Travelling light: kids edition

June 3, 2017 9:52 AM

I would love to hear your favorite products and hacks to reduce the amount of stuff required to carry with you on family adventures.

My child is an infant currently and I'm writing this ask on his first long distance road trip. I am a huge supporter of packing light, and I recognize that I need to adjust my expectations around stuff and kids and travel and the fact that my brain doesn't quite get how to manage checklists for multiple people which is part of my reason for wanting to pare down to essentials.

There have to be combo products or time-tested essentials that do the work of several things to bring me closer to the "minimalist travel with kids" end of the spectrum.

We have diaper bag, toys, pack n play, and a chair that clicks onto a table. Maybe I can't get more thinned out than that? Is it possible to travel in a way that you only need to make one trip to bring everything in?

I'm open to your favorites for car or air travel as well as daily life getting from A to B. Thanks!

posted by crunchy potato to Travel & Transportation (10 answers total)

You're going on a road trip, and most of my advice applies to air travel, but I hope you can see how it's actually useful to get into these travel-light habits early. I have found that they make travel with my kid much easier. Also, we traveled by train a lot when she was between 1 and 4, as she absolutely needed to walk. We'd get a room for long trips. It's a great way to see the country, too.

So ... my advice:

Get rid of the pack n play and co-sleep. Saves money and space. It's a great way to travel for years and years. My 13-year-old daughter and I still travel this way. We lie in bed at night and tell stories about our day, and it's just lovely.

Get rid of the chair that clicks onto a table and use restaurant high chairs. Or use the car seat. Or put down a blanket and let the kid sit on the floor to eat. Or get one of those backpacks that holds a kid and also stands up on its own legs, and then you can travel without a stroller.

Speaking of strollers, don't take a stroller. When baby is very little, use a chest wrap. I like the kinds made of just a long piece of cloth and a ring, as the cloth also serves as a blanket.

I also often travel with a thin easy drying table cloth for use as baby play area, picnic blanket, sac for carrying things, etc. Good for covering up gross areas, or for brightening up a space. I typically buy one at my destination, and then it's a souvenir as well.

Bring toys that are useful to you, too, like a flashlight, a cup, a cheap but sturdy necklace. Also make use of the things that are available as you travel that serve as toys: ribbons, brochures folded into origami, hotel keys, etc.

Use cloth diapers and stay places where you can use laundry facilities, or just hand wash in the sink. Take only two days worth. This saves a mountain of diapers to carry (and dispose of).

These are the ways I traveled with my daughter, and we traveled all over (and still do). I never once brought a stroller, any kind of furniture, or anything larger than a car seat. I made the not-really toys more interesting once she got older by wrapping them in gift wrap, as all kids love unwrapping and playing with the wrapping almost more than the toys themselves. I've made a sock doll for her while on the trip, out of a pair of socks that was at the end of its life. The only specialty items I brought were pacifier, art supplies, favorite stuffed animals, and the baby carrier (chest or backpack, depending on age) and honestly, the backpack was of limited use. Once she could walk, she walked, and we just planned our trips to match her energy levels.

On planes, I found that having six or so completely different pacifiers was key: when she got bored with one and started to look like she was going to cry, I'd pop a new one in, and her mouth had something new to explore. I had lots of little gifts to give her, each wrapped, again for novelty. When I wanted her to go to sleep, I'd hold her in my arms facing me and pretend to nod off myself -- droopy eyes, head bobbing -- and she'd match me. I liked sitting in the far back of the plane where the hum is loudest, and taking the red eye, so that it's dark and quiet. If you can safely drive at night, this is a good time for travel.

As my kid grew older, creative toys were best: lots of art supplies. I also carried around Mardi Gras beads and she would make shapes out of them on restaurant tables or airplane trays. I carried small, glass rocks in my purse of various colors and sizes for her to make patterns from, too -- very minimal, but so many things to do with them. And not at all messy. I've still got all those glass rocks, and they're very pretty.

Our family does almost no screen time for our kid, but on international flights I let her watch every single movie she can squeeze in. It makes flying a treat instead of a chore (at least for one of us). By not letting her have much screen access the rest of the time, this works (and also makes her a more engaged, interactive kid to be around, which I love).

