How we travel with babies!

Packing list and pro tips from a veteran of 14+ baby/toddler plane trips

TL; DR: 

  • Sign up for email updates to check out my tried and true packing list for babies/toddlers! 

The longer version…

Traveling with 1 

My partner Bry and I have a 2.5 year old daughter, Dasha and a 13 month old son, Rook. Before COVID, people would always be amazed about how much we traveled with a baby and ask me about how we do it.  Travel was always part of our life and we didn’t change that after Dasha was born. When we took our first trips I went to other blogs for ideas on what to even pack, and over the years I’ve got it down to a science. I hope that sharing my tips inspires another mom/family to pack up their kids and fly somewhere fun!! My one takeaway is that YOU CAN STILL TRAVEL! It takes more planning, and being organized makes it a lot less stressful, but it’s 1000% doable. 

Long story short, there’s a kind of silly reason behind this! Bry entered himself into a friendly competition with his buddy Handsome Will (not sure Will even knows about this!) who humble bragged that he’d taken his baby boy on tons of flights before he was a year old. And thus the challenge began for us to take Dasha on [ Will + 1 ]  trips. 

Regardless of how it started, I love how much we traveled as a family. Aside from making great memories, it made her even more adaptable and in retrospect I think it even boosted her immune system to not be sheltered. Plus you’ve got to make the most of that lap infant free ticket before they hit 2, right??

So before Dasha was 1.5 - we took her on at least 6 plane trips:

  • At 4.5 months, a family vacation to St Thomas

  • At 6 months, a family trip to Ft Lauderdale

  • At 8 months, a joint work trip (both Bry and I working there) to San Antonio → this was the first time I traveled alone with lady, due to a total travel clusterf***, but I realized it’s not THAT hard!

  • At 10 months, a combined work + fun trip to Chicago (traveled with her by myself on the way there)

  • At 11 months, another joint work trip to Tampa (traveled with her by myself both ways)

  • At 17 months, a family babymoon to Florida

  • Plus a bunch of longer car trips which is always easier in terms of packing. 

***

Traveling with 2 - plan vs. reality

With Rook things were so different because he was born 1 month into COVID, and wasn’t as good a sleeper as Dasha so I was not lining up to take him on a trip. We literally had not left the DC area since February 2020 until this May when we finally took our first plane trip with both babies to Key West (UPDATE: we also just flew to Chicago over the 4th of July and I will be adding some bonus tips from that).  I had all the travel logistics planned and even wrote this before we left, but now I’ll share how it all went. 

Our flight left at 10:30am - thinking that it’d be a less intense hour to leave than 6. My plan is always to maximize hands free. PRO TIP #1 - avoid packing in suitcases!! Anything that you need to push/pull/use your hands for is a no. You will need your hands free the whole time. Instead we pack in backpacks and overnight bags. For example:

  • I planned to carry: My shoulder/overnight bag with adult stuff + laptop, and the diaper backpack with all the kids stuff -- leaving hands free to push kids in double stroller! (Plus a small milk/food bag).  

  • Bry planned to carry: his backpack and computer bag (which LOL he didn’t open one single time, see note below about how vaca with kids is not a relaxation opportunity), and then pull the pack and play. We ended up checking a very small suitcase with crib blanket clothes, extra diapers etc. 

As soon as we got to the airport we planned to check the pack and play and carseat bag, leaving all hands free for coffee, finding your ID, kid management, etc.

***

SO, how did it go??

This trip was a bit of an experiment and I’m so glad we did it, but here are a few things we learned. 

  1. 10:30am is a terrible time for (my) toddlers to fly!!! [Bonus tip, post coming soon — flying overnight after bedtime is amazing and I totally recommend it] We had to wake them up early to get to the airport (their normal schedule is waking between 8-9), so takeoff was exactly when they wanted to nap but had so much trouble falling asleep that they basically were unhappy the whole time.  But in general, 1 to 3 is a tricky age for flying: they’re too young to give a screen the whole time, and too old to sleep the whole time/sit still.  They want to get up and run around the plane and that’s exactly what they did for 2 hours.  On the way home, leaving at 2:45pm was great because it was their play time, so they were happy, just very active.  Don’t expect to sit and chill. 

  2. We didn’t bring a carseat and it was completely fine. If we were going to somewhere we planned to rent a car and drive a lot of course we’d figure it out, but we did some internet research in advance and the island is so small and walkable that we only needed to drive from the hotel to airport which is like 10 minutes of small town island driving, so we winged it and it was completely fine, plus not having to lug the huge awkward car seat bag. On our recent trip to Chicago, we had a whole day of driving in Indiana, so we brought one baby carseat and renter a toddler carseat for $19/day with our rental car; highly recommend that.

  3. It’s a thing for airplanes/airports to not have milk. My whole plan hinged on us being able to get them milk on the plane, because it can be a huge hassle to bring milk through security and have it hand checked.  So I planned to get milk at the terminal, or worst case on the plane -- uh oh, come to find out they DONT HAVE MILK, and the half and half was “needed for people who want coffee” - prepare for grumpy babes.  We kept them occupied with juice/water/plane snacks but it was not good. On the way back, I grabbed a quart of milk and had it hand checked -- pro tip, they’re nicer at security if you haven’t opened the seal of the milk container. Milk was flowing the whole time and everyone was happy.  Confirmed on the Chicago trip - the planes also did not have flights (this may just be a United thing?).

