Traveling with a toddler alone? 5 survival packing tips

If you’re traveling alone with a toddler, here are 5 survival packing tips for you to use soon!

Traveling with kids or particularly “toddlers” can be a challenge for all parents and I give praise to every single one of you doing it. I traveled with Luna the first time when she was 6 months old and it wasn’t the best experience. 

I was by myself and had to do EVERYTHING alone without my husband since he had to work. Imagine having a six month old, trying to feed her, calm her down, forgetting the diaper wipes in the restroom ughhh!!!

I vowed that I would never travel with a baby again or wait till she was older…welp that changed! I had to go on a family trip to Chicago to visit my family and this time I felt like I could take this traveling thing with a toddler like a champ. And honestly, this time it was so much better. 

She’s 2.5 now and I did more research on how to travel with my squiggly mover. Particularly organizing and packing her things and how to keep her occupied on the plane. I didn’t plan it very well in the beginning and now it’s a high priority of mine to figure it out and I did.

The most important thing for me was to travel SUPER light. Not to bring excessive items that didn’t make sense and would relieve me from lugging a ton of things around the airport while we did layovers. 

So the second time around I traveled by myself again on the way to Chicago. My husband would meet us during our trip to Chicago and we traveled together on our way back. This was a relief!

So if you’re traveling alone with a toddler, I wanted to share with you 5 survival packing tips when traveling alone with your toddler.

1. Essential packing before travel day

So I wanted to make sure that I brought Luna all of the clothes she needed while on the trip. As the true Virgo that I am, I created a daily outfits list in my notepad on my iPhone. Yes, it was that organized but it helped. 

I included her morning outfit, afternoon outfit, and possible evening wear and pajamas. I always added a “just in case” outfit if she were to spill something on her clothes or some kind of messy situation. I added two extra outfits for our entire trip.

I limited her shoes to about three pairs. Since it was a hot summer in Chicago, she would need sandals and sneakers for the airport. 

So it was organized by “day” and the occasion of what we had planned. This kept me from adding more clothes that weren’t necessary.

This worked out so well and honestly I had a lot of clothes left over but this 7 piece packing cube set made it so much easier on my life! 

These are a lifesaver! I will NEVER  travel without packing cubes. It just makes it so much easier to have in the hotel room and by picking different colors for your kids, you’re able to categorize your child’s belongings. 

Another plus is that the top part is see-through so you’ll definitely know what you packed. I also love that there is a shoe bag and you can hang it in the closet. It comes with 2 clear bags for carry-on and storage. 

I used the clear bags for her toiletries and miscellaneous items which I loved! I can see everything when I have everything laid out in the hotel room. This was definitely a plus for me. The cubes were also roomy too. I was able to fit maybe 16 outfits for her in the largest cube. Whew!!

I packed her diapers in one of the cubes and brought the diaper wipes in there too. I just purchased one of those $2 wipes to travel with. 

• Tip: check the weather before you go and pack accordingly. I always pack a light sweater for Luna in any situation. It can get cold inside restaurants, airports or the evening. You never know. 

For Luna’s toiletries, I was looking for something silicone so that I’m able to squeeze the bottle for her shampoo, lotion, micellar water, hair products etc. 

I found this 4 pack travel bottles and it came with two extra toothbrush covers and three mini plastic containers. 

I made use of all of the bottles! I was able to pack everything I needed for her in this and liked the idea that it was a clear bag, didn’t leak and it came with small labels. I do need to purchase other labels for more specific items but this was perfectly fine. 

2. Plane essentials

Traveling with your kids AND yourself is difficult when you’re trying to figure out how to get on the plane with all of this stuff!

The key is to be strategic and not to overpack. So you have to plan!

Yes I know they say to bring items “just in case” and I really get it for certain things like diapers and food. BUT I’m telling you from experience when you overpack and you’re traveling alone with your toddler it will be hard to carry a bag and extra plane food, toys, the kid, their stuff, and a stroller….um no!

Keep it easy for ya! 

So initially I was going to bring her diaper bag on the plane but figured with the amount of things I was going to bring plus snacks, diapers and clothes, nothing was going to fit. 

