Traveling never fails to excite everyone in the family, especially kids.
The most awaited vacations give them the luxury of quality time to spend with one another. On normal days, we don’t have much of this luxury because we tend to allot a bigger portion of our time for work, school, or other activities. Traveling allows families to reconnect, catch up more with one another, enhance communication, and strengthen the love, bond, and unity.
While the thought of traveling itself is fun and thrilling already, long hours on the road as well as long-haul flights can be both exhausting and boring for children. It’s important to keep everyone entertained when this situation is inevitable. Bringing travel toys is one of the best solutions.
Travel toys aren’t only meant to beat boredom while on your way to your destination or in your hotel room. Some travel toys are also designed to let the whole family play games and enjoy together. What a great source of ideas for vacation activities!
Listed below are the best travel toys that can add up to your children’s delight while on vacation.
Not everyone is a fan of this 3-D combination puzzle. It’s difficult to solve especially for beginners. The usual Rubik’s Cube has six faces, each one covered by nine stickers with the same colors such as white, green, blue, red, yellow, and orange. You solve the puzzle by completing the colors for each side. Each of the six faces should only have one color.
Solving just one face of the cube is already tough for some kids and not all adults can solve this completely, unless they study the techniques. Despite the challenge, many kids want to try playing Rubik’s Cube. In fact, it is considered as one of the best-selling toys worldwide.
It is an ideal travel toy because it fits perfectly in small bags or even in a pocket. When your child is bored, they can pull it out instantly and take the challenge of solving all the six faces of the cube.
A better idea is to bring this toy along with a book that talks about strategies on solving a Rubik’s Cube. The detailed instructions on the book will help your kid learn this puzzle well during long-haul flights or long hours of road trip. They will hardly notice the idle time passing by. The next thing they will know, you’ve reached the destination already.
Does your child love building things that resemble the design of houses, robots, or vehicles? A LEGO creator set will keep them engaged for several hours. The challenge of building things based on the designs they imagine will surely kill the boredom of long hours on the road, or when you have to stay in your hotel room for several hours.
Your kid will be extra thankful if you give them a LEGO set that comes from the inspiration of their favorite animated film or TV series. Good thing, you can find it easily at online stores and at the kid’s section of shopping malls.
Also, why not help each other build the design? Your kid will be happy to see that you’re interested in their activity. It will surely be a great addition to their happy experiences from your travel.
Toy cars are a classic toy that will provide hours of fun on any trip. They’re available in many different sizes, so you’ll always be able to find cars that fit into your existing luggage. Their simplicity makes them an ideal travel toy. Your child can just pick up the car and roll it along any surface to start playing instantly.
Sometimes, it’s almost impossible to keep preschoolers from randomly touching the keys on your laptop. That’s pretty stressful when you need to write a few emails, browse something on the internet, and finish a task fast so you can completely enjoy your vacation. We didn’t even mention the possible damage your laptop might get from your kid’s eager little hands. Or just imagine misplaced or completely deleted files!
To protect your files or whatever you’re doing on your laptop while letting your little one enjoy imitating what you do, you can give them a learning laptop, which is way cuter than a real one.
Learning laptops also have a screen, keyboard, or even mouse, just the like a real computer. As its name implies, kids can have fun learning while playing with numerous activities featuring letters, spelling, vocabulary, numbers, shapes, and many other knowledge-building collections.
Sticker pads are an ideal travel toy for younger children who have a creative or imaginative side.
There are so many sticker pad themes to choose from including airports, farmyard animals, dinosaurs and vehicles, so you can easily find sets that match up with your child’s interests.
Since this toy encourages your child to keep the stickers and pad together, there’s very little chance of them losing anything when you’re traveling.Sticker pads are also small and portable, so it’s easy for your child to keep the sticker pad with them and then start playing whenever they want.
To get the most out of sticker pads as a travel toy, buy a range of different scenes and stickers for your kids to play with. This will keep them entertained and stop them getting bored on longer trips.
Concentration and fine motors skills are crucial in a child’s learning progress. For example, without fine motor skills, it will be difficult for anyone to write, draw, or even hold a pencil properly. There are various activities for children that help develop these two important learning factors. One of these is threading through lacing boards.
Lacing boards don’t only serve as toys, they are also great learning tools. Because they aren’t bulky, you can definitely bring them anywhere, even on travel. When kids work on it, their attention is glued on the board and they really have fun making different designs through shoelaces or ribbons using the power of their imagination.
