Travelling with Young Children: Share your top tips / advice for travelling with young children for a chance to win a £200 voucher!

[geemumsnet]

Travelling with young children can be an adventure in itself, full of excitement and challenges. From keeping them entertained during long journeys to navigating airport security with ease, every parent knows the importance of being well-prepared.

Share your top tips and advice for travelling with young children in the thread below!

Whether it's packing essentials, a shout out for your favourite family-friendly resort or maybe you have creative games to pass the time, we want to hear your tried-and-tested strategies.

Post your tips and advice in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw! One lucky participant will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list). Let's come together to help parents make their family travels smoother and more enjoyable!

Here's what TUI have to say:

“A top tip for a successful family holiday is finding the right kind of accommodation that will suit your family’s needs. TUI offers a whole host of family-friendly accommodation that packs in plenty of entertainment, from volleyball games to professional evening shows, alongside kid-friendly pools and splash parks. TUI Blue for Families holidays are designed with the whole family in mind, and offer child-friendly restaurants like children’s buffets and special kids’ menus to keep little ones happy. If you want a few hours to yourself, there’s also Kids’ Clubs that cater for a range of ages from babies to teens. Alternatively, for those in search of an action-packed holiday, Holiday Villages have loads of activities to choose from to keep everyone entertained, such as high rope courses. For the water babies, SplashWorld holidays come with unlimited waterpark access."

"Another tip is to look out for TUI’s free child places where travellers can take their little ones away without paying a penny for them. Customers can search here for free kid’s places.”

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snacks and downloads on a tablet.

Snacks and sticker books!

Pack a blow-up neck pillow so they can nap on the plane/train and in the car seat if you are driving a long distance. Play eye spy to keep them occupied.

I often think the flight and airport causes the most stress on holidays.

Babies and Toddlers
In the airport let them use as much energy as possible. Keep them out of their prams - it is hard work but travelling with little ones is.
Take a change of clothes for them and for you and don't wear white.

Take more snacks than you think you will ever need (had a 5 hour plane on the runway delay once with a 3 year old and only biscuits from the trolley in the US - so glad I had a picnic in my bag).
Take the usual toys etc, but my best tip is to accept that babies and toddlers act like babies and toddlers whether or not they are on a plane. They might cry and get frustrated and that's ok but you will get there.

Take calpol in hand luggage - you often cannot buy it airside.

Ditch the trunkies and take one big backpack that you can put everything in. In my experience they don't use the trunkies for more than 5 minutes and they are a nuisance for the rest of the journey.

Teens
Take chargers and make sure all technology is 100% charged. On the mid flights (no TV take an ipad too only to be used once the phone has died) Download games, tv shows and again lots of snacks for the flight. Take a pack of cards - they might want to interact with you at some point (maybe)!

My top tip would be to take some grandparents along with you too 😂

Joking aside …

1. take favourite comforter and a spare if you have one.
2. bright clothes for pool or beach so they are easier to spot
3. on the plane we found paying for extra leg room then toddler can play on the floor in the front of us a godsend
4. cheap blow up paddling pool for the younger babies then you can let them play in the shade under a brolly in a safe area - worked really really well for us!
5. If your taking a car seat by a car seat bag/carrier and pad it out with your towels/nappies etc to save room in your case
6. if there’s ever a place for tv time the aeroplane would be it

Go to the £1 shop for a bundle of goodies, a new toy, book, sweets, crayons and paper - they will play for hours with these - plus the joy of opening their treasures takes their mind off the boring journey.

I found constant interaction with them telling them what it will be like and what do do, how to sit nicely is important, I spoke to mine about clouds, how cold it was out there, answer their questions, look out for signs of tiredness, hunger and being thirsty and act before it becomes a meltdown. Engage with them throughout the journey and be patient - I have seen so many tired parents having no patience and this has resulted in a full blown crying episode as the child is overwhelmed and over tired as the parent has not watched their child carefully enough.

Invite grandparents. Send small children and grandparents a day ahead.

Yep agreed! You definitely have to be 'on it', especially with toddlers and preschoolers.

