10 Tips For Traveling Ultralight With a Baby & Toddler

When we were pregnant with our kids, I can’t tell you how many people told us to enjoy our travels while we could because we wouldn’t be doing it anymore after we had babies. Traveling is such a huge part of who we are that we knew they were wrong, but something we did wonder about was whether we’d still be able to travel light with a baby. Whenever you see people traveling with small children, it seems that they have an endless amount of bags because you need a diaper bag, changing mat, extra milk, snacks, maybe a pump, lots of changes of clothes, toys, blankets, sippy cups, bibs, perhaps a pack n play etc. But then we began to ask ourselves - do you actually need all of that? When Justin and I started traveling together we usually each checked a bag and also took some carry on items. Then as the years passed and we got into ultralight backpacking, we decided to travel with carry on bags only to avoid ever having lost baggage and to make it easier to navigate public transit in the places we were traveling to. We got better and better with each trip until we were able to pack in a single carry on sized backpack (fits under the seat in front of you) for both of us for pretty much any trip! We knew we couldn’t be at that level with a baby, but we decided to try to still travel with only carry on luggage after Jasper was born. Our first real test came when Jasper was a year old and we took him on a three week trip to Europe that involved lots of travel to different environments (hot in Greece, chilly in Iceland). We ended up taking just a single carry on sized backpack and our Kelty baby carrier (we stuffed diapers, wipes, and Jasper’s coat into the storage pockets) for all three of us and have to admit that being able to do that was one of our proudest travel moments. Fast forward to two kiddos and our last two trips to Europe to hike the Camino de Santiago and to travel around Italy and Malta. Jasper is now a toddler and Freya was 4 months on our Camino trip and 8 months on our Italy/Malta trip. We were still able to pack carry on bags only, but took one larger 60L backpack for all of us for the Camino as well as a 15L backpack with just diapers, and one small 20L backpack and one messenger bag to Italy and Malta. The point of all of this is that if you like to travel light and are afraid you can’t do it with kids, we’re here to tell you that you still can! Don’t let people convince you that you have to have everything under the sun with you all the time just because you’re now taking care of some little people :) A lot of that stuff makes things easier, but it's easy to do without them with a little creativity. And if you haven’t traveled light before, I’d highly encourage you to start. It honestly makes things so much better to not be hauling around tons of luggage while also having to carry or push your children. The following are our top tips for traveling light with little kids after almost three years of travel to 19 countries with Freya and Jasper.

Jasper with all the luggage we took for the four of us for our 124km hike on the Camino de Santiago

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10 Tips for Ultralight Travel With Babies & Toddlers

1. Pick what carry on luggage you’d like to take and then modify what you’re taking to fit into that. If you just start making a pile of things you want to take, you’ll often find yourself with more luggage than you’d like.

2. Be willing to handwash your clothes. This is probably our top tip as it will save you so much space. If you try to take all the clothes you need to have something clean to wear every day of your trip, you’ll end up with a huge amount of clothing. That’s especially true when you have babies and/or toddlers that seem to get clothes dirty within minutes! Since we always plan to handwash clothes, I usually take just three changes of clothes for each kid. It works well because if one pair of clothes is drying and then they promptly get their second pair really dirty (like a blowout) I still have one more outfit to fall back on. I don’t vary the amount of their clothing for length of trip, so a three day trip gets the same three outfits as a 14 day trip. Justin and I usually take just two outfits a person or do a three shirts and one pair of bottoms situation. We consider outerwear separate to the rest of the clothes. If we’re going somewhere warm, we just take a light jacket for everyone. If we’re going somewhere cold, we take down jackets, which are much lighter and pack much smaller compared to other materials. If you can’t stomach the thought of handwashing clothes, do some research into whether you can pay for laundry services. For example, it’s really easy and affordable to find a laundry place that will wash and dry your clothes for you in a lot of Asian countries. Your hotel is frequently even willing to arrange that service for you. If you are willing to handwash like us, we find that the easiest way to do it is in the shower while showering. Just make sure and wring the clothes really well to promote quicker drying. I find that doing a second wring about 10 minutes after the first one is particularly effective.

