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

Mummy

sounds amazing. As a kid we did big roadtrips through Texas and all over Central America. I recall the Mexican Police stopping us once and demanding that we allow them to siphon off some petrol. They told us they'd shoot our tyres and leave us stranded in the North mountains if we didn't comply.

i was very disappointed that they didn't as in my 8 yr old way, I wanted to see a tyre being shot out

We road tripped from Key West to Mid Georgia. And all over Florida with the kids. Apart from their demanding a convertible and then whining that it blew wind in their faces they were fine. Biggest thrills? Seeing a shop in Coopertown, Miami called 'Guns N Porn' and overtaking a sedan with wings peppered with bullet holes. They still talk about that.

We travel about 1000 miles by car to get to our summer holiday destination.

We have a large car, huge boot for chucking bikes, toys and the kitchen sink into. Snacks go on the middle front seat and I have role as car hostess - dishing out refreshments, toys, games, DVDs.

DVD players for DCs are a must for such a long journey. Lots of stops ( French motorways have excellent facilities) for leg stretching.

Sat nav AND maps. Small overnight bag for overnight stop. Armrest essential for DH who does majority of driving, and gets an achy arm on day 2 of journey.

Most importantly, enjoy the views and appreciate the independence of the road trip!

We always pack pillows and blankets so the kids get comfy. A water bottle each so drinks don't spill. Healthy snacks in tubs for the kids top open and eat. Then they each have a play bag with paper, crayons, book/comic, cuddly or toy, we share some good car journey books with spot the road signs etc which are always good fun and teach the kids lots. They also love their own map to follow and look out for places we are going past...the younger kids like to rip this up too. Hmm. Joke and quiz books are great for the readers too. When the kids are settled and sleeping we can enjoy our own tunes on the CD player. :-)

Driver gets to choose the music - mostly. Kids take a travel sickness tablet (have had too many days having to put up with that lingering pukey smell). They also take plenty to do (books, tablets, games). A long journey will preferably include a stopover (it makes it so much more pleasant). I am also training them to ' 'wee on demand' as there have been countless times when we've left the service station to hear a voice 3 miles later saying 'I need the toilet'.

The key for our two is, as many people have already said, timing the journey right! Our boys are 4 and 2 so we drive at nap time as much as possible (even the 4 yr old will sometimes sleep on a long journey!) or get them into pjs and set off around bedtime.
If that's not possible, we always stop for a meal, whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner. So everyone gets a proper rest, food, drink and the boys can run around for a while, and we're not in the car for more than 2-3 hours max.
If it's a really long journey e.g. to France, we also pack activity bags each with stickers, activity books, snacks, small toys like cars/ animals and after reading a tip on here years ago, we wrap everything up in paper so they can open one present at a time. Makes it more exciting and takes up more time...

Planning long car journeys at evening when Boy will drop off to sleep seems to work, otherwise we let him have his tablet or ninetendo to keep him occupied...not very original, although of late he has taken great joy in being the official navigator in charge of the sat nav and filling us in on all the traffic restrictions!

We have those DVD players that are part of the front seat head rests - I thought this was horrifically extravagant at the time, but they are the best things ever! Both our boys wear headphones so the only noise is regular laughter. It's lovely.

When we go on holiday we take my mum and dad, too, and the last few years as they have got less mobile we have hired a big 6 seater car. Weirdly, after 40 years of married life in which she showed less than no interest in cars and refused to consider buying anything expensive, my mum is the biggest fan! She loved the automatic sliding doors the best and would open and shut them repeatedly like kids do! (Not while we were driving, obvs)

Lots of snacks in little tubs, story CDs, and lots of games althogh dd1 is only just getting the hang of I spy so we started with colours. Sticker books go down well and any novelty toys which aren't too noisy/ repetitive for Mum and Dad. Frequent stops are also a must with a 1 and 3 year old! We don't generally go further than 3 hours away at the moment as that's the limit for my sanity

Arm yourself with colouring in, stories tablets/portable DVD players..then something to catch the sick as all of the things I listed create travel sickness.
Take a picnic and water bottles so there aren't spilled drinks!
My dd always sleeps no matter how long we are driving for, my ds usually plays on his phone then sleeps. I guess we're lucky. When I was little my sister always got sick so we frequently stopped off for fresh air.
The best time to travel if possible is the evening after they've eaten and had a bath.

List for each child of what to look out for on the journey....boy on a bike, a man walking 2 dogs....some easy, some obscure...make each list different. Easy for groups of children of different ages. Prize for the first to see everything on their list. Great fun, keeps mine entertained for ages....

Also neck pillows for tired little ones.

Consult mumsnet and trip advisor for the best places to eat and things to do. Do this before you go.

Put a bottle of wine and a bar of chocolate in the fridge before you leave home. Something to look forward to when you come back and have a ton of washing to do!

My main tip for family holidays is to avoid long car journeys. Anything over about 1.5-2 hours drive we take the train instead, or if necessary fly. It is so much less stressful if we can all get up and move around, and I am not stuck behind the driving wheel (single parent, so only driver). I do occasionally hire a car for day trips at the other end, but a lot of our holidays are car-free.

