Touring with a toddler

[Hoop Snake]

I am in the very early days of planning a trip from Sth East QLD down to Adelaide to see some friends. We'll be towing our camper trailer and I'm thinking of maybe following the coast down to Vic then across and maybe staying inland for the return trip. As it'll be my wife and toddlers first decent touring trip I think I'll keep it reasonably easy and comfortable, i.e stay in caravan parks, easy dirt roads or bitumen etc.
Now I know there are many, many variables to this question, but can somebody who's done similar trips with a toddler give me an idea of roughly how many k's you plan on a day to make sure everyone stays happy. I was thinking roughly 500ish?
Also anybody have any "must see" towns down the east coast that we could plan as an overnighter?

Thanks

[plusnq]

Hi,

 We’ve done a lot of touring and long distance travelling with our four kids. Everyone’s kids are different but I used to go for two hour shifts when they were little, then stop for an hour to run them around, have something to eat, fuel up and drive on. Usually we managed three of those shifts in a day. The kids get over it after a few days though so usually I would schedule a lay over day somewhere where the kids and wife would be happy.

These days the kids are much bigger and we splash and dash at the three hour mark for toilet and fuel break with the major stop at second break.

Make sure there is plenty of entertainment for your child and it should be fine.

Cheers

Shane

[Pete79]

Pretty much the same as above.
Our twins had driven from Brisbane to Cairns and back twice and Brisbane to Sydney before their second birthday.
Now at 8 years old they easily do 4 or 5 hour trips without getting out of the car.

As babies it was all about feed time, we just allowed an extra couple of hours on each days driving for stops.
We tried one ~2,000km trip to break it up over several days, but as above they just got over it. We found it much better to do the 900 odd km each day and just accept that the extra stops throughout the day.

As they get older it’s all about keeping them entertained.
One of the best setups for our kids is to hang there blankies over the windows (close the door with the edge of the blanket in the door seal), then pack the pillows around them with all of their toys at arms reach and no gaps for their favorite toy to fall down into We found if they picked all the toys they want to bring, they tend to create their own games for them.

We avoid books and tablets as much as possible. Saves the car sickness...
Though DaveR made a good comment a little while ago about having the tablet/dvd player mounted up higher, so the little ones look ahead, rather then down into their laps. Apparently that made a huge difference for his young fella.

The only other tip I have is to talk about the drive before you go. Make sure they fully understand that they will be sitting in the car for X amount of hours. The “are we there yet” conversation is much less painful if they are fully aware of the driving plan for the day/s.

[Mace]

It was a long time ago........

When the kids were both young (between 2 and 3) we used to aim for 2 x two hour sessions of driving a day.  This could vary depending on sleep patterns.  As they got older (4-6 year olds)  this pushed out to 3 plus hours if need be.  They tended to amuse themselves pretty well at that age.

Picking good areas to rest/play was the fun part of the pre-trip planning.

The grandson now constantly asks when we going camping......  History repeats itself.

[Hoop Snake]

Thanks for the replies so far.
We've done a few trips that had a full day in the car. I think our best was about 8 hours with only a fuel stop, but there's no way we could sustain that over 10-14 days.
Realistically, with pack up / set up and a lunch stop included, we are only looking at about 6-7 hours a day available for actual travel.

[Rumpig]

We took our eldest daughter at age 3 to Cape York, and our youngest at age 3 also did our trip 4 years later across The Simpson Desert....our kids have been bought up doing driving holidays and thus driving 600klms in a day wasn't a big deal, occasionally like on the run to and also on the way home we'd punch out 800klms or more in a day....thank god for in car DVD players. Keep the kids occupied and they are fine usually, but everyone's kids are different....usually kids cope better then some adults i reckon.

[db]

Our kids have done lots of trips starting when they were babies, so they were always pretty used to the car. We always found that we could do up to 2 decent days (i.e 7 hours in the car or more) but then you need to have a day off travel. Plan on stopping at playgrounds etc. so the kids can have a run around, and make sure there is lots to entertain them in the car (books, games, drawing movies and cartoons and food all worked for us). Otherwise short days are ok, but you still need a day or two of not travelling every few days, or it will become hard work.

