This article was written in collaboration with Royal Jordanian Airlines.

Summer is back! The most anticipated time of the year; it's when you plan holidays with your family and you put all your worries about schools, exams, uniforms - even lunchboxes - aside and try to enjoy your time with your kids.

Spending quality time with your family in a new country creates everlasting memories for your children, ones that they will cherish their entire lives. So you start to plan: What items are there to pack? How many snacks? What about entertainment during the flight? Traveling with kids can be challenging, especially if you have young children.

Together with Royal Jordanian (RJ) Airlines, we listed six essential tips to make traveling easier:  

1. Plan ahead, especially if you have a baby

Look for an airline that caters to your baby’s needs, especially in providing bassinets. Yes, bassinets! RJ provides bassinet seats for infants less than nine-months-old, all you have to do is ask for one during the booking process. After that, all you need is to know what items you should bring on board to help you during the flight, such as:

• A complete change of clothes.

• Plenty of diapers and wipes.

• A favourite toy or stuffed animal.

• A light jacket, sweater or small blanket.

• Books and small toys.

Tip: If you are traveling with infants, recognized brands of baby food and puddings can be requested during the RJ booking process, and the helpful onboard staff will warm them for you when it is time for your little ones to be fed.  

2. Prepare some entertainment

Older children tend to get bored easily and prefer wandering around to explore the plane rather than looking out the window. That might make you worry about the tantrums that you may have to deal with on your flight, right?

Bringing toys and games with you can make all the difference: a puzzle, playdough or even books. It could also lead to some quality time together. Some airlines will help with keeping your children busy by preparing a whole set of kids’ entertainment. RJ has prepared special activities to be given to young flyers on board and has built specific in-flight entertainment programming to keep them busy from takeoff to arrival. How cool is that?  

When they say, ‘in-flight entertainment,’ it means your kid will have access to a wide selection of the most popular games like Bejeweled, Backgammon, Pac-Man, etc. Even more, they would get to watch the latest kids’ movies, TV shows and audio programs. Exciting!  

3. Mealtime

Now that you have ensured the right entertainment for your children, it's also best to book their meals ahead of time too. This way, you won’t panic when your child gets hungry. To make it more fun, RJ serves children’s meals in a special lunch box that they can keep. Kids can choose one of their favourite meals and parents will be comfortable knowing that each meal has been prepared healthily. A win-win situation!  

4. Take advantage of deals and loyalty programs for families

Who doesn't like a good bargain? There is a lot an airline can offer, like discounted airfare, free extra luggage, good deals on hotel bookings and car rentals. So we encourage you to keep an eye out for such offers by frequently visiting your favourite airline’s website and social media platforms so you won’t miss such opportunities.

But what if you couldn't catch any good deal? Well, there is another solution. When looking for an airline to travel with alongside your family, try to look for the airline that has family-dedicated flying programs, such as the Royal Plus program at RJ. This program offers a wide range of benefits for you and your family, where each one of you can earn Miles from each flight, get an upgrade and have a wide range of hotel booking and car rental offers. Besides, the good thing is that your Miles are transferable (meaning you can transfer your Miles to your wife, kids or even your parents!). Therefore, we highly recommend that you enroll your family in such programs to guarantee that you get all the benefits when booking a flight. 

5. Choose a family-friendly location

Now after you are through with choosing the right airline, you might as well start researching the best place that caters to your interests. Maybe you are an outdoorsy family, adventurous, or just looking for a relaxing vacation by the sea, therefore, try to customize your trip as much as you can to enjoy your time to the max.  

6. Don’t forget to take lots of pictures!

Enjoy your trip!