7 Tips for Traveling with a Toddler

Not long after I had my son, Saxon, my fellow mom friends encouraged me to travel with him, insisting that babies are “easy” to take on vacation since they’re tiny and immobile. I thought this was the worst idea I’d ever heard. How would I manage to fly with an infant when I could barely get through a trip to the grocery store with him?

By the time he was 6 months old, we had made two family road trips and both times, the planning, packing and onsite logistics left me so exhausted and stressed out I vowed not to take him out of our zip code again until he could speak in full sentences.

If I’ve learned anything as a mom, it’s that the first time doing anything with your child is always the hardest. To prepare myself for our five-day vacation, I read travel blogs, consulted Facebook mom groups and asked my friends with kids for their advice.

Here are the seven tips that helped me the most.

Andrea Lavinthal

1. Manage your expectations.As any parent will tell you, it’s not a vacation if your kids are with you. It’s a trip where you still have to wipe someone else’s nose, enforce a nap schedule and keep your kid from sticking his finger in every electric socket. So if you pictured yourself sipping a glass of rosé and reading a book while your little angel quietly builds a sand castle next to your chair, let go of that lovely image. None of that will happen. Well, except for the wine. A little day drinking goes a long way on any family “vacation.”

2. Choose a family-friendly hotel.This may seem obvious, but there’s a big difference between a hotel with chicken fingers on the lunch menu and one that goes out of its way to cater to families. We chose theKimpton Seafire Resort + Spain Grand Cayman because of its convenient location (it’s a three-and-a-half-hour direct flight from where we live and the hotel is less than 30 minutes from the Grand Cayman airport) and the list of amenities for kids.

3. Pack like a travel pro.Whether I’m going away for one night or 10, packing always presents a huge challenge. So you can imagine how stressed out I was about packing not just for myself, but also for Saxon.

Her reasoning: You should always over pack for your kid — an extra outfit for every two days on top of their daily outfits. Plus, it keeps everyone’s stuff streamlined at your destination. Another bonus to checking the luggage is that it allowed us to go hands-free in the airport (we each wore a backpack stuffed with in-flight necessities), which is key when you’re chasing after a toddler.

4. Create the perfect carry-on.Speaking of in-flight necessities, I learned that there are a few things you should always have on the plane with you. The most important is a travel-size first-aid kit stocked with any prescription medications your child needs, over-the-counter medications (I did Tylenol, Advil and Benadryl), Band-Aids, Neosporin and a thermometer.

The second is enough snacks to fill an aisle at Costco. (That’s just a slight exaggeration because you can never have too many Cheddar Bunnies.) And the last is an extra change of clothes for your childandfor yourself because imagine having to sit for hours in a T-shirt covered in vomit or worse.

On day two of our trip, I upgraded us to a larger room with a separate living-room area, a big balcony and a giant walk’in closet where we put the Pack ‘n Play. It cost more than we’d planned to spend, but it was worth being able to read a book outside and flush the toilet without worrying about waking up Saxon.

At first, I was hesitant about leaving him with a stranger, until the hotel informed me that all their childcare professionals are required to have over three years of direct experience caring for children and they must be trained in CPR and first aid. They selected our sitter, Althea, specifically because she works at a children’s enrichment center that specializes in toddler and infants, and she was even more wonderful in person than she was on paper.

Andrea Lavinthal/Instagram

7. Have fun.Between all of the planning, packing and pre-dawn wake-ups, I almost forgot that we were on vacation. It’s hard not to freak out about every little thing, but you really have to relax and go with the flow. Your kid is going to have fun no matter what, so you should too. And like all things with parenting, you’ll eventually forget how stressful traveling with a toddler is and just remember the look on his face the first time he went in the ocean.

On that note, any recommendations for our next trip?

source: people.com