We always appreciate the chance to travel with our kids, especially in the summer time it’s great to get some uninterrupted family quality time, explore new places and enjoy the travelling experience together. Even though it’s a lot of fun, travelling with kids can bring it’s own stresses too – especially with younger children.
We’ve used a few different travelling methods with our family – although we’ve not yet taken the kids on a plane! For all of our holidays abroad so far, we’ve always travelled by ferry which is a really easy and family friendly way to travel. When we go a little further afield with the kids, we will of course need to take a plane to make the journey much quicker, but for now for trips to France or Spain we’ve found the ferry really handy.
My tips for ferry travel would be to get a family cabin for longer trips, even when travelling by day. This gives you your own space and means that you won’t need to worry about the kids noise disturbing others, and you can be a bit more relaxed. I’d also definitely suggest booking in to one of the family friendly movies in the cinema to use a couple of hours! We have been on ferries where the suitable movies have sold out though, so now we know that as soon as we board we better go to the info desk and book the movie we want before even checking in to our room! If you have a lot of hand luggage, or some children desperate for the toilet then split up and one parent go straight to the cabin, but let the other go and book the movie! This will apply more in busy times, like half terms when everyone is traveling at the beginning and end of the same week.
One of the handy things about ferry travel is that you have your own car with you, and sometimes once we land in port we’ll have a bit of a road trip before getting to our final destination. It’s always handy when kids sleep in the car, so I would suggest having comfy blankets and pillows along with their car seats, and we always take favourite cuddly toys along in the car to help the kids get settled. Have a look on the George at Asda site to see some of the travel products that could be handy
When the kids are awake, we keep them busy with looking out of the windows to spot things, playing games like iSpy or listening to the radio. They can have a few toys in the car, but a couple of my boys tend to get car sick if they do too much reading or colouring in the car, so we do prefer to limit that to short amounts of time only just to be on the safe side.
If you do have a long journey and want the kids to be able to spend more time in drawing, games and reading without the perils of car sickness, and with a bit more space to spread out then travelling by train can be a great option too. We recently went for a couple of days in Glasgow and travelled by train, as that journey was quicker that way – we then hired a car when we arrived, so we had the best of both worlds. I’ll be writing up a post on our train journey soon so keep a look out for that!
Since we haven’t flown with the kids, check out the guide on the George blog for tips on stress free flying!
What method of travel do you prefer, and find easiest with the kids? Share your ideas and tips with me in the comments
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
We have friends that take the ferry to France and then drive 6-8 hours down south. I could never do that with my kids as after an hour or so the fighting starts. ‘He won’t share’, and ‘He took this’ etc etc.
For the last 9 years we have simply packed the car and driven an hour and a half till we are in the middle of nowhere. It’s a much shorter trip and the kids are much happier. Granted we don’t always get the weather we want though!!