In addition to the items in my plane packs I like to pack some toys to keep my children occupied in our accommodation, by the pool or at the beach. A bored toddler is a friend to no one.
This obviously depends on many factors such as: your type of holiday, luggage allowance and children’s interests, but hopefully you can take something from my tips below.
For context, I have a car loving boy and creative daughter.
Top tip: I always try to pack things that have more than one use.
Holiday crafts for toddlers
I will always pack a little craft kit in whatever accommodation we are in. My favourite past time is 52 pen and lid pick up!
Depending on space in my suitcase, it usually contains:
- Washable pens or pencils (protect your deposit!) I find the Crayola Colour Wonder mess free sets are really good if you have a particularly messy toddler but they can be expensive! You can also find cheap water colouring books that younger toddlers enjoy.
- Paper. If I have enough room I like to take a big roll of paper.
- Stickers. We are going through a faze where we find those eye stickers so funny and stick them on packaging or our tops with characters on.
- Kid’s scissors
- Chalk
As a primary school teacher, I used to plan and take prescribed activities for my children to do, but this is quite restrictive. You could take a whole activity that the kids are just not interested in so now I try to keep it as open as possible.
Having said that, if you are taking a specific trip to somewhere like Disney or Legoland, it is nice to have a colouring book or set of pencils with those characters on.
Another thing I do, if we are in self-catering accommodation, is keep all of the boxes from food etc, and my daughter will create something out of those.
Empty wine… I mean plastic water bottles work great for water play too.
Travelling Toys for car crazy kids
I have three different tracks I pack for my car crazy boy. If we are travelling by car and have plenty of room in our accommodation I take a Hot Wheels Track Builder Playset.
This was never bought for travel, it was a gift, but I love how nicely it packs up and there are loads of different track options to keep my son (and husband) entertained for the duration of the trip.
If we have quite a bit of room in our luggage I take this rubber track as it rolls up quite small and is light.
It comes with suckers so is handy for hotel rooms. You can use different furniture to make the track more interesting and my daughter also likes putting her little characters down it like a slide.
If we are in a small hotel room or are pushed for luggage space we take this awesome road tape.
You can get car, rail road, lots of different designs from Temu and it is super cheap. As it is tape, my daughter can also use it for crafts or for sealing the 25,000 half eaten packets of crisps.
If there is enough room in your accommodation you can make a little village so that both kids can play together nicely for all of 0.5 seconds.
We have also made little towns for Hugo’s cars and Rosie’s little people before by using chalk but this will depend on your accommodation. Kids love just drawing on the ground anyway – but don’t be a twit – make sure you can wash it away before you leave.
Or, you can pack all of the above and they will still use a mattress to play cars with!
Talking of destroying hotel rooms, we sometimes make obstacle courses out of whatever equipment we can find which is a good rainy day activity.
This really does show that kids will make fun out of anything but I just like to be prepared as even in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory Veruca Salt was still bored!
Disposable cups and plates
Some of the first things I pack is paper plates and paper cups. Like I said previously, try to pack toys or items that have more than one use.
Plastic obviously is better for water play but apparently the sea turtles don’t like them. Plus you can get all the cool kid’s characters on paper plates and cups.
We actually rarely use them to eat and drink but this is obviously a good practical use for them too.
We use them for all sorts of fun and, more often than not, my kids find a new use for them on each trip. Here are some things we have used them for:
- Water play
- Steering wheel
- Tin can alley with water guns
- Role play
- Noughts and crosses
- Playing cafes with cuddly toys
- Crafts (drawing and cutting out)
- Balloon keepy uppy
Which brings me on to my next life saver…. Balloons!
Balloons
Find me a toddler that does not love a balloon and I will find you one that eats all their vegetables.
Balloons bring my kids hours of fun, I really don’t need to tell them (or you) how to play with them. But relating back to paper plates, my kids like playing keepy uppy or tennis with the balloons and paper plates.
They are also so cheap, and tiny! So you can take them anywhere no matter your luggage allowance.
We take them on every trip, anywhere and everywhere.
Magnets
My next essential travel toy for toddlers is magnets.
Although they are always in my airplane activity packs I make sure we always have extra in our checked luggage in case they get lost on the plane because my son loves playing with them that much.
When planning our cruise holiday, we discovered that the cabin walls are magnetic…or according to my toddlers…magic!
So I packed a few magnets for the kids to play with, and it kept them occupied for ages.
I have a little set of 6 vehicles, some animal ones and the alphabet.
I now still take a small pack of random magnets if we are staying in accommodation with a fridge. My son loves playing with them and my daughter also loves us putting her drawings on the holiday fridge!
Travelling construction toys
Magnetic tiles and magnetic cubes make great construction toys for toddlers on holiday.
In addition to this, my son loves a marble run and so do I! If you have never spent a Tuesday morning trying to use every single marble run piece you have not lived.
As we travel so much, I bought him a mini Lego marble run as well as a little Lego travel collapsible box.
The concept was so good but as it isn’t official Lego (good ol Temu), it is not great quality, and the Lego is a bit hard to put on the lid.
The original board works better with the marble run set and this could be a better idea for older children that have the patience to push the Lego harder onto the board.
Please note I do remember my kids names, 99% of the time, the name tag was from the holiday Kid’s Club.
