8 tips to get you through a long haul trip with kids

August 18th, 2008 Comments(0)

Our guests returned to Nigeria this weekend.  Darling Angel cried when she realized she wasn’t going away with her cousins.  “Won’t you miss mommy?”, I asked.  “You and daddy and Baby Brother can come with me”, she perked up, seemingly pleased with her great idea.

Skinny Aunt and Funny Uncle have logged many many airmiles with kids in tow flying from one continent to another.  As they got ready to leave for the airport, I asked Skinny Aunt to share some tips about traveling long haul with little kids.  I had traveled  to Nigeria with Darling Angel just before she turned two.  It was a long and exhausting journey starting with one local hop, 8 hours to Europe, 7 hours to Nigeria with stopover intervals that are sometimes too short and sometimes too long.   I hope to repeat the trip sometime soon and thought it was a good time to remind myself of lessons learned during the journey and learn new ones as well.  Next time I travel across continents with kids, these are the things I will keep in mind.

  1. Ditch the kids carry-ons.  Kids carry-ons with Barbie and Spiderman designs may be cute but expect plan to carry these in addition to yours.  I’ve always smiled when I see little girls rolling their cute pink pilot cases, but when you’re looking for your connecting gate after an already long flight, you may have to carry tired kids as well as their carry-ons. 
  2. Pack a change of clothes.  Or two.  How many changes you pack is at your discretion but you have to consider your carry-on limits.  I packed 2 sets of cloth changes for my daughter and we went through both during the first part of our flight between water spill, vomit and milk spill.
  3. Plan for unexpected weather.  It may be summer at your destination but keep a coat at hand.  This was a lesson from my own experience.  It’s always summer in Nigeria so I added our coats to our luggage when we checked in.  I wanted to lighten my hand luggage.  Smart move?  Not. We missed our connecting flight in Paris and had to spend the night.  Of course it was freezing and my poor Darling Angel  had to shiver out in the cold while we waited for the shuttle bus that took us to our hotel.  Naturally, seeing the sights of Paris was out of the question.  We spent the evening doing laundary (see #2).
  4. Don’t count on airline food.  Make sure you pack enough snacks to keep the kids busy.  You hopefully will get enough drink choices on the plane to keep them happy, but food options are are fewer.  Keep snacks – cookies, biscuits, pretzels, gummies, whatever your kids like – at hand.  Goldfish crackers worked for excellently for us at the time.
  5. Bring in-flight activities.  Airlines often give kids gift bags containing activities to keep them occupied during the flight but you can’t always count on these.  You can’t even be sure your kids will like them, so bring your own.  If your kids like to color, make sure you bring coloring books and crayons.  Bring enough crayons to compensate for those that drop and roll to the tail of the plane.  If your kid has a hand-held game addiction, now would be a good time to support that habit.  Puzzles?  Bring them on.
  6. Be aware of aircraft options.  Use an airline that offers individual screens for viewing videos in-flight.  Your kids, being shorter than the average flier, may not be able to see communal screens.  And I bet you don’t want to deal with the crick that would develop in their necks from their attempts to do so.  Alternatively, you could travel with your own personal DVD player or a laptop.
  7. Encourage regular bathroom use.  Kids sometimes do not realize they have to go until they really need to go NOW, and you can’t always count on the bathroom being free at the same time.  My 4 year old neice once marveled after she went to the bathroom on her mom’s insistence, “mommy, how did you know I was going to peepee?”.  She had love and admiration glowing in her face thinking how smart mommy was.
  8. Don’t sweat the small stuff.  Keep your kids in check but remember they will have their moments where they drive you nuts.  Remember how tired they are and keep your calm.  Other things/people/situations that develop may make you mad but remember you’re tired too and therefore apt to get irritated.  So keep your calm.

I hope you find these tips useful.  Please share your tips about traveling with kids on long trips.

Note: This post does not address traveling with an infant.  There will be many more things to consider in that case including (but not limited to) feeding supplies, breastfeeding, diapering etc.