Travelling with kids: A Fresh view of the world

By BELINDA BATTLEY

The plane is taxiing down the runway. Take ... off muzak is lulling me into a doze. The bags are loaded, the fridge emptied, the house locked, the passports and tickets are in my pocket. I can relax at last.

A roar of engines, the plane lifts off, the baby in my lap wriggles and ... kersplash! His nappy explodes all over my casually sophisticated travelling outfit.

It's true that children add a dimension to travel. Whoever said of children, "They broaden the mind, empty the wallet and shorten the temper," had probably just got off a long-haul from London to Bangkok.

It is perfectly possible to travel with children of any age, so long as they are healthy and you have a high tolerance of embarrassment and sleep-deprivation. Good long stopovers and a resilient sense of humour help.

We have taken our two children to and from Europe several times, from ages five months to five years. Certainly, the older they are, the easier it gets. The worst is that twilight zone between baby and two years, when they're too big for the bassinet but too small for a seat.

Somehow, the pleasure of having your nearest and dearest snuggling on your lap palls after five hours or so. Often there will be a spare seat on the plane, but I have had a 15-month-old on my lap for 11 hours on one knee-numbingly memorable occasion.

For some reason, airline meals are endlessly fascinating to preschoolers. Maybe it's the huge quantities of wrapping, just like Christmas.

For short flights the meals, headphones and playpack provided by the airline are almost all the entertainment needed. But if you're going to be in that seat for more than three hours you'll probably have more carry-on luggage than checked-in. Useful items include little boxes of juice, lunchboxes (not too much sugar, the kids can't run around), changes of clothes, favourite soft toys and blankets, books, books and more books, cheap plastic toys in giftwrap, activity books and pens, and packets and packets of baby-wipes.

But please, no musical instruments. Once we took some small cassette-players with headphones and tapes, which was fairly successful with the four-year-old but just a nuisance with the two-year-old - sticky fingers, knotted headphones and unwound tapes.

Once the flight is over, travelling and sightseeing can be hugely enjoyable but completely different from an all-adult experience. Many European and Australian cities are very child-friendly, with easy access to public transport (except for the stairs in the London Underground), and there are many parks and attractions aimed specifically at children.

One certainty, wherever you are in the world, is that there will be some kind of entertainment for the children who live there. We have found that as long as the children have plenty of chances to do things that are fun, they are happy to come along to more adult attractions such as art galleries and palaces (yes, you can do the adventure-holiday things too, but one at a time).

They often find enjoyment in aspects of the places we wouldn't notice from our perspective: pigeons, ramps, stairs, echoes. Frequent food and drink stops help too.

A child-carrying backpack is a huge help when sightseeing with a toddler. You know where they and their sticky fingers are. They can see more, they don't get as tired, and you've got both hands free for taking photos, buying tickets and stopping older children from escaping.

A comfortable backpack is important, as even small children get pretty heavy after a few hours. It's also useful to have space in the backpack for drinks, snacks, nappies, raincoats, spare film, maps. That backpack does get heavy, so it helps to take an extra adult - if one is available - to carry the food and drink.

Sometimes children get sick when you're travelling, so plenty of space in the itinerary is essential, as is the ability to resign yourself to missing that place you've always wanted to see. Greece and Versailles are still on my "oh well, another time" list thanks to, respectively, a hernia and an unexplained fever. Get travel insurance, take a few medical necessities with you and keep your fingers crossed.

When planning the itinerary, we find staying in one place for a while and doing lots of day-trips the easiest way to cope with toddlers.

Shifting the frightening amounts of luggage required is not something to be attempted too often, and after a few days in one place the children's sleep patterns usually settle down to something almost civilised.

Accommodation doesn't have to be too expensive. Many youth hostels, for example, have rooms for families, so you don't have to share a bunk room with seven giggling schoolgirls or boys away from home for the first time.

Hostels usually have kitchen facilities available, which further reduce the expense and stress levels. If you know people in the places you are visiting who are willing to have house-guests, even better.

Eating out in restaurants with small, unpredictable table companions can be nerve-racking, but usually family-style restaurants are available (they're often cheaper, too).In the slightly more upmarket places the service is prompt when you come bearing preschoolers. We tend to eat early, out of necessity, so the restaurants aren't crowded and the owners and waiters are often keen to come over and talk about their own children.

Probably the most embarrassing restaurant moment we had was while attempting a civilised meal in Paris with our two boys. (They were, of course, behaving with stunning good manners and charm). My 22-month-old suddenly said, "Look, Mummy!" I turned to discover he was handing me his nappy. Somehow his shorts were still in place. Thankfully there were few other diners and the waiters were discreet to the point of invisibility. After some rapid repair work, we were able to finish our dinners.

So is travelling with children worth all the effort, embarrassment, exhaustion and expense?

There are many benefits. Children provide a wonderful way to meet people. There is an instant and obvious rapport with so many people, whether they are parents, grandparents, or proud uncles or aunts. Babies and toddlers seem to be as effective at destroying language and cultural barriers as they are at destroying everything else.

Thanks to our children, we've met some wonderful people, been taken to some fascinating places and found out how real people live in some of the more tourist-ridden parts of the world.

What do the children get from all of this? A wealth of experience, exposure to different people, languages, cultures, places they come back from buzzing with ideas.

Yes, travelling with children is expensive, tiring and hard work. But if you get the chance, pack those nappies and go.