Here are some simple ways to make travelling with your children a much more pleasant experience!

Travelling with your kids is sometimes the only chance to get some quality time with them so a little pre-trip planning is well worth the effort!

1. Before starting out on a trip, prepare your children with maps, information, and if you are on line, do some surfing about your destination. It is fun to have kids involved from the beginning. Order free brochures from tourist authorities of countries and from chambers of commerce of towns and cities.
2. Start by involving your kids in the holiday planning process and negotiate everything with them. You will get lots more co-operation with them this way.
3. Pack as light as possible for the whole family; especially if you are a single parent with a brood of kids. Remember that when everyone is tired, it will be you who carries the luggage.
4. Have the kids pack their own backpacks and test their ability to carry what they have chosen plus one change of clothing for them. Label any especially loved blanket or toy so you at least have a chance of recovering it if lost. And assume some of their things will get lost.
5. Avoid baggage, clothing and backpacks which have the children's names emblazoned as a safety precaution. You do not want strangers to know their first names. Talk to them about dealing with strangers and stress the don't do it message once again. The exception is that if they get lost, they should try to find a person in a uniform or a family with children. The logic about the uniform is that this person is at least probably working for a known company or is military or such.
6. Hire a larger vehicle with plenty of space to separate out the kids. Definitely worth it to stop the kids niggling at each other. Assign seats in the car especially if you have a large family. There have to be some tough rules if a trip will succeed. By assigning seats, you will not lose anyone along the way. Your kids will probably want to have the "other seat" so negotiate with them to swap seats each day.
7. Have your itinerary and important contact numbers on the children somewhere out of sight if they do get lost. Along with that is important medical or other information. You should bring a recent photo of your children with you to identify them again if they wander off. Finally you should be aware of what colour they are wearing each day and perhaps assign a colour they must wear so that you can quickly find them in a crowd or again, give information to others if they get lost.
8. Hotels are easily checked for friendliness to children: call ahead of time or again use the internet and see how their site is prepared and whether they show children in the photos of patrons. Obviously a swimming pool, cafeteria, etc are signs that the hotel gets lots of kids.
9. When you check into the hotel, you can child-proof it yourself by taking certain measures:
   - check that the windows and doors do not front on the street
   - check that the window locks are higher than children's reach and that they cannot get caught up in any curtains or blinds.
   - Show children how to get in touch with the front desk if necessary as 111 usually does not work on hotel/motel phones and explain to them not to open the door unless a code is used. You can then create a code for say room service or others to use to enter their room
   - Remove shampoo and other such from their reach so that they do not ingest these.
   - Check that the bathroom cannot be locked from inside-if necessary tape open the lock. By the way tape is a great item to bring along for instant repairs.
   - Check that children can actually see out the peep hole and that they can double lock the door if necessary. Older children should be shown the fire escape map; younger children should be shown the emergency exit.
   - Scan the room at their level looking for other dangerous objects such as a bottle opener, coffee maker, iron etc.
10. Make it fun, with a few favourite toys, some car games (the old standards still work) and a balanced not too rushed itinerary. One of the benefits of a great family trip-and it does take advance planning and work-is that you children will want to continue travelling with you even through teen years and later.