Entertain Your Toddler At The Airport With These Top Tips
Thursday, August 31st, 2017 in Airports, Travel Tips
When you go on holiday, it’s very important that you keep your kids entertained. Nowhere is this more important than at the airport, where stresses run high and the place is filled with noises, decisions and distractions. While you are rooting for passports, checking boarding passes and finding the right gates, it’s best that your toddler is kept entertained.
Travel Activities At The Airport For Children
Baby travel is an industry in itself; there are countless gadgets you can buy to keep your toddler entertained at the airport. Ours is a more modest approach. Without going into iPads and expensive gizmos, here are our top tips to keeping your kids happy (and quiet!) at the airport.
1. Research Your Airport: Do They Have Family Facilities?
Some of the larger airports have the foresight to provide play areas for babies and children. It’s not always clear whether these are available, so check the airport’s own website before you leave. If they have a playground (such as Heathrow’s “Stay & Play” area) then know where it is and set up camp as early as possible. With any luck, these playgrounds will do half the work for you! They’re often conveniently located next to toilets, baby changing and shops, so you don’t have to go far if you need to use the facilities.
2. No Play Area? Make The Runway Your Stage
Most airports have great glass windows that overlook the runway. With dozens of planes landing and taking off every hour, there’s enough here to keep toddlers distracted while you sit and relax. Not only does this keep them entertained, it also gets them acquainted with air travel so that the plane itself doesn’t feel uncomfortable. While travelling with a baby can be challenging, these sorts of steps should help ease their experience.
3. Toys & Games A-Plenty
A balance must be struck between luggage space and good, reliable toys. Needless to say, the staple teddy bears and dummies should be brought as standard. Besides these, consider buying one or two new toys for your toddler. The time spent unwrapping and getting acquainted with a new toy is time not spent getting lost or distracting you. Kids are curious, and if you can focus their attention on one toy then all’s the better. These don’t have to be big or expensive: a cheap toy with a 2 hour lifespan is enough.
Those were our top tips to making an airport wait as comfortable as possible for your children. With any luck, you’ll board your plane quickly and be up in the sky in no time. In that event, make sure you stay on top of things with our guide to a relaxing flight. Have a great holiday!
