The Hunt: The Best Baby Travel Gear
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It’s been way too long since we did a roundup of the best baby travel gear, so we thought we’d round some up! Readers, what’s your favorite baby travel gear, as well as travel gear for little kids and beyond? What do you bring on vacations (versus rent or make do with once you get there)? (Have you ever just purchased non-travel-friendly items and shipped them to your in-laws or hotel for the sake of convenience?)
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For my $.02, I think both sets of grandparents had their own sets of a Graco Pack ‘n Play and an appropriate car seat… we even bought doubles of some of the most-loved sleep toys, like the turtle nightlight. My parents had even kept the wooden high chair from my childhood.
The car seat situation is one of the trickiest with travel, IMHO. Once your child weighs more than 40 lbs., the Bubble Bum is a nice option, and it may be safer than whatever rickety old car seat your Uber driver pulls out from the depths of his trunk. It weighs less than 1 lb., has been ranked a “best bet” by the IIHS for 10 years now, and works in the middle seat. It’s $30 at Amazon.
{related: three companies that rent baby gear for travel}
The Cosco Scenera Next seems to be everyone’s favorite for a convertible car seat — it can be used both rear facing (5–40 lbs.) and forward facing (22–40 lbs.). There’s a 5-point harness and side impact protection. It’s also certified for use on aircraft and made in the U.S.A. It’s $50 at Walmart. (It’s 10 lbs., though — and just make sure you know how to install it really well.)
(Just a note here: For one of our family vacations we just bought something similar to this and shipped it directly to the Airbnb or hotel — that way we didn’t have to worry about it in the huge collection of stuff we were already traveling with on the airplane. I think my in-laws wound up taking it back home with them when we left. — Kat)
Kat and I have both been happy with Graco for travel — when we flew when my son was two, we just brought our regular Pack ‘n Play — but BabyBjörn’s Travel Crib Light is also very popular and has great reviews. Its age range is newborn to age 3, it’s easy to set up, and it has a carrying case (the crib is 11 lbs.), and both the crib fabric and mattress cover are machine washable.
The travel crib $299 at both Amazon and Target.
Another hugely popular option: the lightweight “infant travel bed” like this one from KidCo — it only weighs 3.65 lbs. and collapses into a packable size. The mesh enclosure also acts as an insect shield. It’s $88 at Amazon.
Kate’s pick: This travel high chair from Nuby is very similar to this travel booster (no longer available) from Munchkin that we bought in 2012 for a trip to London with our 2-year-old. (A toddler on an overnight transatlantic flight, yay! Finally fell asleep right before we landed.) The seat has almost 2,700 5-star reviews at Amazon!
This booster is great not only for taking your little one to restaurants on your trip, but homes of friends and relatives who don’t have baby gear, as well as hotels and Airbnbs. It attaches to most chairs easily, is easy to clean, and has removable foam padding and a storage pocket.
The oval pattern is $23 at Amazon, and the chevron pattern is $19.
Other options for portable high chairs include this “seat sack” for baby, as well as the clamp-type baby high chair like Inglesina. (Kat had one and never quite felt comfortable with it, though, so your mileage may vary!)
{related: tips for flying with kids}
Kate’s pick: This car seat connector is a very simple thing that attaches a car seat to a suitcase, so although it may be irritating to pay $12.99 for it (at Amazon), it’s a lifesaver! We used this product for our London trip I mentioned above, and it was great for traipsing the long, long distances at Dulles.
That was nine years ago, so my memory of our airport time isn’t the greatest, but I seem to remember that our son was OK with riding in the makeshift “stroller” this creates.
Here’s an option (from a random brand) that has a different design and a similar price of $12.95.
(Kat’s $.02: Meanwhile, we used this universal car seat carrier stroller from Baby Trend with the car seat when the kids were very small — very helpful in airports particularly. We would just check our preferred umbrella stroller.)
