Travelling with teenagers - tips needed

[justiner]

Hi all,
The Guardian have asked us for our top tips for travelling with teenagers. Can all you folks with teens post your thoughts and in return they'll give mumsnet a plug?
Many many thanks, Justine, Carrie and Rachel

1. Don't. (Just kidding.)
2. If at all possible have a car with 3 rows of seats and separate all children as much as poss.
3. Given a mixture of ages including more than 1 teenager, put big ones with little ones.
4. For long journeys give each child a small cardboard box (eg a 6-bottle wine one) for their possessions. Much neater than bags (esp carriers which sprawl everywhere).
5. Walkmans allowed but only if inaudible to others. The penalty to be a Wheels on the Bus type tape on the car player.
6. Bottles of water all round.
7. Sun blinds for all ages.
8. Regular stops and let them disappear but give them a strict time limit.
9. If you have loads of luggage get a roof box rather than trying to cram it all in the car.
10. Ours (eldest now 20) still enjoy having a list of things to spot - the sillier, or harder, the better. Have an ample aupply of paper and pencils for all.
11. I-Spy is still good - use initial sounds, rather than letters, or even "something green" to give very small ones a chance. (But we had TWLITMOTR with big ones in the car at the weekend) Or alphabet games - name countries/cities/flowers/boys/girls etc beginning with A,B,C etc.
12. NO CHOCOLATE.
13. Bring pillows in car.
14. If they fight, stop the car and don't move again until they've stopped.
15. If your teenagers are Kevins, just grit your teeth and wear earplugs.

Our elder 2 are girls, who may well be more amenable than boys the same age. Our elder boy is nearly 14 so I am receptive to others' hints for him!

(Sudden awful thought) You did mean travelling by car...???

Thanks for clarifying that janh. We mean the whole travel experience - coping with journey (car, plane etc) what sort of hol/ accommodation you should choose etc. But that's a great start.
Thanks, Justine

This will sound really awful, we fly first class and put the kids in businesss!! We get treated like royalty and so do they, they get extra attention because they are unaccompanied. When we did it with Virgin, they pandered to their every whim. My son, when asked if he'd like beakfast, looked at the tray and said, What I'd really like is a cheese and ham croissant..... they made it for him and produced a mug of hot chocolate!

We also let them board and disembark without waiting for us, they love being in control of passports etc, and we meet up with them at baggage reclaim. They don't feel like kids, and enjoy the freedom and taking responsibility for themselves. We've let them do this for the last three years, since DS was 11 and DD12, we even let them take a limo( only £18 for 25 miles!!) from Vancouver Airport to the hotel on their own,we picked up the car. They arrived at the Pan Pacific on their own and checked in, to the amusement of the staff (It was of course all pre booked!)

Oh, well, we've only ever done camping/giteing. Now they are old enough our daughters prefer to make their own arrangements (ie package hols in eg Tenerife).
They did enjoy the family hols when younger teens though. It was a bit "you WILL have a good time if it KILLS us" but they did anyway.
Hope this helps!

Janh - I have to agree with the comment 'don't' !!I have horrendous memories of holidays with my parents as a teenager & now, as a parent myself, I think what a horrible brat I was when I consider the sacfrices they made financially to take us on holiday. I used to mope about saying I'm bored/I hate being here/wanted to hang out with all the waiters/refused to even try skiing on a lovely skiing trip. In fact from about 14 I would stay at home with my grandparents invited to look after me rather than be 'seen in public' with my parents and two younger brothers.

Many of my friends/relations with teenagers also have horrible experiences of holidaying with them , sorry to paint a black picture, I am sure there are some lovely teenagers out there but I intend to enjoy holidays with my child for, hopefully 11 - 12 years and then maybe accept that 'family' holidays are a thing of the past.

I think most teenagers enjoy their own thing and hopefully our DS will like scout camps and those sorts of holidays.

Good luck anyone with teenagers!

Alibubbles... well now I feel more confident about my choice to leave the corporate life to become a doula... maybe I'll be able to travel first - now I can only afford business

We have 3 girls aged 11,13and 16. They all really enjoy family holidays. They like going to different places and seeing different things. We have just come back from a Eurocamp holiday in the south of France. This year we flew as my dh didn't fancy the long drive ( I can't). The children all packed their own hand lugagge with books , Gameboys, Walkmans, cuddly toys etc. They also had a bottle of water and some sweets each.I still give them one surprise to put in their bags. Theyare very good at entertaining themselves although we still look out for intersting things. We all travel the same class in planes but the children sit in diferent seats to us if possible. They are allowed to look around the airport by themselves once we have checked in the 16 yr old watches out for the 11yr old. I know this might seem they are perfect children, but believe me we do have our fair share of aguments. If it gets to much we confiscate their gameboys or walkmans for a while. On the whole we always have a good holiday this year we even had some time out on our own as the 16 year old could be trusted to look after the other 2. They were all old enough to explore the campsite and go to the pool by themselves. Our eldest says she's coming on familly holidays until she is 18!