30+ Toddler Travel Toys & Activities

30+ Toddler Travel Toys & Activities
Recently hubby and I took our, then 18 month old son, on a 4 1/2 hour flight to Mexico for a family wedding. Yowzers! PLUS we decided to not purchase him his own seat so we could save where we could. Looking back, we might just fork over the $$ next time.

Luckily on the way to Mexico there was one extra seat, and it happened to be right in front of us! The passengers were willing to rearrange so that Christian could have his own seat. That flight he did very well. He didn't have any melt downs, but did want to play with almost all the toys we packed for the flight. Talk about being tired because of constantly needing to be on and entertaining a toddler for hours on end!

The flight back home we were not so lucky. The flight was packed so C had to be a lap baby. Luckily we were flying back with many family members and he was able to walk the aisle to visit with everyone.

This is a list of most of the toys and activities that we packed for our trip that helped save us!

VARIETY IS KEY (along with easy accessibility, and gadgets with many functions)

1. stickers

2. window gel clings (great for windows or the pull down trays)

3. cheerio necklace (prestrung on embroidery floss thread, so it's ok to suck on)

4. Melissa & Dog Water Wow Coloring book (only uses water! and it dries for reuse)
5. Aquadoodle Travel (drawing/painting again with just water)
6. Clothes pins and a paper tube (clip the clips, send them down the tube, use the tube to talk into or see out of etc.)

7. Quiet book (with buckles, touch and feel pages, zippers etc. )

8. hand or finger puppets
9. books (Indestructibles, and lift the flap books are great)
10. old makeup brush
11. travel brush (one that folds, has a mirror, and the brush bristles push out. so many options in one gadget!)

12. snacks and water (for ascending and descending. plus a handy sippi grip that awesomely has a velcro strap! another added toy with a purpose!)

13. bubble wrap
14. iPod, iPad (we used these as a last resort)
15. kid headphones (to use with above. we liked Kidz Gear since it limits volume and has other good functions)
16. pipe cleaners and water bottle
17. straws
18. mini slinky
19. mini calculator
20. koosh ball 
21. triangular crayons (no rolling!)
22. kaleidoscope
23. Reusable sticker book (like Melissa & Doug's) 
24. sentimental stuffed animal
25. photo book (with family photos slid inside)
26. ziploc bag with duplo legos
27. toddler backpack (they will love going in and out of pockets, zipping the zipper, pulling things out etc. we added a chest buckle to ours and C loved it.)
28. travel magna doodle
29. bubbles!
30. small flashlight
31. the old fashioned jelly bracelets 
32. tissue paper
33. flowy scarf (peekaboo, stuffing into water bottle, tying onto things etc.)

The possibilities are almost endless!

Avoid:
-items that roll
-games or activities with small or many pieces
-valuable toys 
-glow sticks (especially for toddlers. if chewed, they can break!)

Between the toddler back pack and our diaper bag, we were able to easily bring many toys and activities for the flights.

*Don't forget, the Dollar Store is your friend!!!*

Coming soon: our toddler packing list and toddler iPad apps!