Travelling With Small Children

Travelling with children can be a bit like shooting a herd of wild goats in your holiday. Whether they're your own or somebody else's, factoring a kid 's needs to your travels involves far more than sticking on a CD full of pop music and making toilet stops. Here two Rough Guides writers share their hard wisdom. To start, mum of 2 Hayley Spurway offers advice on traveling with toddlers, then Ross McGovern reveals the way he handles to travel with older children. Hayley Spurway's tips for traveling with toddlers

Bear in Mind the Medication

It should already be in your travelling checklist, but with kids combined means carrying out a small first aid kit is even more critical: plasters, antihistamines and sachets of painkilling syrup may spare a lot of stress later on. Antimalarials are also available in liquid form.

Check your passports

Children's passports only last five decades and they have a habit of running out once you're not looking. Allow at least four weeks to rekindle one. The expense of a last-minute passport is astronomical, and especially galling if you only realise it's necessary if in the ferry queue at Calais. Don't ask us how we know this. We only do.

Book ahead

Whether you're camping or staying in resorts, it pays to book ahead. Trying to keep the spontaneity of travel BC (Before Kids ) doesn't repay if you arrive at your destination to discover you can't bag a bed or pitch and need to hit the road again with exhausted, hungry toddlers melt in the backseat.

Keep the actions coming

In case you're heading out on a long journey have a collection of toys to be handed out once an hour. Handheld puzzles, miniature colouring books, stickers, wordsearches and even very small packs of Plasticine will pass the time on a long flight or car journey.

Give them a camera

Giving toddlers their particular (strong, child-friendly) camera motivates them to watch their environment and focus on what interests them. You could be surprised at the results from their knee-high view. Amongst images of feet and wheels, my three-year-old has taken flowers, animals, helicopters, boats, stones and rabbit poo.

Remember the baby wipes

Even if all of your kids are long out of nappies, don't forget that the baby wipes. They're helpful for washing hands, cleaning toilet chairs, and wiping down restaurant tables. In precisely the same spirit, little bottles of hand cleaner can be a lifesaver in some countries, but check the journey regulations for liquids well in advance.