Travel is an integral part of expatriate living. After all, you have to travel at least once to become an expatriate. When you're on your own the travel part can be fun, exciting and adventurous, an escape from normality. As the saying goes, 'A change is a good as a rest.'
But add a couple of kids and the likelihood of being able to rest diminishes sharply and the fun, excitement and adventure become more of a logistical operation.
Planes, airports and travel can be exciting for kids - my son talks about his plane trips for weeks, both before and after his trips. But the hours spent inside the metal tube, confined to a small area of seating, above the clouds and, or, flying at night can drag terribly. And if you have to make a stopover en route beware, some airports are definitely not children friendly.
Once you're flying, boredom can be the biggest problem you'll have to combat. We once flew from Hong Kong to England when our son was nine months old and the flight was fourteen hours long, non-stop. What are you to do with the kids for that amount of time? Another time, fortunately without the children, we spent a twenty-four hour stopover inside Dhaka airport, where there was no shop, the restaurant served us only one meal and there was no air-conditioning to soften the intense heat and humidity of a Bangladeshi monsoon season.
Apart from the actual travelling time there are also meals, drinks, time differences, sleep patterns and jet-lag to worry about; as much for you as the children.
Fortunately with some advance planning, a helpful travel agent and a child-friendly airline, much of the potential stress can be removed, or at least reduced.
Ask the advice of your travel agent to help you plan your journey. Sometimes there are special children's services and facilities available at no extra cost, (drawing kits, children's movie/cartoon channel, personal video games, etc.) - you just have to ask for them.
10 Tips To Smooth the Trip (and keep you sane).
- If you are travelling east to west on a long-haul flight and can keep your kids up late enough to take a late evening flight, hopefully they will fall asleep for a normal nights rest soon after take-off, and allow you to rest for a few hours as well. This way you will arrive at your destination airport early in the morning and give yourselves time and daylight to reach your accommodation and settle in.
