5 Tips for Enjoying Holiday Travel With Your Little Ones

Children make the holidays truly joyful, but traveling with them can be super taxing, making preparation key. This means thinking through how to keep them entertained on long drives or plane rides, packing for extended visits, and keeping them safe in other people’s homes. Here are the four best tips we’ve learned to make traveling with little ones less stressful. 

Diapers, diapers, diapers

When you’re traveling with toddlers or babies who aren’t potty trained, it’s best to plan for the worst case scenario. It’s terrible to get trapped on a plane or train and not have everything you need. We recommend packing two to three times the amount of diapers your child normally uses as well as an entire pack of wipes just to be on the safe side. 

Extra Clothes

Bringing extra clothes is always a good idea with small children, and it can be a lifesaver while traveling. If your child spits up or has an accident on the plane, it’s important to have something fresh to put them in. We also recommend bringing along several plastic bags to contain any smells and liquids until you get to a place where you can wash them. And be sure to pack some extra clothes for yourself too!

Bring a Baby Gate

If you’re planning to stay in someone else’s home while you travel, you can’t always be sure their home is baby proof. You can limit your child’s access within the house (and ensure your host’s, and your own, peace of mind) by bringing a baby gate. If you’re visiting a home with a staircase, keeping your little one off the stairs can be difficult. If your host has a banister to banister staircase, we have a super easy solution. Our banister-to-banister Stair Barrier is lightweight and completely portable. Simply roll it up and put it in the back of your car or pack it in your suitcase. When you arrive, you can install the gate in minutes without tools.

Grandparents' Homes

If you're heading to see your parents, remind them to put cleaning supplies and medications up high and out of reach of little ones. If they have a staircase in their home, they may want to consider installing a Stair Barrier. Many of our customers are grandparents who are happy to have found a gate that keeps their grandchildren safe and looks good in their home. Knowing they can simply roll it to the side or store it when family leaves, makes a Stair Barrier the perfect choice for grandparents. 

Disinfectant

Especially now, it’s important to bring enough hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes to make sure your whole crew stays safe. With colder weather, travel stress, and disrupted schedules, the holiday season can also be synonymous with cold and flu season, which is the last thing that you want to deal with while traveling, especially with kiddos. 

We’ve provided you with our top tips that we’ve learned over the years, but our best piece of advice that we can give is to roll with the punches. No matter how much you anticipate, it’s inevitable that something unplanned will happen. Rather than let it ruin your holidays, take a deep breath, enjoy the time that you have with your loved ones, and laugh it off.