We flew to Greece with our three mini travellers, when they were 3.5 and 2.5 (twins) and we survived. So how did we do it? We followed our 10 Top Tips for Flying with Toddlers!
10 Top Tips for Flying with Toddlers
1. Pack A Picnic Breakfast
We packed a breakfast picnic the night before for the girls. A bag of Grab 2 go cheerios and a bottle of apple juice so the girls felt like they were having crisps and a fruit shoot but the reality was a much healthier breakfast. The healthiness theme does not continue!
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Here is a list of 36 Travel Snacks for other ideas!
2. Comfy Easy To Put On Clothes
I laid out all their clothes and made sure they were comfortable and easy to pull on, no buttons. So in the morning they were in their clothes and in the car in minutes sitting eating their breakfast picnic.
3. Book Meet and Greet Parking
Meet and Greet parking and speedy security. Quick and avoids unnecessary queues that all add to stress and boredom levels. Have a look at my other post for more on this.
4. Take a Bag of Treats
A bag of treats. On this day of the year (my view only) rules on treats go out of the window. If the kids are quiet/good/don’t scream they get chocolate/crisps/juice whatever they want really. If a chocolate button works to get you through a tricky situation. Just hand one over.
5. Prepare a Backpack Filled With Goodies
Fill their backpacks with a few new goodies. Mine had a colouring book and pack of crayons. A new reading book. Sticker book. Favourite teddy. These got us through check in, security and take off.
6. Prepare the Kiddies for the Flight
Watching or reading Peppa Pig goes on holiday before you set off. “Peppa goes on a plane mummy. They are exciting mummy. Planes aren’t scary mummy”. Worked for us anyway.
- Peppa Pig (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 24 Pages - 06/04/2015 (Publication Date) - Ladybird (Publisher)
7. Take a Tablet With Favourite Shows On
A tablet filled up with favourite episodes of television programmes. Cbeebies on the I-player is fantastic for this as all the downloads are free. We also took headphones for all 3 to keep them quiet.
- Striking 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with True Tone
- A14 Bionic chip with 6-core CPU and 4-core GPU
- 12MP Wide back camera
- Landscape 12MP Ultra Wide front camera with Center Stage
- Touch ID for secure authentication and Apple Pay
8. Pack a Picnic
Food, food and more food. Another picnic this time for the plane/lunch. You can’t believe how hard it is to buy plain sandwiches for kids in the airport or on the plane. Depends how fussy yours are, but mine like just ham or just cheese. They don’t want a BLT or a steak wrap as nice as these may be.
9. Take Pull Ups
Pull ups under knickers for all three even my big girl who has been trained for over a year. That time after the last wee, boarding the place, taxiing to take off and the seatbelt sign actually being switched off can be a lifetime to a toddler.
- Striking 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with True Tone
- A14 Bionic chip with 6-core CPU and 4-core GPU
- 12MP Wide back camera
- Landscape 12MP Ultra Wide front camera with Center Stage
- Touch ID for secure authentication and Apple Pay
10. Be Patient
Enthusiasm and patience. It would help if they sold it in duty free. More useful than some cheap perfume. Fundamentally you need to stay calm and have fun. If you are relaxed then they are more likely to be. Were we? Not really, but the kids had a ball and smiled happily at everyone around us.
If anyone has any other tips to add to our 10 Top Tips for Flying with Toddlers we would love to hear from you.
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Karen Beddow founded Mini Travellers in 2014 while doing what she loves most...going on holiday!
Mini Travellers is for parents looking for holiday ideas, destination reviews, days out and things to do with the kids. We also have family travel tips, activity ideas and all other things family holiday related. Take a look at some of our latest reviews for holidays and day trips in the UK.
These are great tips. I would never have thought of pull ups for potty trained children but it makes so much sense. Thanks so much for linking to #TheList x
Thanks, it just sets your mind at rest.
Ohhhhh patience!! 🙂 We love the iPad with everything downloaded from CBeebies, its like magic….for a bit anyway!
I LOVE the ipad!
Enthusiasm and patience?! That’s where I’ve been going wrong 😉 We lived abroad for seven years and I took a few flights back to the UK on my own with a baby and toddler. I fear that I am now scarred for life.
He he yes lots of patience
Great tips!
I used to find it challenging enough to travel with one toddler (he’s 6 now), so I’m really impressed that you manage to travel with three of them!
ha thanks
These are great tips. I wish we’d seen them when we flew to Florida. My son was 18 months at the time and we had a nightmare!! x x
That’s quite a lot longer than our flight though!
Loving these tips, we hope to go away next summer once we have our little one, who would be 6 months by then. Everyone keeps telling me it isn’t going to happen!! 🙁
It will happen. Lots of reviews on the site of happy holidays with little ones
I do a lot of these too, definitely the bag thing with a few new books, a drink, now my son is older he gets a pack of sweets in there too and he is absolutely fine! I remember going away abroad with him when he was 20 months and it was just box of raisins after box of raisins, then the hard chocolate stuff for stressful times!! It’s my 15 month old who is the hardest to travel with as she hates the car!
it can be tricky when they don’t really understand the treats system yet
Thanks for linking this again to #TheList I am sure it will be helpful to lots of people x
thanks
Brilliant- we’re thinking of travelling abroad with the children for the first time next year so I’ll bookmark these tips!
Thank you, I’ve just found this in spam so sorry for the delay
Great tips, thank you 🙂
Fab tips. I’ll be trying these when we head off to Mexico next year. Really quite nervous about 4 small children on a plane for 10 hours
I love the Peppa holiday video idea and the pull-ups over pants idea is genius. Making a mental note for next time we get on a plane! 🙂
I just posted about travel with toddlers! Must be a theme! These are great tips, I’ve been wondering how to navigate this with my newly potty trained 3 year old. The pull ups are a great idea.
Such fab tips! I can’t wait go take my two abroad. Xx
I have to say I pretty much agree with everything you’ve said.
I found out on a trip last year, where I had to make a connecting flight with my 3 yr old in a very short space of time just how important pull up pants are!
Oh and wheelie suitcases are great and make for a handy seat, or horse. My youngest kept the immigration line smiling at Gatwick, by pretending the suitcase was a horse and shouting ‘Ride em cowboy!’
Hello all!
These are great tips! Fyi- If you have an iOS or android device- our interactive storybook apps make fantastic travel companions 🙂 They are downloadable from the apps stores and play without wifi.
Nice tips esp pull ups over pants! Thanks for this as I’ll need it this summer for our 18MO and 3YO!
Great tips thank you, we use pull ups UNDER pants, easier to remove when you arrive! Also agree iPads and earphones are a life saver. We have started to do a holiday diary and autograph book, useful for taking to school afterwards. Sometimes worth asking if you can go to see the cockpit, usually after you’ve landed!
Such a good idea about the pull ups over pants, also its a long wait when the plane has landed and they don’t let you exit the seat, so I may even though he will have just turned 4 insist he has a pull up over his pants! any tips for a 9 month old? is it ok if I don’t baby wear them on the plane, I also heard about taking the buggy to the airplane and something about making sure you know where to collect it. It will be our first holiday In June, so excited
Yes no need to babywear on the plane the only reason for doing so is to give you some hands. You can usually use the buggy up to the airport steps, just make sure you ask them where yo=u collect it from when they are going to give it back to you. Sometimes not until the carousel, another reason a baby carrier is a good shout.
Good to see we were not the only ones who leveraged the Peppa Pig books to psych up the kids for the trip. We probably went overkill as we also had to purchase the figurines and airplane.