Over the last few weeks we have been lucky enough to visit Warner Brothers Studio Tour and CBeebies Live which both required a substantial amount of travelling from our home on the south coast.
The older children didn’t want to come with us, and being 18 and 14 they pretty much amuse themselves on long journeys now anyway (in fact they have to be surgically removed from their blackberry’s).
Little ones can be a bit more of a challenge.
Kian (11) is happy to play on his DS for much of the journey, although he can be known to get restless, but it is the 3 and 1 year old that are the real challenge.
It goes without saying, but comfy clothes are a must. You can always get your little one changed when you get there. We tend to go for tracksuits for them and I carry a babygro for Eliza if we intend on travelling back late so we can transfer her straight from the car into bed (not that it’s normally that easy!). We also take shoes off in the car as it is more comfy without.
Next is In-Car entertainment. We were toying with the idea of buying a DVD system for the car, but it worked out quite expensive and we do not do that many long journey’s to really warrant it. For Christmas (after a year of saving) we bought the family an iPad and what a revelation it has been. You can buy an iPad holder which fits on the headrest so you can use it to watch films in the car. If you buy Blue Ray DVD’s get the triple play versions as you have a digital copy which you put as an MP4 file on the iPad. Brilliant idea!!
We also take toys, particularly for Eliza. Not too many though as you don’t want to feel like you are moving house every time you go anywhere, but a couple of favourites and a book or two normally go down well.
I hate to say it but bored children can often be pacified with food and drink. If you have a “guzzler” then try and limit what they drink otherwise you’ll be forever stopping for toilet breaks though. Take some healthy snacks too – preferably ones not full of sugar as this will only make make bored children worse. Hubby hates mess, but for the sake of a quick hoover the next day it can solve a lot of grief!
If you have slightly older children, car games can be great fun. Eye Spy is still a good one, but my children play “Yellow Car” (even the older ones). Basically you have to spot yellow cars and shout out before the others in the car. The one who spots the most wins! (Beware it gets very competitive).
It is also really important to have breakdown cover just in case – cars can be unreliable things, even if serviced regularly and you never know what might happen. We always keep spare water and a blanket in the boot just in case!