Many lacing boards feature colorful patters of shapes, numbers, letters, animals, and many more. The possibilities are endless. This activity allows kids to become more inventive, compelling them to focus well. With a lacing board, there’s no room for boredom on board.
This is not a toy, but a way of letting kids preserve memories of their trip in a journal. This will keep them busy for about an hour each day as their record their daily experiences in the journal. You could buy a travel journal from a store, or make a personalized one at home (this gives you the chance to customize the journal to suit your kids’ needs.) The kids record the highlights of each day in the journal and can also attach a photo or two, or even a drawing, of something that stood out for them.
This is a great way of preserving memories when traveling and can be kept to be read in the future when they are all grown up. You will need a travel journal for every trip you make.
Most little children love coloring. This is good news for parents because coloring helps kids stay focused on what they’re doing and become more creative. Besides, this activity is quite addictive—well, of course, in a good way. It only means that you can keep them entertained for long hours, as long as they don’t get tired and lose patience with repetitive tasks.
The secret to keep your kids entertained with coloring, is to find books with stories that reel-in young readers or books that feature beautiful designs that encourage children to bring out their creative and neat coloring skills.
To avoid messy hands and color stains everywhere, choose a coloring set that is designed to help kids stay organized and minimize mess as much as possible. There are a wide array of choices you can find at online shops, malls, or educational supply stores.
With the advancement of technology, books started evolving, too. We only think of books as a collection of simple pages with a plain wall of text on it or with pictures to serve as a visual aid for readers. Of course, the basic books require the reader to obtain information all by themselves.
Those were the old days. Now, basic books still flood bookstands, yet, books that can talk and read by themselves using what kids refer to as “magical pen” are growing in popularity. The concept with interactive learning books is simple: Pages respond to a device, usually, a special battery-loaded pen, letting kids experience a delightful moment of carrying a talking, singing book on their lap.
Typically, interactive learning books feature a collection of stories, vocabulary-building activities, simple math lessons, or children’s songs. Since it’s not an ordinary book, kids will surely love playing with it for hours.
The classic, interesting chess and checkers never grow old. It has been around for many generations. Even their grandparents can play these board games with your kids. However, chess and checkers only allow two players at a time. You’ll need to take turns if there are several kids in the family, unless, you wish to play by pairs to come up with winning techniques better.
While chess and checkers are mainly strategy games and may depend largely on logical calculations, your young avid readers and aspiring writers may prefer something else where they can best use their interests and natural abilities. They may probably love scrabble—a board game that combines vocabulary and spelling capabilities along with well-thought strategies.
There are also easier board games that depend on dice-rolling for every single move to define who the winner is at the end of the game. Usually, the goal of the players is to race against each other towards the given finish line on the board.
You’ll never run out of choices when it comes to board games. But for convenience, small board games with magnetic pieces are the best choice.
Electronic handheld games are fantastic for keeping kids entertained when you’re on the move.
There are so many different electronic games to choose from including classic games such as Yahtzee and solitaire, sports themed games, arcade games, brain training games and memory games. Some handheld gaming devices even come with multiple games included, so look out for these if you want to get a bargain.
When buying electronic handheld games, make sure you stock up on batteries. If your child plays the game a lot while you’re on the move, they’ll need more than one set of batteries.
Another thing to consider is the sound settings on electronic handheld games. The constant sounds that some electronic games make can be very distracting or irritating when you’re traveling. So, in most cases, it’s best to set the sound of the electronic handheld game to silent or have it reduced to a very low volume before giving it to your child.
Card games are suitable for older grade school children who can already follow multiple game rules. There are countless card games you can try with the whole family. You’ll get countless fun and laughter, as you immerse yourselves in the activity. Because everyone tries to win, especially kids, you’ll love to play card games over and over again.
This activity isn’t just a plain game. It also develops your children’s ability to focus and think of creative strategies to win. In addition, it teaches them to stick to the rules in order to avoid penalties or to gain prizes. As you play, you’ll be able to teach valuable lessons to your kids, including the importance of focus, analytical thinking, and discipline.
Some forms of card game improve a child’s memory, speed, and overall thinking abilities. When you’re planning to travel, don’t forget to stash a deck into your bag. It’s light-weight and handy. It’s a very convenient yet fun leisure activity.
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Movies
Load a few movies (and cartoons for the young ones) into your tablet or iPad, and watch time pass fast without the usual “are we there yet?” questions.
