Have you been traveling this summer? I know we have. But, even though the summer is winding down that does not mean traveling stops. In fact, the holidays are just around the corner and that can often mean more traveling than usual as we go to see family. Therefore, One Step Ahead wants to help simplify things for traveling parents and came up with a few unique tips and products for successful family travel.
Tips and Products for Successful Family Travel
- Travel Treasures - Keep a collection of small, inexpensive toys to use as rewards throughout the trip. For example, as each hour of good behavior passes, give a small reward to each child. This will keep them motivated to behave and they get to enjoy a new toy to keep them occupied for the next hour.
- Snack Supply - Bring a cooler of snacks for both the kids and the parents. Keeping kids hunger-free for longer periods of time will prevent those frequent food stops. And if you are traveling, carrying snacks will also cut down on airplane costs while in-flight. The KLIP IT Lunch Cube is excellent to use for this tip. This perfectly sized food container has 2 sides and 3 separate compartments. Plus, it is easy to open and the kids can help themselves to snacks while you focus on driving.
- Family Fun - Play family travel games such as License Plate Bingo, I Spy, Landmark Scavenger Hunt and others. Our favorite is the ABC game. We start at the beginning of the alphabet and have to find a word that begins with that letter before moving to the next. There are a handful of hard letters to do that with so you have to get creative! Plus, you can throw in a family sing-along and really get everyone engaged!
- Bookworms - I know that I personally love to read, as do most of the kids. Even if they do not want to bring a physical book, e-book, or magazine along, they can also read through travel brochures for the trip or store catalogs to make wishlists. Even an audio book for the whole family to listen to to could be a great idea!
- Buddy Bag - Let each child have their own carry-on bag whether in the car or on a plane. Let them fill it full of essentials they need for the trip: stuffed animal, doll, cars, book, journal… whatever it may be. This allows them to have a place to pull from when looking for something to entertain them as the trip progresses.
- Busy Binders - Before traveling, print free online coloring pages of the kids’ favorite characters, dot-to-dots, mazes, or perhaps even fun school skill worksheets and put together a binder for each child. We like to print out a map of where we are going so that the kids can follow along and we get to ask them, “Are we there yet?” Be sure to bring along the Deluxe Snack & Play Kids Travel Tray or Family Travel Car Organizers from One Step Ahead. The tray is soft enough to protect the child during an accident, yet made firm enough to both color and eat on. Personally, I love that is has a toy pouch and a cup holder pocket on either side. This is perfect for traveling. And the rimmed tray area helps to keep crayons and pencils from rolling away as you travel. Genius!
- Stay Safe - No matter where you end up when you travel, always be prepared and address any appropriate safety behaviors with the entire before the trip. Explain what to expect at the various locations, such as the airport, theme park, hotel or house of which you will be a guest. Make sure everyone agrees on the best safety practices and understands what is expected.And for destinations with large crowds, try temporary tattoos that you can use to write your cell phone number on your child’s arm.
Traveling with kids can be far less crazy when you are organized and well prepared. What are your best traveling tips when bringing the kids along? I would love to hear more as we are already gearing up for another possible trip soon!
Check out One Step Ahead’s full selection of top travel picks or visit their Bye Bye Baby Pinterest board for even more ideas.
One Step Ahead Sponsor Spotlight
One Step Ahead is a unique children’s retailer that continuously provides ingenious solutions to help simplify our life with kids. They have been in business for over 20 years and are on a mission to save parents time, money, and frustration. One Step Ahead is also sponsoring a both of the products pictured above in the upcoming For the Family Event hosted by the Noise Girls starting September 1st. Be sure to get a jump start on entering by liking One Step Ahead on Facebook.
About Staci
First of all, those are some fantastic travel tips, I’ll be saving this page to read again later. And I love the car organizer and the Lunch Cube! Both would be a lifesaver on a trip!
I love this – my daughter eats in the car a lot and this would be a big help! Plus she has food allergies, so we have to pack her food wherever we go – I would love to have this!
one step ahead carries all the products that fill niches you wish you could fill
Love the buddy bag idea, my mom actually used to do that for me and my sister. Thanks for all the tips! I’ll definitely use them with my boy
and the one step ahead travel tray and lunch cube sounds like great product! 
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I like the lunch box/snack box!
I get the One Step Ahead catalog and always drool over all their products. I haven’t bought anything yet but would love to try these!
i love this!!
I also like their 3-in-1 sit and store tub-side seat.
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I LOVE the lunch cube! My daughter just started full day kindergarten (and she brings a lunch about 1/2 the time) so this would be great for her. She has a hard time with re-closing ziplock bags so there is always a mess in her lunch bag when she brings it home!
This is a excellent idea for lunch at school or at the park
we take lots of road trips, so this is very cool… I am all for making traveling with kids easier!
We travel as much as we can and my daughter is finally to an age where she can be entertained in the car! Lots of great tips/ideas! Thanks! =)
These products are so practical. I love it!
cjnedrow at gmail dot com
What a great product! No more sandwhich bags to fill the landfill
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The travel Tray would be nice for my son to use for books or coloring while traveling!
I love the tray! This would be amazing for road trips!
I like the lunchbox. Awesome. Thanks for the giveaway.
I’m going to have to get some of those lunch cubes. They look fantastic!
I have an unhealthy love of food storage devices. This one is geat though. I love that it has different space for the food and snacks. Instead of 3 boxes, I could just use one!