Top Family Travel Essentials to Give as Gifts This Year
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Here are our ultimate travel essentials for traveling with kids that would work great as gifts. Whether you are looking for gifts to add to your wish list for your own family, gifts to give your spouse, or gifts to give a family you know that loves to travel – hopefully this list can give you some inspiration. Many of these items can be found across multiple different budgets and when applicable, I listed multiple options. Not all of these items will fit the way all families like to travel. The adventure gear might not be the right fit for families who just stick to major cities and things like strollers might not be best for families whose ideal trip is camping.
Outdoor & Adventure Gear
Such a great toy that is compact, lightweight, has a strap so it is harder for kids to lose. Binoculars can be used on hikes, camping, while searching for wildlife, or many other outings.
Lightweight hiking backpacks (budget option) (higher end option)
Give the kids their own sense of independence and hopefully reduce the number of requests you get on hikes and outings. Even if the backpack only has a few snacks and a water bottle (or water bladder).
Don’t let sand toys take up large sections of your suitcases. These are especially useful if you are flying to a beach destination or going on a cruise or similar trip where your accommodations are not right next to the beach. We also love these in everyday life for our home near the beach.
Can be used for more than just a picnic blanket – it is also great for the beach, outdoor events, and just hanging around at park.
Packing & Organization
Packing cubes (budget option) (higher end) (days of week)
Staying organized is extra important with kids. There are many different packing cubes on the market - some offer compression to help reduce space, some have unique designs on them to help you tell your cubes apart to make it easier when packing for multiple people, some with days of the week so you can plan outfits in advance.
Travel Toiletry Bag (budget option) (higher end)
Helps keep all the families toiletries together. Both a clear option to get through TSA and a bigger opaque higher end option that is meant to last.
Essential for families of young kids especially. Helpful for the instances when kids have accidents or get their clothes or swimsuits wet from puddles, beaches, etc.
Fun kid suitcases (character suitcase)(ride on suitcase)
Whether it is just a suitcase with the kids favorite color or character that will encourage them to roll it through the airport - or it is a fancy suitcase that lets them ride on it.
Absolute must have for families traveling abroad. Don’t lose your passports in the bottom of your backpack - keep the passports, visas, boarding passes, foreign currency, and more all together.
Do you have a large family? Or a trip where you’ll need lots of bags without many hands to help you carry them? Possibly going on a solo parent trip with multiple young children? We loved these straps that connect multiple bags together when we moved cross country. One adult mainly focused on bags, while the other focused on the young kids.
Sleep & Comfort
We love our hatch sound machines while at home but they are quite bulky to pack on trips. There are white noise machines with good enough quality that can fit in your pocket.
Sleep can be so important to kids (or adults) moods, so whatever you can do to ensure good sleep especially while traveling - we’ll do. So many Airbnbs, hotels, and family guest rooms don’t have black out curtains or curtains at all - these easily go up on windows and provide good darkness.
Inflatable footrests for flights
Helps give kids a bed like experience on long flights if you are flying during naps or overnight.
These provide comfortable support for both children and adult legs for long flights.
Inflatable bed rails (budget option)(higher end)
These helped calm my anxiety of traveling with young toddlers that are too old for cribs or when cribs weren’t available.
Entertainment for Kids
Necessary for plane rides or for any travel with multiple kids.
Travel-sized games
We love travel for connecting us as a family and playing games is such a great way to spend the down time. Some of our favorites are just a deck of cards, Uno, Spot it, Hive, Azul: Mini, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, P for Pizza and OK Play. If you search your favorite game, chances are there might be a mini version of it too.
Magnets and travel toys just go together. We’ve used magnetic blocks or magnetic tile like toys on planes, trains, ferry boats, cars, cruise ships. Also in hotels, at parks, in tents, and in the airport. We’ve somehow never lost pieces and they have never lost their interest. These are great for toddlers all the way up to big kids - even us adults enjoy using them. We typically pack them with some magnetic figurines as well to extend the play.
We love audiobooks for kids aged 2 and up. Audiobooks make long car journeys so much more bearable - they can calm kids down and have them focus on the book rather than asking for the 100th time if we are there yet. We typically pare it with something they can do with their hands.
Alternative to an audiobook subscription (or in addition to), a Yoto player can be an easier way to listen to audiobooks for kids. You either buy the physical audiobook cards to go with it or digital ones. These are especially helpful with multiple kids that might want to listen to different stories. They can play the stories (or music or audio games) either through the speaker or through headphones.
For older kids, you can’t go wrong with a kindle or other kid-safe e-reader for entertainment on long airplane, car or train rides.
Washable or other mess-free art supplies are necessary to avoid the freak out when your kid accidentally gets a bit of their marker on the airplane tray or at the table in an Airbnb. Or a LCD drawing pad.
Sticker books somehow are the magic toy that will entertain my kids no matter the mood they are in. Sometimes a frustrated or hungry kid just can’t focus enough to read or build with blocks, but they can do the potentially mindless activity of putting a sticker where it goes. For a less mindless activity, you can get sticker books for preschoolers that help them with matching letters and numbers.
