The One Thing I Always Pack When Traveling With Kids

When I was 12 we visited my aunt who lived in the Dominican Republic. There was a little boy in the apartment behind hers my age. We obviously had a language barrier, but we both knew enough Spanish/English to play Guess Who! I was amazing

Guess Who? has always been my favorite game, ever since I was a child. I play it now with my niece. Loved all your choices!

We just got back from a week at the beach, and my mom introduced us to a card game called…wait for it…Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. Such a random name and there were initial new game groans, but we had SO much fun playing it!

For airplane travel I always pack balloons in my purse. We find empty space and play with the balloon, trying to keep it up with different body parts, having balloon races, etc. And then when it’s time to go we just pop them and go on our way. Balloons have saved us during flight delays and really just any time we need a quick diversion.

i like to say i walked home from iceland because my toddler son had to be carried in a backpack carrier up and down the aisle for 8 hours so he wouldn’t scream. but sometimes on planes he could occupied for a while by little snacks in a pill organizer. my sister-in-law always has some known snacks but keeps some sure win surprise snacks to pull out in a pinch. the Ultimate series books, such as The Ultimate Construction Site Book, by Anne-Sophie Baumann and Didier Balicevic are so fun for small hands.

A beach ball! I took one along when I nannied on a trip abroad, and it was the best. It’s cheap, fits easily in luggage or a day bag, and is easy to inflate for when the kids need to work off some energy.

My kids and I love the book Difficult Riddles for Smart Kids. It’s on Amazon. We love discussing the possible awnsers and hopefully coming up with the correct one. I’m sure y’all would enjoy it too. I also made a video about road trip entertainment for kids (sans screens) if you’re interested. https://exploreandthrive.com/ideas-for-travel-entertainment-other-than-screens/

If you have little builder, “plus plus” building blocks are so fun. They’re tiny and all one so it’s not like Lego where you need a million different pieces. For those reading all these amazing suggestions…just know there are also times when you just succumb to the screen. My boys are 5 and 8. Neither one seems to love games and I sometimes find teaching/keeping the game moving painful. My 8 year old has adhd and my youngest is delayed. Conversation based games go nowhere. I dreamt of the type of interactions I’m imagining described here but can never seem to make them happen. Unless I’m willing to devote all my energy to entertainment, those screens are coming out full force to give me a break. We’re all doing the
best we can – games or a few netflix downloads up our sleeves.

Same here! Our current favorite is Cat Taco Goat Cheese Pizza. It’s great to play with adults too!

Spot It! It’s magic…I don’t know how EVERY card has one and only one match with every other card in the deck. SO fun. We have the Harry Potter version but there are others. And they come in a small round tin so perfect for a purse and killing time at a restaurant.

I may have gotten this tip from an earlier COJ post, but I bought Zingo for my 4-yr old grandson’s last visit with us and it was a smash hit. Both his parents and grandparents played it with him, which he loved, and it was fun for us too. Highly recommend.

Children audiobook is a great way to keep the kids entertained without adding to their screen time. As many mentioned, a stack of paper or journal for them to get creative and create their own drawings / stories can also work quite well. Recently our kids are obsessed with flipbook animation and they can spend several hours drawing their own animation frame by frame.

We always have a pack of cards on hand as well. Starting around age 3, they really enjoyed “Eye Found It” Disney card game. My now 8 year old still loves it and it’s something he can play with his younger siblings (5 and 2.5.) A themed set of Uno (Star Wars, Paw Patrol and such) make the beloved game even more fun.

Recently I grabbed Oliver Jeffer’s 3-in-1card deck and put it in my bag for a weekend trip. It was so great to have when we were out to dinner. https://ojstuff.com/collections/collectibles/products/go-fish-a-3-in-1-card-deck

Chat packs (can be found on Amazon)
Any age can participate and it gets really great conversations going. And the fun thing is – the answers can change so you can always reuse them!

Monopoly Deal and Sushi Go are great card games with kids your age.

The only times I’d buy chewing gum for my kids was in airports. They loved it and it helped un-pop their ears at take-off.
Also get them their own backpack with some of their own snacks when they get peckish and a stuffy to use as a pillow works great!

a portable flashlight

we love the kids’ card games gubs and uno, and are now getting into “classic” card games such as gin rummy. i also like to throw a chinese jumprope into my bag for cats cradle, as well as a pad of paper and pen for hangman, drawing, etc. hooray for things that weigh next to nothing and provide hours of old-fashioned fun.

About to fly for the first time with my one-year-old and I’m PANICKING. 6 hours and he’s at that age where he literally cannot sit still for ten seconds. My husband and I are sitting in aisle seats in front/behind each other but any and all suggestions welcome for occupying a not-yet-toddler, please!

On long road trips we play ‘My Bridge’. Kids are in the back seat, all agog watching out the windows to be the first to spot a bridge and yell – MY BRIDGE! Works great on long boring highways. Rules: first person to get five bridges wins (usually dad, so a good competition). One has to spot an actual bridge, not a culvert, but walking bridges of all kinds work. More than one person has to see it. There must be a judge (usually me) and once we make a rule, it stands for future games. My husband learned this game as a kid from some friends, and I’m so glad he did. So silly and simple but it works! We haven’t tried adapting this for other types of travel, but I suppose anything could work.

Same with the cards. My daughter feels stressed and overwhelmed in crowded restaurants (and the new exciting food) so we play poker while we wait for our food.

Okay so I don’t have kids, but I always carry a tiny notepad in my purse. The first time I brought it out when hanging with my two nephews it was like MAGIC. They fought over the pen! I had to rip off a chunk so they could each have their own pages! I taught them tic-tac-toe (though they’re a little too young for it) and the lost their minds!!! It’s still working a year later :)

We are going on a road trip in a few weeks any my five-year-old is asking for pipe cleaners for the car, which seems like a brilliant idea to me. He recently made a bunch of animals and bugs out of pipe cleaners with his friends and I’m here for that car activity.
He loves to draw, so we always bring paper and writing utensils, BUT, we have have him choose which colored pencils or markers he wants and pack the pencil box himself. I have had one too many times out in the world where I had brought the wrong green, and this helps to avoid that.
We also have him pack his own backpack with the stuffies and blankets he wants for the trip (then we inventory it to make sure nothing gets lost).
Lastly for car trips- we did a big road trip when he was 3, and we listened to many of the “Little Stories for Tiny People” podcast. Recommend!