Just because you have children doesn’t mean you have to stop having fun. Or travelling. But if you want to travel with your children and have fun too, you are going to have to do some pre-planning. It is crucial for a successful trip.
One of the most important things to find out in advance is whether the lodging facility you plan to stay at welcomes children. Everyone will have a better time if the management likes them.
It is also a good idea to plan a daily itinerary. But don’t pack it too tightly. Leave time for simple pleasures such as napping and slurping ice cream cones. On longer trips, allow for some ‘separation’ time: adults going their separate ways, each with one child, or adults taking turns staying with the children while one gets free time.
Planning trips
Have your children help pick a destination and plan the trip. Look at maps together. Create a flexible travel schedule. Allow sufficient travel time between destinations so that you can make spontaneous exploration stops along the way.
Establish guidelines on spending money, snacks, bedtime, TV use, etc.
Plan to start the trip early in the morning and to arrive at your destination early in the day, so you will have time to relax. Getting away in the middle of the night means that your younger children will sleep through the journey, and for older children it may add to the adventure. Traffic is generally lighter too.
When you arrive, read again the appropriate sections in your guidebook to familiarise yourself with local facilities, or, if you are on a package tour abroad, have a chat with your tourist or hotel management about babysitting service, bicycle rentals, horseback riding/stables, public swimming pools/plunges, restaurants, skating rinks, or other leisure activities and their suitability for your children. Also check the local newspapers and tourist magazines for current special events and activities.
Hang a map of the world and of your home country on a wall in your home. Use coloured pushpins or flags to mark places you have visited. Children enjoy doing this.
Accomodation reservations
To avoid disappointment and a frantic, last-minute search for anything – and the possibility of finding nothing – make advance reservations at hotels or campsites. Booking on the Internet can sometimes save you cash as travel firms try to encourage e-business. Always ask for a written confirmation. Take it along as proof of your reservation. If you must cancel, do so as soon as possible. The later you leave it the less likely you are to get any sort of refund.
Don’t forget to take out adequate travel insurance. ‘It’ may never happen to you, but then again ‘it’ just might. . . .
If you require a cot, reserve one at the time you make your room reservation, otherwise you might find none available when you arrive. Alternatively, purchase a travel carrycot and take it with you.
Packing
Make a checklist of all the items you need to gather or buy for your trip. For instance, if you are going to a beach or river area in the summer, you will want to consider taking along items such as: swimsuits, towels, suntan lotion, beach blanket, back rest, sun umbrella, sand toys, inner tubes, sandals/tennis shoes, air mattress, beach ball. Don’t panic if you do forget something. Usually you will be near a shop where you can buy emergency replacements.
You can save space by packing less and taking along some travel wash solution.
Don’t forget travel adaptor plugs when travelling abroad, otherwise you could just find yourself facing a bad-hair week!
Take different forms of currency – cash, travellers’ cheques, and a credit card if you have one. This strategy should cover all the basics when it comes to buying food or other necessities while you’re away.
Goodie bags A good way to keep children occupied and happy on a car trip is to provide each with their own goodie bag. For the bag itself you might use a recycled lunch box, a backpack (especially good for plane trips), a small basket, a shopping bag, a small suitcase, a plastic bucket, or a metal cake tin. Whichever container you choose, be sure to have a separate one for each child, and try to fill them with the same items (or equivalent items if their interests differ). Labelling the contents with each child’s name will help avoid some conflict. A flat, hard container makes a good foundation for writing and colouring. Things you might put inside include pads of paper, cellotape, coloured pencils, washable felt pens, midget cars, finger puppets, Lego, storybooks, car games, workbooks, pencil box, blunt scissors, card games, non-melting crayons, colouring books, pipe cleaners, snap-lock plastic beads, paper dolls, origami paper, play dough, small scraps of coloured paper, gummed paper shapes, stickers, magic slate, eraser, magnetic puzzles, chess, drafts, sewing cards, magnifying glass, small chalkboard and chalk, felt board and shapes, glue stick, Etch A Sketch, spiral notebook, plastic bags to hold collectables.
