TripHip - Travel Tips and Advice for Traveling on a Budget

Taking the kids along on vacation can often be difficult. Kids are impatient and restless. It is a much easier venture when one follows basic tips for traveling with kids. Below are some easy to follow tips that will make your next trip more enjoyable and less worrisome.

1) Children traveling on planes should be placed in a car seat if they are forty pounds or less. This will keep them safe, just as in a car.

2) When on a road trip, it is good for everyone’s safety to keep a low profile at stops. Don’t be outwardly touristy. This often attracts predators.

3) Travel in a roomy vehicle. Kids who are too cramped will be cranky quickly. A minivan or SUV allows for more personal space and comfort.

4) Before traveling out of the country, check the qualifications children need when abroad. If you need their birth certificate, social security card, or other pertinent documents, you will want to know in advance.

5) Bring items to keep the kids busy. Portable game consoles, CD players, and DVD players entertain children for hours. Other ideas include travel games, such as spot the license game, cards, or even jacks.

Packing plenty of snacks, toys, books and games is the best way to keep your children occupied during a long vacation drive. But all that stuff can take up a LOT of space, especially if you have a small vehicle. So plan for some games you can play with your children that can be just as fun, but without all the "stuff".

Eagle Eye - have a list of unusual things, and have your kids watch out the windows to spot them. Maybe a house with a blue roof, a horse in a field, or even just certain letters in a license plate or road signs.

Twenty Questions - its a classic game that most children should be able to play as long as you don't make it too difficult. You have to think of something, then they have 20 questions to ask you in order to figure it out.

Alphabet Game - have a list of themes ready, and ask your kids to name something from that theme for every letter of the alphabet. Things like animals, movies, foods or people's names. You might want to give them a break with Q and X though.

A great way to remember your trip is to keep a travel scrapbook or journal. This is especially fun for kids, who will love to collect little mementos of their trip.

You can save things like ticket stubs, local newspaper clippings, hotel pamphlets, leaves, feathers, flowers, etc. If you are in a foreign country, you have a whole variety of fun things to keep hold of and put in your travel journal - from local currency to anything with foreign writing on it.

Record your thoughts about your adventures in the journal, and glue or tape in these treasures as you go along. If you don't have time to reflect too deeply about your trip while you're on the road, simply write down one word impressions of your location or your activities, or draw a quick sketch. You can also use your travel journal to keep a log of daily activities. When you get home, you can put in printed photos from your journey.

You can also collect 3-D things like rocks, shells, and other small things that you can keep in a special travel box when you get home.