Absolute Must-Haves for Traveling with a Baby

I had just taken a new job that required me to travel pretty frequently when I found out I was pregnant. I loved my new job and I was committed to wanting to breastfeed, so figuring out a way to bring the baby along with me while I traveled was really my only option. Thankfully I have a great support system and a very committed and flexible husband that supported me in this goal. We quickly learned how to adjust to traveling with a baby!

We’ve now been on countless road trips with our baby, multiple hotel night stays, several Airbnb stays, and our baby had already been on 11 flights before he turned 1!

I spent so much time researching the best baby travel hacks and spent hours trying to find the best baby travel products. There are definitely plenty of blogs out there that have their own lists, but so many of those items are not necessary! Here are the absolute must-haves for traveling with a baby!

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1. Sleep gear!

Any new parent can attest to the fact that once you finally get your baby to sleep through the night, any new disruptions to sleep are detrimental to the both of you! So trying to avoid any sleep disruptions while traveling is definitely the goal, and the best way to do that is by trying to mimic your sleep routine while on the road.

Our bedtime routine always includes a book, so we still make sure to bring a little book with us any time we travel to use specifically for bedtime. He doesn’t seem to mind that we end up reading the same book multiple nights in a row for those longer trips!

A travel noise machine really is a must have. We traveled so much his first year that we ended up just using his travel sound machine at home too, because that’s the sound he was used to. Sure, there are a ton of travel sound machines out there, but we’ve really loved this one and the fact that it comes with the travel case. Only thing to mention, is you might want to add a charging cube to convert the USB charger if you end up staying at any hotels or locations that are a bit out of date and don’t have USB chargers!

Blackout shades! We never opted for the expensive SlumberPods (but I hear they do work!), we instead found two different options that we use for different occasions that work just as well and are MUCH cheaper! We mostly use this crib cover that’s been a total life saver! It easily stretches over any crib or pack and play and it is still a breathable material, but completely blocks out the light. It’s the easiest to travel with, so we end up using it the most. However, for Airbnb stays or when we visit my parents, we’ve found that we really like using actual blackout travel curtains. These are the ones we’ve used, although I’m sure there are many others. These are really easy to put up and are still light weight to travel with, but they’re best for situations where you might be in a larger room with a crib and actually need to block the physical light coming in the window vs just the baby’s crib. I’ll be honest, there’s been some cases where we’ve used BOTH to keep it extra dark and cozy for our little guy to get his sleep!

Last but not least, obviously a crib! Call me crazy, but we’ve ended up with TWO pack and plays. But we travel with them for different uses at different times. This one is SUPER easy to carry and lightweight. Plus it easily packs up into a backpack to make it easier for carrying. This is the one we use for any time we travel by plane. It’s easy to carry through the airport and can easily be checked at the counter. However, this one is my all time favorite pack and play and definitely the easiest to use and set up! If we travel by car, we almost always take this one. It also comes with the newborn bassinet and changing table, which was a game changer in those early days!!

However, I will say, any time we travel for a hotel stay (I’m a big Marriott fan girl!), we almost never bring a crib. I call ahead and ensure they will have one there for us when we get there. This sometimes works with Airbnb stays too, you might get lucky and they might already have a crib or pack and play there that you can use. I definitely recommend calling ahead and confirming this! You don’t want to be in a situation that you don’t have a bed for your baby! However, any time you can avoid having to bring along the pack and play is definitely a win!

2. Invest in a good travel car seat and stroller!

I tend to avoid buying things that are overly popular, especially if they don’t make sense. For example, I never thought the UPPAbaby strollers seemed very practical and the Dagne Dover diaper backpacks aren’t even that cute OR practical… I REALLY don’t understand how those became such a trend!

Regardless, one trend I can definitely get behind is the Doona car seat and stroller! This genius contraption really did save us so many times and made traveling with a baby so seamless! It’s a little heavy, so I don’t necessarily recommend it for daily use, but for travel, it’s definitely worth the investment! Especially if you plan to travel much the first year with your baby! It doesn’t require a car seat base either (even though there is the option to have one), so it made getting in and out of an Uber with a baby soooo easy! Our Uber drivers were always so impressed! I don’t know how we would’ve been able to travel so well the first year of his life without it!

Now that he’s gotten older and unfortunately has outgrown the Doona (super sad face! :()… we’ve had to adjust to travelling with a separate car seat and stroller. Again, I spent an embarrassing amount of hours researching the best, most practical, travel car seats and strollers. Here’s where we landed.

I’ve been a big fan of the Diono Radian 3R car seat. This car seat doesn’t LOOK very comfortable or that it would actually work for a toddler, but it definitely does. And our little guy really likes sitting in it surprisingly! It folds so easily, so packing it for a trip and rolling it on top of luggage is no problem! The best thing is, he will be able to travel with this one for a longgggg time! It’s a 3-in-1, meaning it can be rear facing and also be used front facing for several years to come! It’s advertised as being good for 10 years!! We are very happy that he won’t be outgrowing this one any time soon! 🙂

For our travel stroller, I actually watched this thing in action while I was still pregnant and traveling on a plane. I saw a family easily fold up the stroller and store it in the plane overhead compartment seamlessly. It also looked really cute too. All I caught was the golden type cross logo on the side of the stroller. It took me forever to research and find what brand it was. And then I found it. And we love it. The Silver Cross brand strollers are really high quality. It is light-weight and folds very easily. And it had adapters for the infant car seat we used on a more regular basis during the first year. It makes going on trips now very easy! We also plan on using this for many years to come!