If you’ve never heard of Water Wow, here’s the scoop: Melissa & Doug has a whole line of these no-mess activity pads, and they’re perfect for travel (although definitely more on the toddler end of things than baby; the suggested age is 3 and up). The spiral pad comes with a water pen that creates colors on the pictures when your kid draws on them — and the pages are reusable!
Technically they’re not mess-free, as the water in the water pen can come out if your kiddo unscrews the cap, but at least it’s only water — could be much worse! The pictured pad is $6.48 at Amazon.
(Pro tip as we get closer to the holidays: Melissa & Doug is often included in the daily deals from Amazon. This can also make a great “plane gift” where you wrap a present(s) for the child that’s new and interesting so they can use it on the plane. If you have some unusual paintbrushes, be sure to bring them to use with the Water Wow!)
Find even more of our recs for baby travel gear in the widget below!
Above: some of our favorite items to make flying with kids easier: Applesauce / Stroller for car seat / Gate check bag for strollers / kiddie headphones / large, lightweight, durable nylon bag for carrying on / Thermos bottle — also check out some of our favorite bags with travel sleeves!
Readers, what are your favorites for travel gear for babies, little kids, and beyond?
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Stock photo via Stencil.
The ride safer vest is a great alternative to a car seat/ booster for over age three kids. It was also very useful for preschool play dates where we would pick up another kid or a friend would pick up ours—I could just leave the vest on the hooks with my kid’s jacket.
https://www.amazon.com/RideSafer-Car-Seat-Travel-Vest/dp/B000KCV61U/ref=asc_df_B000KCV61U/?tag=&linkCode=df0&hvadid=385563855811&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8405901646215374676&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029602&hvtargid=pla-849727371528&ref=&adgrpid=77757826799&th=1
For the lawyers out there, if you have a folding cart (like this: Folding Hand Truck for Luggage, Load Capacity 250 lb, 44 1/2 in x 15 1/2 in x 19 in), we put the carseats right on the back, using the carseat’s own clips to attach it. Kids happily rode in it through the airport, and we checked at the gate with the carts attached (folded down the handle, but otherwise left it on there). Highly recomend.
A pro tip that is probably obvious, but I made this mistake: don’t take Uppababy Vista-size strollers through the airport! They won’t fit through the x-ray scanner so the TSA will take it apart. Putting it back together with an upset toddler was pretty stressful at security. A travel/umbrella stroller is way better for airports.
An umbrella stroller for travel was a workhouse for us below age 3. We had a Summer Infant brand one. We haven’t done a ton of travel since the pandemic but we haven’t taken the stroller on any trips with us post-Covid. I would take it if we were going to a place like Disney where we planned to walk many miles every day, but for most of our trips we don’t really walk that much and our 3 year old no longer needs a stroller.
We generally didn’t rent/borrow stuff. We just checked luggage when we flew or filled our car when we drove. We did use hotel cribs/PNPs a few times but had some pretty bad experiences with filthy ones (which was gross even pre-pandemic) and one hotel crib in France that was shorter than my large 15 month old (PSA if you’re going to France: French babies are apparently tiny).
We bought a carseat backpack for plane travel, but found it too cumbersome and usually just carried the carseat with it’s strap over our shoulder. We had the Cosco Scenera Next and then the Cosco Finale, which are very light carseats. We’ve always bought kiddo her own seat on airplanes but more for safety than sanity reasons. On our post-Covid trips with a 3+ year old we’ve checked the car seat and just let her sit in the airplane seat, which she loved.
We never really packed entertainment for plane trips when she was <2. Watching people and playing with random objects on the plane was all the entertainment she needed. Now that she's 3 we pack a lot of the standard preschool things (WaterWows, ColorWonders, tablet and headphones), and have had pretty good luck getting her to entertain herself.
We’ve had great luck with the Cosco car seat and Zoe stroller for travel. We used a carseat backpack to carry the car seat, and the stroller folds up small (and with one hand!) enough to fit in the overhead compartment.