We have been traveling with Londyn since she was about 4 months old & have always loved bringing her everywhere with us! Since she has become a toddler, I am constantly finding new activities to keep her busy when we are not at home. Traveling with a toddler can be so fun, but also a little stressful and nerve wrecking if you are not fully prepared. I have found that our best toddler travel experiences happen when I have pre-planned activities for us to do that I know she will enjoy, as well as some of her favorite toys packed too! Travel hack: keep some toys that you know your little one loves specifically only for travel and only use them when you are going out of town!
Keeping a little one entertained can help make the journey as smooth as possible. Especially with little minds having such a short attention span sometimes, preparation is key! I shared previously some toddler travel essentials (you can read them here!) & today I am sharing today a round up of travel activities that toddlers and young children will love. This post contains affiliate links.
10 toddler travel activities
In this post, I will share toddler travel activities that are easy to pack and carry around! These are a combination of easy on the road crafts, puzzles and other things that little ones enjoy if you happen to be traveling for a long time.
How to keep a toddler entertained on a plane
We travel a lot with our little one on planes, with her longest plane ride to date being 9 hours (when she was 2!). In addition to trying to get a window seat so my little can see outside, I also pack a small backpack of toddler travel activities. The below list are toys that we always bring that make for great toddler airplane activities for air travel.
Melissa & Doug sticker book
Melisa & Dot sticker books are great since they are mess free and easy to travel with! A different sticker pops out every time and the sticker pages are so cute. Not to mention they come in all different kinds. Also, the sticker part is refillable.
Packable travel tray
When traveling with a toddler, I now make sure to bring our travel tray with us on airplanes. Since my little one is too small to reach the pull down tray on the airplane sometimes, this travel tray is great for playing and snack time since it keep everything together! Plus, it comes in a cute pattern and is foldable and fits in our toddler backpack.
Mess free coloring packs
A toddler friendly take on coloring, we use these mess free coloring pages when we are going on a long plane ride. Since the colors only show on the paper, they are great since they don’t mess up clothes but still allow your little to color.
Dot marker sheets
Dot marker activities are another way to “color” mess free! We always keep a sheet of dot markers and some sheets folded up on the plane. We don’t always use them, but they are a great resort to pull out during a quick last minute melt down. I have created some very cute dot marker sheets that are available here on my Etsy shop!
Washi Tape
This one is a little weird, but a simple roll of colored wash tape is always a hit on the airplane for us! I keep 1-2 small scrapbook rolls in fun prints in our toddler backpack and she has so much fun ripping it and putting it everywhere! After she is done, we simply pick it up and put it in the trash!
Sensory toys
We try to always bring 1-2 sensory toys with us on the plane that come from our stash of “travel only” toys. I recently found a cute one on Amazon that is great! It comes with some colored silicon “straws” that you then place in different ways on the silicon cutout. This is also a great fine motor activity.
Magnetic puzzle
I recently found some magnetic puzzles on amazon which we love! We are currently in our puzzle phase in our house, so finding a magnetic puzzle for the airplane was perfect. This one comes with two puzzles in one set that are both magnetized and easy to keep together.
Snacks
Snacks are a necessity no matter where you are traveling to when you have a little one, but especially for airplane travel! I always make sure to keep a small bag of my littles favorite snacks when we are traveling: organic fruit roll ups, toddler granola bars and of course her favorite water bottle to name a few!
How to keep toddler entertained on a long car ride
If your little one is anything like mine, then after a while they are ready to get out to their car seat! The below list are some things that are great activities to keep toddler entertained on a long car ride.
Magnatiles
We play with magnatiles at home a lot, and I always keep a small bag of them in the car too. Since they are magnetic, they are easy to keep together in the car and don’t fall too easily.
Interactive Learning & Poke-A-Dot books
I try to keep a few favorite books from home in the car and rotate them every week or so. These books are typically learning focused (alphabet, numbers, etc.) and are ones that are interactive vs a story. Poke-A-Dot books are also a favorite of ours that we keep in the car. These tend to be on the heavy side, so for airplanes we don’t use them as much but they are great for road trips.
Finger puppets
A newer toy for us, finger puppets are a great toddler activity for the car! This toy let’s your little ones imagination run wild!
How to keep toddlers entertained at restaurants
When traveling to restaurants, I always bring a little bag of toys to keep our little entertained! This bag is a combination of airplane travel and car travel toys and I switch it up every time we go to a restaurant to eat. Some of our most used restaurant toys include magnatiles, sensory toys, favorite books and coloring sheets.
XO,
B