Have fun with your little one! I've had an amazing time traveling with my daughter. She has learned flexibility, cultural awareness, and history and languages. She and I have a tremendous bond from travel. It's such a glorious way to raise a child, and it's so much easier if you start out when they're very young.
posted by Capri at 10:21 AM on June 3, 2017 [13 favorites]

You probably don't need the chair that clicks onto a table. I never traveled with anything like that. Your baby can sit on your lap or you can use a restaurant high chair.

You don't need the pack n play if you're willing to let your baby sleep in bed with you. If that doesn't seem like an option for you, there might be something smaller the baby can sleep on or in. Sometimes hotels have cribs or pack n plays you can use.

Using a backpack for a diaper bag doesn't reduce the total amount of stuff but it can make it easier to carry more stuff at once since it frees up your hands.
posted by Redstart at 10:57 AM on June 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

If your baby is not yet crawling, I don't see the need for a pak n play. hotels have cribs, or he can sleep in a blanket lined drawer.
Buy disposable diapers along the way. Don't pack more than a two day supply.
A stroller was pretty essential for us, but if you can arrange for one T your destination it will help. We just bought a nice second hand one for our kids to use with the grandkids when they come for a visit this week. In a few years we'll sell it back to the consignment store.
Have fun traveling!
posted by SLC Mom at 11:04 AM on June 3, 2017

We absolutely had one of those snap on chairs and used it all the time visiting relatives and at restaurants.
We bought a portable crib that folded up like a tent and that saved us tons of space and weight. We flew overseas to visit relatives and took car trips here in Ontario and both served us well.
posted by biggreenplant at 11:41 AM on June 3, 2017

Response by poster: Note that the pnp and chair are ways to avoid having to hold/monitor the infant. We are at a wedding which may not have high chairs. Baby crawls/cruises and very much gets into **everything** so if there are other ways of being able to go "off duty" for a moment that take up less space that would be welcome info also. Like a pnp that folds into a backpack?
posted by crunchy potato at 12:31 PM on June 3, 2017

Umbrella stroller! We used this one on vacation and it was perfect for the airport too. We just gate checked it. (We have a 15 month old and a three year old and never would have managed without a spot to corral the little one and have one hand free).
posted by lydhre at 12:35 PM on June 3, 2017

The website wheressharon.com has a lot of good advice on this topic. Ime less stuff can seem practical but it often means more hassle upon arrival in precisely the ways you describe. Frequently the stuff you use at home gets used to free you up. Without it you need to be the toy/carrier/car seat etc. So it may not be worth it.
posted by man down under at 5:06 PM on June 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

We had these pop up tents for my babies to sleep in. They fold up small, but have an inflatable mattress inside, and zip up to keep babies contained.
If you don't normally Co sleep, don't start.
For diapers and such, if you're going to a wedding and no someone in town, can you ask someone to go to Walmart and buy diapers, wipes, ect? If you're driving it's not such a hassle, but when we flew we'd ask someone to prebuy essentials, and just pay them back. You can donate unused diapers to the food bank at the end of the trip
posted by Valancy Rachel at 9:24 PM on June 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

At the wedding itself, there are lots of people who would adore holding your baby. You may only get people who know you well offering, but if you offer up baby snuggles, many more will take you up on it. (I've enjoyed snuggling and playing with babies at a few parties and weddings, and even had one fall asleep on me while I was chatting with a friend.)
posted by Margalo Epps at 11:18 AM on June 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

We have a Lotus Travel Crib. It's pricey, but worth it - the two main points I love about it compared to your standard pack & play is that it has a zipper on the side (so baby can crawl in & out - acts a sort of base camp for them + we do a floor bed at home) and that it folds up into a (big) backpack so you can carry it handsfree.

I agree with others that more stuff often = less hassle at a location - so it's really a trade-off you're going to have to decide based on your particular parenting style & baby. For example, we almost always bring a stroller when traveling, because our baby is SUPER cheerful if he gets in good naps, and a beast otherwise. And he naps well in the stroller, but not well in a carrier. Sure, we could forgo the stroller, but then we'd be chained to a bedroom for naps vs. being able to nap on the go. The hassle of bringing a stroller is worth it. Generally "stuff" isn't necessary, but it can be helpful, and that helpfulness may make it worth it.

For what it's worth, we're minimalists/backpackers by nature... and we just bought a teardrop trailer to take on our camping with baby to ease the "carting a bunch of stuff" and "it takes forever to pack/unpack" problems. So far, so good, but, yeah, I think it's just partially the nature of babies & young children.
posted by Jaclyn at 9:53 AM on June 5, 2017 [3 favorites]