The Top Ten Tips for Happy Travels

By: Sue Kruszewski, B.Ed.

When preparing for a family trip, remember that less is more! Packing and hauling less items will bring your whole family more freedom and fun. Being prepared before you head out on your vacation travels will also help ensure you have a great time. Here is a list of the top ten things that our family of seven has found effective for happy travels over the summer season.

1. Bring along your child’s favourite stuffed toy and blanket. Be sure it’s not the most important and treasured one in case it gets lost. A favorite blanket and stuffed animal can comfort and help a child settle down easier in a new place.

2. Plan appropriate clothing for the place you will be going. Check on the weather ahead of time so you have a better chance of packing appropriately. Be sure that every family member has a terrific pair of walking shoes – the most important item!

3. Plan your itinerary and budget for your trip and family before you leave. If you have this planned before hand, it’s less likely you’ll encounter financial problems while traveling.

4. Be sure to pack an emergency kit with candles, blankets, Band-Aids, first aid supplies, tweezers, scissors and other essential items. A Band-Aid can be a little miracle in helping a child survive an ‘owie’! Be sure to not leave home without these!

5. Pack along a flashlight for each of the kids. Look for the wind-up ones so you don’t need to worry about batteries! This will save you a lot of stress and grief in case the lights go out at night time in a new bed. And a flashlight is a great thing to have while camping. Essential!

6. Bring along a travel journal for everyone to record special events and thoughts and to write in, an address book and stamps. When you are ready to send a postcard out, you have everything ready to go and won’t need to go hunting for any of these supplies or information.

7. Snack foods that are easy to prepare, pack and eat along the way are essential. Snack bars, fruit, juice boxes, water bottles, veggie sticks, individually wrapped cheeses (Baby Bels are terrific), crackers and trail mix have worked well for us. Be sure you have a garbage close by each child and extra garbage bags to bring along with you too.

8. Activities that are easy to pack along include: a deck of cards, small maze and puzzle booklets, a few books, MP3 players, small travel games, movies for a DVD player and magnetic activity books. You might also think about purchasing a small, inexpensive new item for each child as a surprise for the trip. This will buy you a bit more time and keep

the kids occupied a bit longer, if you need.

9. Pack a limited number of clothing items per person so you have fewer bags and luggage to carry with you. For our family of seven, we have had to be quite strict with what the kids pack because it can get out of hand very quickly! Pack fewer items and plan on doing laundry once or twice during your trip. It is well worth the trouble believe me, and you will have clean clothes half way through your vacation (a nice treat)!

10. Ziploc bags can be used for just about anything. Pack a few different sized bags with each person’s luggage. These are terrific for sandy clothes and items, wet towels and swimsuits, dirty flip-flops, sand samples, toiletries, and for anything you want to keep dry like matches, lighters and fire starters.

These are some of the tips that have worked for us, traveling with our family of seven. Using some thought and careful planning will help ensure happy travels for everyone, and will create happy campers in your family.

Sue Kruszewski, mother of 5, author of Raising Well-Behaved Kids: 42 Tips From Toddler to Teen That Really Work! and owner of The Family ZONE, Inc. Find out more at www.stuff4families.com.

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