Travel Tips – Page 2

Traveling to Europe with a Toddler | Part 2

May 23, 2014

Part 2: Surviving the Plane

Turns out surviving the plane ride was easier than we thought it would be. It definitely helps to come prepared – even over prepared! I brought my diaper bag stuffed with everything I could think of that would make the ride smoother. Guess what?! I didn’t even need to pull out half of it. Such a relief. Here’s a list of some of the things that we packed and a few tips and tricks that made our flight easier along the way.

On our flight home we lucked out with 4 seats to ourselves. Miracle!

Necessities Packing List:

Extra Diapers and Wipes The wipes came in handy for any spills and messy hands. I packed extra diapers, just in case. We ended up using the same amount as we do at home during that time frame, but it was nice knowing that I had backup just in case.

Sweatshirt and Pajamas I tend to get cold on planes (brrr!) so I brought Ellie a sweatshirt for the plane just in case. Not only did we use it, but it also doubled as a pillow during naptime or playing peekaboo. Since our flight was overnight, I brought along Ellie’s favorite Minnie Mouse pajamas. PJs mean bedtime, so when we pulled them out, she knew it was time to start our nighttime routine.

Blanket For forts, peekaboo, napping, playing dress up…you know all the fun stuff! Delta did provide a blanket and pillow, but it was still nice to have our own, for both the plane ride and while in Europe.

Empty Water bottle We almost forgot all our water bottles on the counter the day we left. (As in, after five minutes of driving we had to turn around!) I’m so glad we went back for them, they saved us during the flight and during our travels. We each brought an empty bottle, and filled them up whenever the flight attendants came around or at the airport. I picked up this one for Ellie on major clearance.

Snacks I brought a lot of snacks for Ellie, but somehow forgot to pack enough for Brian and I! The airplane food wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be (I actually really loved some of the meals!) but it would have been nice to have a few extra snacks. For Ellie we packed up pretzels, goldfish, granola, peanut butter sandwich, and a few other little things. Since we couldn’t bring fruit or veggies into another country, we ate those at home before we left and whatever fruit and veggies they served us on the plane. (You can bring baby food, bottles, and pumped breast milk through the airport and on the plane, I think you just have to have it all checked separately.)

Hand Sanitizer Need I elaborate? 🙂

Eating a stroopwafel in Amsterdam, waiting for our plane to take off. Also, that Mickey went everywhere with us. 😉

Entertainment Packing List:

***Can you keep a secret? Ok, it’s not really a secret but it’s the best advice I ever read. See all the entertainment suggestions below? Gather them and wrap them like a present before you go. New toys, old toys, books, everything. Its like Christmas on an airplane. And I’ll tell you what, it worked like a charm!

Travel Magna Doodle Before we left, I picked up the travel size Magna Doodle at Target. This kept E entertained for half the flight! Ellie, if you couldn’t already tell, is obsessed with Mickey and Minnie Mouse. So she is constantly requesting that we draw them for her. (Turns out, they’re not as easy to draw as they look!) This was one of the best $5 finds ever.

Stickers Up until a few months ago, I never thought of buying Ellie stickers. My mother-in-law sent some for Ellie for Valentines Day, and they kept her entertained for and HOUR! Yes, an hour, every single day! So stickers were a must. I raided the dollar store sticker section and picked up some Mickey and Toy Story stickers. Lifesaver! When she got bored of sticking them on her notebook, she stuck them all over me and Brian. Anything to keep that girl entertained!

Stuffed Mickey Mouse Ellie’s favorite. He went everywhere with us.

Favorite Books We made sure to pack Ellie’s favorite books, including the animal book we stole from Grandma’s house. This girl loves to read and making animal sounds kept her entertained for a good half hour or so.

New Toys I went to the dollar section at Target and picked up a few new toys that Ellie had never seen before. These included a Pez Dispenser (I haven’t seen one of those in years! Totally entertaining for a toddler), a slinky, Minnie Mouse coloring book, pipe cleaners, and playdough. I was skeptical about having playdough on a plane (have you met Ellie?) but an article I read recommended it. I brought it just in case and pulled it out on the flight home. Totally genius!

