The Ultimate Family Packing List For Travelling With Kids in the UK

Have you got a family holiday coming up and looking for a stress-less way to pack and get on holiday? Look no further as I have compiled a list of holiday essentials for you and your kids to get you on the road sooner without forgetting a thing. Each family and each child is different so there will be items that my family just haven’t needed. Feel free to add them to your own list.

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When Should I Go On Holiday With My Kids in the UK?

You can go on holiday with your kids in the UK whenever you like. It will depend on the weather and possibly their ages as to when you decide to travel. Also, the threat of school fines from the UK government may decide for you when you will take your family away for a holiday. Current fines can be found here.

Research obtained by The Lullaby Trust has said, “We advise parents that they should avoid travelling in cars with pre-term and very young babies for long periods of time. Ideally, a second adult should travel in the back of the car with the baby and a mirror should be used so the driver can keep an eye on the baby at all times. If a baby changes its position and slumps forward, then parents should immediately stop and take the baby out of the car seat.”

We set ourselves a two hour limit for our children when they were babies. So, we planned a stop at a service station every two hours. Yes, the journeys took longer, but we wanted our children to be safe and healthy. And with our youngest being two, we still stop at least every three hours.

In the school summer holidays from mid-July to the end of August holiday destinations in the UK will be busier than the rest of the year so if you don’t have school-aged children, I would suggest going in mid-May (avoid the May half-term though) and June and the early part of July as the weather may be quite reasonable and you’ll be visiting when its a little quieter, less stress getting a parking space when heading to the beach and there may well be discounted tickets to tourist attractions mid-week.

Our Tried and Tested Holidays with Kids in the UK

We love a caravan holiday in the UK. They’re good value for money, we get all we need there: comfy beds, a living room, a kitchen, a shower room and recently wifi too. Have you ever visited a Parkdean caravan site? There are over 60 Parkdean holiday sites across the UK and we have visited Newquay, Eyemouth, Wemyss Bay and Whitley Bay. You can also get entertainment passes which allow you to use their swimming pools and go to the nightly entertainment.

Our girls enjoy the Parkdean Milkshake Morning sessions run by the entertainment team where they learn a dance, do some singing, a craft, watch a bit of a TV show and listen to a story. This is on at 10am on some mornings throughout your stay. There is also Starland Krazy each night from 5.45pm which is entertainment put on for kids where they play games, dance and win points for their favourite Starland Krazy crew member.

We love exploring the local area around the sites; finding new-to-us playgrounds and soft plays and doing a bit of sight-seeing. The caravan is a great base to use for our holidays and having a shop, entertainment and usually a swimming pool ad play area on the doorstep are great reasons as to why we choose Parkdean Resort holidays.

If the journey to get there is long, we break it up with stops at service stations, staying over with family if that works or booking a hotel stay.

What Can I Do with Kids on a UK Holiday?

The weather in the UK may not be the greatest all year round but we do have the odd bit of heat and sunshine and we just have to hope that this coincides with our week of holiday, but it usually doesn’t.

My top tip for holidaying with kids is to research where you’re going and have a plan of what you want to do. The plan doesn’t need to be stuck to but I like to have some choices of what to do rather than wake up each day and have the stress of thinking of something fun to do. If I’ve researched it, we can just pick something from the list and t doesn’t require too much brain power at a time when I want no stress at all.

Here’s some ideas of what to do on a UK holiday with kids depending on what the weather is like:

• Find local play areas using Google Maps. Search for play areas nearby. Use satellite imaging to see how big the play area is and see whether there are any reviews or photos to gauge whether it’ll be suitable for your kids.
• Find local Facebook pages and see what activities locals recommend. We’ve just got back from a holiday on Tyneside and I followed North East Family Fun on Facebook who had a great collection of ideas for what to do with kids while up there.
• Local playgroups: If you have pre-school or younger children and you’re holidaying in school term-time, I recommend researching local playgroups as they don’t mind if you just pop in for one session and your kids get a play and you get a sit down and a coffee. We’ve enjoyed both the small local church hall ones and ones which are franchises and set up little play villages.
• Local libraries – just drop in as you don’t have to be a member of their library. If you find their page on Facebook, they may also advertise pre-school story and song session times that you can join in for free.
• Swimming pools
• Theme Parks
• Farm Parks
• Beach
• Soft play – these sometimes do special toddler offers in term-time
• Play cafes – my daughters (2 and 5) love play villages where they get to play in all the different shops and areas.
• Trampoline parks – like with the soft plays, these often do special toddler offers in term-time.

