The best family travel gear for easy travels with kids easier: kids travel gear and family travel accessories for easy travels with babies, toddlers, older kids
Traveling with kids is easier if you can count on good travel gear.
However, you don’t need to break the bank or carry excessive amounts of stuff just because you now travel with children in tow.
It is perfectly possible to travel light with kids!
When it comes to family travel products, I fully embrace the idea of quality over quantity and over the course of the years I have selected products that I believe are actually worth the money.
My rules for picking great family travel products are:
- The best family travel gear is versatile
My first rule when it comes to travel products is: pick those you can also use at home.
As much as it can be appealing to have a new piece of gear that is just for your oversea adventure, I find the best things are those that keep giving also at home and not just because of budget concerns.
Children often like what they know and being able to rely on a tried and tested piece of gear they recognize from home, can make them more relaxed and your trip easier.
- Great travel items for families are portable
This is probably an obvious one but the best piece of gear becomes a nuisance on travel if you cannot carry it easily or it needs more than one person.
Always consider that you will have your baby or child with you and, depending on age, that may mean you will be wearing a carrier or holding hands.
Consider the realities of travel when evaluating how portable something really is.
When picking a travel accessory, make sure the item is easy to fold and unfold (if relevant) easy to carry and self-contained: any additional piece you need is an additional item to carry and you really do not want that.
- Get travel accessories that are good quality
The other big thing to look at is the quality of the piece.
While you do not want to invest a lot of money in an item that can get battered on trains and planes, going too cheap can easily backfire.
A very cheap stroller whose wheels fall off at the first cobbled street is definitely not a good travel purchase!
In this article, you will find the family travel gear that works best for us and that we feel like recommending.
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Table of Contents
Our favorite travel gear for families: carriers and strollers
Baby carrier – best baby carriers for travel
Soft or strutured, a baby carrier is probably the one piece of equipment you cannot do without when traveling with a little one.
Even if bringing a stroller, a baby carrier will be invaluable whenever you need to move fast and it is essential in manu museums, attractions and any locality with less than smooth terrain.
You can find my full list of our favourite baby carriers for toddlers here but, at a glance, Some found good on our travels are:
- Baby Bjorn Original Baby Carrier – in our experience, the best baby carrier for traveling with a newborn or young baby
- Ergo Baby Carrier – our favorite carrier for older babies and toddlers
- Deuter Kid Comfort – in our experience, the best child carrier for hiking and outdoor vacations
All-terrain strollers
All terrain strollers are pushchairs that arte able to handle any type of terrain and they are invauable for travel.
While often not the lightest to carry, they make us for it with a smooth pushing experience that protects both your back and that of your child.
You can find all terrain strollers we love here.
Lightweight double stroller
We traveled extensively with a baby and a toddler so a good double stroller for travel was an essential purchase for us.
While often a little bulky, they are great on the go as they allow both kids to rest at the same time and free your hands whenever needed.You can find our selection of the best double strollers for travel here
Strollers for Europe
Another recommendation for strollers, specific for Europe travels and cobbles streets in general.
These strollers are a compromise between lightweight and strurdy and can be not just good for travel but also as a secondary stroller at home. Find out favorites here.
Car seats and booster seats
Car seats for plane travel
If you are flying with kids towards your road trip destination, you may need to carry a car seat with you and choosing a flying approved car seat can save you a headache.
You can read the pro and cons of flying with a cabin car seat and the best cabin approved car seats here
Car seat bags
If you are not using a car seat in flight, then you want to make sure you protect it from bumps and possible accidents.
A car seat bag can be inexpensive and good investment. You can find our recommended travel bags for car seats here
Portable booster car seat
If you have older kids, then you may be able to travel with a booster seat.
You can find here our selection of the best booster seats for travel and our review of the BubbleBum, a super handy portable and inflatabale booster seat for older kids
Best family travel luggage and bags
Good luggage and bags can make a trip much much easier. Over the course of the yeats, we have selected:
Diaper bags
The huble changing bag can double up as an excellent travel bag, if you choose the right model!
We discovered it the hard way, when an unsuotable one made my shoulders sore, without a chance for respite!
You can find my selection of the best diaper bags for travel here
Backpack diaper bags
If you don’t travel with a main backpack, then a backpack travel bag can be an excellent changin bag / day bag.
You can find my selection of the best backpack diaper bags for mums and dads here (great to share the load!)