I do find bulky Duplo too big to pack for holidays so multilink cubes (definitely not stolen from the school I work at) or plastic snowflake building sets and magic straws can work well for older toddlers to travel with.
Character figure dolls for toddlers on holiday
Like I have said before, I try to pack things with multi use rather than just a game you can only play a certain way.
No matter where we are going we always take a few of my kid’s favourite character figures and often a Barbie type doll.
If we are going on a Disney trip, I tend to pack Disney characters and on my 2027 safari trip, I will pack animal figures that we are likely to see.
Now my daughter is older I give her her own bag. Depending on room in the suitcase it can be a tiny sandwich bag or backpack. I tell her she can take any toys she likes but has to fit in this bag. My daughter is quite attached to her toys so when we are away she can often ‘miss them’ so this trick gives her a bit of ownership and if she moans that she doesn’t have a certain toy I will tell her to make sure she packs it next time!
My children use the figures in lots of different imaginative role play, or we line them up and knock them down with water guns and will even take them swimming so they double as a water toys too!
Role Play toys for travelling
It can be tricky not to pack your child’s favourite role play set but they tend to be quite bulky.
Remember children are much more imaginative than us and can create something out of nothing.
The paper plates and cups can double up as stethoscopes, café plates, make up palettes, police hats, and much more… if you just believe.
One role play item I can recommend packing are cheap and compact role play pads. I never buy them, I just print a load off to pack. My children used the café ones and food items from the cupboards (sorry in advance) to play shops.
Sand and water toys for toddlers
We never pack too many sand and water toys (I can hear my husband laughing), Okay I try not to pack too many. This is because most family parks or hotels we visit usually have them complimentary or, if not, they are so cheap to buy.
We always pack paper cups and plates which make great sand or water toys themselves.
If staying at a holiday park we always request a baby bath to play with our water toys. Or you can always use the sink of a hotel room.
Also, my children tend to make anything a water toy. They like taking their little characters for a swim. I am not a huge fan of this as we lose so many toys in busy kid’s pools or the beach. But as she is four now, I let her make that decision (begrudgingly).
Here are some of my toddler’s favourite sand and water toys we try to take on holiday:
My kids, like all, love responsibility so I bought them some cute (and cheap from Temu) little beach bags and before we got to the pool or beach they chose what toys to take. Another bonus of these is that they are quite small so we are not taking Toys R’ Us to the pool.
Water guns or shooters are great for different uses as we use them to knock down paper cups or our little toy figures. Depending on your accommodation, you can also use them to mark outside walls or floors.
All of these water toys can also be used in what I call ‘The Holy Grail’
The don of all travel toys for toddlers
For one our daughter’s first ever trips abroad, at 6 months old, I was shopping for last minute bits and found this. AKA. The Holy Grail.
No it is not just a small paddling pool with a sunshade. It is your new best friend.
I bought it and naively very nearly left it at home to save space! Thank goodness I didn’t. Every single day, we took it down to the pool, filled it with water and some water toys and our daughter spent hours in it.
This may not seem ground-breaking but it meant: We could sit on our sunbeds whilst our daughter was happily playing; she was safe from the sun; every other parent looked at us like dons, like we had discovered the holy grail of parenting.
I often say that toddlers are forever changing and some tips and tricks are usually only relevant for a certain stage of childhood. This is one staple item that we still bring on sun holidays now our children are two and four.
We don’t often take it down to the pool anymore, though we could. But it stays on our terrace or balcony for when we want to chill at the accommodation and our two will play in it for hours.
It is also good for beach days when children want to play in the water safely.
Some of their favourite things to play in the The Holy Grail include:
- Pouring with paper cups
- Putting they little characters down a ‘slide’
- Hook a duck
- Fill it with bubbles
- Fishing with a net
As well as all this fun, it can also double as an inflatable bath for smaller children.
Now, just tell me ‘What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow’ and I will tell you where I got it from.
Other toys for travelling toddlers on holiday
I always like to raid Temu or Home Bargains and find a cheap, easy to pack toy that my kids haven’t seen before. I tend to keep it for mid break and use it as a bit of bait that they can have a ‘new toy’ or special treat.
Some of these have included…
This cheap basketball set was great for our apartment but didn’t last until the end of the trip. Although we made use of the balls.
When I was pregnant with our first child, we were sat on Weston-Super-Mare beach watching some bloke play with a rocket launcher similar to this with his son.
My husband said that is what he wants his parenthood to look like.
So for his first Father’s Day I bought him one. Almost as a joke but actually, it is still one of our favourite toys to take on holiday or just to play in our own garden.
Another thing we always take, but this is more for older toddlers, is a camera. We bought a really cheap, basic kid’s camera from Temu. My daughter loves taking photos on holiday or on day trips.
The one we bought even has basic games on it (think snake on your Nokia 3310) that my 4-year-old can access.
If driving to our destination and space allows, we found a water travel activity case handy for a bit of outdoor water play.
We have taken other items like felt play mats, travel connect four (they don’t properly play it they just like making patterns) and travel bean bag toss.
I found a great travel bag game from Tiger that has a bean bag toss one side and velcro balls the other with lots of other games to chose from.
You know your child best and what will keep them entertained but remember your holiday destination will hopefully have so much going on that they won’t need so many toys.