Traveling with Kids
By: Katy Reasoner | November 22, 2021
It’s that time of year when many of us load our families into an automobile, or jump on a plane for the holidays. No matter which way you choose to travel, I have compiled some tried and true travel essentials after many cross-country road trips and plane rides!
- Things to do:
- If traveling by car, it pays to have some sort of a device to play movies on. When my kids were small, we would get a brand new DVD to bring along on our travels! We had a seat back mounted DVD player so all kiddos could see. If you have tablets, just be sure that you download the movie onto the device itself so that you aren’t affected by cell service if you try to stream. Don’t forget the charger with the adapter you need to be able to plug into your car! Headphones are a must if your kids are old enough to wear them.
- Airplanes usually have the ability to watch movies, but those can come with extra fees. They will also usually provide headphones to you either free or at a small cost, but they are the ones that have to be worn inside the ear and not ideal for smaller kiddos!
- Books! If the journey is a long one, it might be a benefit to get one or two small books that are new so they will entertain for longer!
- Sticker Books! These can be found at Barnes & Noble. Pages and pages of stickers in the back that you peel and stick to the appropriate location in the book. Hours of entertainment!
- Coloring Books (would NOT recommend markers! On one road trip my daughter decorated the inside of the car door AND her suitcase). The magic coloring books from Crayola are nice because the markers don’t mark anything except the special pages in those books.
- Older kids might enjoy small games, Mad Libs, Crossword puzzles, etc.
- If traveling by car, it pays to have some sort of a device to play movies on. When my kids were small, we would get a brand new DVD to bring along on our travels! We had a seat back mounted DVD player so all kiddos could see. If you have tablets, just be sure that you download the movie onto the device itself so that you aren’t affected by cell service if you try to stream. Don’t forget the charger with the adapter you need to be able to plug into your car! Headphones are a must if your kids are old enough to wear them.
- Snacks and drinks!
- Easy, self-packaged snacks that don’t make a mess are the best! Unless you’d like to be cleaning crumbs out of every crevice in your vehicle until the end of time. Bonus, if you bring the family dog, maybe you don’t have to worry about the crumbs?
We make a fun outing out of going to the dollar store, etc. to pick out trip items.
Safe Travels!
