It’s hard to keep everyone happy when travelling with older kids and teens. It’s not as easy as packing a favourite toy anymore. It doesn’t have to be too hard though, just a bit of careful planning can make your life easier and reduce the chance of those teen tantrums!
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Extension Lead
No one wants to be arguing over the single socket in your hotel room. Be your own best friend with my favourite travel hack. Take an extension lead with multiple plug sockets and one single adaptor, there will be enough outlets for everyone to be charging at once. Honestly, this is a game-changer for us. When there are 5 of us there are very rarely 5 spare sockets in the room never mind 5 travel adaptors.
Packing Cubes
I’ve mentioned packing cubes in every packing post I’ve ever written I think. Absolute game changer. Not only do they help to keep things tidy and compact, but they also help to separate everyone’s clothes into their own cubes. I have this constant fear that we will lose a case one day so I always split everyone’s clothes over all the cases. This helps them to just grab their own clothes quickly and easily. You could go one step further and have a different colour for each person to make them even easier to identify.
Portable Power Bank
When travelling with kids, no one wants them to run out of power! The whinging about flat batteries on phones and tablets is just not fun for anyone. Keep them fully charged with a good portable power bank and save your ears from complaining!
Portable Fan
Another thing that’s no fun – a teenager that’s too hot and complaining. We know they love to complain about everything, but man alive, I do not want to hear moaning about the heat on holiday. Get them a portable fan to keep them comfortable and hopefully moan-free!
Toiletry Bag with A Hanging Hook
Travelling with older kids, especially girls but not just girls, means a lot more toiletries. Grab a toiletry bag with a hanging hook to ensure you’ve got somewhere to put it all. A lot of hotel bathrooms just do not have the storage capacity to cope with the needs of a 15-year-old girl. This is the perfect way to keep it all together and stored safely.
Earplugs & Eye Mask
Lack of sleep is another thing that makes a teenager grumpy. We all know they love their sleep too. Grab some earplugs and an eye mask to help them rest. Useful for when travelling, especially on overnight flights but also great for when siblings that don’t usually share a room have to do so. They were handy when we travelled to Australia, any way you can get some sleep is good for that journey!
Mini First Aid Kit
Let’s face it, one thing that’s universal when travelling with older kids or with younger kids – someone will probably have some kind of accident while you’re away. This is always the case for us, we’ve had all sorts go wrong from blisters and sand blown in eyes and worse. Having a mini first aid kit on hand can really help and make life easier for you all.
Card Games or Travel Board Games
One thing that kids 3 will always do together when on holiday is play games. It eases boredom and helps them to connect with each other again, which they seem to forget to do at home. A couple of travel games are really handy to have on hand. Our favourites are Uno, a standard deck of cards and a game or 2 of Top Trumps. Nothing too difficult to understand or too big to carry but fun for us all.
Tablet or Kindle
I know kids are very technology-dependent now, but a tablet or a Kindle can really help you out. Depending on what your child prefers to do, reading is made easier with a Kindle with less space taken up or a tablet with a few downloaded games and movies. Give them a bit of downtime both when travelling and also at your accommodation.
Lots of things can make travelling with older kids easier, but nothing too far out of the ordinary I don’t think. A little bit of planning goes a long way with kids of all ages, it’s absolutely worth it though so you can all enjoy the time together and explore somewhere new.
Let me know if you have any other tips for travelling with older kids – I’m always looking for ways to make our lives easier!
Becky x