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Wednesday 15 July 2015

Traveling with kids - Our top tips.

Most of us have been there, you get in the car travel 10 minutes down the road into your 3 hour journey and you hear "are we there yet!?" and its probably not going to be the last time you hear it during your journey either!
We have always holidayed in the UK which has usually meant lengthy car journeys to our holiday destination, not always easy with young children.


So as the summer holidays are almost here I thought I would share some of our top tips for traveling with kids.

- Plan ahead! Try and pack the car the night before it will save you the stress of doing it in the morning and means you can check you have everything before you have very excited children at your feet desperate to go in the morning. Also when packing the car try and place things you might need in easy reach, if you think you may head to the beach when you arrive make sure your buckets and spades aren't at the bottom. Same goes for sun cream and sun hats etc.

- Be prepared to stop and know where the service's are. Quite often traveling by car can mean long journeys on the motorway which means nowhere to just be able to pull over when you hear the words " I need a wee coming from the back". Keep an eye out for service stations and when you know there is one coming up ask them if they need the toilet or anything that way you can be prepared to stop before you pass it.

- Snacks, Snacks and Snacks! I like to pack a small cool bag or lunchbox with a few snacks ideally ones that cause as little mess as possible. Try not to pack chocolate as it will no doubt end in messy hands and face etc. We like to take things like rice cakes, grapes, cereal bars, cucumber sticks, crisps etc. If your going to be traveling over lunch time why not take a packed lunch and stop somewhere for lunch on your way, it will certainly save you money as the service stations can be quite pricey and it will give you all a chance to stretch your legs.

- A fun travel bag for the kids. This can be made up a few days before your journey and can be so handy in keeping young children entertained whilst traveling. I make ours up in a backpack that the kids can have in the back with them. Our bag contains things like a wipe board and dry wipe marker (as this won't stain the upholstery if dropped) for drawing, books, leappad or tablet device for slightly older children (make sure you pre download some suitable games or apps), sticker books, snacks such as raisins and cereal bars + a bottle of water and etch a sketch type games.

So these are a few of our top tips, do you have any to share? How to do you keep your children happy whilst traveling on long journeys?




xXx

18 comments:

  1. Now my boys are older, I would say chargers are key! Oh and always reminding them when we are coming up to the services

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  2. All good tips. I used to hide away small toys like magazine freebies and put them in a travel bag.

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  3. Great tips Jessica. We often play games in the car and sing, at airports and on planes it's more stickers and colouring. Plus the iPad if we get desperate :)

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  4. These are all good tips. Another is to try to travel when the kids are likely to sleep, if you have very young children.

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  5. I always used to do the 'fun travel bag' idea and we also plug in the DVD player for a movie to watch! They also play on the iPad.

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  6. Great tips! I remember that we would always have music on in the car, songs that are easily sung by everyone.

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  7. great tips my lot have actually been good travellers but it is great to find them ways to stay happy.

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  8. Great tips - planning is always the key!!

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  9. My son loves travelling and moans when the car has to stop! He does love his food on the way though so we have a cool bag with a supply of all sorts of yummy things.

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  10. We travel a lot with the kids and my tip will be to make sure everything is fully charged before you leave. Nothing worse than an ipad running out of battery

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  11. Some really good tips, it sounds as though you have everything under control x

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  12. Great tips! I always make sure we have our tablet with us and some snacks too! x

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  13. It got easier as Emma grew up, now we rely on conversation, iPads and snacks for long journeys! Practice makes perfect, even when it comes to travelling with children, I would add :-).xx

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  14. If we have too far to go we try to do it when youngest is sleeping - but that is because he not only gets bored, but travel sick - but doesnt get sick if he sleeps!

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  15. Whenever we go on long car journeys I still pack a potty. My two (aged 6 and 4) are toilet trained, but it's handy to have one in case of any emergency toilet stops.

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  16. Some great tips here for car journey's - we try to remember snacks and drinks if we are going to be in the car for over an hour.

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  17. Great tips. Mine are older now so are quite happy to watch a film or listen to their music but when they were little we used to play games and sing songs. Drawing was their favorite thing to do in the car x

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  18. Great post - Pickle is at that wonderful age now of asking 'are we nearly there?' he then says 'well I can't see it!" Kaz x

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