[Desert lover]

Hi there.  Might be worth thinking of staying inland on the trip down (shorter I would think).  Then if everyone is travelling well you could do an extended trip across and up the East Coast..... It wouldn't be good if the longer east coast trip put everyone off travelling and camping but if you can do that bit easily the longer trip becomes a probability
Hope all goes well for you.

[#jonesy]

We sat down with ours on the first big trip about 9 hours Melbourne to Eden and laid down the rules.  No “are we there yet”
Got a up early, but not too early the I was fatigued and drove for a bit over an hour and half. We then had breakfast. Every second break was a play break. 15 minutes in a playground was enough.

We now have a game we play where we see who can spot the most windmills. It gets them looking out of the window instead of the iPads. Keeps there mind off how long we are travelling and they also see other things.

Other tricks are to pack little play lunches.

[nab]

We average 75kph including stops, so 6hrs to travel 450km. We don't like to do more than 2 big drive days in a row (maybe 1000km), the kids get pretty bored of it. It is meant to be a holiday for everybody so you don't want everyone to be stuck in the car for 10hrs+. Sometimes you have to but no one enjoys it!

When you stop for a break, prepare all the kids snack food while they are running around but don't feed them until you are back in the car driving. We find the kids don't like sitting still to eat after already being in the car for 2 hrs so a 20min play/run seems to keep them sane. This also allows them to burn off some energy and is more likely to induce sleep!!!

[glenm64]

Nowadays my kids are all grown up, we travel to have a "holiday", 800kms in a day is a huge trip for me.
Keep it enjoyable where you can, then they wont balk at the words "road trip".

Cheers Glen

[Rumpig]

....... then they wont balk at the words "road trip".

my kids are currently pushing for us to do a 2 week trip to Ayres Rock and back from Brissy, so abit over 6000klms in 2 weeks....they love the words road trip, means they get to go somewhere...lol.

[glenm64]

my kids are currently pushing for us to do a 2 week trip to Ayres Rock and back from Brissy, so abit over 6000klms in 2 weeks....they love the words road trip, means they get to go somewhere...lol.

Awesome Rummy hope it happens, maybe the point was lost, It was meant to be ease them into it.

Cheers Glen

[Rumpig]

Awesome Rummy hope it happens, maybe the point was lost, It was meant to be ease them into it.

Cheers Glen

all good mate...like I said earlier, everyone's kids are different, ours have been travelling / 4wding since they were born and it's just what they are used to doing.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Hi HP, We did the same with our twin boys as soon as they had there last immunisation shots at around 6 months old we headed north with them and had 6 or 7weeks up Cape York, when the twins got older around 3 or 4 years old the boys had a younger brother as well and we headed back up the Cape again for a 6weeks, On the drive up we would get the 3 boys out of bed at 2am and they would sleep in the 4wd traverling til around 6 or 7am, then we would pull up for an hour or so and have Brecky and let the kids run around and burn off the energy, then away we would go and the rest of the day we took it as it came, Like Rummy we had music and movies to entertain them man I use to know every nursery rhyme, have fun  Craig 

[Rumpig]

Like Rummy we had music and movies to entertain them man I use to know every nursery rhyme, have fun  Craig

the bloody Wiggles nearly drove me crazy on that 2006 Cape trip

[Pete79]

On the drive up we would get the 3 boys out of bed at 2am and they would sleep in the 4wd traverling til around 6 or 7am, then we would pull up for an hour or so and have Brecky and let the kids run around and burn off the energy, then away we would go and the rest of the day we took it as it came,

That’s a great tip for when you have one big day of driving to get to the destination.

We left Sydney heading north at 2am one New Year’s Day, no traffic at all and we where past Port Macquarie by the time the kids woke up properly. Made it up to the Sunny Coast way before they’d had enough of being in the car for the day.

[Hoop Snake]

Yeah thanks mate. I sat down and had a bit of a look tonight and I think we might "race" down the newel highway then once we hit NSW/VIC border spend a few days sightseeing/relaxing etc over to SA. That way by the time everyone is sick of being in the car we should just about be in Victoria. I think you're right, following the coast might just be a bit too much fluffing around. Save that as the next destination I think.

