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've done a few journeys and my tip are as follows:

Ration presents/distractions. A bag full at the start is quickly discarded but the same amount distributed over the course of the journey works well.

Take lots of snacks- clean or messy, I'm not fussed but I know some are so things that won't get splodged into clothes or upholstery are good

Stop- it's really tempting to keep going for as long as possible but everyone needs to stretch their legs.

Travel at night if possible- this reduces the amount of stops as kids are in natural sleep pattern

Finally- chill out! You need to see it as the start of your holiday so no need for road rage (DH I'm looking at you!), just take it steady and remember the end goal.

sticker books to keep them busy, yet tidy and without dropping things and clambering about, on the flight

Have plenty of things to do to keep them occupied. My boys are 10, 9 and 6 so as well as the usual suspects of gaming devices they love activity sheets, colouring books, reading books, and also plain paper so they can draw, write etc. I keep a bag of 'activities' ready for anywhere we go, including pens, pecils and colouring pencils.

Where possible keep them involved. Kids love to be entertained and learn new things

When we fly we fly either overnight, if long haul or after lunch if short so to fit in with sleep times. We always pack drinks, snacks and colouring /puzzle books. Long car journeys we always do at night and if we need a really early start we try and get there the night before instead. Never makes for a good time if everybody is tired and or hungry.

Packing tip - don't overpack kid's clothes. I learnt the hard way. After paying for extra luggage, I found they wanted to wear the same few things over and over again....

Do pack travel wash, if your place doesn't have a washing machine (see above)!

If you have a big trip get up early.

Lift sleeping kids in pjs at 5.30am - they might wake up but will be dopey! No dvds when everyone awake, only music or storey cd.

Have some breakfast snacks like brioche buns and cartons of fruit juice in the car.

Stop at 9ish get everyone changed out of pjs and have a really good breakfast. Back in the car and they can watch dvd. Stop for lunch at 1ish.

We can cover 400 miles this way and it is relatively painless.

Go with family! We are away in may for a week and dh's family are comin too, sisters, grannies and aunties.
At first I was horrified but now I can see the benefits- baby sitting, always someone to play with, we can go for a meal alone, lots of eyes on them in the swimming pool!
I hope it pans out like this: they are all really chilled out and love my dc so I'm hoping it's going to be a great trip.
Last year we went away and all stayed in one hotel room; me dh and 2 dc. It was awful.
So top tip never share a room get an apartment or a villa so once the kids are in bed you have space and also so the kids have space to play and chill too.
All inclusive or full board is good as well: then if the kids don really like what they have chosen they can pick something else. They also get to see the food before choosing and can pick things like pancakes and eggs for breakfast and watch them being cooked.
My two developed a taste for eggs on toast while away in Spain. Something they would never ask for at home and it filled them up til lunchtime.

Our holiday starts with the ferry from Portsmouth - it's not just a means of crossing the channel it's part of the holiday. We travel overnight so we can can all get a good nights sleep - I always sleep really well on the ferry! We treat ourselves to a lovely meal, book the cinema, enjoy the entertainment laid on in the bar. The children are given the roles of finding the cabin, locating the cinema and restaurant and the all important job or remembering where the car is .....

Games like eye spy, counting yellow cars, word games like going through the alphabet with countries or animals, parsons cat- alliterative adjective and cat name through the alphabet.
regular snacks, a sweet every 10 minutes, food that i wouldn't normally get so the kids consider it a treat like lunchables and cola.
Taking turns at choosing the music.
Tbh, the biggest revelation has been getting a mpv with 3 rows of seats after years of 3 kids squashed on the back seat, it's bliss!
The ferry has always been a highlight of our trips to Europe. seeing dolphins was magic!

We created an "adventure surprise bag" for DD when we travelled to the South east of France. We included a fun looking pad, a fluffy monster, and a pack of pencils (with spares just incase) and suggested she could draw the things she sees along the way that interest her. She's big on drawing and storytelling and there were some fantastic pictures at the end of our journey. We also included some dot to dot and colouring in books, a small lego set, and we handed out some fruit packs and shopkins along the way as well (it was a 12 hour journey). We also had an ipad loaded with lots of kids films just incase she got really bored. I think in total she watched 1 film on the way there and 1 on the way back. However, we are lucky as DD is so interested in the world around her so she was quite happy to sit and look out the window most of the time, pointing out mountains and animals and the funny signs we saw.

Be prepared:

Make sure you have lots of activities for the week.

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 only use Brittany Ferries when we travel to France twice a year.

Top tip - travel overnight on their Economie Service from Portsmouth to Le Havre.

Always book a cabin
Have supper before you get oboard
Find the cabin
Dump your single overnight bag
Locate your nearest muster point
Have wine, beer or hot chocolate depending upon age
Go to bed
Wake up
Shower
Have breakfast onboard if you're a family that argues on an empty tummy like us
Get in car and drive off and onwards.

Fabulous service!

Try downloading a film to your handset or tablet that sorts a couple of hours. We also bought snacks they hadn't had before so they were intriguing. Eg my youngest usually has pom bears but instead we bought some skips and let him have more sweets than usually. We also hid 50p under the table and told the older kids there was some money on the floor then sent them looking to see if they find anymore. They spent 2 hours searching the ship but in fairness they came back with just under a tenner so they had a surprisingly productive day haha. This then spanned into our holiday too with the boys checking every floor in sight 😂

Take plenty of food and drink for the journey - sandwiches, fruit, vegetable sticks, crackers etc. There's often only crisps, chocolate and overpriced ready made sandwiches in varieties the kids hate available. Don't forget baby food. Take enough to cover delays.

Take little concentrated squash bottles to flavour the water, particularly if you're going somewhere hot where it's important to make sure everyone drinks enough.

Have spare clothes for everyone. It can be a combined outfit that would fit any of the children and a t-shirt for any adult, but be prepared for one of the children to vomit on themselves and/or you.

Half a packet of wet wipes in every hand luggage bag.

take their favourite toys with them for entertainment

make a list to make sure you have packed everything. get the kids to make one also to get them involved

bring some new games and some favourites for the journey to keep things fresh

DD is usually happy looking out the window and sleeping for the first few hours of the journey so I save all the in-car entertainments until later on, when she actually needs them.

Keep them busy, hydrated and lots of games. We have used spotting guides a few tim3s - things to see on a train, things to do at the airport etc. These keep little man busy and looking out for things to tick off in his book.

I also try not to get rattled with him if he's bored as it makes him much much worse.

make the fact that the food is different exciting before you go so they're looking forward to it, even if they don't like everything at least they will have a go!

Acceptance is the key to travelling with children. Accept the boat / flight will leave and arrive and you just have to deal with the bit in between.

Sticker books, iPads, I spy anything to fill that time.

Bag with snacks, drinks and sticker books. How I LOVE sticker books, they have made many a long journey more bearable with tiny shouty toddlers.
Passport for teddy and a bag to collect keepsakes from the journey always helps pass the time.
Eye spy is a life saver as they get older...
And then there's always....

Oh and I did Las Vegas with a 2.5 year old whilst pregnant so I had all the tricks.

We love travelling by ferry with our children.
If it's day we go up on deck when leaving port. If night we watch lights from cafe.

We queue straight away for cinema tickets.
Get something to eat.
Always get a cabin so we have a base.

We find the longer overnight crossings work best as you have time for a proper sleep. It breaks the journey up and is cheaper than a hotel! Shorter crossings can be more tiring as it's tempting to keep on driving.