Tell Hertz about your experiences of travelling as a family - 5 tickets to Disneyland Paris (worth £277) prize draw! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Hertz have asked us to find out what Mumsnetters' experiences are of travelling as a family.

Here's what Hertz say, "Hertz has a car for every occasion. With one of the biggest car hire collections in Europe, we have the cars to match your needs, mood and budget.
The Hertz Family Collection comprises a range of family and holiday-friendly cars for 5-7 people. Every car in the range is 5-star NCAP safety-rated for added reassurance and has all the space needed for the children, bags, holiday extras and the kitchen sink."

So, what do you find the pains and joys are of travelling as a family? What tips would give to ensure that, when on the road, longer journeys go smoothly? Maybe you have lots of different games you play as a family in the car? Or is the key making sure that you have enough ready made snacks to take with you in case your DCs get grumpy hungry? Have you got any travel plans for over the Easter weekend? We'd love to hear about any plans or experiences you have.

Everyone who adds their comments to this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win 5 tickets to Disneyland Paris worth £277, valid until the 28th of July 2014. Tickets are valid for both Parc Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

[k8vincent]

My DH constantly returns to his pre journey mantra - our bid need to learn to deal with boredom. So we to have no devices in car. We also have our own silly games - guess what animal I am. We make up stories about people in other cars, trying to spot the secret agent on their next mission. Then the choruses of I'm hungry come and we open the food bag. Everyone gets to choose one CD. My oldest now wants to trace the route in the map - he no longer joins the chorus of "Are we nearly there yet?"

[SixImpossible]

That's exactly our opinion, too! And we do pretty much the same things as you. Although I do keep a small bag of little toys in the car - finger puppets, animals, cars, etc - for them to play with. But they are deliberately imagination-triggers, not mindless click-click-clickers.

[MerryMarigold]

I just don't think I could play games for 7 hours. You need a bit of switch off time. In my day it was story tapes played on a cassette player with batteries sat on the backseat between me and dsis! Way more than my parents had (though I don't think they did so many long journeys in the olden days). Gotta keep up with technology!

[TaurielTest]

Half-hour turns on choosing music/silence/story tapes, with driver having power of veto.
Boys are still little and we are quite old-school and tend to look out of the window rather than have much in-car entertainment. My DS has memorized large chunks of the highway code so tells us all what the roadsigns mean. "Oh mummy, sharp deviation to right ... or left if symbol reversed." Various numberplate spelling games, i spy. If we go to France, French roadsigns, pylons, and other things that are subtly different are enough to keep them amused.

[neenienana]

On a recent trip to Canada driving through the Rockies we listened to some traditional tales from fifties America. The kids loved them esp the one about a fat Chinese boy which probably wouldnt be seen as pc today. Now they are older we use DVDs nd tablets for long journeys second the idea of healthy snacks, games and emergency urinals too!

[Sixgeese]

Travelling with three children the hardest things are breaking up the fights from the front seat, and fitting everything in that we need for the journey.

My eldest is happy with playing with his Ds in the car, but everyone feels a bit travel sick when trying to read.

We play travel games, spotting different countries plates (11 up the M1 is our record so far - looking for different countries so D would only count once regardless how many German cars you see), I spy though the Alphabet, where as a family we look for one thing for each letter from a - z, and finally when all else fails we put on the children talking book Cd's, we alter the balance of the cars stereo so all the volume is coming out the rear speakers and DH and I can actually have a quite conversation.

Also making sure they all go to toilet before we strap them into the car, and every time we stop, or without fail the child who hadn't been will need to go just after we leave the services and we will have a worrying 20 minutes or so wonder if we will make it to the next.

[tinypumpkin]

Probably things covered already but lots of snacks, stops and distraction for DCs. This includes use of their little computers (leap pads), playing DC friendly music (if they are listening) and new cheapy toys specific for the journey.

[moonegirl]

we make sure there's lots of space between the three dc's to stop the fighting
car dvd players have been a godsend for us on long journeys.
we also stop at least every hr and have a toilet break and stretch our legs.
a dummy clip for the baby, there's nothing worse than driving and the baby is screaming because they've thrown their dummy into some tiny nook and cranny that you can't reach

[lozzybeast]

I drive, plenty of snacks and toilet stops. Music is the driver's choice. No way I could stand listening to kids music on a long journey! They have tablets to play on which helps. I also pop a blanket and small pillow in with them. I'm yet to travel abroad with my youngest who is two. x

[SagaNorensLeatherTrousers]

Make the best of what you have and don't stress if things don't go to plan...

We set out to go camping with our three young boys in St. IVES a couple of summers ago.

The week before the forecast looked pretty grim, but luckily the first night in the tent was dry. The second night, however, was a different story.

The torrential wind and rain was practically blowing the tent sideways. We were desperately trying to keep up the boys' spirits but they were totally freaked. So, we packed everything up and headed to the first available Travelodge/Premier Inn we could find.

The boys loved our impromptu night in the hotel, it added some variety to our trip and we just went with the flow and enjoyed ourselves.

