If you’re just catching up you can read {Part 1} Airplane and Airport Travel with Babies & Toddlers and {Part 2} Packing for Babies & Toddlers.
Now that you’ve packed and gotten to your destination I have a few tips for while on your trip with babies and toddlers. This is a shorter section because by the time you’re at your destination I’m hoping you’re enjoying yourself!
- Hotel Cribs – this is personal preference, but I recommend calling ahead and ultimately we’ve found it best to bring our own, albeit annoying. We had one experience where we got a great metal crib, were able to wipe it down and used our own crib sheet. But then we had another experience where we were given a pack n play that looked 20+ years old and was absolutely disgusting. We ended up putting Louie in the bed surrounded by pillows he didn’t roll out.
- Bathing kids – bring your own cleaner. I don’t trust that tubs are actually cleaned in hotels or Airbnb’s. I travel with a mini surface cleaner made by the Honest Company. Or, shower your kiddo while you’re showering. I’ve also done simple sponge baths for babies since they don’t get very dirty.
- Ask for extra towels, pillows, sheets, etc. Whatever you need the hotel has. Just ask.
- If there’s a time difference, keep your kids on your home time zone to make the transition back home seamless. We do this especially when we travel to the east coast (2 hour time difference) and more so when they are babies versus toddlers. Toddlers run themselves tired not matter what and can adjust easily. Babies though are trickier, so our normal bedtime and sleep time of 7pm-7am becomes 9pm-9am – which really isn’t that big of a deal since we are typically up later visiting people anyway.
- Plan a buffer day. We try (whenever possible) to ensure we have a day between getting home and going back to work. It helps with catching up on laundry, unpacking, getting kids readjusted, etc.
- Just know that the first few days back home will be a shit show, for lack of a better term, haha! They’re overtired and out of their normal routine. I know when I travel I’m more tired, a little overwhelmed and ultimately out of sorts, so I can imagine it’s even worse for kids not being in their own bed, with own their toys, etc. It has taken us anywhere from 3 days to one week to get our babies back on their schedule once home, so have patience.
Traveling with kids is a lot and many people have commented to us about how crazy we are, but the way we look at it the pros outweigh the cons. Yes it’s hard, it’s tiring, it’s stressful and we sweat a lot until we’re at our destination.
And in all honesty Al and I don’t get irritated at each other very often, but when we travel with our kids the looks we give each other, the comments under our breath and the shortness to each other is at an all-time high. But we both accept it, know it will pass and move on. No need to re-visit the irritability with each other, no need to talk about it later, no need to apologize to each other. We just get through it and move on. I promise, it’s worth it!
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