Are we there yet?
For most children, the expectation of arriving at their holiday destination is more than they can stand. However, they have little appreciation of distance and time. Long hours cooped up in a car, a plane or a train, queues and delays can seriously undermine their capacity to cope. How children behave on the journey and at the destination will largely depend on how you have prepared.
Children love to play anywhere and new experiences and travel can provide instant entertainment. Boredom will set in though at some stage and you will need to bring a supply of things to do to keep them entertained on your family holiday. We have provided some age-appropriate ideas for games and things to entertain the children and a general guideline below and we hope that these will make your travel with your children more enjoyable.
As well as out top tips below our specific guides include
How to entertain a baby travelling
How to entertain a toddler travelling
How to entertain a school age child travelling
Travel games and car games
Top tips on what to take to entertain the kids
Do not bother taking too many bulky toys and books as these can be heavy and cumbersome.
Older children will probably want to pick their own toys to travel with and while this is a nice idea, you should give them some direction as to what is appropriate.
Make sure that everything you take is replaceable as if children are particularly attached to something and you cannot find it while you are en route this can be a huge disruption.
Toys also get very dirty when travelling and the easier they are to clean the better.
It is also best to avoid anything that may melt in the heat such as wax crayons or Play-Doh which can dry up and can stain.
Toys which have lots of small parts which can get easily lost are also a bad idea.
When travelling, children love to play with others and it may be good idea to bring toys that can be shared.
Toys that stimulate exercise including footballs, small beanbags and frisbees are also a good idea particularly if they can be used indoors as well as outdoors.
There are lots of options for entertaining your children including card games, charades (our kids just love the Early Learning Centre charades), i-spy, hangman, spot the difference and storytelling and this is an ideal time to spend quality time with your children just chatting and reading.
You will also find lots of family friendly travel tips and advice in our research and advice section also.
Check out also the experience of other parents and travellers in our forum and add your own experiences as we are a great believer in real parent's experiences.
You will find lots of family friendly travel tips and advice in our research and advice section to help you book the right family holiday. Check out also the experiences of other parents and travellers in our parents forum and add your own experiences as we are a great believer in real parent's experiences as the best measure of whether somewhere will suit you for your family holiday.
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