Travelling with older children

I've always loved to travel, and the children have been joining us on our travels around the world since they were very small. Obviously our travel abroad has been somewhat curtailed over the last couple of years, and we've just returned from our first long haul holiday in a long time - a wonderful week in Mauritius.

Something that I really noticed on this holiday was how much easier things have become now that the children are older.

When it comes to packing I just give them a list of clothes and they gather the items together for me. They pack their own toiletries (with a few reminders!) along with all the other things that need to join us - books, pencil cases, fidget toys and so on. This time I even got them to organise their own hand luggage and snacks - it's a long time since I had to prepare busy bags and little tubs filled with raisins!

We had good flight times for this holiday - two long night flights. Both children took themselves off to sleep when they were tired and slept almost the whole way, meaning that us adults could sleep too. I didn't even mind the babies that cried the whole way there and back as I was so grateful that they weren't mine to worry about!

I found that I could relax much more without having to constantly entertain the children. We sat by the pool or on the beach, and I could read my book while the children read or played on their tablets. They took themselves to the toilet if they needed it, and rinsed the sand off their own feet. They applied their own sun cream in the morning and washed their own hair in the evening.

We did a couple of sightseeing trips by taxi, and it was so nice not to have to worry about car seats. We also spent time snorkelling in the sea, and it was much more enjoyable now that the children can swim as well as I can. I was able to appreciate the fish myself instead of being constantly on alert!

We usually choose holiday destinations with a buffet meal setup as it works best for us. This was the first time that the children were confident enough to go up and help themselves to food, meaning that we could sit and enjoy our own dinner without having to constantly jump up and down to get them things. Then after dinner we were able to enjoy a drink in one of the bars, and we had some great family time chatting together. When they got restless we sent them off with a phone, and they amused themselves by taking videos of each other while still within our sight. 

These are all changes that have happened gradually, but it hasn't been until now that I've really noticed how all these things added up and what a positive difference it made to our holiday. I did love travelling with the children when they were smaller but it does make holidays much less stressful now that they are a bit older!