How to make airports easier with kids

With almost countless overseas trips with my daughter (so far), I’ve lost track of how many airports we’ve been through together. Forget the exciting glamour of the golden age of flight, the airport experience was pretty much a necessary evil when it comes to seeing the world.

contains review content/affiliate links*

But there are a few ways to make airports easier with kids – these are my six top tips when you’re flying with children.

1. Leave extra time

Pre-kids, I always used to laugh at the signs telling you how long it took to get to the gate – it was patently never that long. Then I tried getting to an airport gate with a toddler… Suddenly, they got a whole lot more accurate.

Throw in longer queues for security, slower check-in, and who knows what else, and you need to allow even more extra time.

Hanging around in an airport might not be top of your list of things to do with kids on holiday, but it beats your stress levels rising through the roof as you try to rush with small kids (bad) or watch the minutes tick down to departure from the back of a very long line (even worse).

2. Upgrade your parking

I discovered the benefits of Meet and Greet airport parking when I was first travelling solo with my baby daughter – and I’ve never gone back.

When you’re booking in advance, you don’t normally pay much more than the standard parking fee, and having someone whisk the car away and bring it right back to the airport when you land, is worth every penny – especially after a long-haul flight or if you’re weighed down with baby paraphernalia.

There are plenty of choices: I usually use a website like Holiday Extras as you can compare prices and reviews.

It’s worth doublechecking the specifics of one you’re interested in though – I’ve had bookings at both Gatwick, Stansted and Luton where the drop-off (and sometimes pick-up) was in a car park rather than right outside the terminal.

A short walk, true, but with a tired small girl and a big suitcase, that was exactly what I’d been trying to avoid.

3. Find an airport lounge with kids

When everyone’s tired, stressed, rushing and crammed into a small space, the benefits of a peaceful airport lounge are pretty obvious. Some also let you book added extras like express lanes at security, and if you’re facing more time at the airport (see point 1!), that makes it nicer all round.

And while some are only available to business class passengers or through airline loyalty schemes, there are more and more which you can pay to enter, with some discounted options at sites like Holiday Extras.

Some have age limits though so you can’t take babies and young children in (although some let under-twos enter free) so I’ve often been a bit wary of just how welcoming some of these oases of peace might be.

On our trip to Beaches Turks and Caicos, we were invited to try MyLounge by No1 Lounges in Gatwick’s North Terminal. Deliberately more of a relaxed, informal experience, the whole style is more family-friendly with comfy sofas, snacks to nibble on, unlimited wifi and even a games room with PlayStation and a football table.

We didn’t try the latter but there was a colouring pack for kids, TV with cartoons and plenty of child-friendly food (and great pastries with coffee for me). As it was breakfast, I didn’t try the wine either but that’s included too and you can even pull your own pint. Plus toilets with no queues.

And jumping a queue is one of the fastest ways to make airports easier with kids.

4. Check out the soft play

A bit of a contrast to a lounge, admittedly, but if you’re in an airport without one or aren’t staying long enough to make the fee worthwhile, check out the play areas – I have a list of soft play at UK airports.

They’re often tucked away or not well signed, which means they’re rarely very busy – unlike a lot of soft play outside airports!

If nothing else, you can relax a bit surrounded by other families and your kids can burn off some energy and boredom before you board the plane. A guaranteed way to make most kids happier while you’re hanging around.

5. Consider an airport hotel

Getting up at the crack of dawn for an early morning flight is never fun. Doing it with a baby or small child definitely doesn’t improve the experience. But if you’re travelling with a low-cost airline or looking for a bargain flight, you often can’t avoid the less sociable take-off times.

What you can do, of course, is cut out that pre-dawn journey to get there. As with airport parking, there’s usually a choice for different budgets but you might end up with a minibus ride to get you there so if you want to keep the stress levels right down, check which ones are attached to the airport itself.

We’ve stayed at the Gatwick Sofitel which is one of two actually on site so after my wake-up call, all I had to do was stumble across the walkway to be at check-in.

We’ve also stayed at the Radisson Blu at Stansted Airport – a slightly longer walk but still by far the easiest way to catch an early morning Stansted flight.

Depending on the airline, you can even check your bags the night before, when I’ve managed the organisational juggle of having everything I need for overnight, dropping the bag off early has been blissfully quick (and even 10 minutes extra in bed is worth it at 4am).

If you’re worried about long queues getting home from holiday after late-night flights, having an airport hotel lined up after an evening flight also takes some of the stress out of the experience.

It might not speed up immigration, but knowing you can fall into a hotel bed rather than face a long drive home with exhausted kids is very tempting.

Check out airport hotel deals here, many of which will combine hotel stay and parking

6. Make it part of the holiday

From an adult perspective, you’re thinking about all the things to come out of hand luggage at security, not losing the passports (or child), the flight to come – all the minutiae of travel.

From a child perspective, airports are huge fun: there are planes to spot, they’re going on holiday, chances are they have some new treat for the journey (my daughter always gets a magazine, and I’d definitely recommend making your own treat tradition, whatever you choose).

If you can adopt your child’s excited approach, so much the better! I’ve never quite managed that, but at the least I try to hide my mental check-list so my daughter approaches the experience as something fun rather than something to be endured.

And where possible, I try to make a game of it – an age-appropriate version of I Spy, an I Spy at the Airport book or I love the Spot The Lot book from Lonely Planet which has an airport section.

PIN FOR LATER: HOW TO MAKE AIRPORTS EASIER WITH KIDS

Disclosure: My entry to MyLounge was courtesy of No1 Lounges – all opinions and urgent need for pre-flight coffee remains my own. This post also contains some affiliate links: any purchases you make are unaffected but I may get a small commission

Main image courtesy Depositphotos, lounge image courtesy MyLounge, soft play image copyright MummyTravels

LIKED THIS? SIGN UP FOR MY EMAIL NEWSLETTER