The items you choose to put in the goodie bag will depend on your child’s age. Be sure to keep the bag stocked and ready to go, and keep your eyes open for new items to unveil on future trips. For younger children, don’t forget to bring along their lovies – teddy bear, blanket, etc.
Have older children shop with you for new goodie bag items a few days before the trip. The anticipation of playing with the newly selected items will work in your favour.
I think you will find the goodie bag so useful that you will begin using it in other ways – on a rainy day, when your children are sick, when you leave them with a babysitter, when you dine out together in a restaurant.
The goodie bag concept needn’t be restricted to travelling or holidays. Here are some other options:
Picnic goodie bag. I usually prefer to stop at a delicatessen to pick up picnic fare. To help make our picnics more comfortable, I always keep in the boot of my car a picnic blanket, a day pack (for those picnic spots that require a hike to reach), and a plastic pull-string bag stocked with paper plates, cups, napkins, plastic eating utensils, straws, a tin opener and a corkscrew.
Musical goodie bag. The following items provide family fun by the campfire or fireplace and can be purchased inexpensively in most music shops: slide whistle, kazoo, small tambourine, plastic flute, whistle, wooden rhythm blocks, jew’s-harp, gongs, bells, cymbals, ratchet, rasps, harmonica.
Beach play goodie bag. Many of these items can be gathered from your kitchen. Remember to avoid glass. I like to store them all in one big plastic bucket, which I save especially for trips to the water. Spray bottle, spatula, scoop, pastry brush, plastic cups, measuring spoons, bucket, funnel, biscuit cutters, strainer, pancake turner.Helpful hints in the car.
Travelling anywhere in a car with children can be a trying experience for everyone concerned. Even short trips can be exhausting and leave everyone in real need of a vacation. (Sometimes I have thought, ‘Does anyone know where I can purchase any old taxi – the kind that has bullet-proof, soundproof glass separating the parents from the kids – I mean the driver from the passengers?’)
Here are some suggestions on how to make a family car trip a more pleasurable experience.
Safety and comfort
Remember it is mandatory in the UK for the driver and all passengers to wear seat belts and that young children be placed in car seats.
Use roof racks to handle boot-space overflow. For comfort, leave as much space as possible in the passenger section.
Take along blankets and pillows for napping. Pillows are also useful as a lap tray, an arm rest, and as a divider between siblings. Be sure to pack one pillow per child.
Buy some new towels for your bathroom and put the old ones in the boot of your car. They make good covers for hot car seats and can be used in countless other ways: rolled up as a pillow, for mopping up spills, etc.
Removable screens for the car’s windows keep the sun off baby and out of eyes.
Keep a first-aid kit in your boot. Stock it with bandages, antiseptic, safety pins, tweezers, a roller bandage, cotton swabs, washcloth, sunscreen, children’s aspirin and aspirin substitute, thermometer, scissors, adhesive tape, gauze pads, soap, torch, a compact sewing kit, a few coins for emergency phone calls. These items will fit inside a large empty coffee jar or an old lunchbox.
Keep a package of medium-size, zip-lock plastic bags in your car’s boot. These are handy for holding many things: messy items such as bibs, nappies, wet bathing suits, items children collect, etc.
Food Fuel for your vehicle, and for its occupants, are generally more expensive at motorway services. You can save a few pounds by doing some of the following:
Pack a supply of non-messy snacks for the road. Some ideas: fruit, raisins, cheese, crackers, fig rolls, dried fruit, muesli bars, small boxes of dry cereal, small cans or cartons of juice.
For clean-ups, pack moist towelettes, or make your own by putting either damp paper towels or a damp washcloth in a plastic bag or covered container.
Consider packing only water for drinks. When spilled, it isn’t sticky.
Avoid eating meals in the car. Though it saves time, eating in offers no chance to stretch, and it’s very messy.
