Travelling with children can sometimes be a challenge and test of patience for parents, so Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) has compiled a list of games and top tips to help parents stay one step ahead of the tantrums, whether they are from troublesome two year olds through to teenagers. Here is a sneak preview below of the top tips:

Babies & Toddlers (pre-school): They often don’t need too much, as long as you have their favourite teddy and blanket to hand so try these in your hand luggage:
- Pack your child’s favourite fruit, snacks and sandwiches cut into fun shapes
- Pack a few favourite toys and comforters
- Pack child neck supports, a blanket and pyjamas
- Babies are often happy to play with the simplest things such as cups and laminated safety cards on aeroplanes, so there is no need to lug a huge bag of toys on holiday
- Play peek-a-boo with small children

Younger Children (aged 5-11): They need things to stimulate their inquisitive minds as they bore easily, so a good selection of activities should include:
- Provide each child with a bag of their own toys and a few new ones for a surprise treat
- Compile a ‘fun book’ with word searches, dot-to-dot games, noughts and crosses tables, colouring pages, holiday trivia and a fun map of the holiday destination
- Make sure you know how to play guessing games – I-Spy, Who am I?, Car Bingo, 20 Questions, and guess the colour of Mr Men
- Audio Story Books - download stories onto an iPod or buy some audio story books to play in the car

Teenagers (11 upwards): They are less dependent on adult supervision and can largely amuse
themselves, with a few well placed props:
- Pack magnetic board games such as GoSpy, Scrabble, Monopoly and Cluedo
- Make sure you’ve packed their favourite food and drink (but you’ll need to replenish the latter after Airport Security) so there’s no excuse for those teenage tantrums
- Make sure they take a good selection of reading material and encourage them to use waiting or journey time to go over revision notes if they are approaching exam season
- Don’t forget the Nintendo- DS, PSP, i-Pods and hand-held DVDs – make sure they are fully charged for the journey before you set off and don’t forget headphones.