Snacks & Mealtime Gear
Snack Spinner or Snack Tackle box
The ultimate hack for snack time is to turn it into an activity as well. When you are in a plane and you know that the limited toys you have won’t entertain your kid for the entire flight, having even just 20 minutes of that time being occupied by eating a snack - such as win. These snack boxes help make eating a bit of a game and more interactive.
While there often a lot of disposable snacks being eaten on trips, we like to limit that a bit by bringing reusable containers and reusable bags. You can get multiple sizes to pack snacks or meals in. They also work great for while you are on the trip to pack up leftovers.
We love these travel friendly utensils for both trips and also for school lunches back at home.
Any parent knows that the hardest thing is to find a good water bottle that is actually spill proof - one that doesn’t leak on the sides or the button doesn’t randomly get pressed by things in your bag. These are our favorite.
One expense that can easily get out of hand especially with bigger families is eating out. We try to pack lunches for when we are out whenever we can. We find this one is a good size for our whole family of 4.
Safety & Practical Gear
We love using AirTags in our luggage and backpacks to help with lost luggage at the airport or if one of us accidentally misplaces a bag.
Always useful to have in a backpack, even for everyday outings.
Compact Travel strollers (double, budget)(higher end, one kid)
The budget pick is our favorite for multiple kids - the younger can sit in the front and the older can either sit or stand. The higher end option is great for if you want a stroller that really packs down small.
Carrier (budget option) (higher end)
We often find carriers are easier in most cases while traveling - from hikes to cobblestone streets. We also find they are less of a hassle to carry around with us.
Privacy and safety becomes even more of a concern when you have kids. These are great for peace of mind while traveling in hotels or Airbnbs.
For those families that travel a lot around water.
Tech & Travel Gadgets
Portable chargers (budget)(magnetic battery)(high end)
While most people likely have some portable chargers already, the need for portable charges for families that travel is quite great. We have far more than necessary but they’ve most definitely come in handy.
Kids digital cameras (budget friendly) (higher end)
Is it the best quality? Definitely not. Is it cheap and durable enough that you don’t have to worry about your young kid using it, dropping it, stepping on it, etc? Yes. While likely blurry, it is just so sweet seeing the world through their lens.
You don’t want to miss out on capturing the first time your child snorkels or their first dip in the ocean. While many phones now are waterproof, we still like these pouches so water doesn’t get up in the charger port making it hard to charge the rest of the day.
Cable organizer (budget friendly) (higher end)
With multiple peoples devices, cable organization is a must. These zippered organizers are great. If you have a plethora of cables like we do, we like to keep one set of all the cables we need for travel in the organizers at all times - it doesn’t get unpacked. This makes packing before a trip a lot easier.
We love our travel router because it allows us at hotels to just connect this one device to the wifi and all of the rest of our devices will immediately be connected (as it uses your home network’s name). It prevents our devices from being exposed to public wifi networks that might not be secure. This is especially helpful for things like baby monitors (for the added security) and since you do not have to go through the hassle of re-setting it up with a different network.
Toiletries & Cleanliness
While hotels often have shampoo and body wash for adults, most do not have baby and toddler friendly products. We like to use our label maker to print labels for them as well so we don’t forget what each product is.
You can get a small diaper bag as either a separate cross body bag or as an insert that can fit in their normal travel bag.
Even for families that are past the diapering stage, a travel wipes dispenser is great for cleaning tables, airplane trays, etc.
You can never have enough hand sanitizer, especially with little kids who feel like they need to touch every surface.
Travel-Friendly Clothing
Nothing worse than a sunburn on the first day of vacation. Our entire family has SPF UV protection rash guard swimsuits so we only have to worry about smaller sections to reapply sunscreen on.
For trips in cold weather locations, we love having good quality base layers. They provide a lot of warmth for a compact piece of clothing. The higher end options are worth it and a great gift for a family that needs it.
Weather gear can get quite bulky - smaller jackets are always helpful for a traveling family.
Experience-Based Gifts
Or a state or territory parks pass for their own or a one they are planning to visit.
Zoo/aquarium memberships
Their local Zoo or aquarium memberships are great for families just in their everyday life, but they often come with the added benefit of offer reciprocal benefits to other zoos or aquariums throughout the country while they travel.
For the budding or experienced writers – or even just for kids that love to draw, journals are a great way for kids to appreciate and remember the trips they go on. Journals can be used just for writing down memories or for collecting special souvenirs like train tickets or postcards.
We love travel books, especially ones geared towards families. If you don’t know where their next destinations are, there are several that are great for travel inspiration in general.
City passes/attraction tickets
If you do know where their next destination is, getting them city passes so they can visit some of the top attractions is a great gift. Or you can get them tickets to an attraction they want to visit or things like gift cards to places like Disney if they have a Disney trip on the horizon.
Travel-themed board game
Larger board games that are great for when the family is back at home reminiscing of all their travels. Some of our favorites are: Ticket to Ride (or Ticket to Ride Europe) and The World Game.
Do they have a goal in mind: All the national parks? Every country? Every baseball stadium? Get them a scratch off map to help them see the progress they’ve made. We also love these water bottles with stickers to keep track of travel goals.
Do they have a travel journal or scrapbook or just young kids? Travel themed stickers are a great cheap gift or a great addition to any present.