3. If you go the handwashing route, fabric choice matters. We try to go with almost exclusively quick dry fabrics (no jeans!!), although that’s almost impossible to find in infant or toddler clothing. As such, just keep in mind that your little ones’ clothing might need more time to dry. If you’re staying somewhere with a hairdryer, keep in mind that you can actually dry parts of clothing that stay wet the longest (like cuffs and waistbands) pretty effectively with that hairdryer. You may also want to consider fabrics that take longer to get stinky so you don’t have to wash clothes everyday. The best fabric for that is merino wool as it helps to prevent bacterial growth while absorbing and locking away odors. A secondary benefit to picking light quick drying fabrics is that they also pack smaller than bulky, slower drying fabrics.

4. Really contemplate wants versus needs. Do you just want that sippy cup so your toddler can walk around without spilling their water when you could actually just help them drink from a cup? Do you just want that extra bottle so you don’t have to wash between feedings when you could really just immediately wash and re-use one bottle? Do you just want that infant towel with a hood because you always use it at bath time when you can actually just use a regular towel provided by your lodging? Don’t take so little that your trip is miserable, but do keep in mind that with a little creativity, a lot of “needs” are actually wants. Some things we’ve done to save space include:

   • Not taking any cups, spoons, baby dishes, or bulky rubber bibs. We just feed Jasper off our plates and he does fine with the bigger utensils if we help him. If he’s not feeding himself the bib isn’t as important. Only one baby bottle for Freya.

   • Taking a heavy duty plastic bag to lay the kiddos on when changing diapers instead of a diaper changing pad. The plastic bag can then double as a way to carry the diapers if you don’t have a trash can readily available. Want padding for their head? Use someone’s coat.

   • Way less toys and let the kids play with non-toys, which they often like better anyways. More on that below.

   • Playing white noise for sleep off an app on our phone instead of bringing Jasper’s white noise machine (part of his sleep routine).

   • Have my jacket double as my nursing cover or wear an oversized top that keeps Freya and I covered instead of bringing a separate nursing cover.

5. Ask for your lodging to provide bedding for your little ones so you don’t have to haul a travel cot. Most places we’ve stayed have been able to provide us with a pack n play. When we just had Jasper, he obviously slept in it. After we had Freya, we either made a little bed for Jasper on the floor if our room had extra bedding (or even moved a mattress from an extra bed onto the floor once) or let him sleep with us since he was almost 2.5-years-old when we started traveling with Freya. If you find yourself in a situation with no travel cot (for example the hotel said they had one but didn’t actually) and an infant, remember that you can always make a sleep safe bed by folding up some towels or a blanket on the floor for your baby to lie on. That’s obviously not ideal, but just a thought if the “what ifs” are keeping you from being able to travel without a cot.

6. If you’re renting a car, rent car seats as well instead of hauling your own. So far we’ve only done this in Europe as we don’t usually rent cars and just use public transit, but each time we’ve done it we’ve always been given appropriate car seats. If you’re unsure about renting car seats, plan to just use public transportation like trains and metros if that’s possible where you’re going (often is from our experience!).

7. Consider planning to purchase some things where you’re traveling to. For example, if you’ll be in two temperature extremes and don’t feel like you can pack as much warm clothes as you’ll need into your small bags, visit a thrift shop and get some things for your cold weather time that you re-donate when you depart. We did that when we went to Iceland as we decided when we got there that Jasper’s coat wasn’t going to be warm enough even though it was summer. We looked up thrift shops in Reykjavik and found an amazing one just with kids clothes and were able to purchase him a super cozy bunting suit. We ended up liking it so much though that we found a way to squeeze it into our tiny backpack and bring it home. Another big thing to consider purchasing wherever you’re traveling to instead of trying to carry is diapers and wipes since they take a lot of space. Our recommendation with that is to take enough diapers for the travel time it will take to get where you’re going plus 1 extra day so that you don’t hit the ground somewhere unfamiliar and immediately have to frantically hunt for diapers because you’re out. I also take one diaper for each kid for every night of the trip if I’m not sure that I’ll be able to find high quality diapers that will last through the night.

