Travelling With Small Children

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

Take your time

The greatest thing you'll be able to take - whether at the airport, sightseeing or getting from A to B - is additional time. Toddlers love to research and don't care for your time pressures of traveling, which means you're prone to all retain your cool if you factor the faffing, gawping, stalling, bathroom slips and stops into your own timeframe.

Invest in a child locator

In my experience, toddlers aren't lovers of reins, backpacks with a leash, or any infringement on their liberty. Keep tabs on these at airports, train stations and crowded attractions with a child locator. The child wears a little unit (strapped to a belt or shoe) and you keep the transmitter. If you lose your kid set off the alarm and follow the sound to locate them.

Book ahead

If you're camping or staying in hotels, it pays to book ahead. Trying to keep the spontaneity of traveling BC (Before Kids ) doesn't pay off if you arrive in your destination to find you can't bag a bed or pitch and have to hit the street again with exhausted, hungry toddlers melting down in the backseat.

Engage and involve older children

The ideal way to avoid a soul-destroying sulk out of the adolescent is to involve them in the planning of this holiday and ask them for input on what they'd like to do. You may be amazed to hear it isn't spending all day on the internet.