What are your best tips and ideas for great days out by train with the family? Share to win a £250 John Lewis voucher, courtesy of Great Northern and Thameslink.

[RebeccaEMumsnet]

We have been asked by the team at Thameslink and Great Northern to find out your top tips for great days out with the children on the train, your tips on travelling by train with children and how to keep the kids entertained on the rail journeys.

Here’s what they have to say:
"Family days out create lasting memories but can sometimes be costly! To help combat this, did you know that you can get 2FOR1 tickets on certain attractions around London, Brighton and Cambridge when you travel there by rail with Thameslink and Great Northern?

Thameslink operates train services to and from the heart of London, between Bedford and Brighton via Luton and Gatwick Airport, and St Albans and Wimbledon.

Great Northern connects King’s Lynn, Cambridge and Peterborough, via Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City with London King’s Cross. Metro services run to and from Moorgate weekdays, late evening and at weekends.

^Kids travel for just £2 when accompanied by an adult on our great value Off-Peak tickets, plus get 2FOR1 offers to heaps of attractions when you travel by train: thameslinkrailway.com/spring^

We'd love to hear how you manage to have your own great day out using the train with your family."

Please share on this thread your top train tips for all thing family - whatever it is that you do, Thameslink and Great Northern want to know*.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £250 John Lewis voucher.

You can find out more about the Great Northern and Thameslink 2FOR1 promotion here

Thanks,

MNHQ

*Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Make the train journey part of the adventure rather than seeing it as a boring journey. see it through a child's eyes and you will be wowed!

My kids love the days out by train, not so much because of where we are going but because they get to go on the train. They love counting how many trains they see, spotting sheep in the fields and we even saw baby foxes right by the track once.

Take some snacks with you and perhaps some basic activities like pen and paper to draw what they see but otherwise just immerse yourself in the journey to really enjoy it!

Book seats with a table so that they can do colouring etc.

If its a long journey take a picnic (no smelly food!) to pass some of the time and save having to wait until you get to your destination and having grumpy hungry kids

Make sure you don't book the quiet coach, and explain that you have to use indoor voices.

We used to regularly do long train journeys to visit family when we were kids. I think having help at the stations at either end was probably what made it possible for my mum to manage 2 kids plus all the luggage. We used to be equipped with endless books and as many toys as we could carry, and would come up with our own games to entertain ourselves - which Sylvanian family animal would stay stood up on the table for the longest was one I still remember.

Grandma used to travel part way up the route and join us for the last hour or so down which definitely made it more bearable, not least because she always got on with sweets.

I haven't done any long journeys with my kids yet but will be remembering all the things we used to do. Giving the 4 year old a receipt to be her own 'ticket' is always a winner when we do local trips.

Take plenty of snacks and drinks with you
Always have a pack a Mac in your bag
Keep a card with your phone number in your child's pocket in case they get lost.
Keep things simple and plan your journey ahead of time, checking transport sites for details of any engineering works and disruption to routes.

Book seats with a table and take card games, activity books, snacks and water.

Get an 'I-spy' book - they are only about £3.00 each and they are excellent - the 'I-spy on a train journey' one has plenty of things to look for at the station, on the train itself and out of the window - keeps them occupied for ages ticking the things off. There is also an 'I-spy in London' that is very good if you are visiting the capital.

I don't drive so we regularly travel by train, into London or to more far flung places. We usually use the train abroad, recently did a 3 1/2 hour journey from Holland to Belgium .I like getting the train and gazing mindlessly out of the window, which is what I usually do if I'm on my own.
My tips are to make sure you have a packed lunch or snacks, preferably packets of small items such as raisins, satsumas, crisps etc and a bottle of water. Find out where the loos are. Grab a seat with a table if possible. DD likes a magazine or an activity book. Sometimes Poundland have activity sets which can entertain for a longish journey. I do go prepared to have conversations with her (not in the quiet carriage!) and we treat it as a bit of an adventure.
Plan your journey so you have a good idea of how long you have to change trains or which platform to run to, where the engineering works are, and buy your tickets in advance. I have a Family and Friends railcard which I use loads and it has probably repaid the original cost several times over. They usually have offers on the price of the railcard throughout the year.

Be prepared! Take plenty of drinks/snacks and things to do for entertainment - colouring always works well for us. For longer journeys, probably the tablet too. We play spotting games out of the window too.

We love getting the train - it makes a day out feel much more exciting! My kids are 4 and 6 and we always book seats to avoid stress and I take a large handbag with snacks and activity books. Since getting a family railcard we've been to the Science Museum in Manchester (the free bus in the city centre is very handy) and the Museum and Art Gallery in Birmingham. If we aren't taking a picnic I book a table in Pizza Express and use Tesco vouchers making it really affordable.

