The Dress Up

8 Top tips for travelling with young'uns

Travelling with kids can be a stressful affair. No one wants to be the parents at the airport with a screaming child.

This picture shows the mythical happy family travelling, all smiles, not a tantrum or foul face in sight. If only we could all travel in such style and happiness... Hopefully, with our top tips, you'll be able to get that one, or two, steps closer to the dream.

1. Take your time with everything!

We can’t stress this enough – for everything you need to do on holiday, it will take that little bit longer with a child at your side. It is well worth getting to the airport half an hour earlier or giving yourselves an extra 15 minutes while renting a car. Those extra minutes add up for a stress-free holiday.

2. Book ahead

Booking ahead is a must for both parent and child. No-one likes waiting about for a rented car, or waiting at a restaurant for a table. Make no mistake, waiting around bores you, but will send a child into a fun-sapped stupor! Make sure things are ready and waiting for you rather than the other way around.

3. Give your children a disposable camera

A disposable camera is a great, inexpensive way of capturing your child’s attention – they may even discover a new hobby they love! This gives them an opportunity to be creative, and seeing the world from a child’s perspective can be interesting for you as well.

Prepare for pictures of the floor.

4. Load your phone full of child friendly apps

Before you board and are away from a lovely Wi-Fi connection, make sure you pack your phone full of child friendly games and apps! This can save you hours of headache all for the price of a few megabytes of space on your phone. Make sure you bring earphones for games that have audio stimulation. With most planes now having handy USB slots, battery need no longer be an issue!

5. A small first aid kit

A small first aid kit can be a life saver – may be not literally but figuratively. It’s no surprise how many little scrapes and bumps a child can gain in the smallest amount of time, having a bunch of plasters and paracetamol to hand can provide relief for you and the child. Another must-keep is a little bottle of alcohol gel – you can’t always find a bathroom to wash little hands on the rush to the connecting flight, and you can bet they’ll be hungry!

6. Wet wipes

Wet wipes are always a useful tool to add to your arsenal. Travelling for long periods of time can be a sweaty affair for anyone, let alone a child who is likely to be running around expelling all that extra energy. Keep a bag of these close, you can never guess when the need may arise.

7. Plan your flight in 15 minute slots

One of the best tips we feel we have used and abused in practise is to plan flights (or car journeys, anything where a child has to sit down for a long period of time) in 15 minute slots. For example, if the flight is two hours long, you have eight 15 minute slots to occupy. Fill these slots with different activities; 15 minutes playing on a device, 15 minutes of colouring in or drawing, 15 minutes of a travel board game. You get the idea – don’t give them a chance to be bored!

8. Bring savoury snacks

Don’t be tempted into giving kids sweets to keep them going. You’re better off packing a variety of savoury snacks like bread sticks, crisps and cheese cubes – this keeps hunger at bay while avoiding a sugar rush peaking just as you arrive in a strange new place.

Follow these little tips and tricks so you can enjoy the holiday just as you had pictured it in your mind, we hope it goes a little something like this...