HOLIDAYS: Travelling with children can be stressful, but a new series of guide books aims to make it easier. Bernice Harrison talks to author Rosie Whitehouse, whose advice is to plan, plan and plan some more.
When Rosie Whitehouse's son was 18 months old, she took him on a ferry across the English Channel to Calais. In her mind, she imagined the toddler pointing excitingly at the waves and gazing in awe at the white cliffs of Dover. "For the entire trip he stayed in the lounge watching a woman vacuuming, up and down. He was mesmerised," she says, "so while we looked at the cliffs, which were quite grubby actually, he made a choice that he was thrilled with."
It was a lesson the travel writer took to heart and she now firmly believes that when it comes to holidays, parents should relax and let the kids set the pace. "But at the same time, travel is a huge financial investment, so what you want to do is make sure they remember the trip and take something from it," says the mother of five, whose children range in age from 16 to five.
The London-based writer is the author of one of Cadogan's superb "take the kids" series of travel guides. Hers is on the south of France and she also contributed to the guide books on London, Paris and Ireland. All the books in the series, which are newly available in Ireland, have a distinctive personal voice because the writers have clearly pounded the pavements, kids in tow.
Whitehouse says that she has always travelled with the children and she earned her travel stripes when she took her brood, single-handedly, on an Interrail trip for a month to Norway. The secret to that trip, she says by way of advice - though getting five children on a bus across town sounds stressful enough never mind crossing borders on a train - was to plan everything.
Her latest book was researched during several road trips. "By now the children really know every town and beach in the south of France. They chose the restaurants and helped in every aspect of the book." And it shows. Restaurants and all sorts of accommodation are assessed for child-friendliness, outings are detailed right down to where you might like to picnic in the middle of the day. Is a small child likely to find a certain museum too much to take? Whitehouse's punchy descriptions will let you know all about it. She includes the sort of information that really matters, such as where the local supermarket is for that forgotten tin of baby formula, or how large a family room in a recommended hotel really is.
Her children, whose father is half-French and who attend the Lycée [French school] in London, have included a list of cool French slang so that other teens will at least have a few street-cred words to throw around while hanging around the camp site coffee shop. (Cool: marrant. Dosh: le fric. Chat up: draguer.)
The fantastic thing about taking children to France, she says, is that French people tend to holiday en famille at home, so everything is geared up for that. "Children are welcome just about everywhere, and hotels don't have that ghettoised feeling you can get in Ireland and Britain, where family hotels often offer a sub-standard experience right down to sub-standard food."
You don't have to be a cross between Mary Poppins and Marco Polo to guess that she's referring to the chicken nugget and chips children's menus and the generally anonymity of the newer hotels that have sprung up in recent years. "I can't believe the size of the new hotels in Ireland; they're very Eastern bloc in their scale, aren't they," she says, only half jokingly. "It's odd, because the trend in the rest of Europe is for smaller hotels."
Anyone who has been delayed a couple of hours in an airport and seen the misery written all over the faces of parents travelling with small children, or watched a mother spend her entire holiday doing little else than slap factor 40 on her sun-cranky children, will wonder exactly what is the point of bringing children abroad on holiday.
Whitehouse seems bemused at the very idea of not travelling with your children. "Travelling with kids is just like anything else you do with kids," she says, "it's not going to be perfect, but they will get a lot out of it. You have to be realistic." If your teenager is normally monosyllabic and bored, she says, don't expect him to leap out of bed every morning on holidays at 7 a.m. and cheerfully head for the nearest museum.
"The main thing is to challenge your kids when you are travelling. Ask them to really look at their surroundings, point out things, get them to describe things, that way the experience of travelling will stay with them."
The Cadogan Take the Kids books are now available in Ireland priced £12.99 in UK. The locations covered are: Britain, London, Ireland, South of France, Paris and Disneyland Resort Paris, and Short Breaks from London.
TRAVELLING WITH KIDS
Remember, the calmer and happier you are, the less anxious the kids will be. Planning ahead will take some of the anxiety out of the trip. Even if you are stressed by a situation, don't let on.
Before you leave, help the kids find out about where they are going and what they can do while there. Try to involve older children when planning the trip. Show them brochures and take account of their ideas. They are, after all, your travelling companions.
On a recent trip through the Channel tunnel, Rosie Whitehouse's eight-year-old was terrified by the thought that someone on board might have a bomb, and the writer firmly believes that as so many kids are aware of the dangers of terrorism, it's best to talk these things through.
Keep packing simple. There's no need to bring the entire contents of the nursery. Just make sure you have enough of the basics to cover the first 48 hours. A few small suitcases are easier to deal with than one large family one.
Just take a few well-chosen toys - you can always buy something extra to entertain the kids while you're away if you need it.
PERFECT DAYS IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE DEVISED BY ROSIE'S CHILDREN
Northern Provençe: In the morning visit the sweet shop in the city of Carpentras; for lunch, drive to Fontaine- de-Vaucluse for a picnic by the river. In the afternoon, play hide and seek in the stone huts at the Village des Bories, then refuel with a drink in the square at Gordes before taking a stroll along the Fairy Valley in Roussillon.
On the Riviera: In the morning, explore the ancient hilltop village of Grimaud; for lunch eat everything made from chestnuts by the river in Collorbrières and in the afternoon, make sand castles on Cabasson beach, a wild half-moon bay with shallow blue water.
In the morning, breakfast in Place de la République in Perpignan, then gawp at the live snails on sale in the marketplace. Drive up to the hills to the museum at Tautavel. Eat lunch at Au Vieux Moulin in the Gorge de Galamus and in the afternoon, kayak on the river or visit the ruined Château de Quéribus.
Western Provençe: In the morning, pay a visit to the Cathédrale des Images in les Baux, then drive on to Arles to see the amphitheatre. Eat lunch at Le Calendal in Arles, the most child-friendly restaurant in France, and in the afternoon, admire the flamingos and take a dip in the sea in the Camargue.