Car rental vacation with children – Travel tips for the family

For many, the school vacations have already started, but for others they are just around the corner. Many parents have either started packing or are planning the family vacation. So, we thought it would be a great idea to dedicate this blog post to the topic of going on car rental vacations with children. If you don’t have any kids yourself, you might find the following interesting for those friends of yours who do have children.

By following a few simple tips, make the family vacation one not to forget, but for the right reasons this time!

Travel relaxed:

For families with small children, it often makes sense to fly to the vacation destination and then pick up a rental car to reach the hotel. This way the entire family will save on time as well as stress and can enjoy a great start to the vacation.

Car rental booking tip: too much storage space is never enough!

When booking a rental car, always go for a model that offers more than enough room for baggage. It is often the case that a rental car upgrade can be snapped up for a relatively small additional charge, but since many of the larger rental cars become booked out rather quickly, we recommend that families should try to book their rental cars as soon as possible.

Play it safe: Car rental accessories

Booking the correct sized child-seat at the car rental station can be quite difficult (due to availability issues) so reserve one when you make the initial booking. Before you leave for your vacation, call our customer service center on 1-866 298 3838 and we can advise you whether a child-seat will be ready for you at the car rental pick up. For those who really want to be on the safe side by bringing their own child-seat, make sure to give it a check over a few days before leaving. Is it still in good working order and does it still fit the child? Could the child comfortably sit in it for several hours?

Kids’ health

Babies and small children are the ones who especially need enough sun protection whilst in the rental car. Look for special window blinds for the car or shading covers which can easily be attached. It is also important to take along enough food and drinks for the car journey to avoid things like headaches and nausea.

So that the kids don’t get bored…

Make sure to have enough toys in the car for long car rental journeys, e.g. picture books, games, CDs or magazines. Babies like to be entertained with colourful pictures and love listening to interesting stories. Also take into account that children need to take regular breaks when traveling: try to stop at least once every two hours to allow the children to get out and stretch their legs.

Of course it is ideal if the whole family decides on the trip together and one which is interesting for both the adults and children, be it a water park, a beach or even one involving museums.

For both the big and little kids, sometimes less is more! Instead of heading out on trips in the rental car daily, also try to relax at the beach, in a park or even in the hotel. That way, the car rental vacation will more than likely be an exciting but also relaxing one, an experience which both the kids and the parents can enjoy.

We wish you and your family a great vacation!

All the best,

The CarDelMar team

This entry was posted on Friday, July 22nd, 2011 at 14:50 and is filed under Car rental tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.