- Tips for traveling with a toddler. I'm Chris,
and this is the traveling princess.
And we just took a trip here to Hawaii. And in this video,
I'm going to tell you everything you want to know about
traveling with your toddler.
We asked 50 fellow explorers that are
seasoned parent travelers for advice.
Some things worked for us.
Some things really didn't work for us.
So we're going to tell you what worked for us.
So hopefully it'll help make your trip with your toddler
so much better.
So, before I move into tips about
when you're actually at your destination,
let's start with tips for the airplane.
And first things first, buy a seat.
Yes, toddlers under two years old can generally be
considered a lap child under two, but they like to wiggle.
They like to move.
If you have them on your lap the whole time,
your arms are going to get really tired.
We just did a five-hour flight to Hawaii.
Actually it was six hours and having her own seat,
even though she wasn't in it the whole time,
she was on my lap, she was on mommy's lap,
but it was nice to have that seat in between us
that she could stand on, she could jump on to
have a little bit of her own space.
Now, before you get on the plane and you're in the airport,
take every advantage to let your little one run off energy.
They're going to be trapped on that plane in your aisle.
So, when you're in the airport,
make sure they've got plenty of time to run around,
walk around the airport before you trap them in their seat.
Now, another important thing for planes
is avoiding ear pressure.
As adults, we can understand that if we swallow,
it will relieve our ear pressure, but the toddlers,
they don't really have that concept yet.
So, if they use a pacifier, have them suck on the pacifier.
If they drink from a bottle or a sippy cup,
have them drink from that as they're landing.
There's also some earplugs called ear planes that your
toddler could use. Many parents report
those do wonders for their kids.
We tried those in our traveling princess and not so much.
She would not keep them in her ears,
but some other parents have reported,
they've just put them in their toddlers ears and clamped
their hands over their ears to keep them in there.
Now, the most tips I got from
other seasoned traveling parents is about
entertainment for the flight.
They said it is critical to keep your toddler entertained.
And I would completely agree.
One of the best ways to keep them entertained is with some
new toys. Where do you get new toys from for a flight?
And a lot of them. Like a new toy, every 20 or 30 minutes,
the dollar store is an option. Target is an option.
If you live someplace with a Daiso,
which is the equivalent of a Japanese dollar store,
that's even better because their stuff is some of the
coolest. Consider bringing a coloring book,
bring some crayons, bring things that don't require sound.
Most things that entertain toddlers are things that make
sound effects, but on a plane,
you don't want to be super noisy. So bring quiet things.
And toddlers often before the age of two,
haven't really appreciated the notion of watching movie on
an iPad or listening to headphones.
And so, you will need to keep them engaged
with other activities. Now, if your toddler does enjoy
iPad entertainment or cartoons,
make sure you downloaded enough of it onto your iPad or
your phone. Our traveling princess,
she really loves the sight of herself.
And so we actually show her videos we've taken of herself
on our iPhones. That'll always calm her down.
When she was having ear pressure coming down on the plane,
we just showed her videos of herself on mommy's iPhone.
And then she was good to go.
Now, the second most set of tips I received were
about snacks.
Snacks are super important to have on planes.
Make sure you bring a lot of snacks,
bring more snacks than you think you'll need.
We love little apple sauce in squeeze containers.
Our traveling princess really loves these things
called Bellies, that we get at Whole Foods.
They come and mango Bellies, apple Bellies,
strawberry Bellies.
In the USA, you can bring liquid baby food
through the TSA checkpoint.
Many people don't know that, but you can bring formula.
You can bring applesauce.
Just make search in a separate bag.
And you tell them when you go through the
security checkpoint that this is liquid food for your baby.
Okay, now let's talk about sleeping on the plane.
There's a few considerations you'll want to think about
here. If you have a really long flight,
you might want to consider booking it over night so that
your kiddo can sleep at their natural sleep time.
If you are expecting them to sleep on the plane,
you might consider bringing your car seat on the plane
because they're used to sleeping in their car seat.
And if your car seat is FAA approved,
then you can bring it on the plane.
And they can sit in that provided that you bought a seat.
Another option to help them sleep,
are these inflatable foot rest pillows.
We bought one on Amazon for like 15 bucks.
It did help her take about a 30-minute nap.
But what was also really useful about this is when we wanted
her just to kind of stand and stay in her seat.