Picnic when possible. After the cramped experience of a car ride, a restaurant can sometimes feel too confining. So, if it’s not too cold and damp, get out into the fresh air and have a picnic.
Bring a moulded plastic bib for babies. Such a bib is especially wonderful for catching ice cream drops. To clean it all you have to do is wipe or rinse.
A bottle warmer that plugs into the car’s cigarette lighter can be useful when travelling with a baby.
Entertainment
Turn your children into navigators. Give each their own map and let them figure out how far it is to the next town. Give them a wide felt-tip highlighter pen to trace the route as you go.
To help younger children deal with distances, thread a number of Cheerios or Froot Loops on to a string. At specific intervals (5 miles, 10 miles, 50 miles) let them take one off and eat it. Arrange it so that when they eat the last one, you’re there.
Provide each child with a notepad to use as a trip diary. Encourage them to make entries each day. Older children can do this alone. For younger children, you can write down what they dictate. Have coloured pencils available for illustrations. If you have an instant print camera, let each child take a few pictures each day to illustrate their diary. The diary can also be turned into a scrapbook containing tickets, postcards, foreign currency, and other holiday artefacts accumulated during your time away.
Provide each child with a portable music player. My family enjoys listening together to story CDs, but when one of our children turns on the music in our car, they also put on their earphones. If you have a music player that also records, it is fun to record a travel diary as you go.
Have a few wrapped presents on hand to use for distracting children during restless times. Select items that make good additions to the goodie bag. If they’re learning to tell the time and have their own watch, consider writing specific instructions such as, ‘Open at 10.42’.
Keep a travel game book in the glove compartment. Use it only when necessary. When everyone is happy, leave well alone.
Rest stops
Make a rest stop every few hours or as the situation dictates. This is a good time to eat, to enjoy a sightseeing side trip, or to let children run off some pent-up energy in a park.
Organise a scavenger hunt during a park stop or after a picnic. Give each child a list of items (pine cone, twig shaped like a letter, something from an animal, two different leaves, etc) and see who can find the most in a given amount of time. Have a prize for all participants.
Keep an inflatable beach ball in your boot. When you stop, blow it up and use it to encourage active movement. Other good items to have along for rest stops: bubbles, skipping rope, frisbee, chalk (for hopscotch), jacks.
Don’t only stop for fuel, but allow time in your travel schedule for toilet stops.
When things degenerate As Erma Bombeck once said, ‘Families that play together get on each other’s nerves,’ so . . .
Try the Mad Bag/Glad Bag trick. Give each child a bag filled with small change at the beginning of the trip. Mum and Dad begin the trip with an empty bag. When a child has been deemed naughty, they must give up a coin to the parents’ bag. If you are a liberated parent, you can let it work the other way, too. Any coins left in the children’s bag at the end of the trip are theirs to keep. This works even better with 50p and £1 coins.
Adults take turns driving. The non-driving adult sits in the back seat with one (two, three . .) child while the other child sits in the front seat with the driver. This helps keep squabbles to a minimum and also gives the back-seat parent and child a chance to spend some time together. Even though many adults will not jump at the chance to sit in the back seat, most children will jump at the chance to sit in the front seat.
When all else fails, travel in a motorcycle with a sidecar. Daddy and one child sit on the cycle; Mummy and another sit in the sidecar. This may not be the safest or most convenient form of travel, but you won’t hear a word.
If you ever find yourself wondering why you brought the children along, keep in mind that they are very useful in figuring out how to turn strange TVs on and off. And above all remember, as someone once observed, ‘Happiness is a journey, not a destination.’
(Carole Terwilliger Meyers is the author of The Family Travel Guide: An Inspiring Collection of Family-Friendly Vacations and Miles of Smiles: 101 Great Car Games and Activities, both published by Carousel Press.)
Just because you have children doesn’t mean you have to stop having fun. Or travelling. But if you want to travel with your children and have fun too, you are going to have to do some pre-planning. It is crucial for a successful trip.
