Long-haul with small children, without the dread.
Auckland to Frankfurt:27 hours door to door.Ages one to six, most of those flights.
We have small children of our own and have flown them across the world more times than we’d like to count. There is a right way to do it.
Book a 30-minute introductionThe flight.
Skycouch: three economy seats,one flat surface.Bassinet rows: book them,don’t hope for them.
Which seat, honestly
International business gives an adult a bed and a toddler a wall to sleep against. It is not always worth it for the child, and it is often worth it for the parent who has to function on arrival. Premium economy buys width, not sleep. Air New Zealand’s Skycouch turns a row of three economy seats into a flat surface a small child sleeps on properly, and for a family of four it is often the best answer on the route. Which is right depends on the shape of your family and how many hours you can absorb. We’ll tell you plainly.
Timing
A departure at seven in the evening lands the first sleep on their bedtime. A two a.m. connection in a bright terminal undoes a day. Sometimes a stopover, a night in a real bed in Singapore or Doha, is kinder than a straight shot; sometimes the straight shot is the only sane choice. This is arithmetic we do for every family.
Bassinets, seat maps and the check-in desk
Bassinet rows are few and they are released on a schedule. Seat maps hide where the galley is and where the queue for the toilet forms. The person at the check-in desk can fix a flight or ruin it, and knowing what to ask for matters. These are the details that decide whether the flight is fine or a story you tell for years.
The airport hours
Lounges that welcome children and lounges that tolerate them. Family lanes at security. Transit hotels for a five-hour layover. Which terminals have a playground, and which have a carpet and a corner.
Where to stay.
Real kids’ programmes.Pools with a shallow end.Interconnecting rooms.Dinner at half past five.
Hotels and lodges where children are part of the main audience, not tolerated at the edge of it. We look for the things that are hard to fake: a kids’ programme with real staff, a pool with a shallow end, rooms that connect, a kitchen that will serve dinner early without a face, and space to run.
And we keep the adult holiday intact. A trusted sitter for one evening. A dinner for two while the children eat first. Spa hours that fall inside nap time. You are travelling with your children, and you are still on holiday.
Days that work.
One anchor activity a day.Drives under two hours.A weather plan for every day.
Small legs set the pace. One thing a day worth getting in the car for, and then a beach, a lawn, a river. Drives capped at two hours, with somewhere to stop that is not a petrol station. And because this is New Zealand, a plan for the day it rains that is as good as the day it doesn’t.
Stephan, on the first time it went right.
We landed in Auckland at six in the morning and both children had slept nine hours. We drove to the coast, they ran until lunch, and somewhere on that beach I understood the trip was going to be fine.
Tell us your children’s ages and where you want to go.
Thirty minutes on video. No obligation, no fee for the call.