Top Ten Tips for Travelling Long Distances with a Toddler
- Rachel
- Apr 18, 2018
- 3 min read
Number One
Make sure you have invested in a high quality, comfortable car seat with a number of different reclining positions (ours is the Cybex Sirona.) Ours was also brand new and finished up looking like we’d had it three years, never mind three days, but it was nothing that a quick hoover out couldn’t fix and absolutely worth the investment for the amount of driving we were doing.
Number Two
If there are two of you, ensure one sits in the back with the toddler. It might not be the most sociable, but that way one of you is permanently on hand to pull out all the entertainment trump cards when necessary. Plus, if you happen to have a dog with you, they will love the opportunity to ride shot gun.
Number Three
Snacks - have a good supply of melty snacks and an endless supply of water with you. Do not care that these will end up ground into the car seat, stuck all over the car itself or said toddler. Nobody likes travelling with the hangry.
Number Four
Time as much of the travel as you can with naps. We are lucky as Jude will sleep in the car seat well and naps for a couple of hours in the middle of the day. That meant that we only ever had to entertain him for an hour or two either side of the naps.
Number Five
Noisy plastic toys. Yes they are repetitive, yes they are insanely annoying but they will entertain your toddler. Something they can hold easily like the V Tech cars are ideal… I think I may have had “I like driving in my car, toot toot beep beep’ in my head for more hours than I care to remember, but it was better than the alternative.
Number Six
Plan your distances in advance. We timed our stops in Essex, Reims and Strasbourg because they fitted nicely with how much driving we knew we could do before Jude would have a irreversible meltdown. The fact that we had a lovely time in each of these places was an added bonus. And Strasbourg really was bloody lovely!
Number Seven
Make sure they have enough opportunities to burn off energy before you set off and after you arrive. Jude is highly active and is frustrated in anything where he feels restricted, so we knew he would need time to tire himself out and unwind afterwards. The channel tunnel has a great little soft play area that I was able to just chuck Jude in and watch him through the windows for a while. Leon also has a cute little play area.
Number Eight
Make sure you have a sun shade. I haven’t bothered with mine in the UK since it fell off the window in September when I forgot it was there and wound the window down, but it was essential for a longer journey.
Number Nine
Make sure the car is packed efficiently - with all the baby items you will need quickly available to hand first. We realised our error when we had an emergency nappy situation and the extra pack of baby wipes (make sure you take way more than you think you will need!) were buried underneath a travel cot and 14kg of dog food and a similar weight in gin.
Number Ten
Without an iTunes catalogue loaded with nursery rhymes and the like, we probably wouldn’t have made it much past Leeds… and for the times when Old Macdonald wasn’t cutting it, Moana was there to not only help restore the heart to Tefiti, but to restore sanity to all in the car.
We will no doubt be making lots of car journeys as we use Lugano as a base in which to explore other areas of Switzerland and Northern Italy so if you have any more travel tips, I'd love to hear them!
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