Travelling with Kids - WE NEED YOU!

[Ocean Florida]

We're on the hunt for your top tips!

We're looking for your top tips on travelling to the States with children! If you've been there, done that and got the T-shirt, we'd love to hear your tricks for making a very long travel day, a little easier.


Our team will pull all of your great suggestions together into a blog all about Florida's beaches to host on our website and share here with The DIBB community too, and we'll make sure you guys get all the credit for helping others plan for their perfect family holiday!

To submit your top tip, simply comment on this thread with your name and we'll do the rest, sharing the blog here for you all to enjoy when it's complete!

Thanks from the whole team at Ocean Florida, we can't wait to see what you come up with!

[miked1e]

Top tips really from us are:

1. Airport hotels - fantastic for chilled start to travel day along with even a relaxed arrival in US. Raddison Blu in Manchester and MCO Hyatt being our favourite - Disney / Universal stores, plenty of food options, roof top pool - before heading off to main hotel early the next day!

2. Activities - plenty of for the plane and even a new activity / present every hour of the flight. These only have to be small things. One of the best things we ever got was a fidget spinner toy with suction cup for the window. Especially for our toddler.

3. Comfy noise cancelling headphones. IFE usually fantastic with plenty of options for the children.

[ScoopsAhoy]

If taking food that needs to be kept cool for kids on the plane, freeze a pack of baby wipes and place them in a cool bag along with the snacks etc.. that way it keeps the food at a decent temp, you can use the baby wipes after for any clean ups and don’t need the hassle of freezer blocks.
Lauren H.

[Gryff]

Take your own pain /fever meds such as Calpol American ones are usually Cherry flavour and kids dont like it

[Ocean Florida]

These are FANTASTIC tips! All of them add a little touch of something different and very helpful for parents! I'll pass your tips over to the team and we can't wait to share the blog with you when it's complete Have a great day - Zara OF

[cornishfrogboy]

Well, regardless of the identity of the Threadstarter, these tips work for us.

Other than your very first USA vacation, Always consider DIY for a Florida or USA. Besides having total control over your vacation, your options remain limitless on Flights, Destinations, Car Hire Companies/Agents and Accommodation. You are also able to cancel and rebook any element of your vacation (other than Flights), as and when better prices appear for those elements. Try doing that with a Travel Agent!
In the event of Covid or similar, I also found it very much easier to shut down and cancel my vacation than many/most did with Travel Agents. S75 of the Consumer Credit act was only required once in recovering 68 financial outlays!

2. Think laterally. Many go to Central Florida for theme Parks and nothing else. They are within an hour or two of some of the finest beaches in the World. You also have Rainbow River, Crystal River, Airboat Rides, the Keys, Alligator Alley between Naples and Miami and many, many other wonderful things.
Best beaches?
Pensacola. Serene and uncrowded with amazing sugar sand.
Henderson State Park. Next to Destin, but never crowded. It has great sand and dunes behind it.
Clearwater. Busy by downtown, but gets quieter as you go South.
Fort de Soto. Our favourite, a very long shoreline and never too crowded. Kayak tour to Shell Key is excellent.
Anna Maria/Holmes/Bradendon. Lovely sand, but can get crowded.
Venice. A lovely, open beach and Venice itself is very quaint as well as prosperous.
Caspersen. Just South of Venice and great for finding Fossilised Sharks Teeth. It is never to busy and Sharkys by the Pier is a very good Restaurant.
Delnor Wiggins State Park. Just N of Naples and simply stunning, unspoilt , uncrowded.

Never buy park food more than occasionally as it is poor quality and overpriced. Have Breakfast before entering a Park and Dinner in a Restaurant after leaving. Take a picnic in a backpack in Tupperwares, flanked with frozen juice bottles on either side into the parks.

Consider buying a bottomless cup (between you) whilst in the park. It saves plenty as you can then use it throughout your vacation.. and the next one.

Always be aware of Restaurant Happy Hour deals, times and where. It can save a fortune on Appetisers and Cocktails.

Buy your Theme Park tickets wherever you can achieve best value and that is not generally with Travel Agents. Be aware of frequent sales, particularly on Black Friday.

Don’t be seduced by the Outlet Shopping and if you do shop, then compare with UK outlet prices rather than Hight Street ones. Much of the stuff is in an outlet for a reason. It hasn’t sold, it is old stock or it has been manufactured for outlets only.

Always stay the night before your outbound flight in a nearby Hotel. A delay in travel to the Airport could wreck your vacation.

Look beyond Florida. The other 49 States have plenty to offer, particularly California.

Never, ever travel without good Insurance.

[mermaids1960]

I always wrap little gifts in tissue paper for flight, always activity things that are not messy 😃
I have stayed at airport night before and got up early to leave, children prefer hotel stay.
Do a shop for little snacks
Share meals in theme parks as portions are generous
Buy a pushchair from Walmart for under 9’s and get delivered to resort or rent one, Disney very expensive Kingdom Strollers are reasonable
Maybe take the little Robinsons sqeezy squash to add to water

[Ocean Florida]

These tips are fantastic - thank you so much!

[Figment27]

Hi we have booked with through yourselves and fly May next year. Not done Florida often but did with my stepchildren many moons ago (this time my own little ones will be 8 and 6) and feedback from them afterwards was that much as they enjoyed the parks etc they liked time to relax too so we have booked three weeks (two Orlando then week on gulf coast) with 3-4 rest days in Orlando. not doing Universal as they bit small for several of the rides, hopefully come back again in 3-4 years and do universal then.
travel- will be taking snacks as they like me are fussy eaters so may not enjoy flight meals. as others mentioned some activities to keep them occupied on long flight.
beach time they happily spend hours hunting shells and playing in water.
like occasional drive out just to explore,
take a break in day at park so they can see light shows in evening.
have a plan but be flexible

[Ocean Florida]

Thank you to everyone who was kind enough to share top tips and ideas with us for travelling with children. We're really excited to have put your ideas together into a blog which is now live on our website! 🥳

You can read the blog on the link below - hope you like it!

ow.ly/JP2x50TCYgc