This inflatable foot rest helped keep her up on her seat and
not down on the dirty floor. And if safety is your concern,
but you don't want to bring a car seat on board,
you can get what's called a CARES harness in the US,
it's FAA approved.
And it's essentially kind of looks like a seatbelt harness
that goes on the airplane seatbelt that will help keep your
toddler even more secure.
Now you'll want to make sure you pack a lot of other baby
supplies, pack more diapers than you think you need.
If you've done the math, you change the diaper
every two or three hours,
you're like, I can just bring three diapers, no big deal.
Bring 10 diapers because you never know what happens.
Your flight gets delayed. Bring plenty of diapers.
Bring extra snacks, too.
Make sure you don't have to buy that stuff
in-route or at your destination.
And then for mode of transportation through the airport,
I mentioned the car seat. You can bring that on the plane.
You can gate-check it, which is really good.
You can also check-in your luggage, but you might also
wanna consider bringing your stroller on your trip.
Your stroller, you can do the same thing.
You can check it as luggage. You can also gate-check it.
That's what we did. We gate-checked the stroller.
That way we could use the stroller through the airport.
We could put her in it. She could push it around.
She loves pushing the stroller and we can use it to hold
some of our stuff on through the airport.
Many parents really liked to gate-check their stroller
instead of checking it as luggage, because people report
that the strollers are damaged less
when they're gate-checked,
because they don't have to go through all of the
airport's baggage handling equipment.
If you are gate-checking your stroller,
make sure you go to the gate agent before
you board the plane to tell them that your gate-checking it.
So you get the gate-check tag.
So now I want to share some tips with you
once you're actually in the destination. And by the way,
if you wonder where we are right now,
we're about halfway up the path to Diamond Head.
So when you're at your destination,
definitely slow down from your pre-toddler travels.
Plan less in any given day, and plan things
around your toddler's nap time and meal times.
A well-rested and well-fed toddler
will be better for everybody.
A grumpy toddler is bad for anybody and you won't be able to
do anything if toddler is unhappy and crying.
Plan drives when your toddler wants to nap.
If you've got a toddler who likes to nap in a bed
or in a crib, then definitely consider
a hotel in the city center.
So you can come back mid-day.
Pro tip. If you're traveling where Hyatts are,
Hyatts will give complimentary cribs for young ones.
That's why we stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Waikiki.
They provided a nice crib for our traveling princess.
Little further up the Diamond Head hike.
That's Hanauma Bay in the background.
Now, when you're planning your vacation,
make sure you have time every day for your toddler
to do something fun. We'll intentionally plan
beach play time, or time at a playground, or time in a park,
time for her to run around. She needs to get the energy out.
Your toddler needs to get the energy out.
So then they've got time to relax and
do the things that you want to do.
Pro tip. Plan extra time at any tourist attraction
you go to, you never know what's going to mesmerize
your kids and allow them some time to do it.
In particular, when we visited the Byodoin Temple,
our traveling princess really wanted to fill up her skirt
with the rocks that were on the ground.
Yeah. It looks like a lot of fun.
And if they ever get cranky, or they throw up,
or things like that, be adaptable, be flexible.
You're gonna need to be a lot more flexible.
Now, definitely make sure you're going to be
taking a return flight.
So make sure all those snacks, diapers, toys,
you've got enough to go back home as well.
Or you bought some while you're there.
But ultimately if you're considering traveling with your
toddler, I think you should do it.
We had a lot of fun here in Hawaii.
I think you can have a lot of fun as well.
Definitely consider going to a place that's like a
first world place. You know,
that's easy to go around with a stroller,
easy to drive around, have a rental car, buy supplies,
buy stuff. Maybe go on your African safari
when they're a little older,
but Hawaii as a beach vacation, where you can get everything
in Waikiki, that's a great place to go.
Now my final tip for you is if you're going someplace
that's a beach destination,
or even a city destination really consider a baby carrier.
This is the Osprey Poco Plus, we have loved this thing.
It's allowed us to do the Diamond Head hike.
It's allowed us to go to the beach.
It's allowed us to go to malls where there's escalators and
you can't take strollers.
We brought a stroller as well for certain days,
but we love this backpack carrier.
If you are interested in more about this backpack here,
you can find my video review to it right here.
You'll also find links in the description below,
or even more dad travel tips right here.
This whole playlist.
All about my traveling tips with kiddos.
As usual we don't say good bye, because we'll see you
in one of these videos,
but we will say Aloha since we're in Hawaii.