In as much as kids love to play, they at times want to quietly watch their favorite movie or cartoon during a long flight or car ride. Once they are settled in their seats, let them watch the movie or cartoon (earphones are good if using public transport means) and enjoy your flight with no distractions from the kids.
If you are going to be on the road for a long time, load a few different movies so that they can choose what to watch, and if done with one they can start watching another. This is one of the best ways to keep children busy when traveling, as they all love watching their preferred movies and cartoons, and would do so for hours with only bathroom breaks for distraction.
There are many types of doodle boards you can get for your child, but the small magnetic ones are the best when traveling. Since they are small, they are very portable and can be easily stored in your hand luggage and taken out as needed. Doodle boards are perfect for kids under six years of age, as they get to practice their writing and art skills easily. They simply write or draw what they want using the attached stylus and erase it using the knob. Most doodle boards come with a few different shape stampers that children can use to make their own original designs. The doodle boards have a frame around them that has a place for storing the stylus and stamps to prevent loss.
For a fun time, you could have your children play some games on the doodle board, such as Tic Tac Toe or even have them trace their palm on the boards. In addition to games, writing and drawing, they could also do some basic mathematics on the board. Doodle boards not only keep your children busy when traveling, but they also improve their basic writing and Mathematics skills.
Dolls are the quintessential girl’s toy, loved all over the world by girls of different ages. Since dolls are usually small, light, and portable, it is easy to carry them as they do not take up much space. You could even have your child carry it in a small bag or by hand. A doll can keep a child busy for hours on end as they play with it. Most dolls today come with accessories, which come in handy in keeping the child busy for longer. If the doll has accessories, you should carry a bag to store them when not in use, to avoid any loss.
Action figures are popular worldwide, and every child loves playing with their favorite action figure. Remember to carry your kid’s favorite action figure(s) whenever you are traveling, and you will not have to deal with the “mom/dad I am bored and don’t know what to do” conversations from the children. To keep them occupied for longer, ensure you get them most or all of the action figures in a series, so that they have more to play with.
Just like dolls and action figures, stuffed toys are well-loved by most children around the globe. Get your child their favorite stuffed toy, whether it is a teddy bear or a stuffed animal, to keep them busy when you are traveling.
Most children never put down their stuffed toy even when sleeping, and this works to your advantage as a parent, as they can play with them for hours. It is nearly impossible to carry all your kid’s stuffed toys, so you carry only a few that they love most.
While books are not exactly toys, they are a great way of keeping children occupied during trips. It is good to buy new books for the trip since children will be excited to read something new instead of what they are used to. You should, however, avoid buying the huge and bulky ones, and instead, go for the cheap skinny paperbacks.
Buy the books according to the age of the children you are traveling with, from simple story books with pictures for the young ones to novels for the older ones. You should, however, ask your children the books they want, to avoid buying books that they do not like and will not read.
A good book will keep a child engrossed for a while. If traveling with young children, you could read to them for a more enjoyable experience. Books are flexible and can be used when traveling and also when you reach your destination.
For your little princesses, it’s time to accessorize with your customized bracelets, necklaces, and other trinkets. Help your girls design their customized accessories by finding inspiration from DIY blogs, magazines, or jewelry-making books. It’s definitely a great bonding experience for mother and daughter, or sisters in the family.
Girls can even do this project as a gift for their new-found friends during vacation. Or maybe, they can make customized accessories while on travel so they can bring something home for their friends at school or around neighborhood. It’s literally anything that will inspire them to create something that’s beautiful while letting idle time pass by.
Your little ones will surely love creating beautiful wearable pieces. On top of that, the idle time on your vacation gives you the opportunity to impart valuable lessons about the joy of giving lovely gifts to others.
Making loom bands is very similar to making bead accessories. It squeezes out your creative juices, your ability to imagine the appearance of your output, and your skills to learn methods fast. Loom band-making is more difficult though. While you only need to shoot the string into the bead’s hole in making bead accessories, loom band-making looks as if you’re crocheting. And you know that crocheting is difficult for beginners!
However, don’t let this intimidate your kids. Many other kids out there come up with really awesome patterns as they focus on the activity. Your kids can do it, too. Of course, you need to consider their age before buying them a set of their own. Their age and interest would determine whether they will enjoy this activity or not.
Help them get engaged with loom band-making by finding tutorial videos that they can follow as a guide.
