VAN-COMPARATOR Guide
Campervan travel with kids: the road trip that goes well
Child seats, driving rhythm, choosing the vehicle and the stops: the concrete rules that keep a motorhome holiday with children a pleasure for everyone.
The motorhome is probably the best family holiday vehicle ever invented: a rolling den, the same bed every night, instant campsite friends. On three conditions, always the same ones — safety, rhythm, and the right vehicle.
Safety first, non-negotiable
- While driving, every child is strapped into a registered travel seat, in a child seat appropriate to their age. Never in the beds, never at the table — not even “just ten minutes”.
- Check before booking: Isofix mounts or three-point belts on the rear seats (many dinette benches only have two-point lap belts, incompatible with most child seats).
- At the stop: gas off and handbrake checked before the children move around the living area.
Rhythm: the 2-hour and 200 km rule
Two hours of driving per leg maximum, 200 km a day maximum, and never more than two driving days in a row. Children do not hate travelling — they hate transfer days. A successful family road trip looks like a series of mini-stays: two or three nights per stop, every other one at a campsite with a pool or a beach. It is the best-kept secret of the families who come back every year.
The right vehicle
The alcove motorhome is the children’s favourite (the den-bed above the cab, €90-170/day), the semi-integrated with bunks the best family compromise (€95-180/day). A family of four fits in a compact campervan — but one rainy day, four people and 6 m² will quickly sort the vocations. Our guide which RV for which trip details the layouts.
The details that save whole days
One “driving activities” box per child (secretly refreshed mid-trip), the daily anchors (same soft toy, night light and bedtime ritual as at home), and involvement: a child who ticks off the departure checklist or keeps the “stage map” is a child invested in the project. One last tip from experience: first night less than an hour from home. If a soft toy is missing, everything is still fixable.