  4. They did not make Dasha wear a mask! Our flights were super different coming and going, the first flight attendant was a nightmare and yelled at me nonstop, the one on the way back was super nice and even wanted to hold Rook.  But both never once mentioned putting a mask on Dasha.  At 2.5 we’ve never tried to make her wear one, but had bought some in advance just in case she needed it on the flight.  If you’re planning to fly and don’t mask your toddlers, I would recommend being prepared, but FYI they might not make you. And YES they are serious about adults wearing masks the whole time, even literally while chewing bites of food.

  5. OK I’ll say it...traveling with 2 toddlers/babies is not relaxing!  But I will say, I fully went into this trip knowing what we found to be true: traveling at this age = taking care of your kids in a different place.  It’s awesome and fun, but you need a vacation from the vacation when you get back. 



10 more pro tips for traveling with babies/toddlers: 

  1. Clean your house and get organized before you pack.  This is not strictly a travel tip but I highly recommend doing all your laundry and cleaning everything before you start packing. It turns packing from a day long activity, into a <1 hour activity because you know exactly where everything is, and have a list of exactly what you need. 

  2. Have a digital copy of your lap infant’s birth certificate because some airlines really do require proof of age for babies under 2 (even if it’s obvious). A pic on your phone is fine. They did not ask for Rook’s on our most recent trip (with United). 

  3. Get a separate travel stroller. We used a sadly discontinued BabyJogger — called the Baby Jogger Umbrella Stroller Vue Lite Reversible w/ Recline Folds Travel Pram — for one kid. (It was even discontinued when I bought it in 2019 but I hunted it down on eBay.) I am obsessed with our new Baby Jogger City Mini Double GT2 for 2 toddlers. Key features for both: folds into one piece with seat attached, ok if it gets dirty, easy to open and collapse with 1 hand if you need to, deep recline for napping, full umbrella cover for sun protection. 

  4. Gate check strategically - you need the stroller until you get on the plane. Also, car seats and pack-and-plays are “assistive devices” for the babes which means they should be free to check. Tell the airline that if they try to charge you!

  5. Pack light for yourself but not TOO light - I notoriously once only packed ripped jeans and a red cocktail dress with a cutout back for a trip to Fort Lauderdale to visit my parents (did not even bring a single shirt).  So, I guess this tip is: don’t forget to bring clothes for yourself! 

  6. You can do work trips all together! We decided we wanted to travel together, so we made that work. If Bry had to go to a conference or event, I would find a reason for a work trip to that location and vice versa. (Caveat - see here for when that went badly). 

  7. When to fly? We have done it a few ways now with 1 and 2 kids.  #1 - leave at the crack of dawn, like wheels up at 6am.  #2 - leave at a normal human time like 10:30 or even mid day or evening. I think it’s ultimately a question of “pick your hard”.  #3 - fly after bedtime, flights leaving at 9 or 10pm. It is really hard to get up at 4 am, but it honestly is a lot easier because they go back to sleep on the plane, and wake up when you arrive ready to start the day.  If you pick a midday time or even late morning, it’s a LOT harder because they want stimulation/activity. Update after Chicago trip - flying late at night is amazing! The kids passed out and stayed asleep through getting off the plane, driving to the hotel, etc. NOTE I have not done international flights with the kiddos, so if you have tips for that, please comment!!

  8. You don’t need to bring a ton of toys. We bring maybe 1 or 2 small, quiet toys per kid, and always a book for bedtime - but I refuse to pack heavy books so we use the indestructible books that are basically paper, so they add no weight or bulk. 

  9. You can get things you need at your destination - I once got this great mom advice from a mom of 3 teenagers: At some point, you just have to stop packing and leave, and anything you don’t have with you, you get on the road or when you get there.  Case in point:  On one of our trips to Florida I somehow lost ALL OUR BOTTLES between leaving the apartment and getting in the Uber, and it honestly was not that big of a deal.  We got milk with a straw on the plane (RIP when planes used to have milk), and once we got there we picked up a bunch of use-and-toss sippy cups from CVS.  Of course, have a plan if you’re going somewhere unusually remote, but most of the time this will work. 

  10. Travel is a chance to practice adaptability (for kids and parents). Try to keep their same schedule-ish, but encourage adaptability. On trips, naps and bedtime are not at hard and fast times for us. Kids eat what we eat. I usually bring easy backups: bananas, larabars, raisins, string cheese, etc. Our go-to when eating out was to order a side of plain sliced avocado - boom, there’s a baby meal.  Encourage lots of exercise/activity during the day to help them sleep better at night. Still nap so they’re not overtired, but let them run around > sitting or strolling. And trust me, I’ve pumped, breastfed, and changed butts everywhere from bathrooms to the sidewalk outside a restaurant!

Dasha getting some work done on our family work trip to San Antonio!

Dasha getting some work done on our family work trip to San Antonio!

Packing List: What you actually need to bring

And last but not least, make sure you sign up for emails to join the community and get a link to my baby/parent packing list that I swear by. 

I hope this helps and moms: please share your tips and advice!!! What are your travel essentials and what do you never bring?! 

DZ 

Next
Next

About me + Why I’m blogging