I packed the diaper bag in my checked bag and used it when I was in Chicago.

So I did my research and I wanted a bag that was big enough, not too big, not too small and was cute. 

So I found this bag which was perfect for me.

The shoe compartment of the bag was my “snack compartment”. The inside of the bag was roomy for me and I was able to stick everything inside. I loved the canvas material and it didn’t look cheap from amazon. Win!

It gave modern, casual, chic travel. I use this as my weekender bag now! 

I also used the small plastic tsa carryon zip bags that came with my 7 pc packing cube to use in my carry on for lysol spray, wet one wipes and my baby bum sanitizer. This is my favorite sanitizer and it smells so good!

3. Carry-on bag Items

• Lunas Tablet to play and watch movies on. I downloaded tons of videos and movies from our Netflix and Amazon account. This tablet was wayyy affordable than the regular amazon fire and figured it did the same thing. It worked perfectly fine. 

• Headphones for the tablet. These were great and easy to travel with! I was able to use this on the plane for myself watching movies on the headrest when Luna was sleeping. I was thinking of getting the wireless one but I liked having the headphone jack connected to the tablet so that I can find it right away in my bag.

• Disposable masks for her. She started to get an interest in wearing masks so I bought these just in case an employee was going to say something at the airport. Fortunately no one said anything during our entire trip and luckily Luna was given her first airline pin from Delta and they loved her singing ha!

• A book for me (which I never read) 

• I set of clothes just in case she spilled something. 

• Portable charger for my phone and her tablet This was definitely used a lot!  I would take this everywhere with me while we were out in Chicago and made use of it when someone had a dead phone or my phone/tablet would lose power. This charger is on the heavy side so I would suggest getting something lighter or less power. Unless you have multiple people who may need to use this while on vacay, its definitely a MUST have for every parent. You don’t want any electronic device dying on you! 

• Diapers! I packed about 5 diapers with wipes (I know how often she soils her diaper so pack accordingly) I placed this in a compressed see through carry bag (insert this link) so that when I needed to change her, everything was in the compressed bag and I wouldn’t have to scramble through my carryon. 

• Lastly the miscellaneous items: travel tissue paper, chap-stick, Tylenol, baby Tylenol, pacifier (for when her ears could pop during landing and takeoff), vitamin c packet and my wallet.

I also got luna this skip hop backpack so she felt like she was part of the travel adventures. I knew she would be curious to see me carrying my bag and so I figured having a mini backpack would be cute! Plus she’s in the copycat stage. If you know you know. Oh and being able to throw in some activities in her bag made it easy too. 

I added some snacks and these magic marker coloring books which I did not think she would use but she had fun with it. (this was great for the plane!) and this is another coloring book too.

She was more fascinated of looking out of the airplane window most of the time so having too many toys would have not been useful for us.

The backpack came with a detachable harness which was very convenient when luna wanted to walk around in atlanta airport. She liked being tugged with the strap which was funny but it definitely helped when we were around crowds and I would have to grab her quickly. 

4. Toddler travel gear

Travel gear is something that I had to figure out the first time around when traveling with Luna and while I did a ton of research, I had to make sure I was comfortable with the type of travel gear I needed when traveling ALONE with Luna. The most important feature would be that it had to be convenient, light and easy to transport. 

• Cosco scenera car seat. Now I’ve had this car seat for my husband’s car and use this for travel. This car seat is super lightweight, I can carry it with one hand and it’s easy to transport. It also came with a plastic cover so you can use it when checking it into the airport. It was easy to strap into our car rental and made it a breeze to move throughout the airport when I had to pick it up in baggage claim.

• This car seat travel belt was a life saver and MUST! I was able to strap luna’s car seat onto the top of her stroller in the seat part. And I was able to push my check in bag and had her sit in the seat while I carried my carry on bag too (make sure its stable!)  I felt like the strap was strong enough to hold the car seat and was easy to put away once I checked in my car seat.        

I chose the belt because it was easy for me to strap the seat onto my stroller. And one less thing for me to carry or push. 

