We love to travel and decided that we are going to share our love of travel with our kids. We have successfully completed multiple road trips including driving from Los Angeles to Seattle and back, and numerous flights to Boston, Seattle, Hawaii, and Guam! Some trips were smoother than others but we learned from each of these trips to make the next one better.

My biggest tip for you is: Don’t over plan. Flexibility is KEY. We made this mistake early on and tried packing in too many activities in a day (essentially how we traveled pre-kids). This led to exhaustion and increased tantrums (by everyone). We quickly learned to loosely plan out our days and to mix things up based upon everyone’s mood and energy levels. We may not get to all the activities we hoped to on the trip but we enjoyed ourselves a lot more.

• On our most recent trip to Hawaii, I hadn’t planned on making daily trips to the playground or spending an entire day at the hotel pool, but it was what my kids needed and it ended up being a highlight of the trip.

Snacks: You can never have too many snacks while traveling.

• We love the Bentgo Snack and Lunch boxes for trips and even just daily outings. When flying, the snack boxes were perfectly sized for the kids’ breakfasts as I was able to fit 2 cut up pancakes and fruit.
  • Snack boxes: https://amzn.to/4fWKctD
  • Lunch boxes: https://amzn.to/47Rrlhn

• For our most recent trip, I purchased the PackIt freezable snack bag and filled it with frozen yogurt pouches, cut up cheese, and sliced bell pepper. We had no issues getting through TSA and the food stayed nice and cold for the entire trip (LA to Boston). I highly recommend the PackIt bags.
  • PackIt Freezable Snack Bag: https://amzn.to/426NzZ1

• I also pack zip lock baggies full of cheerios, crackers, bunny grahams, goldfish, etc. Things that I know my kids will enjoy snacking on and are travel friendly.

Water Bottles: We all travel with our own water bottle and fill them with water after getting through TSA security. Some places have filling stations so we are able to easily refill water bottles. Otherwise, we purchase big water jugs to refill water bottles throughout the trip. Our favorite kids bottles are insulated stainless steel bottles from Camelbak. Our toddlers love the fun designs!

• Camelbak Kid’s Water Bottle: https://amzn.to/4oVSh5B

Take Advantage of the Mini Fridge and Microwave in Hotel Rooms: We pick up food for easy breakfast, snacks, and lunches to either eat in the room or take with us for picnics while out exploring. This helps cut down on food costs and decreases our time spent in restaurants. This also helps with increased fruit and vegetable consumption and allows us not too worry about what our toddlers are consuming at restaurants.

• BONUS: your toddler chef can help prep/cut fruit + veggies with a plastic knife, practice spreading butter/cream cheese, and packing snacks + lunches.

Stroller and Car Naps: This won’t work for everyone but if possible, plan your schedule around stroller and car naps. By pre-planning for stroller and car naps, we were able to venture further away from the hotel and plan to be out for the whole day. I enjoy walking, so stroller naps were a great way for me to walk around and explore while the kids got a good nap in (stroller fans and white noise machines can be helpful here!).

• Stroller fans: https://amzn.to/46b9pwV
• White noise machine: https://amzn.to/4gieozD

Travel Boxes: I first created my son’s travel box when we traveled all the way to Guam when he was 1.5 years old. I purchased a Bluey magnet playset, and filled it with additional toys such as water WOW book, pop tube, crayons + mini coloring book, stickers, pop toys, and magnetic blocks. We started collecting stickers each time we travel to decorate it and helps make the box more special. We swap out what’s in the box every so often to keep the box exciting and new. Personally, I look for magnet toys that will stick to the box to help keep the toys somewhat contained. It has worked so well that we made one for our daughter as well! These toys also help your toddler to continue practicing their fine motor skills!

• Travel Box Parts:
  • Magnet Playset Box: https://amzn.to/3JDewNx
  • Water WOW books:https://amzn.to/460prsh
  • Travel sized Magnatiles: https://amzn.to/3UQLhJG
  • Magnetic Puzzles: https://amzn.to/46bE9Oi
  • Magnetic Blocks: https://amzn.to/4lRN0JN
  • Pop Tube Toys: https://amzn.to/47SXsx7 (dogs) + https://amzn.to/47oG1Vf (regular)

Disposable Placemats: We love using the disposable placemats with travel and even just general eating out in restaurants and with picnic tables. It ensures the surface underneath them is clean (my kids tend to drop food on the table then eat it), and helps to keep food contained for easier cleanup. I buy a 3 design variety pack that my toddlers enjoy looking at and pointing out the different animals on them.

• Placemats: https://amzn.to/4mAuDtP

Set of Toddler Dishes: Having toddler dishes on hand while traveling helps us with quick meals in the hotel room. While we no longer need to bring them for our 3 year old, bringing them to restaurants for our 1.5 year old helps with ensuring she doesn’t break any of the restaurant dishes and helps with splitting/sharing meals.

We love traveling with our toddlers and sharing these experiences with them. While they may not remember these trips when they are adults, these experiences are helping to shape who they are as people now and will have lasting impacts.

Travel can also help increase your toddler’s exposure to new foods, including foods that are culturally different from your own, and to inspire you to try new recipes to cook with your toddler chef at home!

Happy Travels!