Are you considering travelling to Europe by ferry? Are worried about how to keep the kids entertained during the long journey? I’m always searching online for tips, so l thought it might be useful to write down my experience to help other families. So here’s what I have learned during my 4 years of travelling with kids on a ferry!
With two young kids, and a mix of food allergies travelling by ferry provides us with a lot of ease. We have the freedom of having our car on holiday, we don’t have to worry about baggage limits, we can take all our food on board (a big plus point for families living with allergies!), and there is plenty of space for the kids to run around. My eldest gets very excited in the lead up to the ferry trip.
Top Tips
We recently travelled with Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth over to St Malo, France. This was our 4th year travelling with them. Each year l make tweaks to our plan and thankfully this year both journeys turned out to be smooth (ish). I’m not taking into account the weather that made the ferry ride over to France pretty choppy!! We opted for an overnight ferry to France (12 hour journey) and a day ferry on the return trip (8 hour journey).
Here are my top tips to make sure the journey can go as smoothly as it can (not taking into account of the weather!). This is the plan l used for the daytime ferry this year. The overnight ferry is similar but we sleep most of the journey. We have found that we only use the shop on board and don’t use any of the other facilities on the night ferry. This might be different if you have older kids though.
Before you board:
- Book a cabin – this makes life so much easier for everyone. We once tried the journey without a cabin. Yes, it makes the travel cheaper but it made the journey drag on and we were exhausted by the time we arrived! Entertaining the kids, carrying bags around the boat and trying not to upset other passengers, was all too much! In my opinion, the small financial saving was not worth it. In my experience cabins are cheaper on the day time crossings!
- Be prepared for a wait at the ferry port. If you are someone that arrives when check in opens, you will have a long wait until the ferry boards. There are toilet facilities etc, but l would suggest having some entertainment available that is easily accessible for the kids, whilst you wait.
- Make the kids a travel bag – I collect arts and crafts, games and little toys in the months leading up to the holiday. For my eldest, this year l put in a pack of top trumps, 100 things for little children to do on a journey cards (this comes with us every holiday), a few little toys (a bag of dinosaurs, miniature frozen characters and a super wing toy), travel bingo, colouring in book and crayons, water colouring in book, and a couple of snacks. Charity shops are a great place for finding goodies for the travel bags!
- Pack an onboard bag with essentials – you can’t visit your car once the ship has set sail….so anything you think you might need during the journey, pack in a bag and take it to your cabin. l use a large travel back pack. l find it’s easier to have your hands free when leaving the car deck and finding your cabin. I normally pack the following bits:
-
- A change of clothes for the kids
- Baby bag with nappies, wipes, nappy bags, and bibs
- Medical bag (pain relief, Calpol, motion sickness bracelets, plasters etc).
- Plan for motion sickness – l use the motion bands, and l find they work better if l put them on before l board the ship. And l always carry extra bands for the kids too – you just never know!
- Allergy bag (we have to carry epi pens, antihistamines and inhalers with us, so this bag never leaves me!)
- Books for us all
- Water bottles
- Snacks – l always take a whole load of food with me and pop in a ice block to keep everything fresh. If you are travelling by overnight ferry, bring breakfast with you – l find there is never enough time to visit the restaurant. I find we wake up, pack and leave.
- Travel cutlery (if you need cutlery for the food that you bring on to the boat)
- Laptop, earphones and chargers (download movies too before you go. You will have to pay for wifi on the boat. l think the first 60mins is free. Some cabins offer a TV with video on demand, this can also be accessed on your device too.
-
Once on Board:
- Find your cabin – get yourself set up for the journey, unpack your bag etc
- Familiarise yourself with the boat – go for a wander. Check out the play areas (the kids area is normally quite good and can occupy them for a good amount of time). The boat we travelled with this year had a play ground on the top deck too. Check out the entertainment schedule at the reception desk. We had a quiz, live music, art & crafts, meet the boat bear etc. Look around the shop. Our eldest selects a big bag of chocolate for us all to share on the journey.
- Plan for some quiet time – when our youngest napped, we watched a movie (our cabin had video on demand).
- Play games that were in the kids travel bags
- Set aside time to eat lunch/dinner – we only eat the food that we bring on board. There are restaurants on the boat with lots of selection, but for me its easier eating the food l bring on board.
- Arrange regular breaks to go to the play area. If there are two of you, take it in turns taking the kids to the play area whilst the other can rest for a short time!
- Allow time for the kids to play with their travel bags in the cabin whilst you have a bit of downtime
And after all of this……it will be time to pack your bags and head to your car to disembark the boat! Make sure you always have your passports and tickets with you in the front of your vehicle. You will need these for check in and passport control.
Bon Voyage!