Travel Toys and Tips
We used to be able to pack up the car (including the dog and all her paraphanelia) and hit the road quite easily. Now, with The Boy, packing has taken on a new meaning. We really have to consider every nook and cranny in the car and pack like we’re solving a puzzle with all the gear needed to keep a pre-schooler happy on a trip. And you can forget about the dog. She got demoted to a dog-sitter during vacations soon after The Boy was born.
Before you start cramming everything into your car and lashing stuff to the roof, consider these tips.
1. Many hotels and resorts provide baby gear such as pack and plays and high chairs. Restaurants provide booster seats. Call your destination before packing to see what baby/kid gear might be offered.
2. If you are traveling to a major city, there are usually baby equipment rental possibilities. Baby’s Away and Babies Travel Lite are two such rental outlets.
3. If you are traveling to visit relatives, ask them if they have baby equipment already or if they know of friends/neighbors in their area that might be willing to lend to you.
4. Unless you have a 15 hour flight or a seriously long road trip, you really don’t need too much for actual travel time. Keep your kids entertained with games like I Spy or the Alphabet Game. Take along books on tape or cd for the car. If they are old enough, give them a specific ‘travel’ bag that they can fill will activities. Or, my favorite, plan your travel for during nap time and hope they sleep most of the time!
Happy Traveling.
Stickers as Travel Activity
We’ve recently completed two short trips, one by plane and one by train. On both occasions, The Boy had his own small backpack to carry. He was able to choose a few small toys and activities to take along. This worked quite well and freed up a bit of room in our own carry-ons. The best activity we had on both trips was our little baggie of stickers (cut from old address labels) and a few sheets of blank paper. The Boy was quite well occupied pulling the stickers off their backing and ‘decorating’ the paper with them. This activity was cheap (free actually) and very light-weight.
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