I learned these tips as a mum of an autistic dc but they’re useful with all small dc: check out the autism accessibility section of the website of any airport/train station for very clear pictures and simple instructions. It’s brilliant to print for all small children as a bedtime story before you go.
You can buy discreet earphones that block out higher pitches but let you hear conversation which is lovely if you’re on a flight with lots of little ones, especially if you’ve none of your own!
Audio books are less fashionable these days with screens, but I’ve always found that my dc get very relaxed and calm with a story in their ear, and not wired the way they will with extended screen time.
A single Where’s Wally page can make a restaurant wait bearable.

I watched a travel blogging family on youtube to show my little ones what an airplane is like, what an airport is like, although the feeling of taking off and landing was not experienced, I think it helped prepare them (and us) on our first holiday as a family navigating an airport, being able to be prioritised in the queues for passport checking. We took some snacks and bought some drinks at the airport for the flight as we did not want to wait for the flight service - that helped keep them occupied too.

Take a cheap pushchair that will fold up and be easy to carry around

I let my kids wear fancy dress outfits to the airport - it would be much easier to spot/describe/find “woody” or “buzz” or “Spider-Man” than a generically dressed 3 yr old!

I have two:

Cargo trousers for little ones (beige can work for girls as well as boys) where the lower leg zips off to make shorts. They're great for travelling - unzip in the hot country and zip back on when you're on the plane or waiting to go through customs on return to the UK.

Inflatable dingy, small size. Can work as a "by your sunbed" pool for a small toddler, with a little water scooped up from the main pool, or as a play base back in the hotel room to keep toys and small people in set area.

My tip is remember to add sunscreen well before you take them into the sun/pool it takes time to become effective. You can still burn when it is cloudy - I was told by MIL that you can't several years ago and my 4 year old got mild sunburn.

My top tip is books and pens/colouring/stickers for a car journey. Plus kids audiobooks. We check ours out for free from the library app before we go.

The I-spy books are good and all children can get involved.

I'm really reluctant to give the children a screen in the car (no issues with those who do!) because I find mine get addicted and will expect it on every journey. Plus I kind of want them to get "bored" to let their mind wander. I have lovely memories as a kid staring out the window on holiday.

I may give them a screen if there are flights involved though!

Travelling with more than one child? Dress them the same. Then you are only looking for one outfit.

Half fill your toddlers water bottle and freeze them on their side then top them up with water. Put them in a lunch box and it will keep snacks cool.

Get a backpack (more comfortable if carrying little ones) and have -

medicine
plasters
anything anti travel sickness related and a sick bag
spare socks and pants
nappies/wipes
hair bobbles
snacks

Also take photos of any important documents and travel times and send to someone who would be available to send them back if you accidentally deleted them.

Download some movies so that if you don’t have WiFi or 3G you can still keep little ones entertained.

Book somewhere with a buffet solves all food issues!

Look for verified reviews from facebook groups and holiday sites, I would not trust google or trustpilot. The more research you put into your holiday, the better chance of having a good holiday and not somewhere where it may be substandard both for food and accommodation and child focused activities

Pack an extension lead, then you only need one travel adapter for multiple items as you can just plug them in normally to the extension bar

My travelling tip is to prepare any kids flying with special toys (my daughter carried her Little Nut Brown Hare under her arm for years) that they will have to be put through security. It’s the one thing I didn’t think of and there was absolute devastation when she needed to be parted from her toy when it needed to go on the conveyor belt. It was given back to her asap to stop the noise 😂

pack children’s clothes over all the bags you take, so if a bag doesn’t make it, you have enough stuff for your kids.

take a rucksack and crossbody bag for the airport - cross body has passports /boarding passes /purse/phone, everything else in rucksack, you have two free hands.

Oh and take empty waterbottles you know they can /will drink from, fill up when you get airside (there’s usually drinking water fountains).

Don't forget their favourite bedtime teddies. Take calpol (why do they always get sick in the middle of the night?). If they have not been on a plane before show them some videos of airports and plane interiors so they have some idea of what to expect. Learn some very basic words/phrases before you go with them in the local language. My kids love to be able to say please and thank you and ask for a drink etc.