Share your top tips for travelling abroad with young children with Brittany Ferries - chance to win a £300 voucher NOW CLOSED

[AmeliaMumsnet]

Travelling with young children isn’t always plain sailing from the start, but, if you get it right, showing your children a new part of the world can be a fantastic experience. So, to avoid those horror stories about packing all the wrong things; choosing a destination that’s not quite as child-friendly as it promised; and temper tantrums along the way, Brittany Ferries want to hear your top tips for travelling abroad with the little ones.

Brittany Ferries say “if having young children has put you off taking that holiday abroad, then think again, think family-friendly France. Sailing from Portsmouth, Poole or Plymouth we offer more choice of sailings than anyone else and our onboard service is designed with little ones in mind. What’s more, we can also arrange your holiday accommodation. Our choice of sail & stay holidays are perfect for young families with a chalet camping holiday offering fun for all with lots to see and do both on and off site. And, as all our holidays include return sailings with your car, so you can pack all you need for your time away.” You can find out more here.

What’s your go-to for keeping the kids entertained throughout the journey and avoiding the dreaded ‘are we there yet’? Do you have any tips for encouraging fussy eaters to enjoy some local cuisine? Is there a particular part of France you’ve come to love as a family holiday destination? Whether it’s useful packing advice or just a recommendation for a great family activity, don’t keep it to yourself. Share yours on this thread to help other parents enjoy their holidays with young kids to the fullest and you’ll be entered into a prize draw for a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

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Thanks, and good luck!

MNHQ

We definately prefer to go by ferry, they are kept entertained by their iPads watching movies and playing games :)

Games like car bingo are great for long journeys, when visiting new places it's great to include landmarks or even signs with french words to learn

Make a surprise goody bag with colouring books and crayons, activity books, and craft items that are not to messy. Make it into a lucky dip goody bag and include small bags of sweeties

We visited the poundshop before we went and bought several inexpensive little toys and things that we could pass to our daughter one at time during the flight to keep her entertained. Also we took a tablet loaded with Fireman Sam episodes and healthy little snacks like raisins and other dried fruit and nuts.

I think overnight travel is the way to go with little ones and also plenty of small activities/games that can be a distraction when they start to get a little overawed by the whole experience

Games to play in the car, I remember taking the ferry across to France many times as a kid and having loads of games to play in the car. We had little books to spot things out of the window and plenty of music to sing along to as well.

The first time we went abroad with our youngest she was 11 months old , the flight was 6 hours and i was dreading it. My older two were 13 and 14 and to be honest they were the ones who were worse on the plane. Take lots of treats and drinks, colouring books, travel games and even tabs for older children can be helpful but i was lucky because every flight ive took my youngest on ive fed her then shes slept most of the way. Ive even had nearby passengers compliment me on how good she was twice , so relax . It might not be as bad as you thought

We try to make the journey fit in with a time when our son might normally be sleepy and he'll usually drop off, either after lunch or dinner if it can't be overnight.

If we have a long journey during the day then we'll plan to stop off somewhere specific for at least 2 hours half way so we don't have to wait too long for something exciting to do; not somewhere expensive, even just a nice area of countryside so we can have a picnic then play a game or go for a walk.
Mind you, we haven't quite reached the "are we there yet?" stage so i think I'll have to come up with a few more ideas soon

If you're travelling to a country with a different kind of food to what the kids are used to try cooking a few dishes from that country in advance to get them used to it.
When you arrive at your accommodation do a safety check to make sure door locks are secure & that the balcony is safe, no wobbly railing etc., if there's a problem get your room changed

Bring some toys with to play with .

After our last few flights we'll definitely be trying the ferry next, ha ha! My son has been asking about the Eiffel Tower and we love Paris so it would be great to take a road trip there.

i always take prepackaged sweets, cakes for easy munchie access incase of queues when the kids are starving, i take sea sickness bands if we go on ferrys, i always take travel games and a plastic ball and pack of cards to relieve boredam. we also play silly i spy games in the car if we are going a long way and make regular stops

Plan plan plan and then plan some more!
Making sure favourite toys, snacks, drinks all available as and when needed

Never synchronise bladders, frequent short stops on a car journey keep small children happy

I know from experience having driven Lyon to Birmingham with two DDS on my own, we stopped for 5 minutes every hour or so for a loo break. At age 4 and 10 they were spectacular on a 15 hour journey

keeping the kids hydrated is so important and you can never put on too much sunscreen

Don't do it.

Just make sure you pack the right toys and games that will keep their attention during the long journeys and make sure you have access to enough drinks for the whole family

Travel by car if possible to France, if you want to go further afield then I would say keep it to destinations with flight times less than 4 hours. I took DD to Florida when she was 4 nearly 5, and to get through that flight she had game consoles & books to read. We was given crayons and a colouring in book by the flight crew which was nice, plus there was in flight tv channels in the back of the headrests which helped pass the time. You know your children best and what they could cope with as each one is different.

PLAN AHEAD - involve them by showing them the diagram of the plane, the seating arrangements, the food if applicable etc... Long haul have some great movies (we watched paddington last time) Lots of paper and pens and munchies helps too

Plenty of snacks and water. Travel sickness tablets if necessary. Portable dvd player. Nintendo Gameboy or equivalent. Books to read. Whatever they enjoy doing.

Put together a little travel pack for them to use when travelling. Snacks and little treats, drinks, wipe clean activity cards, magazines, books and travel games. They love discovering all the new goodies and it stops them from asking the dreaded "are we nearly there yet?!".

For long journeys, audio books in the car are amazing and help the time go quicker in my experience.

Regarding food, we try to find somewhere to eat that caters for everyone and then they can try some unfamiliar tastes alongside their favourites. Self-catering is a great way of trying new things too, as foreign supermarkets are always exciting and might encourage them to try new things.

Buy one of those iSpy books! We always buy a few when driving through EUrope, and they are really well thought out. ISpy on a ferry, ISpy in France etc have kept ours amused for hours. They can tick pictures off and collect spying points.

I make sure I have a powerbank and her tablet with her when I go on long journeys with my daughter. Once we are there we find plenty of things to do but the travelling is the worst so making sure she has a tablet full of games and films works for me

let them try the local food - my now grown up children still love Greek food and have many happy memories of being taken into taverna kitchens and coming back with cakes, biscuits or ice- cream

We often go to France by ferry to the area around Fontainbleau. Over the years we have honed the journey to make it part of the holiday.
Always travel down to the ferry at night hopefully kids will sleep part of the way and the find this bit really exciting for some reason!. They each have a bag in the car for snacks toys puzzle books etc to rummage through. Always keep a change of clothes each somewhere you can get to in case of accidents or sickness with toddler age children.
Lots of stops to stretch your legs and the journey will fly by.