[#jonesy]

I’d be wary about getting up and driving too early unless you are used to be up at that time. Driving around on night shift used to hit me at about 5 am and get drowsy, which was always about and l hour after eating.
A lot of people come to grief early morning when the fatigue catches up, a bit of food and warm morning sun.

I only get up a bit after 4 which isnt much earlier than normal. Doesn’t help that I do all the driving.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Yes we found it the only way with small kids to knock down the miles, I am a early to bed bloke any way, I still got 7 hours sleep in the winter,  Sure we never got up early every day if we had tommy tourist things to see in the different towns, Them tunes still go around in my head. Craig 

[Skurfer]

Had my daughter out camping from 3 months of age. As far a big trips we did a 4 week trip to the cape when she was 18 months taking in the tele track and Frenchman's and living out of our camper trailer.

She is 2 and a bit now and just got back from 2 weeks in Tassie in the same camper trailer.

For the cape trip, we planned on 2 hour non stop sints at most but tried to at least get out of the car to look at something earlier than that. It just breaks it up for them and they can have a look around, occupies their mind for a bit, gives them something to eat then you can get another hour and a half to 2 hrs max out of them. We also play around a bit with the sleep times such as keeping them up a bit longer than normal in the morning so she will have a really good sleep while we drive. Have heaps of toys and Peppa pig and paw patrol loaded on the Ipad.

We use the Ipad as the last resort after everything else is no longer occupying her as we know we can get a solid hour of her attention on the Ipad. So if we can occupy her for and hour and a half, then we get 2.5 hours max once we get the Ipad out haha. Its a fair bit easier now that she is over 2 as she wants to look out the window at things and tell us all the things that she can see.

My main bit of advice would be to cut down the kms you have to do as much as you can so you can enjoy the holiday with your little one and you are not just stuck in the car the whole time. Also factor in you will have some melt down times in the car when you will have no option to just plow on with a screaming child or pull up in the middle of nowhere to camp haha. I nearly got to the point of pulling up and setting the camper up on the side of the Development Road for the night to stop the screaming as we still had a couple of hundred kms to go to get to moreton station and she was screaming at full noise because of the constant corrugations.

[Andosan]

We took our kids on our 3 week trip to the Pilbara - 9, 2 and 3 months.  Aimed to do no more than 500-600km in any one day, and tried to minimise the number of times we setup camp.

Judicious use of iPads and other entertainment devices as appropriate.

[Aaron Schubert]

Ours is 17 months at the moment, and seems to handle the driving ok. We try and do bigger days and stop more often in between.

I like leaving early in the morning; if its a big day we will leave at 3AM. By the time they wake you have covered a heap of ground and you can stop and relax for a bit while they eat.

We are doing 3 months in May, and will be covering about 15,000km over 12 weeks. Got 850km planned the first day, 2 nights stop, 500km the next drive, 2 nights stop, 600km, 2 nights stop, 600km, 3 nights stop.

I'd rather drive more one day and stop for longer in one place. We use books, toys and whatever else we can, and as a last resort (usually when we are nearing destination) the tablet comes out!

Aaron

[Hoop Snake]

Thanks for all the hints and tips so far.
As a rough plan at this stage I think we'll try and do a couple of 600k days broken up into 2-3 hr chunks to get to the VIC/NSW border. Then spend a couple of days getting across to SA that way they can be quite easy days of only a couple of hundred k's as required. After a couple of days visiting friends etc we'll either head back the same way and see anything we may have missed on the way down or head back via Broken Hill, Bourke etc as my wife hasn't seen any of country NSW / QLD. Depending how we are going for time we'll try and do that over 4 days of 600ish k's.

[moeite]

the bloody Wiggles nearly drove me crazy on that 2006 Cape trip

We made a mistake with our grandson years ago. Portable DVD player and ALL of the available Harry Potter movies and nothing else. The headphone socket in the DVD player wasn't working and all we heard was the HP theme music for days. These days Mrs. Moeite and I are reduced to weeping, quivering heaps after even a few notes of the HP theme...