Tips On Traveling With A Toddler

Travelling with children can be a bit like shooting a herd of wild goats on vacation. Whether they're your own or somebody else's, factoring a child's needs into your travels involves far more than adhering on a CD full of pop music and making toilet stops. Here two Rough Guides writers discuss their hard-won wisdom. First up, mum of two Hayley Spurway offers advice on traveling with toddlers, then Ross McGovern reveals how he handles to travel with older children. Hayley Spurway's hints for travelling with toddlers

Have a number of family games ready in the event of delay.

Punch-buggy and padiddle are very popular, if brutal, favourites for car travels, whereas more cerebral ones like the Alphabet match are safer for aviation.

Book ahead

If you're camping or staying in hotels, it pays to book ahead. Attempting to keep the spontaneity of traveling BC (Before Kids ) doesn't pay off in the event that you arrive in your destination to discover you can't bag a bed or pitch and need to hit the road again with tired, hungry toddlers melting down at the backseat.

Don't overlook the medicine

Whether they're out of regular, jet-lagged, or eating less healthily, children always appear to get sick on holiday. Dampen the effect of broken feet, frayed temperaments and fevers by packing an easy-to-swallow medicine like Calpol in the UK. Other basic ingredients on your first aid kit must include antiseptic wipes, plasters, sting treatment, and a thermometer.

Keep bugs at bay

If you're travelling to Paignton or Peru, antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer are purse essentials. A wipe of the cutlery in restaurants at which you're unsure of hygiene, or a squirt of hand sanitizer when there's no washing machine, can zap a few germs and stop toddlers catching some common bugs.

Check your passports

Children's passports just last five years and they have a habit of exercising once you're not searching. Allow at least four weeks to rekindle one. The cost of a last-minute passport is astronomical, and particularly galling if you only realise it's necessary if already in the ferry queue in Calais. Don't ask us how we know that. We just do.