Here is a few quick tips as a guide to car travel on your next family camping or holiday trip.
1. Before leaving home make sure everyone has everything required and has been to toilet or bathroom.
2. Pack your car so the luggage is in the back not with passengers to give them enough room to be comfortable.
3. Each child can have a small bag or backpack of toys or games to keep them busy and hopefully everything will be put back in the bag so everything is not spread everywhere.
4. Pack some snack food that is not too messy like chocolate or sticky lollies. Muesli bars, sandwiches, chips, fruit etc and have a rubbish bag handy, freezer bags can be used.
5. Have some tissues, hand wipes, other toiletries and a basic first aid kit maybe useful occasionally, also regular medication.
6. Take regular breaks about every 2 hours, if possible stop at a park ground or somewhere interesting and everyone can stretch their legs and kids can run around. With a bit of luck they may have a sleep in the car afterwards.
7. Have the radio on or a CD playing, or if you have a DVD player a movie can be watched, MP3s or Ipods are great too and talking books can be purchased or hired from a library.
8. Kids can play games, books, either card games or the small magnetic travel games also spotting licence plates or signs etc. can be fun and get everyone involved.
9. Sing along with a favourite CD or the old favourite ’10 green bottles hanging on the wall…..’ or anything you like.
10. To keep your kids interested in your journey, have the older kids follow a road map and they will discover and look out for different landscapes and points of interest along the way.They can also work how many kms have been travelled and how many to go, also a record of kms and fuel used can be kept on the longer trip.
Be Prepared, Be Organised and Be Calm – For a much happier trip!!
