MAMA Jots: 5 Toddler Travel Tips || Hawaii Vacation

Ok, after 11 trips (6 flights and 5 road trips) with Abby since she's been born, today I'm happy to share our 5 best toddler travel tips fresh off from our last trip to Hawaii! These ideas can also very well could be used for a long car ride too! And of course, at the bottom is a photo dump of our vacation because well... I LOVE photos and I always love it when others share! : )

5 Toddler Travel Tips

|| 1 ||

A Time to Travel

When Abby is full of energy (yet calm) and happy, early in the morning has been our best time to leave when traveling long distances. We’ve tried afternoon trips when she was 9 months and 1.5 years old and those just didn’t seem to go as smooth as when we left early in the morning around 7 or 8am.

|| 2 ||

Adjusting to Time Change

We’ve done 3 trips in the last three years where Abby has needed to adjust to a 2-3 hour time difference and by making it a priority to achieve a new bedtime on travel day, she’s been able to adjust in 24 hours will a little bit of effort. We let her take a very short nap (30-45 nap max) as late as possible to push bedtime.

For example, on this trip we left at 8am and arrived 6.5 hours later to Hawaii, making it 11:30am there time. So, first thing we did was eat lunch! And then get out in the sunshine. We then played at home and let her go down for a nap Hawaii time at 2:30pm (6:30pm PNW time). So this helped her adjust to staying up a bit later to go to bed at 7:30pm Hawaii time (10:30am PNW). Abby adjusted just fine the following day, and the rest of the trip and I believe it’s because we made that first day of getting her on a new schedule, a high priority.

|| 3 ||

Comfort Items

Making it feel like home, really helps! Abby’s relaxed and feels comforted without having to hang on me the entire trip! This was especially important to us when Abby flew for the very first time at 6 months old (new sounds and smells are scary for little ones!) I truly believe this tip helps!

|| 4 ||

Snacks

Bring tons of them! I’m always amazed on how much she eats while traveling though I’ve heard this same thing from other moms and it's true, snacks keep them happy. We brought gold fish, raisins, bunny cheese crackers, dum-dum suckers (for her ears during takeoff) fruit snacks and some chocolate chip cookies.

|| 5 ||

New Entertainment

I think I spent $15 total on new play dough, coloring books, water wow, and activity books for Abby this round and it was $15 well spent! Even though they have a movie screen setup on the plane, Abby can only watch maybe 20-30 minutes at a time. So, I rotate between eating snacks and keeping her hands busy. Abby did great! She even enjoyed just looking out the window. You can find some great fun things for little ones to do at the dollar spot in Target and load up a diaper bag full of them!

Ok, and now....

A photo dump.