We know that traveling with a baby can be tough. A few carefully chosen items can make everything simpler. We choose to pack light for all of our travels, but the baby travel gear items listed here are necessary for traveling with a baby.

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Baby Travel Gear for Sleeping

A Safe Sleep Solution

The Guava Lotus travel crib is easy to set up and break down and much lighter than other travel cribs. Most importantly, it fits in the overhead compartment of an airplane and packs into a lightweight, easy to carry backpack. After a few experiences with AirBNBs and hotels providing questionable cribs, we love knowing that our baby has a safe, clean place to sleep while we travel. If your baby struggles with sleeping in new places, try practicing in the travel crib before leaving home.

A soothing white noise machine

White noise helps babies sleep. We use the Hatch Rest at home, but it is too large for travel. While traveling, we bring the Marpac Hushh. It is small, compact, and provides the white noise needed to muffle other hotel guests, toilets flushing, and street noise. Most importantly, it is reliable. During our Maui trip, our sound machine kept switching off overnight and waking up Eloise. Since switching to the Hushh, we haven’t had any reliability issues.

A non-wifi baby monitor

If you will be staying in an apartment, it helps to have a monitor to keep an eye on your little one. We prefer to use non-wifi monitors because they are simple to set up wherever you are. There is no need to connect to wifi, or depend on your hotel having a strong, free, and safe wifi connection. We use this same monitor at home, so we just remove it, pack it, and plug it in at our destination.

A tip when setting up a baby monitor– Many monitors can hook onto a nail or screw on a wall. We simply remove a photo hanging from a wall and use that nail to hang the monitor. If there are no nearby nails, we will set it on a table or the floor.

A comfort item

Pack a comfort item that baby uses as a sleep cue to help her fall asleep. We use Wubbanub pacifiers for this purpose, and we always travel with 2 or 3 to make sure we have a backup in case one gets lost. Having this comfort item allows Eloise to fall asleep easily in unfamiliar settings.

Baby Travel Gear for Feeding

A portable high chair

We keep this Hiccapop Omniboost high chair in our trunk and use it for quick picnics, dinner at friends houses, and camping trips. It’s a great high chair for road trips as well. It can be set up quickly on the floor or attached to a chair, and the removable tray makes it easy to clean. It doesn’t fit well in our carry on bags, so we haven’t flown with it yet. Instead, we fly with this portable high chair to turn any chair into a high chair.

Packable bibs

Everyone loves the silicone bibs with pockets, but they take up so much space! We use smaller Bumkins bibs while traveling to save space in our luggage and diaper bag.

Disposable placemats

We typically try to limit our use of disposable products- you won’t find a single paper plate in our home. That said, these placemats make eating out with a baby or toddler so much easier. Not all tables can be cleaned easily, so we simply attach one of these placemats and put baby’s food right on the placemat. At the end of the meal, we can clean up more easily and avoid leaving a mess for the server.

Baby Travel Gear for Exploring

The perfect travel stroller

The Joolz Aer is our pick when traveling with a baby. It feels sturdy, folds easily, and fits babies and toddlers well. It fits in the overhead compartment of an airplane, making it great for airports.

For a full comparison of our favorite travel strollers, click here.

A comfy carrier

Investing in a comfortable baby carrier is so critical for travel. Carriers make travel through airports easier, help on city metro systems, and can be used while walking or hiking on uneven ground or cobblestones. Plus, babies that are overstimulated or have trouble napping in the stroller are often very comfortable being carried. Our top pick is the Lillebaby Serenity for its cool airflow and adjustable seat.

A lightweight car seat

At home, we use the Chicco Nextfit carseat, but it is too heavy to use during travel. For travel, we use Cosco Apt50. It is lightweight and inexpensive, making it easy to move through airports. As an added bonus, we don’t need to worry about damage to our everyday seats and safety issues as a result. Because this seat is only used on vacation, we are less concerned about possible damage after being gate checked. Of course, if we notice any damage, we will replace the very inexpensive seat. Be sure to bring a car seat travel bag to protect your car seat if you will be checking it.

A backpack diaper bag

Being hands free is always important for us, but is especially important while traveling. If you aren’t using a backpack as a daily diaper bag, your next trip is the perfect time to start. Backpacks allow you to bring all your baby gear, while still having free hands for luggage, strollers, and holding tiny hands. We love our Fjallraven Kanken bag. It is spill and stain proof, and has a large opening. We organize the inside with pouches and other containers.

A few great toys

Check out our toys guide to find our favorite toys when flying with a baby.

Traveling soon with a baby? Check out these other helpful guides:

• How to Have a Great Flight with a Baby
• The Best Travel Stroller for Your Next Vacation
• Your Personal Item with a Baby- Full Packing List
• The Best Airplane Toys for Flying with Babies

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