I have vivid memories of travelling as a family when I was a child.
For several years my parents thought it'd be a great idea to load up our station wagon with three children, a trailer tent and a bad marriage in tow, all the way to various locations in France. We kids would run pitched battles in the back (no seatbelts then) and our thrashing and threshing would only worsen as both parents reached behind the footwell with their arms in an attempt to wildly slap whatever bits of our bodies presented themselves.
We kids would scrabble about trying to avoid the back handed slaps.
Then there was the time that parents embarked upon a vicious argument that continued across the Channel throughout the nine hour crossing, through Normandy, The Loire and down into the north east corner of Brittany.It alternately raged and blew frosty for the two weeks holiday and only ended in a kind of detente when, upon the return journey, my Father pulled up outside a truck stop and my Mother got out, stormed off whereupon he drove off with us kids looking at her through the suitcase obscured back window.
He returned for her and no more words were uttered until Le Havre.
So what have I learned?
Train kids in car seat ettiquette. There is no excuse to allow bad behaviour by kids in car seats. If they unbuckle themselves, you stop. They need to know that bad behaviour is dangerous from the start. I have seen parents making excuses for rowdy behaviour by two year olds saying 'they don't understand'. They do.
Get kids involved in planning and packing. Having your own luggage is great if you don't leave your daughters beautifully packed case on her bed. That was a BAD holiday. Kids love those Trunki style cases and little backpacks with a few games, things to draw with and a comfy or favourite toy work well. Make sure favourite toy has a duplicate though so you don't end up a Twitter appeal for yet another lost bear/cat/dolly.
Make journeys part of the holiday. Don't drive hell for leather until you get there. Build in places to stop and eat, things to visit. Plan routes along interesting scenery, not straight as an arrow, grey surfaced motorways. lots of little snacks, things to do (technology is your friend here with ipads) and plenty of sick bags and wet wipes!
With flying I remember how much of an occasion it was in the 60's and 70's. We dressed up, my Father in a neat suit and narrow tie, Mother in little gabardine suit, Beehive and heels. We flew a lot because of my Fathers job and us kids all had our own matching carry cases and flying outfits. It is a shame that we have lost that style and manners. Now it is a metal tube barrelling through the ether filled with people in shorts, T shirts, can of airline lager in hand. I don't agree that mass market equates with a cattle market mentality though.
I do think that getting that sense of the flight as part of the event back is hard but with kids it can be done even if us adults are bent backwards by the scut of airline security, Ryanair like shitty service and hours spent wading through endless corridors, check ins and the waiting....
As for hire cars- cut out the attempts to rip us off, sort out your shoddy service and bad attitude when we have a complaint!