Our Top 3 Travel Products When Traveling With Children
I’m that crazy Mom that keeps track of all our children’s flights and to date, Noah has been on 96 flights already, and Kaia on 45 (most of which have been long haul international flights). Although it’s definitely more the norm to ‘slow down’ with traveling once you have children (sane/clever parents do that!), we seem to have done the opposite after becoming parents. Although both of us have always travelled a lot globally, the amount of long haul flights have definitely increased for us in the last few years. Goes hand in hand with 1. Hubs starting an international business after Noah was born, 2. Me resigning from my corporate job and suddenly having time and flexibility, and 3. Both of our extended families living overseas. We took Noah to 5 continents before he turned 1. We have faced Jetlag countless times over. We have stayed in countless hotel rooms and used our travel cribs more than the normal cot for our children. Travel, with or without children, is in our blood, but now that we have such an intensity of years behind us where children have always been part of the travel equation, I cannot picture it any other way. I absolutely love it! Not only have the CHILDREN become one of our travel accessories, THEIR accessories (stroller, car seat, travel crib, TRUNKI!, etc) are automagically just part of the whole travel look now. We have learnt a lot and I have also taken my time to share quite a bit (check out my 4-part ‘traveling with children’ series on my blog here)...but one thing is for sure, there are only a few baby/child products that I cannot live without when we travel now. Three in fact. Three products that I wanted to share these with you today:
The Lotus Everywhere Travel Crib. This product is golden in our world. We moved overseas when Noah was 11 months old for a year (USA and Berlin), and instead of buying a proper cot in either of our two homes that year, Noah just made his Lotus travel crib (from Guava Family) his bed for not only that entire year, but basically until he was well over 3,5 years old! Yes, that is the truth and there is no part of my Mama heart that is ashamed. I LOVE that he felt so comfortable in his snug travel crib for so long. It was his safety, his comfort and he always slept through the night in it. It was actually once he switched to his big boy bed (a few months before turning 4), that he started coming up to our bed in the middle of the night. Go figure. The Lotus is quick and fool-proof to assemble/dissemble; it is super light and small/compact enough to take as carry on all flights.
Trunki. Hubby brought Noah back a Trunki from one of his work trips when Noah was about 17 months old. And there has not been a trip or flight that we have taken since without Trunki being a major focus and feature. It is one of those ingenious products that is so well thought out, where the quality is extremely high end and the construction is flawless. And it is THE ORIGINAL kids ride on luggage, and what is more, it comes with a 5 year guarantee. One of the best parts of getting ready for a trip is filling Trunki! Noah gets to pick out his books and toys that he wants to take for the trip and he feels so proud being able to choose and pack on his own (with a bit of supervision and quality control of course). And Kaia will start now as well as she now has her own Trunki too! I also LOVE that it is compact and in this way, the kids can’t take an entire suitcase of toys (totally unnecessary anyways), and can only choose their favourites. Noah’s favourite part of airports is being able to ride on Trunki. And Mama loves it too (!!) because I have had countless flights with Noah (or both kids) on my own, and being able to pull a toddler on a rolling suitcase, rather than carrying him/her (when you are already carrying another little person), makes life a tad bit easier...and lighter. Trunki is now available in South Africa, so for all my local friends, get yours here!
The Ergobaby 360 Carrier. There are many baby/child carriers in this world but as an owner and user of many, I can honestly say that the Ergo 360 is by far the most versatile and high quality carrier I have come across. We bought ours when Noah was 4 months old and have used it consistently for the last (nearly) four years. It has travelled to every continent of this world with us, multiple times over, and it is still as good as new. Especially when traveling on my own, this carrier has been, and continues to be, an absolute life-saver. I cannot fault it.
So there you have if my friends. Three products that will change your life when traveling with children. I know there are many more fantastic products out there (many of which I haven’t had the pleasure of trying or using), but if you ask me, these three will always be my first picks.
