Little Explorers: Fuss-Free Flying!

So we know you love an adventure and you’re bound to be brilliant parents. You know all about taking stickers and books and snacks and wipes. Here are nine fresh ideas to add to your flying arsenal. Yes, it’s a bit of a battle - but the end result is so worth it.

• Let your Little Explorers each pack their own bag to take on the plane. It’s a massive bonus not to have to manage rows about sharing mid-air! We've heard LittleLife do great kid-sized bags, but we might be a little biased...

• Give your Little Explorers a child-friendly camera so they can chronicle their journey. Lexibook make some great kid-friendly ones. It’s an eye-opener to see what they have noticed during the trip! Feet pictures always win over the incredible views.

• Take a Lego base plate. That way all the Lego can be stuck on for carrying and playing during the flight, without having to scrabble around on the floor picking up miniscule swords and flowers.

• Make your own wipeable activity folder. Print out colouring pages, mazes, and dot to dots from the internet and pop them in document wallets. Attach a white board pen to the folder with string so your children can draw on the plastic, then wipe it clean using a napkin. Hours of mess-free fun guaranteed.

• Pack a baking tray! Yes, really! Stick magnets to the back of toys, take magnet letters for phonics practice, even stick a magnet to a carton of crayons to create a portable drawing board. Take tape to stick the paper down.

• For back to basics fun, stick Velcro spots on the ends of craft lolly sticks. Your Little Explorers will be engrossed creating different shapes and sorting colours.

• Gel window stickers keep children busy for a surprising amount of time and offer a great prompt for improv story-telling.

• Take an envelope of photos of family and friends for the children to look through.

• Wrap mini stocking-filler presents to open every half hour for good behaviour.

If things get too hairy, consider telling the children about the Plane Police who are monitoring their every move! Of course we’d definitely recommend you also take a tablet, fully loaded with games, cartoons and books for some essential parent down-time. It’s your holiday too.

Our final tip – resist pressure from the airline to board first when you’re travelling as a family. It just adds an extra half hour of cooped-up-ness to your journey. Get on last and minimise the trauma.

We’d love to hear your top tips for fuss-free plane journeys!

Happy travels!