Travel Tips for a long journey with Kids

If you’re heading off on holiday whilst school is out, here are a few tips from fellow Mumblers to keep the little one’s occupied on a long journey.

• Books, books books! Whether it’s to read, colour in or stickers have a variety of books and activities with you.

We have a bag that we keep for such occasions. We’re pretty old school. Books, colouring, puzzles, sticker books, magazines, crayons etc. There’s plenty in there for a bit of variety. ES Facebook Feb 2019

Make an I spy sheet with pictures of all the things they have to look out for and tick off along the way. AM Facebook July 18

Usborne do a little card pack with different activities for journeys. EM Facebook July 18

Stickers, Stickers, Stickers! MB Facebook July 18

Magic Writer Pens… Waterstones have them. You draw or write and then shine the other ends light on it. My 4 and 6 year olds loved these on a plane journey. Also a pot of slime, colouring books with stickers, where’s Wally or Mini the mouse (same but easier). KS FAcebook July 18

• Car games. Obviously we have all done many many rounds of i-spy which is always a favourite in our car. We also play a game called Green Car, Yellow Car, where you have to spot green or yellow cars – the first to spot gets 10 points. The winner is the person who gets to 100 first.

Smith – you have to say Smith every time you see a postbox or telephone box. You get a point if you’re the first to see it. Lose a point if you get it wrong and there isn’t one (obviously no good for motorways but good for going through villages and towns) Also ‘I’m Thinking Of’  – a guessing game which starts by you giving a broad theme eg ‘I’m thinking of an animal/famous person, food. place etc. Pub Legs is a game for spotting Pubs! The first to see the pub scores however many points that the pub has legs eg The White Bear = 4 legs, Red Lion = 4 points. JC Facebook Feb 2019

• Travel Games

Buy miniature pocket travel board games. JK Facebook Feb 2019

• Travel at night if possible

PJ’s on, straight in the car and off is how we do our holiday travelling. LS Facebook Feb 2019

• Variety! We find that the kids get bored quite quickly, so it is good to have a bit of everything.

Try to have a range of activities so you can rotate once something becomes boring, lots of activities books – they have loads for £1 in the works. Also have a couple of films downloaded to an ipad or something to put in the middle to watch together in the back. We drove from ferry crossing to Austria and survived! CW Facebook Feb 19

Mine always loved books and the Portable DVD player came in handy too. Some train tables have Monopoly boards etc so maybe take dice and counters too. EM Facebook July 18

• Snacks, snacks snacks! It is amazing how many snacks we go through on a journey.

I think snacks are better than anything for getting through a long journey. JC Facebook 2019

• Audio Books. This was definiately one tip that we used on a trip to Scotland recently. We downloaded some books for the kids to listen to on their Kindles (we were able to access some free with audible as we have a kids package on their Kindles). It really kept them amused, particularly my daughter who has travel sickness and finds it difficult to read or look at a screen.