Many families love the beach. Traveling to pretty beach destinations several times each year is included in their bucket list. If your family falls into this category, be sure to bring a sand toy set every time. Besides swimming, sand castle-making is an artistic and delightful activity for the whole family.
Sand castles are not the only thing you can create out of beach sand and a sand toy set. Several sand toy sets include molders of animal shapes, stars and much more. It will definitely give you tons of ideas on what to come up with using that powdery beach sand. What a cool way to love staying out in the sun!
Imagine also how picture-perfect your sand creations can be. Thinking about Instagram-worthy vacation pictures with your kids at the beach? You can definitely be creative and achieve that.
Fashion design creative kits will entertain little fashionistas who love sketching dresses, gowns, blouses, skirts, and many other outfits. Kits usually include a fashion sketchbook, garment, assorted stuff to accessorize outfits such as buttons, ribbons, or beads, a small dress mannequin, thread, needles, tape measure, pins, pin cushion, and a guidebook with many ideas that spark inspiration for designs.
The fashion design kit will enable your daughter to unleash her potential as a designer. From the brainstorming of design to sketching it, down to the execution of the design into a real outfit, this toy will give her a taste of career in the fashion industry.
It’s a great travel toy for a little girl who aspires to become a fashion designer since traveling sparks inspiration and creative ideas. When you combine both, it won’t only help her enjoy the vacation, it will also serve as a fun and relaxed way of honing her fashion design skills.
This toy that looks like a plastic plate is also very convenient to bring on trips. Frisbee is a gliding toy that is basically designed for a group of individuals playing the throw-catch game. Simply put, it’s a cool alternative for a ball.
Running, chasing, and catching Frisbee is a healthy physical activity for the whole family. You’ll enjoy this activity all throughout the afternoon while sweating it out and letting your brain release the happy hormones. Enjoy the smiles and laughter everyone in the family will show.
While quizzes are not a toy, they are a fun way to keep kids (and by extension the adults too) occupied. You could look for a puzzle book, or download a puzzle app on your phone, that is age-appropriate for the children you are traveling with. To keep them busy, you ask them questions from the quizzes and have one of the kids record the score. For more fun and competition, you could promise the winner a gift of your choice. This will easily ensure that they all concentrate on the quiz, therefore keeping them from being restless.
A good quiz is a great travel companion that is easily packed as it doesn’t occupy much space, and is a good family activity that is very educational.
Create a mini-story using finger puppets as your main actors. Small children love stories, and when they are sleepy, it calms them and helps them fall asleep faster. When you’re on travel, this is a smart way to solve tantrums.
Another way you can use finger puppets is to let your kid tell a story using the puppets as the characters. You won’t only avoid tantrums, you will also mold your child’s storytelling ability—an essential addition to their communication skills.
If they don’t want to tell their own story, just let them play with their finger puppets so they can stay at ease while on your way to your destination.
Fidget Spinners have quickly become a popular toy for both kids and adults. They’re very simple to use which makes them perfect for short or long trips. All your child has to do is hold and spin to keep themselves entertained.
Another thing that makes fidget spinners an amazing travel toy is their small and compact nature. They can fit in pockets, bags and the compartments in your car which makes them very easy to take along when you’re traveling. Plus, because they’re so tiny, they won’t take up much space in your car, so you’ll have plenty of room to pack anything else you need for your trip.
Fidget spinners also don’t have any additional parts, so there’s no chance of your child losing accessories or pieces of the fidget spinner while you’re on the move.
One final plus point of fidget spinners when it comes to travel is the nature of the toy. Fidget spinners are designed to reduce stress levels, anxiety and ADHD, so if you have a child that’s often disruptive when you travel, a fidget spinner may make the trip a more pleasant experience for both them and you.
One of the outdoor games you can play literally anywhere spacious without vehicles passing by, is badminton. It’s a fun and energetic sport that is suitable for the whole family. Two members can first compete against each other and based on the scores, another family member can be the next player to change the loser and challenge the winner.
Badminton is super fun, you can play it the whole afternoon. In fact, kids who learned the sport only take a break when they are fully exhausted. Kids are unstoppable when they play badminton. Everyone wants to win, and so, they do multiple rematches.
You don’t need a badminton court to get started. Just set a marker on the space to serve as the court’s imaginary net.
Playing badminton isn’t just a healthy leisure activity, it can also open the way for starting new friendships as some kids, both locals and co-tourists, may be interested to join the game.