Buckles This one sounds a little weird, but hear me out. Ellie LOVES buckles. She insists on buckling her car seat, high chair, everything by herself! I keeps her busy self occupied for long periods of time. I picked up a few buckles from the local fabric store, added ribbons, and sewed them to a little bean bag of sorts. Nothing fancy, but it beat buying the $30 toy with buckles that I found on Amazon. Ellie loved buckling them all together, mixing up which buckles go where, and kept her in her seat for awhile.

Hopping Chick My mom wrapped up this wind-up, hopping chick to send to Ellie (we were gone over Easter) and this was by far the best thing we brought on the trip. Ellie was cracking up laughing every time it hopped over the tray. Her little laughter is contagious, so everyone around us was laughing too.

Earphones and Movies We packed our tablet loaded with movies, but Delta had some awesome selections of kids movies for us. I’m glad that we packed Ellie’s child friendly headphones, she watched her fair share of movies. I typically wouldn’t let her watch so much TV at home, but we were in survival mode on the plane. We were willing to do whatever would keep her entertained, quiet, and happy. 🙂

The hoping chick – thanks for the entertainment Grandma!

Tips and Tricks:

Take a Walk Nobody seemed to mind when we got up to stretch our legs and walked down the aisles. It helped us wear Ellie out before bedtime and it was something new for her to do. Try to plan walks around when the flight attendants are coming by with drinks and food, you don’t want to get in their way!

Space out Toys We tried to space out the amount of time between when Ellie would open a toy. Sometimes that meant throwing on a movie, taking a walk, or pointing out the window. We also read the Skymall magazine a dozen times and looked for all the dogs and cats.

Make Everything Take Twice as Long Read books five times in a row, give snacks one at a time, do everything you can to make each activity take forever. It makes the time go by a lot faster!

Stop Looking at the Clock The flight went by much faster when we stopped to check how much time we had left. It’s slightly discouraging when you look over and see that you still have EIGHT AND A HALF HOURS LEFT. So just stop looking 🙂

Any other tips or entertainment that you would add? I’d love to hear them! Part Three is up next, with more on how we spent almost 2 weeks with Ellie in Europe. Happy Weekend!

Part One: Before You Go | Part Two: Surviving the Plane | Part Three: While in Europe

Traveling to Europe with a Toddler | Part 1

May 16, 2014

Recently, my little family had the opportunity to travel to Norway and Sweden for almost two weeks! (Remember all the pictures I -posted here and here and here?) Well after handling almost two full days of travel (and then some long hours in between!) we have a few tricks up our sleeves when it comes to traveling with a 1.5 year old! I’ve divided these helpful hints into a few posts. First up, what to know before you go! (There’s a lot!)

Part 1: Before You Go

Oh, I could spend hours writing this post. The only time I’ve traveled out of the country was for our Honeymoon to the Bahamas (and would do it again in a heartbeat!) Traveling to Europe was a whole new experience for me, plus we were bringing along a little one! Thankfully, Brian had been before, so he knew a little of what to expect. However, neither of us had spent 12+ hours with a child on an airplane, so we were pretty clueless there. To prepare, I spent hours doing research before we left and picked up a few tricks of the trade on our adventure.

Get your Passports…early!

Our trip was planned fairly quickly so I had to rush to get Ellie’s passport. We got her passport pictures taken at Costco (side note: your child cannot be wearing a white shirt and can’t have any bows in their hair!) I spaced the passport for a few weeks, so I was on crunch time when I finally remembered. Before you head to the post office to apply for a passport, make you call first! The post office I went to didn’t take walk ins, you had to have an appointment and they were booked solid for at least two weeks! I didn’t have two weeks to spare, I already had to expedite the dang thing! The SECOND time, I did my research and went to a post office that took walk-ins. Apparently I didn’t research enough, because it turns out they were closed on a Saturday. The THIRD time (third time’s a charm, right?!) we got there an hour and a half before closing, along with 20 other people. After sitting in line for an hour (and trying to entertain a wiggly toddler!) we left, there was no way we would get in. The FOURTH time, we showed up early, documents in hand, only to find out that Brian had to be there with us. You know, in case I was trying to flee the country with our child. Again, poor research on my part. The FIFTH time we went to the post office (all within one week in case you were wondering), we showed up the minute they opened, were the first ones in line, and it didn’t take longer than 10 minutes. Whew! Talk about an adventure in and of its self! We did come prepared with the document already filled out (you can fill it out online too!) and all necessary documents.

