Traveling with Kids: My Packing List

by Ali | Jan 6, 2015 | Amazon, Children, Travel

For many years I have numerous Google Docs that I have put together for keeping an idea of what we need to pack. I haven’t included quantities as those always change depending on where we are going and how many days, but this is a starting point. I am sure there are things that I have left off the list.No matter how many times I look at the weather, I am always off on what I pack. I think it’s because 50 degrees in Cleveland feels much warmer than 50 degrees in Los Angeles or New Jersey. Perhaps because it gets so cold outside. Or I always forget to pack an appropriate jacket for the weather and we need to end up borrowing.

Traveling with three kids on a plane can be overwhelming with luggage and since I don’t rent car seats and bring my own it just adds a layer of complexity while traveling through the airport. But we have been pretty efficient on our last three trips with the kids and have minimized to 2 Large Suitcases, 2 Bags for (Three Car Seats), 1 Stroller, 3 Carry On Bags, 1 Diaper Bag, 1 Purse.

Another thing we have done the last couple trips is flying out of a smaller airport, we always use the sky cap. My husband parks the car and the sky cap helps me check all the luggage in. By the time my husband gets back from dropping off the car we are all checked in. When we flew to LA, we used the Curbside Checkin and they were even able to deal with the infant boarding pass and saved us tons of time in the check-in process.

Here are a few things that I have found useful when traveling:

They are great for helping contain the mess of a baby who loves eating, but gets food all over the place. They easily stick to the table and I can peel up the mess.

I find that often when we are staying in a hotel, the outlets are often hard to get to and there aren’t enough places to charge all the electronics. The mini shelf for the phone has been great when we couldn’t get to any of the outlets next to nightstand in the hotel room.

I saw on Pinterest a couple months ago to make bracelets with your phone number on it and have the kids where them in case they get loss. The only problem is when I went to Michael’s or any of our general arts and crafts stores the number beads were nowhere to be found. So my older two and I made bracelets before we went away last summer for them to keep on them at all times. I keep the Tavel ID Bands on me, just in case we are somewhere and I didn’t think about the bracelets so I can quickly put them on.