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

Take books, toys and plenty of food

Have plenty to eat and drink and buy a cheap portable dvd player for the journey keeps them entertained

I travel abroad regularly with my kids, and it's been a nightmare before. Last year we brought DVD players for the car and these have been amazing. We don't hear from them for hours. We also take a variety of snacks. As a back up I also have little lunchboxes full of activities like pipecleaners, and mini magnetic drawers.

Be organised, take toys, books, activities, snacks all bagged up & labelled with when they are to be opened to keep kids entertained when traveling. Let them know what to expect & try to travel with the Keast disruption to sleep & meal times.

tell them they need to rest to get properly excited and ready for tomorrow.keep them sleeping for as long as possible so have them ready the night before. then you keep palcmg and let them sleep. this is where really early flights or ferries/journey come in handy. then you wake them and they will likely huff but soon fall back to sleep. we found if we did it at reasonable hours they were just to 'awake' and fussy.
so get the really early ferries
the loire is fantastic for family
campsites.briliant place.they aren't a holiday park with all the bells and 'formed' whistles.we hated that. we love feeling like the holiday is still ours and the lovely campsties in france does just that.
mobile homes or the big canvas tents were alwaysa winner.

go with it.something will go wrong.
wrap some toast in foil for the journey.or if you have time some bacon sarnies.
stop for a macdonalds breakfast!great motivation for getting them out the house on time and well behaved.
take their pillows.
movies.
soundtracks

have a holiday print out list saved to yoru computer.so its a base of everything you usually need. then add or take off as you look to the specific holiday at that time and print.

print off a route map.the kids love being in charge of it.

1. Hire a Nanny...
2. Don't mix tranquilisers and wine...
3. Start and finish with the the same number...

Be prepared:

Make sure you have lots of activities for the week

It depends how you are travelling. For a flight I would have plenty of snacks, possibly a new toy and the iPad with headphones and lots of his favourite programmes.
For a car journey, again, lots of snacks and audiobooks helped when we drove 5 hours to Scotland. And plenty of breaks to stretch the legs.
We love the area around carcasonne but we always fly.

I love taking my children by ferry. The Portsmouth-St Malo route is overnight and long enough that you get a really decent night's sleep. Coming back one year on that route we saw dolphins - which absolutely made the holiday. Upgrade to the cabin plus for the daytime crossing and you get CBeebies in the tv - best £35 spent! And, contrary to my original expectations, the food is very tasty, a great range, and incredibly well priced, and the children's gifts are great. For first time family travellers, i'd say make sure your overnight bags (and obligatory teddy bear) are easily accessible from the car - you don't get a huge amount of room to get out on the car deck. If you've booked a cabin you get toiletries, bedding and towels. And if you're sailing out of Portsmouth, get out on deck to see the historic sites go by. Travelling by ferry makes our holiday.

Be prepared for the journey, whether by car, ferry, plane etc. Have activities and snacks with you.
Prepare your child for a new country by teaching them a little about where they are going (eg food, language, currency, weather) You can tailor this to your child's age and make it as in depth as you like. Provides lots to talk about en route.
If travelling by car, take rest breaks - air stops in France are particularly fab. Service stops on the continent are far ether than we have in this country. I think.

Keep children occupied playing games like eye spy, take reading books too,
try to break up the journey If you can so they can stretch there legs and use some energy up

We always get them to pack a small bag/ case with things they want to read, play, colour during the trip. Plus some healthy snacks and drinks encase of any delays. Also a small blanket if they get tired and want to sleep. We've recently just come back from France and got the children involved in choosing what the ate and then talked to them about where the food came from.

I had some screw-on caps that turned water bottles into soppy cups. Brilliant for travelling.

take lots of toys to keep them entertained

l ALWAYS USED TO PACK SEVERAL SMALL BAGS WITH LOTS GREAT THING TO EAT OR PLAY WITH PLUS A GOOD SING SONG ALWAYS WORKS WONDERS

Plan activities to keep them occupied on the journey, load up the tablet with their favourite shows & pack plenty of snacks

My top tip would be not to go. There are plenty of great places in the UK that you may not ever have visited. Take the opportunity when your children are young to holiday in Devon or The Lake District, or wherever you can get to by car.

We have a big family (4 DC) and love the freedom we get by ferrying across to France or Spain. It's so convenient (not to mention cheaper) to take our own car. No luggage weight limit and we can even take a dinghy, body boards and fishing nets! The overnight ferry to Santander just adds to the holiday- none of the stress of the airport, with plenty to entertain the kids. The beaches on the Cantabrian Coast are stunning, plus the summers aren't unbearably hot or crowded like southern Spain. We also love the Pas de Calais and Normandy regions- loads to see for adults and kids alike.
Top tips would be:

• you can book adjacent cabins if you book over the phone. Handy for families like ours or if you are travelling in a group.
• pack one small bag for overnight on the ferry with nightwear, change of clothes, swimwear (Pont Aven has a pool), toiletries.
• if you are self-catering or camping, bring a box of essentials to get started- milk, coffee/tea, eggs, oil, loaf bread, butter, toilet rolls etc. Include sandwich bags & tinfoil for picnics.
• dress all the kids in the same bright colour when on the beach or days out. Makes them easier to spot from a distance or in a crowd.
• always carry antibacterial hand gel, tissues/wipes & small first aid kit.
• stock up with water/snacks when you can. Freeze bottles of water to keep things cool for longer.
• Don't over plan! We have our best days when we just improvise and explore. Holidays are supposed to be relaxing after all!

We have some amazing memories from our ferry holidays and plan on another trip this summer.

Snack times and sing a longs - be prepared so there's no hungry tummies and download all their favourite songs & TV shows on an iPad.

make out it's a big game and you all have to pretend your french,spanish etc including learning some lingo ir please & thank you

My top tips are not to overestimate how far you can get in a day. Book a hotel or campsite en route! Have plenty of rest breaks and food shops too.

We always start with a good old sing along to any music that we all like, Then we play games like spotting animals and makeing sounds like them rather than just saying the animals name (works on under 10s)
Then we allocate points for waving at other car passengers as they drive past (points are only allocated if the people wave back)
We also take regular breaks.
We count buses, caravans etc a point for each and first one to 10.
We usually get most tiresome journeys to pass quite painlessly this way!

I gave each child a rucksack full of "stuff" for the journey. Mainly bought from poundland and charity shops / car boots etc, it would include games, puzzles, books, a teddy and some snacks.

We try to break down the day into sections, brekkie & early for us all, lunch and early afternoon for the kids. We then try to get the kids to have a nap during the really hot part of the day (abroad) to give them some energy to stay out a bit later in the evening so mum & dad can have some time to have nice food etc.

Lots of activities, snacks and rest stops. And keep the kids informed of where you'll be stopping next or what to expect if they're old enough. An Internet dongle is a good idea for devices without 3G. And bring a pillow and blanket for the car