P.S. Don’t forget to change your name on your passport! I learned the hard way when I booked my ticket under my married name, but had to show them my passport with my maiden name! Thankfully I brought our marriage license and birth certificate with us on our trip, but it was still quite a hassle!

Find a Good Flight

Our flight to Europe was split into three flights and it was overnight. While we survived (very well, might I add!) it was rough the next day with jetlag. We preferred our flight home that was during the day much better! Instead of feeling like you missed a whole day with the time difference, it felt like a really long day. Then we got to go home and sleep! We definitely prefer the daytime flights. We chose to fly with Delta, probably because they offered us the cheapest ticked 😉 Little did we know, how enjoyable it would be! We really loved flying Delta/KLM. The flight attendants were super nice and helpful with Ellie, sneakily gave us extra treats and snacks, and didn’t mind as we walked the aisles a few times. Plus, on our long flight home, we ended up getting the long row of 4 seats to ourselves. Heavenly!

We forgot to put our miles on our Skymiles card beforehand, so about a week after our trip, we called Delta and they happily transferred our miles on our cards. We accumulated a lot of miles on that trip, so it will be nice to use them on a flight…hopefully one day soon!

Get your Suitcase Out!

A week before we left, we left our suitcases on our bedroom floor. We started packing early! I planned out my outfits, took out anything that wasn’t necessary, and remembered to pack things that I otherwise would have forgotten! Obviously, not everything could be packed a week in advance. We still had some laundry to do, snacks to pick up, and the toiletries are always packed last! When it came to packing Ellie’s clothes, I packed each of her outfits in big Ziplock bags. We knew we were going to be able to do a load of laundry while we were there, so I didn’t worry too much about packing two weeks worth of clothes. (I don’t even know if she has enough to last her two full weeks! Ha!) The bags were handy because it ensured that I didn’t forget anything. Like socks! I also threw in any hair accessories and a clean diaper so it was all ready for the mornings. We took a few mini trips to Oslo and Sweden while we were in Norway, so having Ellie’s outfits ready to go and packed up again was incredibly handy! I also divided up our outfits between our suitcase and our carry on. I heard too many stories about lost luggage, so I thought it would be safe to have a day or two worth of clothes with us.

What to Pack

As mentioned above, I didn’t pack us 12 days worth of clothes. (Hooray for laundry!) We knew it would be chilly while we were there, so we had to have some extra room for jackets and boots. Besides the normal packing list (clothes, toiletries, etc) here’s a few things that saved us on our trip!