We also take a few toys for back at the accommodation as kids will want to play with their own toys as well as be out and about. We also take paper, child scissors, glue, felt pens, stickers and washi tape and my daughters enjoy making us pictures while we’re away.

Why not have a look at another of my posts called: What Should I Do With My Toddler This Summer? where I share over 50 ideas of activities for keeping your toddler engaged and having fun this summer.

How To Keep Children Safe on Holiday

Being on holiday means routine is out of the window but there are some things like our children’s safety that we have just got to keep on top of as there will always be dangers. My top three tips are based on car seat safety, sun safety and teaching our child what to do if they do get separated from you. Read below to find out how to keep your child safe this holiday.

A safe car-seat: We are strong believers in keeping our kids safe in the car so we have done research and learnt that rear-facing our children for as long as possible is the safest for them. For our eldest, we didn’t know this at the time, so it was very exciting for her and us when we forward-faced her Joie i-Spin for the first time when she was 15 months old. However, shortly after that, I learnt that despite it being legally allowed from 15 months, forward-facing is not actually a good idea at such a young age. So, we turned her back round. There were tears for two trips. That was it. Then she was fine and at the grand age of 5, she still rear-faces and sees no issue with it. So, I suggest choosing a

Sun safety: When it’s sunny or warm, always apply sun cream to your kids, get them to wear sun hats and sunglasses to protect their eyes. Re-apply sun cream after swimming or later on in the day as it doesn’t last all day.

Teach your children what to do if they ever get lost: Our girls wear wristbands with our phone numbers on whenever we go out to a busy place. I’ve taught our eldest to stay where she is if she loses us and ask for help from a lady who is with a family or from someone who works in the place where we are.

Water safety: Provide your child with a swimsuit or trunks which are a bright colour and easy to spot if under the water. If you’re in open water, get them a floatation device which must be worn at all times. When in the pool, an adult should be supervising them at all times. Taking your child to swimming lessons will also help them greatly.

I wrote a whole post called: How Should I Keep My Child Safe Outdoors where I share tips of keeping your kids safe when you’re out and about.

The Ultimate Holiday Packing List for Holidays with Kids:

• Snacks
• Drinks in own flasks
• Magazines
• Stickers and paper
• Soft toys
• Pop-it toy
• CD of music they like or a Spotify list on your phone
• Blankets
• Window shades

Toiletries:

Toys & Games etc

• Bedtime story books
• Yoto player for sleep music or listening to stories and music
• Family board games
• Independent toys such as dolls, dinosaurs, building blocks, play kitchen accessories
• Outdoor toys such as bubbles and a football
• Jigsaws in sandwich bags
• Child-friendly scissors
• Glue stick
• Coloured paper
• Stickers
• Felt pens in a pencil case
• Amazon Fire Stick to try to access their favourite shows

Seasonal:

• Sunhat
• Sunglasses
• Sun cream
• Parasol for the buggy
• Woolly hat
• Woolly gloves/mittens
• Raincoat
• Winter coat

Miscellaneous:

• Swimming costume/trunks
• Swim nappies
• Happy Nappy
• Swim towel
• Bath towel
• Bibs
• Toddler cutlery
• Child’s own plate, bowl and cup
• Baby bottles
• Bum bag for adult to wear at soft play
• Spare shopping bags
• Buggy/pram
• Baby carrier/sling

Let me know on social media if you think I’ve missed anything vital off the list.