22 tips for traveling with a baby or toddler

• The number one of our tips for traveling with baby or toddler is to keep the travel duration short & with breaks. Prefer destinations on duration of max 6 hours using your own vehicle or a hired cab. Because road trips have these big benefit that you can stop where you want. Also you control the temperature, speed, and the entire atmosphere of your vehicle, you can adjust it as per your child’s comfort. Here is a list of really handy tips for your road trip with toddler. So far we have done numerous road trips around Bangalore including a weekend trip to Coorg, Chikmagaluru, Wayanad, Ooty, a trip to Kodaikanal, spending 3 days in Munnar, visiting the backwaters of Alleppey and staying in a houseboat, relaxing by the backwaters of Kumarakom, an year end trip visiting the UNESCO heritage sites of Mahabalipuram, another weekend in Yercaud, two days in Pondicherry, a day trip to Mysore, another day trip to Kabini, yet another year end trip visiting the ancient world of Hampi, and admiring the temple of Halebidu. Starting when our first kid was just 8 months old. And continuing with the second one who is now 8 months old.
• The next of our tips for traveling with baby or toddler is to start with shorter trips of 2-3 days duration, that would cause less disruption in your kid’s routine. So, in case baby is upset about the change, not eating or sleeping properly, it can be manageable for 2-3 days.
• The smaller the kids are, the more is the luggage that you have to pack with them. A road trip on your own vehicle or a hired vehicle gives the flexibility of carrying more luggage than you would were you flying to a distant place.

Choose shortest possible means of communication

• Another of the great tips for traveling with baby or toddler. If it’s a farther destination, prefer flights than trains if possible. However, when you are traveling international in flights and changing timezones, do know in advance how to deal with jet lag in babies and kids.
• Yet another useful of the tips for traveling with baby or toddler: You should try to reach ahead for checking in and other formalities. As, that will give you and the baby adequate time to rest, relax and nurse if required, before on boarding. We do prefer to reach early and check-in. Then, when baby wakes up, we get plenty of time to get her freshened up and fed before the flight.

Stock up on baby food and snacks

• A very important of the tips for traveling with baby or toddler is that if the baby is formula fed, keep a good stock of the formula. (we do keep some extra). Since, just in case you don’t find it at your destination – babies have a great sense of taste and they might not like an alternative to the formula they are used to.
• If the child is between age group 1-2 years, carry some ready to eat organic food that you can mix with hot water and feed on the fly, anywhere, anytime. At 2+, you can give them a portion of anything healthy that you choose for yourself, as long as you are sure of the hygiene.
• You would easily get fruits, curd, bread etc. at your destination. Buy some fresh stock when you reach, cut pieces of fruits and pack in tiny boxes when you head out to a day long trip. Carry some ready to eat small portions of curd and use it as a dip or feed it directly. When we went to Goa with our daughter, she was recovering from a stomach flu. On her ped’s suggestion, we stocked up lots of packaged curd & buttermilk. We bought bananas on reaching Goa. The resort had bread in breakfast and rice available in lunch & dinner time, it made for her perfect BRAT diet.
• Also, carry a hot water thermos with you and keep it replenished all the time, it would help prepare formula, ready to eat food or even wash the tupperware.

Keep the diaper bag & changing set handy all the time

• Keep adequate supply of diapers, wet wipes, rash creams and other toiletries that the baby uses on a regular basis. So, you need not carry your whole luggage to the public washroom while traveling or baby care unit each time you have to wash and clean the baby.
• Yet another of the tips for traveling with baby or toddler. Whenever on the drive, keep 1-2 set of changing dresses ready for your child, accessible in diaper bag. This time we went to Mysore, we kept 2 extra set of dress for her in our backpack. By the time we reached back home from the tour, she had ended up wearing all the dresses. As she spoilt one after the other.

Don’t forget the vitamins and medicines

• Most important of the tips for traveling with baby or toddler : pack all the essential medicines for the baby , even if it’s a very short trip. Also keep your pediatric’s number handy and couple of recent prescriptions with you. And travel tension free.