3. Diaper bag and overnight bag

I already shared my thoughts above on what diaper bags I don’t think are worthwhile. So here I’ll focus on what we found to be the best diaper bag for travel! The Beis Ultimate Travel Diaper Backpack (not sponsored!) is 1000% worth it! We love that it has the wipes easily accessible on the outside and the fold out changing table on the back. We’ve had to use this on so many occasions! You never know when you’ll have to change a diaper and you definitely want a clean place to do it! This one is the best of the best!

However, we quickly realized that packing just the baby diaper bag for trips wasn’t enough. I wanted to find a baby overnight bag. Surprisingly, there aren’t many options out there for these! So if anyone’s looking to start a business, I think there’s an opportunity there! I finally found this Skip Hop Weekender Overnight bag and it’s been exactly what we needed! If you take anything unique or original away from this post, hopefully it’s this! I never saw anyone recommending a baby overnight bag and we desperately needed one. If you do any travel with your baby and toddler, I think you’ll find you need one too! This one has just the right amount of pockets, but not too much. Space for diapers and wipes and even comes with packing cubes if you want to use them. PLENTY of space to actually bring all the clothes and some toys! Whatever you will need for a trip with your baby! So glad I found this one!

4. Bottles and Utensils on the go!

Obviously the previous items are all very important, but traveling with a baby means planning ahead a lot more of what to bring to FEED the baby! I’ll be honest, this part always stresses me out the most! I thought it was hard when I was breastfeeding and I had to plan ahead to bring all my pump gear and plenty of bottles (you can read more about my breastfeeding on the go experiences here), but boyyy was I wrong! It only gets harder the older they get! They need more snacks, more bibs, more everything! If you know the toddler sign language sign for *MORE* insert here.

For a baby (and even still for our toddler) traveling, I found bringing my own bottle of travel sized soap and this cute compact baby bottle brush and drying rack, made it 100% easier to keep bottles and sippy cups clean while on the go. I couldn’t always guarantee that we would be staying somewhere that would have soap and sponges.

Another travel must-have for us has been this all-in-one meal kit. It has two SUPER suction bowls that fit on top of each other. And it comes with a fork and spoon that all compacts very nicely into the travel bag. We added a rubber bib to the kit and then any time we go to eat somewhere, we can grab this bag and it has all the essentials! Probably one of my favorite travel hacks for sure! We also recently found these disposable placemats that are so easy to use when we travel and at restaurants! Saves us from judgmental looks of him just eating off the table LOL! I just keep a pack of these in his diaper bag at all times so we can use one any time we are out to eat!

My other favorite travel hack for feeding baby on the go has been this infant feeder. You’ll find some mixed reviews out there on infant feeders, but OMGOSH it was such a lifesaver for us. You simply add the food puree into the feeder and squirt it onto the spoon. Keeps meal time much cleaner! It even comes with a cap that you can put on it and store it in the fridge for later. It’s super easy to clean too. HIGHLY recommend this handy tool! All the grandparents and older generations were shocked at what a genius idea it was. They wished they’d had one when we were growing up! Our son has had 0 issues using his own utensils or eating after having used this as a baby… so don’t believe all the rumors! These baby feeders are the best!

I almost forgot (since we don’t use it anymore!)… but a travel baby bottle warmer is a must-have when on the go with an infant! We were very impressed with the Baby’s Brew bottle warmer. I even sent back the non-portable one we had gotten from our baby shower! We used the Baby’s Brew bottle warmer full-time even when we were home! It’s so easy to use, comes with adapters for different bottle types, warms up the bottle quickly, and it’s small and light, easy to take anywhere! Even if it’s just around the house! I know there are other travel bottle warmers out there, but I haven’t heard they work as well as the Baby’s Brew. I recommend investing in this one and you can just ditch having to get one for your house!

5. Travel Nightlight

If you’re going to be traveling somewhere and staying in the same room as your baby at night, you’re not going to want to sit in the dark while your baby sleeps! Or if you’re going to need to change a diaper in the middle of the night, you won’t want to turn on those harsh hotel room lights. I really recommend bringing along a little night light. Especially during those early days when you know baby will still wake up during the night. There are a lot of great options out there for nightlights. We ended up getting this travel night light because it was easy to travel with and held a charge. You can just tap it to turn it on and hold it to change the dimness of the light. We liked it because it most closely mirrored the same light we use at home in his nursery. Hopefully it brought him some comfort and it did us too!

6. Baby Carrier

Another baby travel hack I learned was to always bring a baby carrier for getting on and off the plane. This is a lifesaver for sure! As you can imagine, and have probably seen, parents are always struggling with their babies and toddlers right before getting on a plane! They have to fold up the stroller, maybe check the stroller, check the car seat, change a last minute diaper, make sure they have the diaper backpack on and all the carry-on luggage, and of course still carry the baby!

We’ve rotated between using these at different times, but any time we fly, I make sure we have one of our baby carriers to ensure we have an easy way of holding the baby once the stroller has been folded and checked or stored in the overhead compartment. This makes getting on and off the plane SO much easier! These have been our favorites: Hip seat carrier, Baby K’tan Baby Carrier (SO easy to put on!), and the Ergobaby Omni 360 All-Position Baby Carrier (we use this for hiking trips especially!).

But one quick note of something I had to learn the hard way.. the baby cannot STAY in that carrier once you are seated on the plane. They have to come out and sit on your lap. Some airlines are more strict about this than others. But I just want to give you the heads up because no one ever warned me! I was hoping he could nap in the carrier the whole way! HA!

Are you ready to travel with your baby??

Traveling with your baby can be a lot of fun! As long as you take the time to prepare in advance and have the right “tools” for success! Hoping this list helps you as much as it has helped us!