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Travel with Kids – Tips and Tricks

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Traveling with kids is no joke, but honestly I think it’s so worth it! We’ve done a lot of travel with our kids – overseas trips, road-trips and short weekend trips. But the memories and life lessons they’ve learned from it is invaluable to me. Don’t be afraid to travel with little ones, it can be the best time!!! 

I am all for making it as easy as possible though, so to make my life easier, and yours, I’m sharing my top travel tips with kids – plus my “must have” items for entertainment along the way! 

  1. Color coded packing cubes – let’s be honest, half the battle is packing allll the things. Packing cubes have become a huge must for me. For our most recent international trip we changed cities 3 times. So to simplify the unpacking and repacking, each person had a color cube. I packed my kids 4-5 days worth of clothes and it all fit in the 2 cubes per person. 
  2. Hanging toiletry bag – unlike what you might think, this was for the airplane! I ran into a friend right before our trip that suggested this to me. Luckily, they arrived the day we left and each kid got to pack their own snacks and activities for the plane. They each got one, luckily it is $10, but it was super helpful for long flights. 
  3. Instax Camera – this might be my kids favorite! I bought this in 2020 when we went on our road trip to Yellowstone. Since film is expensive for it – and I don’t need a million small prints – my kids take turns getting to take pictures and they only get one at a time. It keeps the excitement for the camera and they think about what they want a picture of! It only comes out on trips or special occasions, so the fun of it has lasted the last 3 years. Win, win.
  4. The next one may come with controversy, but in my opinion it is a must with travel. We bought the Fire Tablet, again in 2020 for the road trip, and it was not used much in between trips. However, this trip the tablet made ALL of us more sane when we had a cranky 2.5 year old. It made a few of our pictures, and I’m not even mad. I got to enjoy the Tower of London more because of it. Judge away! (be sure to get the back up battery pack too)
  5. Last tip for traveling with kids is to bring plenty of small items that can be played with in a pinch, yes instead of the screens because typically screens IS my last resort… Here are the activities I always have on hand for travel, even if it’s just a quick time-filler for the hotel or house we are staying in. 

Hopefully you get some good ideas for any upcoming trips you may have! 
Bonus: I am also including a momma must have for travel, so for my honorable mention my top travel item for myself was the Nodpod Weighted Sleep Mask. We traveled to Scotland where it was only dark for about 4-5 hours, an eye mask was a must. But honestly, this might be my new favorite thing even at home. Happy traveling!