Travelling with toddlers can fill any parent with dread but approach it like an adventure and build in a few surprises and it can be pain free. The following ideas are just things that we have tried that have worked and have ensured that we have come back from our trips away feeling relaxed and revitalised.
Planning for your family holiday: long journeys
We have embarked on long haul flights, 4 hour coach transfers and exhausting car journeys with toddlers in tow and the enemy is boredom. Small children love to feel grown up and allowing them to share in the packing of hand luggage and suitcases is part of the adventure. A favourite bag that they are responsible for looking after is a good ploy and ensures a favourite toy can travel too at close quarters. We have always liked to wrap up a series of small presents that can then be opened at staggered intervals on the journey to revive spirits: a small book that can be shared, stickers, a snack – nothing expensive but certainly a diversion, if only for a short while.
Food opportunities may be limited and expensive and we all know that the youngest family holidaymakers may have very specific tastes. We rarely travel without mini cheese biscuit snacks, bags of dried fruit and dare I say it sweets. You do have to make a game of it and not deliver these too early or regularly but it can break up the time.