Movies on the tablet (that don’t require any wifi!) Specifically, Frozen. Ellie loves that show and it kept her entertained on our flights and many car rides. On the plane, our flight had individual TVs in front of our seat loaded with shows, movies, and games. That saved us! We had some child headphones from our last trip that we used for Ellie. She didn’t like them very much on our last flight, so this time we tried to get her used to them beforehand, so she would actually wear them on the plane. It worked!
Medicine! The month before we left we were so sick. As in, sick for an entire month! We won’t go into any details, but it was awful, miserable, you get the picture. We didn’t want to be sick on our trip, so we took plenty of Vitamin C, Ibuprofen, Cold Medicine, essential oils, etc and some baby Tylenol with us.
A cheap stroller! I tell everyone that the best $20 we ever spent was on the cheap stroller at Toys ‘R Us. We brought it with us on our trip to Florida, we wanted to be safe and not break our expensive one! Best. Idea. Ever. Its lightweight, folds up easy, and we literally take it everywhere with us when we travel. Ellie loves to ride in it and we hang out backpack/diaper bag on the back and off we go! We don’t have to worry about it getting broken and we check it in at the gate so Ellie can ride in it the entire walk through the airport. (You can invest on a nicer one with a small basket underneath and bigger wheels, like this one, but we couldn’t justify the cost for us. The cheap one works great for our needs! If we didn’t already have a stroller to begin with, we probably would have gone with that one.)
Entertainment and snacks for your toddler…and YOU! The plane ride can feel super long (it is!) but being prepared saves your sanity! Refer to Part 2 for tips on entertainment for the plane.
Your camera. Extra memory cards. Your charger. Extra battery. Adapter. Seriously, not even a question. That should be first on your list! 😉
Travelers Debit Cards. About a week before we left, we set up a Travel Checking Account at our bank. We didn’t want to worry about bringing our debit cards and having all our bank information stolen. Having a traveler’s debit card was perfect! While it was still connected to our bank account for easy transfers, had anybody swiped it, they wouldn’t have access to our banking information.

Whew! The next part I’ll share our tips and tricks for surviving the long airplane ride. I’m actually surprised at how easy the flight ended up being.

Part One: Before You Go | Part Two: Surviving the Plane | Part Three: While in Europe

Traveling with a Toddler

January 29, 2014

Before our recent Florida trip, I was really, really nervous about flying on the plane with Ellie. She hates to cuddle so imagining keeping her on my lap for six hours was worrisome. By some miracle, the plane ride turned out much better than expected. The whole trip was FABULOUS! Here’s just a few of our tricks to traveling with our toddler:

1: Bring an umbrella stroller. We didn’t want to bring our huge, heavy stroller with us. It’s a pain to fold up and carry, plus I didn’t want to worry about it getting damaged on the plane. We purchased this umbrella stroller from Toys R Us for $20. It was by far the best investment for our trip. In fact, I think Ellie prefers it over our other stroller. Imagine that! It’s small, lightweight, easy to fold, plus the handles aren’t super short. This stroller went with us everywhere: the beach, Disneyworld, all over the airport, restaurants, shopping, and it was amazing. We still use it all the time now that we are at home. Plus, we hung our backpacks and suitcases on the handles, making it way easier to transport our luggage through the airport. Highly recommended to any traveler!

2: Make everything take twice as long. I did my research before we left home and this was one of the best tips I read! When we took out snacks, we made them take forever. We read her books five times each. We played with the window shade for a good twenty minutes. Make anything and everything take twice as long! We didn’t take along as many toys as I thought we would. We brought her baby doll, some books, little wooden peg people and her tiny toy dogs (which she loves and adores), and snacks. We also brought along the tablet with movies, songs, shows, and games with her headphones. She didn’t use the tablet as much as we thought she would. Looking out the window was far more entertaining! Also, the SkyMall magazine bought us a good half hour of entertainment, on every flight. We looked for all the dogs and cats, she loved it!

3: Board last. We had the option to board the plane first, but with our little munchkin, we knew that would never work. Make her sit for an extra half hour? No thanks! Instead, we ran around the airport and got all our wiggles out, then boarded. Since we were the very last to board, we got to check in our carry-ons for free! We were happy that we didn’t have to deal with them at our layover. Plus, almost every time we boarded she was so worn out from running around she fell asleep before we even took off!

4: Don’t forget the birth certificate. Many airlines will want to prove that your child is under two if she’s flying on your lap. Just in case, bring the birth certificate or passport!

5: Stop stressing. Your toddler is going to whine a little, their sleep schedule will be thrown off, and they may kick the old man next to you while you’re nursing (sorry sir!), but the less you stress, the better your vacation will be. Be prepared, then go with the flow. We’re gearing up for another, longer adventure in the next few months, so I’ll be curious to see if everything goes as smoothly as this trip did! Crossing our fingers!

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