Travelling with children; what are your tips? Share them with South Western Railway

[EllieMumsnet]

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We all know that travelling on family days out with children are not always the cheapest of experiences. However they can provide great family bonding and memories that will last a lifetime and just as importantly don’t have to burn a hole in your pocket every time. With that being said South Western Railway want your top tips for travelling with children, especially your best money saving tips!

Here’s what South Western Railway have to say: “If you’re savvy at looking out for great family deals then sign up to receive our customer newsletters. You’ll receive exclusive offers and inspiration on where to visit on the network, helping you to plan a fun family day out.”

Do you ensure you bring pack lunches and snacks for the whole family so you don't have to spend anything on food? Perhaps you like to bring along extended family or friends? Do you bring lots of fun games to use as distractions if and when needed on the journey? How do you decide where to go if you have children of different ages?

Whatever your tips are for travelling with children and saving money on family days out, share them on the thread below and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

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I've found, that on recent off-peak journeys, there is no significant price difference between first class and standard tickets. Travelling from some stations in first class means you can use the first class lounge, which has snacks and drinks and is a quiet place to wait with the children. One the train we get drinks and food. So, once you factor in the cost it works out cheaper to travel in first class!

Other than that - wipes, water, eye spy, travel bingo, Dobble and and a pashmina or something that you can use to cover them if they're tired.

We live traveling on trains. We always bring our own food and find lots if little and varied things work best plus plenty of water. We bring lots if activities - card games, spitting games, drawing and always one thing that's new always go down well. I try and save technology for the kids for when we're all a bit tired and fed up. I don't use it myself because I want to stay attentive to what my kids are doing in order to avoid any problems.

Have some healthy snacks, games to play and travel at night so that they sleep most of the way :)

Have a few new small books and toys to hand out if they are bored. A big scarf or light rug in case they get sleepy. Let them carry their own backpack.
Take a damp sponge or flannel in a waterproof bag and a bag for keeping rubbish together. If they're recently toilet trained put them in pull-ups just in case.
Don't let them have their favourite bedtime soft toy out, the fallout should it get lost just isn't worth it!!

Don't let them treat the train as a playground, it's irritating and accidents do happen. Keep them away from doors and well back from platform edges.
If you can thank the driver at the terminus everyone will be happy, many drivers also appreciate a wave!

Packed lunch and drinks but also have them choose special sweets/crisps/whatever in a shop at/near the station.

Small game or activity book. (Cards, puzzle book etc. wipe-clean/reusable activity cards). Pen/pencil and paper for doodling, noughts and crosses etc.

Pack the above in a separate small bag/rucksack so that is the only luggage you need to access during the journey.

Reserve a seat with a table/near toilets if possible.

Don’t get too hung up on getting a direct route - one (or maybe two) changes can really break up a long journey as long as the timings are sensible (a 15-20min change is quite welcome halfway into a three-hour journey)

Make sure the family has plenty of sleep the night before and that there are plenty of options to keep them amused in the car - not just technology to shut them up but also family games and discussions.

Plenty of stops alomg the way will help to break up the journey.

We usually take a picnic and we're part of the National Trust so we try and visit properties in the region we're visiting or staying in. We also find air bnb really convenient and cheaper than hotels.

lots of snacks, pens and paper and silly games planned

Reserve your seats in advance, take LOTS of snacks, load the iPad up with their fave shows, take some books/activity sheets and pray they behave!

Our two like lots of fruit, so that's nice and easy for snacks, but definitely take wetwipes too! DD1 is generally glued to her phone and DD2 just torments the dog. We usually take books or magazines, but the kids would rather just talk our socks off.

Our two like lots of fruit, so that's nice and easy for snacks, but definitely take wetwipes too! DD1 is generally glued to her phone and DD2 just torments the dog. We usually take books or magazines, but the kids would rather just talk our socks off.

With tiny ones a sling! They can cope with anything in a sling 😁. With older ones, plenty of snacks and a picnic..a notebook and pen...you can play noughts and crosses, squares, scribble pictures, folded mystery pictures etc etc :). Love travelling on the train with kids :)

I-Spy on a train journey kept me amused as a child on long journeys, and my children too!

Take pens, paper, sticker books and lots of snacks. Try to help them get excited about their journey and make plans for when you reach your destination.

Plenty of stops and boiled sweets

Always take snacks for journeys. Youngest likes to do colourung and sticker books on trains and planes. If a very long journey (especially flights) they'll have a tablet with movies and tv series they like, with earphones.

We often take packed lunches for days out as food can be expensive so we might buy dinner only if leaving late. I always take a backpack of food and drinks to theme parks as so expensive. Kids often ask for hot dogs at theme parks, so we take a hot thermos with cooked hot dog sausages in, wrap up rolls in tinfoil ready cut, and sachets of ketchup. Then they get warm hot dogs for lunch. ... and not for the eye watering prices some charge.

When the children were quite small we had to travel a lot - mainly by car or airplane. In the car we had tapes of music they liked - some just to listen to, some to sing along with. We also played age appropriate games which changed over time - so i-spy when tiny, when older word games like "My cat is an adorable cat," adding an adjective beginning with the next letter of the alphabet to see how long a sentence we could remember. We always took snacks and packed lunches - both because DS had food allergies and because it gave us flexibility if they were getting fretful because they were getting hungry. Books to read and colouring books for flights - and quiet toys depending on age. Wet wipes regardless of age, and change of clothes for the tinies just in case!

We often travel by train, my DS loves a good train ride! My money saving tips are to buy tickets 12 weeks in advance and to use a family railcard. Also, buy drinks and travel snacks in multipacks at the supermarket before you go and pop them in each person's backpack. It saves money (train station shops are never cheap) and is one less thing to do on the day when you're about to get on the train.

I like to make sure we have plenty of snacks and activities to keep them entertained

I think the best way to prepare is prepare yourself mentally, yes there's all the practical advice, a comic, activity books, snacks etc but most mums know all this. It's more about, how am I going to keep calm when the screaming tantrum is happening on a 4 hour flight, what techniques can I use to soothe myself and enable me to take control of the situation...that's what really helps. X

last time I took the train I took a pot of bubbles to entertain my baby. totally quiet, always fun and fortunately no miserable fellow-commuters minded the odd one landing on them!!

My top for long plane journeys is to forget trying to do anything for yourself, you will not get to watch a film or eat in peace , once I accepted that flights are now easier, oh and lots of stickers!

Take lots of snacks and a few kiddie magazines and cards for playing games

Always take our own picnic with us, to cut down on costs. We have a NT membership which covers us all to get in to any of their properties for a year, to be honest the kids have had enough of the houses now as we've seen all the ones we wanted to see, but they never get bored of a day out in the grounds with a picnic and some ball games etc. Hide and seek, running races, cartwheels, frisbee competitions, even the older ones always enjoy it and the only extra outlay is petrol to get there.

Lots of snacks, UNO, and audio books.