Choose kid friendly stay options

• An obvious yet not to be missed of the tips for traveling with baby or toddler. Say no no to tree houses, jungle lodges etc. until they are properly equipped with mosquito repellants, and treated free of germs and insects. Keep a herbal mosquito repellant cream with you. For beach destinations, keep herbal sunscreen for the baby.
• Make sure basic amenities like electric kettle are present in the room. If not, ask the hotel if they would be able to provide for adequate supply of hot water for the baby’s needs. Also ask for the facility to wash baby milk bottles or dishes. It’s great if they can let you in the kitchen to do the same. Some resorts and hotels might as well let you cook special meals for your baby or do the same as per your instructions, its a great relief to find such places. You can as well choose a homestay with equipped kitchen. We chose a homestay on our trip to Shimla. The host actually allowed us to use his kitchen and prepare special meals for our baby. Now we feel we would prefer a homestay when we travel with her next.
• If your child is 18 months or more, look for places of stay that have adequate space for him or her to explore the grounds. A big lawn, a children’s play area or a small zoo or pet corner in the hotel premises would add to their excitement. This was our reason to choose Beleza by the beach in Goa where they had a lawn, a children’t play area, private access to beach and a toddler’s swimming pool – all under their premises.

Plan ahead

• Make ahead a list of baby travel essentials and pack everything including their water sipper, milk bottles or any lunch boxes that they are specially fond of, for a little older one you can keep a couple of their favorite toys and bedtime books with you. Our kiddo carried her “cat” soft toy with her all around on our 2 weeks trip to Europe, spending around 6 days in Italy that included a busy day in Rome, 48 hours in Florence, including a half day trip to Pisa, boat hop on hop off in Venice and then four days in Switzerland that included a day trip to Bern, basing ourselves out of Lucerne, a picnic trip to Grindelwald, a beautiful day at Interlaken and then couple of days in Paris & a walking tour in Amsterdam city. In fact, we nearly lost the cat when in Florence and my hearbeat skipped for a few moments thinking how she would take it if the cat was not found!! (Luckily we found her!)
• The debate of guided tour vs independent travel is always going to be there. But when you are starting with a baby, make your plans yourselves and keep them light. Our above Europe trip was a mix of guided trips and independent travel wherein I had decided on the itinerary, keeping every alternate day light. And then booked some guided day trips on other days.

Be flexible

• It looks lucrative to go for guided tours or readymade packaged tours. You already have so much on your hands with the baby’s huge packing list and other everyday things. It would be great if someone else took care of the travel arrangements. Yes, you can go for one, but ensure that it is flexible. Don’t go for a travel package that is too hectic. When we went to Kodaikanal, we could have easily covered the whole place in max 2 days. But we had a baby with us so we rather chose to stay for 3 days and take things slow and it did help.

Let them be

Another important of the tips for traveling with baby or toddler is to let them be! Kids do understand the needs of their body (perhaps better than we do). A journey is a change for them as much as it is for us. Don’t expect them to immediately fall into a routine or follow the same eating, sleeping and playing patterns that they are used to at home. They might eat less when they are traveling long distances – it happens with us too. We kept feeding our little one on one day trip until she threw up at night because her stomach couldn’t digest as usual 🙁 The journey had slowed down the digestion. We regretted not being able to read the signs.

Pack efficiently

• Kids and babies this age often require lots of things on a daily basis and most of them are essentials which means you can’t leave them behind even if you are traveling for a couple of days. As such, your best bet is to use these travel packing trips to pack like a pro . Digging through your bag to get hold of that tiny dress (or socks!) every time is the last thing that you would want to do. Here’s our list of must have travel organizers and travel accessories, that have helped us tremendously in traveling with our little one. And then we have these travel friendly products especially designed for kids that have made our lives so much easier while traveling with our kids. While we are talking about packing efficiently for the kid, here’s an article on packing list for Africa with kids, which we are sure, will be of help to you. Many of these packing tips are applicable for other destinations as well.

Choose the destination wisely

• Stay at a place which has considerable lawn space for your toddler to stroll. Head to a beach destination where the climate is not too hot, they would love to dig into the sand even if left to do so all through the day. Both our elder one and 6 months old one thoroughly enjoyed the climate and beaches on our 7 days trip to Andaman.
• Don’t choose extreme destinations. We put our Leh & Laddakh trip on hold, because it is at so much altitude, it might be difficult for baby to breathe in the lack of oxygen. Similarly, at this stage, we don’t consider destinations too remote so that medical facilities or other amenities that the kid would need are way too far. Avoid extreme climatic conditions.

Choose kid friendly sites

• Another useful of the tips for traveling with baby and toddler : When making a note of what grounds you want to cover, do prefer your kid’s choice. Now, possibilities of parks and ethical animal interactions tops our list. In fact, we went to Mysore (~3 hrs drive from Bangalore) so that our kid would enjoy into the Mysore zoo. Spend more time in places where you see them enjoying. It can be as simple as a small open field or the beach.