8. Don’t take “what ifs” that can be easily purchased where you’re headed. For example, don’t take a whole bottle of Tylenol with you in case someone needs it when you’re traveling to a city or town with plenty of pharmacies and or/grocery stores where you can buy over the counter pain medications if needed. We’ve had this happen before and easily picked up some ibuprofen at a local pharmacy. The only “what if” I always take is a Frida suction device for cleaning out little noses as that’s not something you can always find that I feel is a must at times for cold management with an infant.

9. Takes less toys. Babies and toddlers are easily entertained with non-toys, and we’ve found that ours actually often prefer playing with things that aren’t technically toys. As such, we only take the amount of toys that can fit in this Melissa & Doug take along shape sorter (I like using this for their toys on trips because the bag itself doubles as a toy and Jasper is able to carry it himself as a personal item instead of having to try to squeeze it into our luggage), and have always found it to be enough. Don’t undersell your child’s imagination! Some non-toys we often have or have access to on trips that Jasper and Freya love playing with include:

   • Toothbrushes

   • Tube of toothpaste

   • Hair ties

   • Makeup

   • Empty soda can from a flight

   • Silverware from a flight

   • Straws

   • Flight safety card

   • Luggage tag

   • Phone charger cord (supervision needed of course)

   • Pens

   • Zippers on clothing, backpacks etc

   • Headphones from a flight (I always get a pair for the kids to play with even when Justin and I have our own headphones. For whatever reason they love them SO much! Just make sure and supervise the play with this one too so the cord doesn’t end up around someone’s neck)

   Keep in mind that you can also entertain your kids for quite awhile without any toys. Some things we like to do include making up silly songs, making “binoculars” with our hand and pretending to spot different kinds of animals, story telling, slowly “planting” a garden on someone's back, and playing “I spy” and guessing games. Another tip for toys is to pick things that pack small. For example, Jasper is obsessed with cars, so we pack little matchbox cars that are way smaller than many of his other cars. Something else I’ve done is take reusable stickers like these ones in a ziplock bag. Packs SO small and I don’t take the scene pages because they stick great to windows so Jasper just sets up scenes on airplane windows, airport windows, hotel windows etc.

10. Our last tip is to follow ultralight packing techniques for yourself and your partner so that there is space to add your baby and toddler’s things. Some things Justin and I like to do are:

    • Wear our bulkiest clothes while traveling so we don’t have to try to fit it into our luggage

    • Roll all our clothes really tightly so they fit nice and compactly in our luggage

    • Only take one pair of shoes that we feel are versatile enough to work for whatever situations we’ll be in on your trip. For me that’s often a pair of Teva sandals since I can hike in them, stay cool, dress them up a little, get them wet, and add socks if it’s chilly.

    • Limit the makeup. I never wear a lot of makeup, but I take even less when traveling. Usually just bronzer, eyebrow gel, and chapstick.

    • Share what we can. We only take one tube of toothpaste (even though we use different kinds at home), one stick of deodorant if we’re really tight on space, one pair of nail clippers, one quick dry towel (if we even take one) etc.

    • Buy things in travel sizes

    • Download and read library books on our phones with the Libby app instead of taking e-readers or paper books. You can download kid’s books too!

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This and the Kelty baby carrier in the picture below are the only luggage we took for our 3 week Europe trip with Jasper

We were able to fit a surprising amount of diapers into the two pockets on the back of this carrier. We only had to buy diapers once, in Hungary, during our 3 weeks of travel

Making use of those non-toy toys. Our kids especially love playing with toothbrushes!

No bib, no bowl, no spoon, no problem!

Trip to the East Coast and back with Jasper with just this messenger bag for luggage :)

Have an ultralight travel tip of your own for us or other parents? Leave a comment! We (and our readers) would love to hear it!