They do sell these car seat stroller carts if you want to travel with a cart.

• This stroller  is my absolute favorite and I don’t regret it! I absolutely LOVE it and like how easy it is to break down and pull out. I initially bought this stroller before Covid so that I could travel more on the plane with Luna.

• The only con to this is that the compartment for storage on the bottom is small but so far I haven’t had to use it that much. And since this is a compact stroller I figured the storage compartment would have to be sacrificed. I did buy this grab and go stroller organizer that I’ve attached to the top of the bar of my stroller so I can put my phone, drinks and more in. This is very necessary for the stroller and it has made a huge difference on the ease of grabbing my stroller and going. 

Here are some pros and cons to the baby jogger city pro 2

        Pros:

        Easy to clean

        Compact

        Light weight

        Great sun coverage and has a peekaboo top. 

        Smooth to push

        It has been tossed around alot and it still seems durable and strong. 

        The seat can be reclined all the way down for toddler to sleep and the feet part can be pushed up too. 

        Cons:

        Storage is small on the bottom. 

Extra Tips

• I used the delta airline app and it made checking in and having our boarding info easy on my phone. I’ve never used an app for an airline to do this and realized I should have been doing this before! Back in the day I would use my paper boarding pass and with layovers and it would get confusing pulling out the old one vs new ticket. 

• The app would also notify me of any gate changes and it was easy to look at my phone instead of looking at the big screen in the airline terminals trying to figure out where I was going. I recommend trying to use your airline app to see if they offer this feature. 

• I also had a long continental wallet from tory burch to help with organizing cash and tickets. I loved that the wallet zipped up and I was able to secure everything in my wallet. Having hotel room keys, parking tickets, receipts etc made it sooo much easier than having a regular wallet.

• Find a carry on bag that is like a backpack that can fit all of your things easily. The less things you have to place in your hands the easier. 

• Plan and research everything before you go on your trip whether it’s to pick up a rental car, check in times at the hotel, places to eat after you land from the airport etc. It’ll make traveling so much easier and less of a headache. 

• Try to break the trip in half with a layover if its a long one. I know Luna cannot be in a seat for too long so the layover was perfect for us. Plus I was always hungry and it helped to eat and wait for our next plane. And you can get them tired by running around the airport.

5. Feeding essentials

For storing snacks I used this lunchable style bento box I loved how I was able to customize her snack preference and it had great portion sizes. She always gets excited to see what I put in there and it’s a great way to add more snacks in a fun and convenient way. 

She stays more occupied eating her snacks rather than giving her one small bag of crackers or one cheese stick etc. The four compartments are eye catching and you can create a healthy rotation too!

I also brought her thermos water bottle , I liked how this bottle can keep her water cold and can fill it up whenever. It’s also hygienic so the top only opens with a button and it covers the drinking straw entirely. Great for times like this!

Bonus tip: Comfort essentials

I always suggest bringing your toddlers comfort items that are familiar to them from home. We made the mistake of going on a staycation before and didn’t bring any of her comfort items from home so while we went to bed she was looking for her toys! 

This time I made sure I brought her Owl lullaby toy , a night time reading book and toddler pillow for the hotel room. It was perfect!

Traveling alone with your toddler alone doesn’t have to be difficult, but it definitely is a challenge. Planning is the best way to overcome the fear and you’re doing the best you can.  It can be scary since you don’t know what could happen during flights and their attitudes etc. but it’s definitely a great trial run to see how your child adjusts to traveling.

I’m so glad Luna enjoyed it a lot and look forward to going on our trips together in the future with family. I felt like a champ doing this and you can do it too!

To recap: 5 survival packing tips when traveling alone with your toddler.

1. Make sure you plan and organize outfits before your trip and itineraries.
2. Pack plane essentials that are fun for your toddler and necessary for you too.
3. Choose travel gear that is easy for you and your toddler to move quickly.
4. Get feeding essentials that make snacking for your toddler easy to hold and can store alot of food items.
5. Bring comfort items for your toddler!

I hope your future travels with your toddler alone will go smoothly for you! You can check out our family vacation in Jamaica here.  

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Until next time,