Dea Birkett's Tip of the Month

Take the family's great holiday offerings

Malaysia. Ask for the mini bar to be removed from your room from the day you arrive. I used to get to the end of a stay and find all sorts of odd items – cans of Coke, packets of sweets – on the bill which I had no memory of consuming. It was the kids and their midnight feasts. Now I try and phone in advance saying I absolutely insist (sometimes hotels are reluctant to oblige) in having no mini bar in the room. Then we have an empty fridge we can fill with drinks and beers from the local supermarket, saving us money on bar bills.

Seychelles. The worst – well, one of the worse – things about long haul flights with kids is that you end up rifling around under the seat in front, searching for lost toys. I always take a ‘grabber’ – one of those gadgets you can get in toyshops, the shape of a long stick often with a dinosaur head. The dinosaur’s jaws open to pick up items under seats. It amuses the kids, and it keeps me from spending half the flight head-down.

St. Moritz. Always pack a flannel. Even very lovely hotel rooms, like the one we stayed at in St Moritz, may have piles and piles of huge fluffy white towels but nothing to wipe fondue sauce off a five-year-old's face. I had to dip the towels in the sink and drip all over the tiles. So now I always take my own flannels.

Savannah. Any American holiday involves a lot of driving. If your kid’s young enough, make sure there’s a tray on their car seat. Put a strip of Velcro on the top of the tray and another on the back of their books. That way, you wont have to keep stopping to pick up toys from the floor.