I also go with the individual goody bag method, with healthy snacks, a small drink, book, magazine, little pack of crayons or pencils and activity book, they have their electronic game and we do have a car tv for very long journeys, we play games in the car like making sentences out of car licence plates (last three letters), spotting certain coloured cars, etc.

Pack snacks, and do NOT let DH put them in the boot.
Plenty of CDs, I spy, spot x no of blue cars etc.

Tactics will need to change according to age.

Stop every 2-3 hours.

Our essentials list for a long drive with our 4 & 2 year olds;

• Snacks - fruit, biscuits and chocolate!
• Plenty of water & cordial
• Ipad
• Pillows and blankets
• The kids bedtime teddies (all four of them!)

Along the way we make up stories, look out for letters and numbers or sing along.

Our most recent trip was to calais via ferry, it went much more smoothly than a flight as we'd be forever chasing after the 2 year old!

We used to travel a lot when our 4 children were very little, and every trip involved the M25, no matter which direction we were heading. We always left between 4 -5 am. We just lifted the children out of bed, wrapped in blankets and loaded into the car. They would generally stir, look around then go back to sleep.

That gave us a good few hours to get as far as we could before they woke up. Once they did we'd stop for breakfast at a Little Chef and get them dressed.

When they were too old to do that (and before the days of proper car-seat until 12) we had our first 7 seater. Each child was assigned their own place in the car and we took care to separate any warring parties. Grandma did try to interfere once and said did it matter. It sure did because it stopped the arguing.

Years of cars that regularly broke down taught us to always carry food and blankets, and spare (communal) items of clothing.

Later we were blessed with DC5, who for the first year of her life screamed hysterically on every single journey. We assume she suffered travel sickness.

I would always leave as early as possible 4am maybe 5am take my lo out of bed and straight into the car, blanket and all. About 50% of the time she would stay asleep but I would be prepared with her favourite teddy, but if all else failed id chuck on a DVD on the portable DVD player and just let her watch that.
Stop at services around about breakfast time for food and to get dressed in the toilets, empty bladders and back on the road.
Always took extra blankets, food, drink and a few toys for her to play with, if she got really restless then if let her play on my phone, an instant quiet car so I could concentrate on the road and my travel sickness lol!

We prefer to drive with DD after bedtime. We put her pyjamas on, brush her teeth and set off. It has worked less well since she turned 3 as she keeps herself awake.

Making sure everyone has gone to the toilet to start! I make sure ive got a good supply of snacks starting with the healthy stuff and then hitting junk if and when we get desperate!

If it's a very long journey (we have extended family 270 miles away who we like to see) we try and do one leg of the journey at bedtime which usually works. It's generally on the way home as the excitement keeps everyone going on the way.

We play games together but when everyone has had enough/ little ones have fallen asleep I allow the electronic stuff out. We generally do ok, until I get asked are we nearly there yet....

Snacks, drinks (but not too many!), books for the kids, games, good music and sick bags are a must for long distance car drives in our family! That's if we drive in the day time, in the last couple of years we have increasingly been trying to drive either v early morning or v late at night wit the hope that the kids might sleep part/ all of the way.

We pop the kids in the car in the pj's, and take a spare change of clothes in case they need it and change them at the services.

Our DSs are 8 and 4.

Eddie Stobart spotting keeps them occupied on any journey! There are 2,500 in the fleet so they are unlikely to ever see them all!

They enjoy looking at all different vehicles and look forward to long journeys.

Don't buy cheap air tickets that depart at 6 am from a distant airport and think 'ah the kids will sleep during the drive to the airport/on the plane. They won't they'll be totally hyper the whole time and will not want to nap when you arrive at your exciting g destination at midday.

It's tricky with a toddler, 8 and 12 year old! Usually though they need some space to move in the back a little and plenty to occupy. We've found the best game so far is the lorry game. So we pick a lorry each - usually the big companies such a asda or Sainsburys etc. we then count the first one to get to 20! It kills time. With the toddler it has to be the iPad playing peppa pig quietly at this stage until she can join in!

We always play a game of spot the lorry, where we each choose a branded lorry to spot e.g Argos, & the first to 5 spots wins!

We also ensure we take a special treat such as a packet if sweets for the halfway point of the journey & sometimes find a pretty spot for a picnic halfway through too if it's a longer journey.

Last year we wanted to go abroad but didn't fancy the stress (!) of a short haul flight with a 12 mo, so decided to book a eurocamp hol instead. The site was in brittany, so the plan was to drive to Portsmouth c200 miles and then catch a ferry to Caen (4 hours) and then the onward journey of another 100 miles. We could travel in our own time (sort of) with the intention of it being a stress less experience. Such a naive decision....

Both of families live locally so we have never travelled for more than 40 mins with our DD in the car, and we soon discovered that she is one of the rare types that does not easily fall asleep with the motion of the car on a long journey, so both the outward and return journeys were very painful. All we had in our armoury was a nursery rhyme cd which got played to death, so other than that there was lots of feeding snacks, stops, crying...and arguing!

Since, I have learnt that the iPad in a special headrest works a treat (filled with hours of mr tumble), colouring in books with crayons (easier as she is older) as well as much shorter journeys in one go!