperware.

oh Marina I admire you more now than I did before (even). Ice-cube bags!!

I liked the Great Little Trading Co ones (link - dd looked specially nice in hers, as she's a bit gangly. But they only run up to about 6/7. For older ones (say 7+) a "rashie" (as in long-sleeved surfy thing made to wear under a wetsuit) is ideal, & a bit cool too. You can get them everywhere in beachy places, but maybe would have to do mailorder if you're urban. Or wait till you get to Newquay.

(GLTC does the Ozone ones too, I think - and rashies, which they call "wave shirts", I think)