Dave Bates and Nicola Thomas recommend travelling overnight, so dodging the problem of bored children during the day. Paul Robinson suggests a twist on this idea, by taking an overnight ferry crossing to St Malo, which leaves a shortish drive to many of the west coast resorts.

New technology plays an important role for many parents too, with in-car DVD players top of the list for lots of families. Paul Robinson champions a DVD player and Sat Nav combo, to make the journey a cinch for everyone. Jo Taylor, Simon Childs and Nicola Thomas agree.

Food might be the way to a man’s heart, but it’s also a way of entertaining your little ones on long drives. Will Goodridge packed himself fizzy pop and chocolate to keep alert during his drive, only to find they’d been found and gobbled up by his kids. Snacks helped to keep Simon Taylor’s girls quiet on two 12-hour drives too, and Paula Beale has even spotted the potential of food wrappers to divert little ones.

Old-fashioned bits and pieces are recommended to. Paula Beale continues her theme by recommending fiddly toys and threading beads (yes for boys too) to keep youngsters occupied, while Katharine Childs recommends wipeable travel cards and pens for doodles from Usbornes, which went down a treat with her 7 and 4 year olds …until they lost one of the pen lids!
Sarah Birch suggests the clever ruse of a bag of must-not-touch items, including an egg timer, calculator and old mobile phone to play with in the car. Another tip from Sarah is to go round the pound shops, as they have lots of good travel bits.

What other ideas you can suggest for keeping children entertained on long journeys?

Whether negotiating a busy airport or embarking on a long drive, we have collected many ideas for keeping your little ones entertained, interested, or asleep – whichever suits you best!

And please add your own tips and ideas so we can share them with other readers.

Travelling with toddlers
When travelling with a toddler, try to plan your journey so that they are tired out when you set off. That way, you can guarantee you’ll get some peace before you need to start entertaining them.

If your little one doesn’t drop off that easily then prepare your in car entertainment! New toys and books with multi-images per page, with funny noises, textures and flaps to open and shut will occupy your toddler for longer. Colouring books and pencils or crayons are also a must.

Plan your stops
If you’re travelling by car, work out when your toddler is likely to need a break and work out your motorway exits. If it’s a long trip you’re going to need a couple or even more, which will probably add an hour or two on to your journey. Yes, the journey will take longer, but at least your toddler will burn off some energy running around the service stations (which are fabulous in France) and you can relax with a cup of tea and a croissant. French motorways also have toilet stops every few kilometres.

Choose your music
All kids love music and in a car especially, it’s a great way to keep them occupied. All right, so you were hoping to listen to Michael Buble rather than the Pirate Club hits, but at least this way you’ll have a quiet life.

If you prefer to fly-drive, there are a few things to consider.
 

Protecting your child’s ears on the plane
Taking off and landing can be painful for both adults and children. Allow your tot to suck either your breast, bottle or chew a gum during take off and landing since pressurisation of the cabin on take off and depressurisation on landing is tough on little ears. The flight attendants are usually very helpful on all flights about providing blankets for privacy if you ask.

Some popular ways of preventing ears from getting blocked during the flights are:

Hot Towels: place one hot towel over each ear. The heat expands the air in the middle ear relieving the negative pressure on the eardrum.

Blowing: if your toddler knows how to, get them to blow through their nose, while you hold the nostrils closed. This pops the ears and relieves the pressure.

Screaming: this is the easiest for toddlers to do, despite being annoying for others. Screaming in fact reduces the pressure on your toddler’s eardrums and eases the pain.

When travelling to Europe it is very easy to get hold of the usual baby items such as nappies and food, so don’t worry about filling up the car with two weeks worth of supplies.

You can also hire out many of the essential items, including travel cots, baby baths, buggies and high chairs from as little as 50p per night.

What are your top tips for keeping kids entertained on the holiday journey?