Traveling with your family indicates a great deal more of preparation than if you’re traveling alone. Families contain older and younger members and in many cases, children. Here are a few tips for family travelers on how to make your trip a more pleasurable event than the stressful event it can be!
Fantastic tips for family travelers
MAINTAIN A CALM ATTITUDE
1. Tell yourself that you’re all traveling together because traveling helps the family bond tighter! It’s hard to travel with the entire family in tow, especially if you have kids.
2. Think of your trip as an adventure, and all sundry events, fights, forgotten essentials and tantrums will just become part of the excitement.
PACK ONLY THE ESSENTIALS
3. Family travelers might be tempting to load the car or your check in luggage with items for every possible need. Don’t go overboard with the packing, as you’ll tire yourself out before you even start. Repacking at each location will take all your energy as well, while you won’t have space to pack your shopping!
4.Instead of packing your entire house, make a list of the things you have packed, and the things that you might need during your travel. Wherever you travel, unless it is to the depths of Africa, you’ll find things that you can buy.
5. Choose your children’s travel books and toys wisely. Avoid toys with small parts as these will be lost in different places, or even swallowed by the younger ones. Best, take drawing sets with crayons, papers and magic color markers for your kids’ entertainment. Bring along toys that your kids play with for hours at home; if it works for home, it can work for travel. Keep a few surprise toys for emergencies when you need them to behave for a while.
DON’T FORGET TO BRING WHAT YOU NEED
6.Always carry any medicines your family requires. Don’t’ forget your old dad’s arthritis pills, or your little daughter’s cough syrup. Carrying the medications that you’re familiar with can save you a lot of stress, trying to locate a similar drug in a strange place.
7. Don’t forget to take baby wipes along with you if you have little ones. You won’t get non-alcoholic, non-allergenic baby wipes in every country or region. Even if you don’t have babies, you can clean your face and neck when it’s hot, hands, toilet seats and so on with these wipes.
8.Bring along a container of efficient and special travel detergent when you travel. Regular detergents where you travel might not be sufficient to remove the dirt your kids get on their clothing.
9. Carry Ziplock bags of various sizes when you travel. Take them out of their packaging, roll them and tie them up into slim cylinders for easy carrying. You’ll appreciate the sheer usefulness of these things when you travel!
10. Invest in a small travel nightlight for your hotel room. Some hotels don’t provide nightlights, and if you’re taking kids who are scared of the dark, you’ll appreciate the nightlight you’re carrying.
DO SOME CLEVER PLANNING
11. Make sure each adult in your party carries his or her own travel documents. Don’t carry everyone’s documents; not only is this risky, but an adult that wants to board at the last minute will be stranded without documents. Designate one adult to keep the kids’ travel documents. Ensure that copies of the kids’ travel documents are given to all adults within your group. This is one of the most important tips for family travelers!
12. Plan your travel to take advantage of your kids’ sleep and nap times. Kids can prove to be very cranky on long train or flight journeys; you’ll have a tough time combating their screams and loud demands for attention. To avoid all this, opt for nighttime travel when your kids are programmed to sleep. For long car rides, leave just before your kids are due to nap. Doing this can save you a lot of heartache.
13. Use sites such as SeatGuru.com to evaluate seating layout. Pick seats for your family travelers accordingly to what makes for the best travel. Is it better to seat your two most troublesome kids apart? Do it.
14. Order children’s special meals on airlines, which come with toys, stickers and other kid friendly options.
15. If your entire family boards the airplane together, you’ll have a tough time managing the older members while keeping the young ones in check. It’s best to assign a child to each adult in your party and make them board separately. See if you can board your family at the last because flights need time to take off and your kids need to burn most of their energy before boarding.
These tips for family travelers will make your next vacation much more fun! Do you have any great tips for family travelers?
