Top Tips for Travelling Parents
Taking your children on holiday with you can seem like a daunting prospect (especially when you’ve got toddlers in tow) but it really needn’t be; with careful planning, and by involving them in the packing process, you’ll soon find out that it’s much easier than you thought.
Photo: jjay69
If you stick to the following tips, you should find that you have a much less stressful holiday (who knows, you might even be able to relax) and your children will be happier which will make for an all round easier time for everyone in the family.
So here are my top tips for travelling with children:
Purchase travel insurance
This is crucial if you want to make sure you are covered for every eventuality. Under the travel insurance umbrella, you’ll usually get; accident/sickness cover, holiday cancellation cover, public liability cover, loss of luggage cover and theft /holiday money cover.
Without this protection, should something go wrong, your holiday could be ruined and at worst, you could be faced with a huge bill for medical care or similar.
To make sure you get the best value for money on your policy, look for insurers who sell family packages (kids under 18 are often free) which is a much cheaper option than purchasing separate policies, or use a price comparison website such as moneysupermarket.com to find travel insurance and save yourself the legwork.
Get your kids involved in the packing process
It’s easy to hurriedly pack something for your children if they are younger, but are you packing what they need or what they want? Ideally you should get a good mix of both and the best way to do this is to get your children involved in the packing process from the word go (you’ll also avoid many tantrums whilst on holiday in the process).
It’s also a good learning process and will teach your kids to work to a luggage weight limit. As your children get older, they’ll want to have a more active role in the decision making process so nurture this also.
Aim to let them take some of their favourite toys/games and make sure they get plenty of the essentials too.
Pack the right toys
If you have younger children, it’s essential that you pack the right toys; it’s definitely better to go for quantity over quality here, especially if you have a long flight ahead of you and need to keep them interested.
Children have notoriously short attention spans, so it’s a good idea to produce another toy as their attention begins to wane. This is a simpler process for older children as they should be easily catered for with an mp3 player or handheld games console.
Give your children their own backpack
This will not only teach your children to be responsible for their own possessions, you can also take advantage of their hand luggage allowance if they are old enough to have their own seat.
Help them to pack the right bits and pieces (as per tip 2) and they’ll soon learn to be careful about what they pack if they have to lug a heavy backpack round the airport.
Pack snacks
Children can get quite grouchy on an empty stomach and they soon feel hungry again after eating a meal, so make sure you pack some snacks for the journey and also to keep them happy between meals whilst on your hols.
Aim to pack healthy, slow energy release food such as nuts, cereal/granola bars, etc.
With the above tops to help you, your next holiday should be that little bit less stressful and your kids will have a better time too!
Late Holidays can be great holidays. When you book at the last minute there is almost always an element of surprise and the unexpected.