Toddler backpacks
Our kids adored getting ready for travel packing and carrying their own travel bag and this is why we invested in good toddler backpacks.
If you pick a good quality one built with safety in mind, they can be a wonderful piece of kids travel gear that thet will use for travel items (including their favorite teddy) and also at home.
You can find my selection of the best toddler backpacks that they can use at home too here and my review of the Deuter Kikki, our favorite of all here.
Ride on luggage for kids
Another useful travel item for us was trunki, the ride on bag for little kids.
Ours used it as their main piece of travel luggage from 2 to 6 years old and they have been invaluable. Years later, we are still asked if there was any chance they could use it!
You can read why we loved our trunki here.
Kids backpacks
Once our kids got older we gave them kids backpacks as their main piece of luggage and we opted for travel prioducts tehy could use at home too, namaly to go to school.
After long research, we found good and versatile kids bakcpacks: you can find our selection here.
Family travel luggage for mom and dad
For us adults, we foiund the best bags for family travel to be:
- Osprey carry on travel backpack – excellent for all types of travels
- Samsonite PC Omni series – great for when you prefer wheeled luggage
Best family travel accessories for sleeping while away
When traveling with a baby, you may need additional baby travel gear.
Travel bassinet
A travel bassinet is a great little bed for babies that you can easily carry with you no matter where you go.
They are an excellent way to guarantee that your baby has a clean bed where they feel safe and contained even in unfamiliar surroundings,
You can find our selection of the best baby bassinets and baby beds for travel here.
Travel crib
A travel crib is one of our must have items when traveling with a toddler.
They are a great way to have a clean space for your toddler to sleep but they also double up as playpens: excellent for when you want the to play but cannot have them on the floor
You can find toddler travel cribs that worked for us here.
Portable baby bath
I consider a portable baby bath a baby travel essential for those babies who are used to warm baths to settle.
While we often used a shower when traveling light, it made one of our kids in particular quite excited so not idea for settling for the night!
Feeding: famiy travel items for eating on the go
Baby bottle cooler carriers
If you are traveling with pumped milk or need to make bottles on the go, then a baby bottle cooler can be an essential piece of gear.
Some are just for bottles while others come as larger bags with compartments for additional stuff such as muslin cloths or snacks. You can find our selection of good coolers for carrying baby milk here.
Travel high chair
A travel high chait can be a useful purchase if you are renting an apartment abroad or are planning to eat out and don’t want to be limited to restaurants with baby equipment.
They helped us so much when traveling that I consider them pretty much a toddler travel essential!
Some of the highchairs on the market now and light and non bulky: you can find a selection of the best travel high chairs here.
Reusable water bottle
We have one each and they are wonderful to make sure you are alway hidrated and you don’t contribute to plastic pollution.
An easy, versatile sustainable travel product you can use at home too!
Family travel accessories for a beach vacation
If you are planning a family beach vacation, you may need a specific beach vacation packing list. My two favorite travel items for the beach are:
Popup Tent
Perfect for getting changes in privacy and always fund for kids to use as a den!
You can find our favorite types of popup tents for families here
Water shoes
Essential not just for rcoky shores but also for pools and for all small kids who do not like to get sand on their feet!
You can find our favorite water shoes for kids here
Nice to have family travel items
Other kids travel items may not be as essential as the ones above but they they added something to our trips so I want to share them with you,
- GoPro or action camera for kids – fantastic for active kids, it is a wonderful way to engage them in outdoor activities and keep them busy.
- Kids travel pillow – great for planes and cars
- Kids Headphones – excellent for plane and car rides especially
- Portable telescopes – fantastic for familiy stargazing
- Kids Binoculars – great to keep kids engaged on a hike or outdoors
- Thermals – great to lenghten the amouhnt of time you and your kids can stay outside when traveling in cold weather (an essential in cold weather)
- Camel back: a fabulous hikingh accessory for kids (and a wonderful gift for an outdoor kid!)
More useful kid travel items: travel toys!
Essential to keep kids happy on any family vacation!
Find a selection of our favorite travel toys for road trips and ideas to keep toddlers busy on a plane here
Looking for even more packing tips for families? Then you can also check our specialised packing lists:
Essential carry on only family packing list
Family packing list for spring in Europe
I hope you found our list of travel gear for families useful. Safe family travels!
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