[HandbagsandSnotrags]

My travel with children experience has been largely coloured by having children with travel sicknesses.

Oldest two seem to have grown out of it around age 5, which leaves me 2 more years of dealing with dc3 vomiting if she is same.

Top tip is expensive nappy sacks (never the thin cheap ones) or even better those portable potty bags as liners in old ice cream tubs. DC can throw up then you can knot bag, add a new one for next time and keep driving.

This only works with 2 adults in the car. Driving 300 miles with them alone I had several stops to clean up as couldn't hold sick box for her.

For entertainment audio books are good. Reading, DVD etc make sickness worse but look outside games help so we play eye spy, or first to 10 (pick a thing - lorry. red car, coach etc -and first to see 10 of their thing wins.) Also play alphabet games - spot something beginning with A. Then b etc etc.

[CheeseStrawWars]

Counting cars - assign a colour to each child and then get them to count until a randomly specified number. They can help by spotting cars of either colour to aid sibling relations...

(And not to sound ungrateful, but while tickets to Disneyland are great, could the prize not include transportation? Costs more than £277 to transport 5 people to Paris last time I checked!)

[Cataline]

Flexibility- make plans and take what you think you'll need but don't get too hung up on what you thought your journey would be like. Go with the flow and change plans as required!

[Mignonette]

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!

[unadulterateddad]

always make sure that the car is packed the night before so that leaving the next day is straightforward. make sure that there is a pillow and a blanket in case the DCs need to sleep.

Stopping every two hours is also a must kids need the break and so do the adults !
However the most important ingredient for a peaceful journey is a fully charged tablet computer :)

[ladygoingGaga]

It is just me and my DS, so I have a problem keeping him occupied whilst I'm driving.
He gets car sick if he watches a DVD or plays on a handheld game.

We have CDs to listen too in the car, twenty mins at a time. Then I stop them and we chat about it, make up silly what could happen next type endings.

I pack lots of little snacks, and also a 'spotting' sheet, so he has to look out the window and tick off stuff he has seen, bit like bingo!

It's hard work, but planning is def worth it!

[mrscumberbatch]

We haven't done a lot of travelling as a family in our current vehicle- just local commuting.

I think that the most important thing for travelling is to be comfortable and have enough space to yourself. In our Eco friendly compact vehicle it just isn't really possible!

Dd is now 4 so we can play games to pass the time/ the usual I spy and counting colours of cars is always good.

We listen to some stories on Cd, I always have some crayola clean hands crayons for journeys and an interesting colouring book.

I am taking loads of great tips from this thread though- I wouldn't have thought to put a blanket in the car for Dd but that's definitely on my to do list now!

[StackALee]

I remember leaning over the carseat with my breasts out as we hurtled down the motorway at 70mph because my firstborn was crying incessantly. No idea what the truck drivers thought!

I get quite car sick if I am in the back with children because I have to constantly entertain which means taking my eyes away from the direction we are traveling in. So I recommend staying in the front and letting them fight it out amongst themselves.

Some kind of iPad thingy is great now my three year old can entertain himself a bit more. Travelling when they are likely to nap is good too, or shedloads of inappropriate snacks. Hula hoops are good as they can do the
Putting them on fingers thing.

All my memories as a child involve listening to great music.

[StackALee]

Oh and something twisted and mean to listen to like Shel Silverstein always works a treat.

[ProcessYellowC]

Travel by train - it means we can take turns to entertain DS/sleep/read, all eat together without having to stop travelling - DH and I can drink alcohol if we want, plus the added bonus that I don't get nauseous, which I do in cars. Well also there is the small fact that neither of us drive .

Over Easter we did a 5h each way trip, DS behaved impeccably, played with his playmobil, coloured, I slept, DH read - bliss. We were all relaxed when we arrived at our destination.

[EldonAve]

Pain = traffic in the UK
Joy = open roads elsewhere

We use in car DVD players
Smooth running = using a map and a sat nav

[mummytime]

We must be mad! We have three children, two of whom used to get travel sick. However will still did big driving holiday with them. E.g.

1. San Francisco to Yosemite, Yosemite to Lake Tahoe, Lake Tahoe to Larsen, Larsen to Eureka, Eureka to Mendiccino, Mendiccino to Wine country and the back to San Francisco.
   
2. Boston to Maine, up to Bangor, across to Rangley, through to Montpellier, down to Williamstown, across to Danbury, up to Newport, to Cape Cod then back to Boston.
   All done with no DVD. Even now electronic devices limited to music as DS etc make people sick. We like chatting - best conversations happen in the car. Finding new radio stations, or listening to songs about witches and spiders in France. Or even story CDs.
   The key thing is flexibility - so coping with washing out car seat covers in a stream in a rural park in California because the children had been sick. Finding fun diners, asking for the local play park, talking to locals.
   Meeting locals is the best thing about travelling with children.
   
   My children still love long journeys, that's what they asked to do on our next holiday!

[leanneth]

Planning trips around nap times is so much easier to do. If the kids are asleep, the journey is so much quieter and I don't have to try to entertain them while driving!