Travelling With Children: Tips and Tricks

Going abroad on holiday is often an event that is looked forward to for the entire year. Jetting off to far warmer, sunnier climes is a real treat, and pretty easy to do if you’re a young couple with a lot of free time and disposable income. Once you become a parent however, things get a little more difficult. Even if you can rustle up enough dough to go away, travelling with the kids can be a real headache, fraught with all manner of difficulties. For single parents, this can be even more difficult due to having to handle all the responsibilities by yourself. With this in mind, we thought we’d offer a few tips to help you have a wonderful holiday with your children – whether you travel as a single parent or a two parent family.

Explore

Choose your destination carefully. Spain, Greece and the Greek Islands, Portugal and the Canaries offer shortish flights, lovely sunshine and are family friendly. Make sure there is plenty for the whole family to do and try not to limit this to just pools and beaches, look for culture and heritage to do.

The Canary Islands offer volcanoes a and mountains to explore, whilst Greece has ancient ruins that are steeped in history. Both Rhodes and Crete offer stunning archaeological sites that children will enjoy just as much as adults. In Rhodes the old town is best explored on foot, but the best way to explore Crete is by car, particularly with younger children. You can get great deals at auto-huren-kreta.nl and can then explore much further afield.

Nannies

Chances are you’ll be staying in a family friendly hotel if you’re going away with the children. Family friendly resorts have better facilities, better layouts and don’t mind as much about noise compared to hotels aimed at either couples or singles, so you should definitely think about booking a room in one of these hotels. One of the draws of family friendly resorts is the ability to hire a hotel nanny during your stay. Sometimes included in the room price, these nannies will come and look after your children whilst you go out, meaning you can enjoy some quality time to eat and explore whilst your child sleeps!

Go Out

Utilising the above tip, use the late evenings to explore your surroundings and take in a little local flavour whilst you visit; you don’t want all of your memories to revolve around being by the sea or pool, after all! Enjoy a romantic dinner together at a local restaurant and sample some cuisine, or perhaps dress up glamorously and visit a local casino.

Don’t Succumb

It can be quite easy to fall into the child-led trap whilst you’re on holiday. Instead of visiting the museums, galleries, local restaurants and places of beauty, you end up almost purely frequenting water parks, beaches, play areas and western-themed restaurants, catering almost entirely for the kids. The tip here is to do a healthy mix of both types of activities. If you enjoy exploring and experiencing your destinations, then teach your kids why travelling in such a manner is so wonderful; they’ll learn a lot and you’ll be surprised by the lack of tantrums!

Take Time

Perhaps our most important point is to simply take it easy! If you have younger children you simply must factor in the endless stoppages, toilet breaks, crying and general tedium that makes up a regular day, then multiply it by two! Trust me; rushing around an airport is no fun at the best of times, but with a young child it’s nigh impossible!

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