2 years old

Travel Essentials for Families

08:30

We have just got back from a fantastic trip to Dubai as a family, and there were definitely a selection of items that made our journey easier.  I've also finally come up with a system of packing that works for our family!


I find packing for the whole trip pretty easy, just making a list of all of the clothes that we'll need and packing them up.  It's packing for the actually journey that I find really tricky, especially for long flights with young children when we really do need a lot of things!  So my new system is to pack lots of little bags, that fit into a larger bag so that we just take out the things that we need.  We have one bag that we don't even touch on the plane, it just has things that we need on either side of the journey (extra layers of clothes, booster seats, and any spare clothes and nappies) then I have a snack bag, a bag for bedtime on the plane (pyjamas and pillows), and the kids each have their own little bag that has toys and books in it. (I also have a bag that has a few brand new little surprises to keep the kids busy on the flight.)



So of course we need to have some pretty fantastic bags for this sort of travel organisation, and I really lucked out by being given a Mia Tui bag to try out.  The Amelie is the absolute perfect travel bag for Mums.  It has so many different compartments in it!  I have space for all of my essentials as well as loads of the kids stuff.  It makes it so much easier when you have an organised bag because you don't have to rummage around for everything on the flight when you need something quick.  It's also perfect for when you're going through security in the airport as you can easily find your electronics and there's even a clear bag that you can keep liquids seperate in and take out to be scanned.  I absolutely love it!


So then I have a large Cath Kidston overnight bag that I keep the rest of the small bags in.  A must in the snack bag is a large variety of different little snacks to keep the kids tummies full as well as keeping them busy for a few minutes!  We brought a wide variety of Organix snacks on our trip to Dubai including raisins (which the kids love and I think are great for take off and landing to keep them chewing and prevent ear popping) as well as mini oaty bites, full sized oaty bars and small bags of alphabet biscuits.  I really find that bringing out little snacks throughout the flight helps the kids (and these are so much healthier than the crisps and chocolate that comes with the kids meals!)



Then when it is time to get the kids ready to sleep on the journey it is so easy to just pull out the bag with the kids toothbrushes, pyjamas, cuddly toys and pillows.  We were lucky enough to try out a few different pillows on this journey including the animal pillows from Go Travel.  We got the Giraffe Neck Pillow for Ethan (because he's so tall) and the Lion Neck Pillow for Ivy (because she's so noisy...just ask the other passengers on the plane!) They both loved the pillows, as we had four seats together they were able to stretch out so they could use their pillows around their necks, under their heads or just snuggle them while they lay across us.  It was nice to have that little extra bit of comfort for them in an unusual place. We also tried the Sneck pillow from Bubble Bum (which really meant that I got to have a travel pillow as well, what luxury!  Don't worry, I let Ethan have it back when we were in the car!) The Sneck has a velcro strap which is great to attach it to a bag (so it doesn't take up any precious bag space!) and can also help attach it to the seat or the car seat belt.  It is very cosy and even has a little pouch that can hold precious toys that the little ones can't be without.


The kids each choose toys from home to bring with them to play with on the journey, these are usually books, activity books and small cars and figures.  But I also like to bring a few surprises, which this time included a new travel game from Orchard Toys.  I love that they've made small versions of these great educational games, perfect for playing with on the plane or at your destination.  Ethan was very excited when I pulled out Jungle Snakes and Ladders to play with on the plane!  He's familiar with the game, but we hadn't played in some time so it was really nice to see the progress that he's made with counting and number recognition.  It's also just fun to play and can be played over and over again to pass the time.  The only danger is in losing the dice, so for that we used a small snack box to shake it around rather than throwing it (a cup would work too).


Then when we finally arrived in Dubai it was great to be able to find a taxi with a car seat for Ivy knowing that we had the Bubble Bum in our bag for Ethan to sit in.  I truly do not know how we hadn't heard of the Bubble Bum booster seats before now, but they are absolutely perfect to travel with!  It is an inflatable booster seat that when deflated rolls down to fit in a small carry bag.  So we are able to carry a safe seat for Ethan around with us, without having to lug around a massive heavy booster seat.  It's so easy to inflate, even whilst standing at a taxi rank at the airport and you just pop it in the seat and feed the seatbelt through.  It literally couldn't be easier and takes up hardly any space, it is genius!  I can't wait until Ivy's old enough for us to just carry a Bubble Bum for each of them.


It is amazing how much we learn each time that we travel with the kids, but I think that we're finally getting the hang of packing and organising ourselves for the flights.  I won't lie to you and say it was easy (Ivy refused to sleep, she was just so excited to be on the plane!) but these travel essentials certainly made the whole process run a lot more smoothly for us!

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* This is a review post, we were given the Mia Tui bag, the Organix snacks, the Go Travel pillows and Bubble Bum booster and pillow and the Orchard Toys game to bring with us on our travels and write our honest opinions about.*

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1 comments

  1. What a great list! We are going to Dubai later this year so will definitely revisit this post then! I love the idea of having smaller bags in the big one. I just chuck it all in one and hope for the best. This is so much better :-) x

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