The mere suggestion of taking your brood out on the road for a fortnight could have you waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. While your annual vacation may usually be ten days on a Balearic and shipping your little darlings to the resort kids club every day, this year you might want to try something different. Quality family time is hard to come by as our lives become taken up with work, technology, and social media. The children may be social butterflies, and you only ever see them when you are nominated taxi for their social gatherings. If you fancy spending real quality time together, you need a holiday to match. That’s why a road trip could be the ideal way to have fun as a family.
Planning
A road trip isn’t like a package holiday - you need to plan, plan and then plan some more. Firstly, you need to consider the vehicle you’ll be travelling in. You might not fancy all squeezing into the Ford Focus on the drive and might want something a little more special instead. Volkswagen camper vans are seeing a real resurgence, and many are now hired out for weeks at a time for road trips. While few and far between these hire companies can arrange delivery of the vehicle to your door or to save money, you might want to use a comparison site like Shiply to organise your own courier.
If a camper van is a little too boho for your offspring, you could opt for the more practical option like a people carrier or a large 4 x 4, pending on the sort of terrain you fancy exploring.
Break Up The Journey
As a rule of thumb, you should never be travelling for longer than two hours without a break. For the smallest of human beings, they will become bored very quickly and will need to stretch their legs regularly to burn off their youthful energy. Segmenting your trip around southern Spain or the volcanic landscape of Iceland before you head off on your jaunt means your days will be planned out and you will know your waypoints.
Accommodation
Ensure that you have your accommodation booked prior to setting off on your drive. This relieves a lot of stress. You don’t want to be in a traffic jam in a foreign land at 6pm without a bed to sleep in that night. You might want to explore more kooky accommodation options such as yurts, log cabins, and wigwams. A night under the stars in the great outdoors free from technology could be the perfect way to spend quality time together as a family.
Food
Children get hungry. Fact. Make sure you take plenty of snacks with you for the legs of your journey and ensure that your kids know the itinerary before setting off. If one of your little cherubs feels peckish, they can have a healthy snack rather than you being forced to divert to pick up some sugar-laden treat.
Road trips can be the most fun and exciting holidays you ever embark upon. With your brood in tow, you’re sure of a roller coaster of an adventure.
Daisy from Dais Like These has some brilliant tips over on her blog - her post about driving to Bordeaux from the UK has many handy hints.
*Pictures sourced from Pixabay*
*this is a collaborative post*