I have older children but the train is a huge hit still and everyone's preferred method of transport :) let the train take the strain and all that....important for us is
I always renew my railcard. I have both the family and disabled card as the savings are huge.
Plan ahead. We had planned to travel this weekend. There are lots of planned upgrades being done. We Don't mind partial bus as long as we know. Sometimes a double decker is just as fun.
Drinks, snacks and near a working loo. Think about where your seats are. You can't pre-book ours but you can jump aboard at the right place.
Don't rush. We have the option of the fast train but sometimes we like the 'Michael portillo stops at every cowshed' approach to travel.
Plan the route to save cash. We always look for other options and wait for companies to have sales to try new places..
Sometimes we have a new phones etc trip. It's nice to look at things from another perspective.
We love the train :) sorry for being a bore

For the sake of other passangers, take quiet toys: soft toys, dolls, non-powered cars and trains, stickers, pens and paper, coloured pipe cleaners, etc.

Not announcing the platform until what feels like 30 seconds before departure means we've trained ds to be his most angelic to ask the station staff if we can board early. Helps get us on with decorum and without a comedy luggage relay. I also wish that if travel is free for children we could book seats. I'd prefer to pay in order to guarantee the seat for the toddler but wish companies would either let us book free seats or pay a children's fare.
We love trains and the children's activity packs really help too.

The train is a real treat and we are making the most of DD being under 5 for the free travel. We tend to use it most when we are going on special days out. We leave fairly rurally so it's a trip to the station.

We play games on the train - I spy and so on. For longer journeys we take colouring books, crayons and stickers.

• travel off-peak where possible - I've spent too many journies juggling toddler twins and an ASD older child, and it's much easier if a carriage is empty enough to enable you all to have seats
• plan the route and print out timetables to remove the stress
• plenty of snacks and water
• now they are older, we take their tablets. It might be a cop out but it makes the journey more pleasurable for everyone else
• sometimes I will do a quiz sheet for them based around where we are going to get them in to the spirit of the day

Pre-booking seats when ever possible makes journeys much easier.
We always pack a small rucksack with snacks, colouring books & travel games.
Family & friends railcards are well worth the money, you quickly recoup cost with the amount you can save.

I always use a baby sling rather than trying to get pushchair on and off trains, up stairways efc as it makes things easier and often quicker as no need to wait for lifts.
I tell my eldest how many times the train will stop before we reach our destination, she enjoys counting them down so knows when we are getting close to arriving.
Pack up belongings a few minutes before reaching the station so you minimise chances of leaving any belongings on the train.

Railcards are a must - look out for special offers or use Tesco club card points.
Top Trumps, Monopoly Deal or just ordinary playing cards are good, plus a magazine or comic.
Book seats.
Take a picnic.

The best thing about train travel is that you usually arrive in the heart of the destination, and can start your adventure immediately. No sitting in traffic, stressing about parking etc.

I remember when DS was about 4 months old and we booked a holiday in the Highlands. DH drove all the way up with all the luggage and the dog (who hated the car!) and DS and I travelled up first class on the train. Perfect arrangement!
DS and I love getting the train, it adds to the adventure of a trip and we always try and book early so we can get good deals on first class tickets. If the difference in price is less than £25 each for a return journey then we go for that option then I know there'll be a steady supply of drinks and snacks and I know DS thinks that first class makes him like James Bond!
I make him pack his own bag too with the proviso that he has to carry it for the duration of the journey. He usually brings a couple of books, the current favourite Top Trumps, a notepad and pens for superhero lists and drawings and sometimes Banagrams although last time he did sneak Monopoly in there!!

Avoid commuter trains.

Go to the library the day before a big train trip so they all have something new to read.

Travel sickness pills.

We bring lots of snacks, a book and try to avoid rush hour. Also try to sit in the carriage with the toilet.

Sitting together, so booking seats makes a huge difference. We all take books or things to do but, actually, mostly look out of the Windows. We love train food - for some reason it seems special, although I miss the fact that, as a child we used to get sit down meals and be wowed by the tiny kitchen.

If your children are too young to need tickets then for long or frequent journeys it's often still worth buying a friends and family railcard and buying the toddler their own ticket - it's cheaper than buying two adult full price tickets and if you prebook tickets then each member of the family can get their own seat.

Give each child a small backpack to put their own choice of toys and books in, and make them carry it round the house for an hour or two.

Backpack for you with water in an outside holder, and a picnic and entertainment.

Ideally avoid rush hour, but if you can't, shouting "Small child here! Please don't step on the small child!" usually leads to help getting onto a train, people shifting soyou can get away from the door, and on a good day, being offered a seat.

Going on my first sleeper soon, with kids - Scotrail let you book up to a year in advance with kids going for about £12.

My top tip would be to avoid living in Norfolk at all costs. The trains into London rarely run at weekends

We love the train, we get it into Bristol from Devon regularly as its under an hour and you are there, much less stressful than driving. Of course in the other direction there is the train line by the sea which is fab.

We have a little book of things to spot on a train journey, I think we need to widen our journeys to tick a few more pages off!

My boys love trains but always find being on them a disappointment compared to standing on the platform spotting them. So I try to point out as many things as I can to keep them interested. Passing trains at stations are a good one!
Lots of treats. I pack a picnic with lots to choose from.