Top tips for travelling with kids over Christmas and the New Year

Christmas and the New Year are nearly here, and we want to enjoy the holiday season, whether that means driving to visit relatives and friends or going on a kid-friendly summer adventure.

Long car trips with kids require some planning and forward-thinking. I have been holidaying with my family in lots of fantastic places over Christmas and the New Year for the last nine years as a mum of two, family car journalist and founder of BabyDrive.com.au.

Here are my top tips for travelling with kids over the Christmas and New Year period.

Stopping is the last thing you want to consider when planning a car journey with kids; you just want to get there. But accepting it’s part of the journey and making frequent and well-planned stops can take all the stress out of the road trip. Look at a map before you go and see if there are any interesting little towns where you can pull over for your bathroom stops, thereby keeping all passengers comfortable and hopefully preventing any side-of-the-road stops for an emergency bush wee.

Sitting for long periods is difficult for most children, so breaking up your journey and choosing a lunch stop with a good playground nearby is a great way of letting the kids exhaust all their energy. Don’t just expect them to go from sitting in a car for hours to sitting in a restaurant and back into the car again. Let them go wild when they can. That may mean stopping at a playground in a country town as you pass through. On the highway, a lot of service stations are built alongside a McDonalds restaurant with a play area.

Be strategic about the time you leave. If you know the traffic is always bumper to bumper around 8am, for example, then leave before or after the usual rush hour. Starting a long journey only to get stuck in a traffic jam can sour your holiday long before you reach free-flowing open roads.

Although the roads are at their quietest at night, driving in the dark isn’t such a good idea, because nocturnal animals are on the move. It’s also wise to avoid dawn and dusk, as this is when kangaroos, wallabies and other larger native animals look for water. They can cause a nasty accident if they unexpectedly venture on to the road in front of you.

If you have an infant or a toddler who still has day naps, then make use of that. Naps are your friend. You can plan your journey around their nap times, stopping for food and a run-around or visiting a place of interest along the way, and then hop back in the car for their next nap time.

This may sound a little crazy, but if you’re leaving early to catch a ferry or a flight, put your kids to bed in a fresh set of clothes ready for the next day. Then, simply scoop them out of bed in the early hours and put them straight in the car without having to get them dressed. If you’re very stealthy, they will remain asleep (that’s the dream, anyway). Then, when you get to your ferry or flight, they are already dressed.

Having an arsenal of activities and distractions to pull out of a hat will contribute to a smoother car journey. A mixture of familiar favourites and shiny new things to occupy them will make the journey go quicker for everyone. Use our handy guide Top ten ways to entertain kids in the car to give you some ideas.

Audiobooks are great for kids to listen to while they are travelling. Choose something you know they will be interested in, and make sure you have downloaded it before you go in case you lose your internet connection at any point. The same goes for kids’ podcasts.

Whether your kids usually get travel sick or not, it’s a good idea to be prepared just in case, as I have learned previously. Especially over the holidays, new destinations, foods, changes to routine, and unfamiliar or winding roads can cause or worsen kids’ motion sickness. You can buy disposable vomit bags quite cheaply online and in some pharmacies, so having one in the rear map pockets and glove box is a good idea. If you know your child suffers from motion sickness, be prepared with whatever medication (or other method) works and open a window slightly for fresh air to make them more comfortable.

There are two camps for this one: You are either an eat-in-the-car family or a do-not-eat-in-the-car family. No judgement here; you have to do what works for you. But if your kids eat in the car, and like mine, they snack constantly, then make sure you read our Top ten snack ideas for kids on road trips guide.

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