Photos from our recent trip to Duck, NC
As a toddler parent, I know that traveling with a toddler can be daunting! Liam is a great traveler, but even still, it can be stressful to prepare for a trip and make sure you’re bringing everything you need. We’ve got a few trips coming up, some by car and others by plane, so I thought it might be helpful to share a few of the things that make traveling with a toddler a little easier. We have a few pieces of gear that we always travel with, like a good stroller and his sound machine. I’ve found that having the right tools to recreate his sleep environment at home make traveling much easier for us!
The other consideration for packing is thinking through entertainment for the actual travel portion of the trip. Whether you’ve got a long car ride, an airplane ride, or otherwise, having the supplies to keep your toddler entertained is key! We’ve got our go-to toys and things that we like to bring along for him, which I’ve included below. The most important thing, though? Snacks. Lots and lots of snacks.
Here’s a look at some of the things we bring with us when traveling with our toddler:
- Slumberpod – this thing is worth its weight in GOLD. I bought this pretty early on and we have used it every single time we’ve traveled with Liam. He is used to a dark room at home, so it’s great for re-creating his usual atmosphere for sleep. Plus, you can’t always control how much light comes into the room in a hotel or staying somewhere else, so this is really nice for being able to maintain a dark sleeping environment no matter where you are! I highly, highly recommend!
- Travel Stroller – We’ve got quite a bit of travel coming up and wanted to buy a stroller that was more conducive for that. We love our bigger stroller, but it’s not great for flying and takes up a lot of space in the trunk. After doing a bit of research, I landed on this one. We took it on our recent trip to Duck and it worked great! It’s comfortable for Liam, easy to navigate, and folds down to be quite compact.
- Monitor – Another piece of gear we’ve had from very early on and haven’t had any issues with! It doesn’t have a super far range, but we’ve never been in a situation where that has been an issue within the house or hotel room we’ve been staying in.
- Sound Machine – We love this sound machine! I love that you can preset certain settings to just tap through them and can control it via Bluetooth on your phone. More recently, we started using it as an “ok to wake” clock and that has worked really well!
- Pack N Play – I bought this before Liam was born because I was familiar with it from my sister having it with her babies. It can be set up in about 8 seconds, is durable, and works great!
- Sensory Pipes – Liam loves things like this to play with while riding in his car seat.
- Snack Cup with Lots of Snacks – While toys and entertainment help travel days, the one thing I would never want to forget is snacks! We’ve done both long car rides and airplane travel with Liam and snacks are essential. They help pass the time, always work to boost his mood, and are a nice way to break up the monotony of traveling. I usually bring a variety of his favorite snacks and pack one or two new things to try.
- Doodle Pad – A mess-free option for drawing on the go!
- Ipad with Videos Downloaded – While he’s not quite to the age where he’ll sit and watch a movie through, he does like to watch some videos for 10-15 minutes at a time! We download a bunch of options from Netflix and let him scroll through to pick what he wants to watch.
- Popit – He loves playing with one of these. They’re also a great option to bring along to a restaurant for some pre-meal entertainment!
- Word Book – One of his favorite toys right now! This will entertain him for a good chunk of time and it’s educational.
- Busy Book – This is a great option for some quiet play to change up the routine. He likes to fidget with the different clips and buttons. There are a lot of options on Amazon!
- Toy Cars – Liam loves cars, so this is a no brainer! I usually pack one or two for him to have in the car, then a couple more to play with whenever we arrive at our destination!
If you’re traveling with a baby, check out this post about what we brought with us on a trip when Liam was 11 months old! I also shared about our first time flying with Liam in this post.