Little boys and girls alike are fascinated with floating bubbles. Whatever it may be that they imagine about it, still, the best part is that it entertains them. Think about reducing the frequency of tantrums.
Because it’s a small toy, you don’t have to worry about fitting it into tight spaces. When you’re outdoors or when you’re in the car and the windows are open, you can hand it over to your kids so they can start blowing bubbles right away.
Capturing candid photos of your kids blowing bubbles is a wonderful addition to your travel memoir. The candid smiles you freeze in your camera are also priceless. Imagine how cute and adorable the photos you’ll get on the road. It’s not only for the sake of Instagram, but a really lovable memory you can include in your family album or hang on the wall.
Stacking cups are a simple travel toy that really hold the attention of younger children on long journeys.
Since they stack together, stacking cups take up very little space in your luggage. They’re also very lightweight, so they don’t add any unwanted weight to your bags.
One of the best things about stacking cups is that they’re so versatile. They can be used to build towers, play counting games, hide objects and so much more.
Stacking cups are also a great learning toy and help develop motor control and hand-eye coordination in younger children.
An inflatable beach ball is also a must-have for beach lovers. It’s light and easy to carry, and sometimes it can also serve as floatie in the water. Kids love to play beach balls, especially the throw-catch game. If the kids in your family are older, you can take the game to the next level by playing beach volleyball or football.
Some beaches have makeshift football courts on sand. Spend late afternoons or early mornings by the beach running, kicking, chasing the ball, and aiming for the goal. It’s a great exercise for the family to release the stress and inhale the sea breeze.
If you prefer volleyball but there isn’t a court for it, create your makeshift court on the sand by drawing a line that separates the two groups of players.
Strengthen the bond and everyone’s cardio-respiratory health by playing beach games and sports with an inflatable beach ball.
From simple 16-piece puzzles to complex ones with other 100 pieces, jigsaw puzzles are a tried and tested way of keeping children and adults alike busy and occupied for hours when traveling.
The bigger the puzzle, the better, because it will take longer to solve. You should, however, avoid carrying the very large ones with over a thousand pieces when traveling, as the table space for each person on a flight may not be enough to fit the puzzle.
Solving a jigsaw puzzle is an activity that will keep the entire family busy when traveling. To make it even more fun, you could buy a themed puzzle, where the picture to be solved is from your children’s favorite movie, TV show, or video game. This will motivate them to keep on solving it, as the final product will be something that they love.
You could also promise them a present if they manage to solve it in a given time. This will encourage them to work harder to solve it as they look forward to getting the gift.
You, however, may have to carry more than one jigsaw puzzle especially if you are traveling for long, since they will need another one to keep them occupied if they solve the first one.
Many leading toy brands produce take along playsets which feature toy figures and a collapsible playset that doubles up as a portable box. Some of the brands that produce these playsets include Melissa and Doug, Playmobil and Polly Pocket.
These playsets are perfect for travel because everything is collapsible and can be quickly packed together into a compact box when you’re on the move. Then when your child wants to play, they can open up the box and start playing.
These playsets come in lots of different themes, so you can easily find one that’s perfect for your child. Some of the most popular themes include farm yards, police stations and pirate ships.
Don’t forget any of these travel toys for a more delightful, energetic, creative, and unforgettable family vacation.
Children, especially toddlers, tend to get bored easily if stuck with one activity only, therefore you should carry several toys for them so that they can switch from one game to another when they get bored. Having a new activity after some time keeps the children from getting bored and restless and turning their attention to destruction. Carrying many toys, however, may be tiresome, and they may not fit into your luggage. Pick the smaller and lighter toys that can fit into your hand luggage (or in a small bag that your kid can easily carry.)
Make sure that the toys you pick can be played with several times, not just once, as this will reduce the number of toys that you have to carry to entertain your children as you travel. If you have several kids that you are traveling with, carry toys that can be used by all children of various ages, as this will reduce your luggage. You should carry versatile toys that can be used when traveling and also during your vacation/stay. This is another way of ensuring that you don’t carry too many toys such that you have no space in your luggage for more important things. To make storage and use easier, put each toy in a separate plastic bag before packing them in a bag. This way, it is easy to store the one that has already been played with and pick the next one to be used without mixing up all the pieces. If the toys are packed in boxes, it is easier to remove them from the respective boxes and pack them in plastic bags for easy storage.
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