TRAVEL
We have done planes, trains and automobiles with baby in tow, and these are the products and tips that helped us keep it together:
- Gate Check Bags: these red vinyl bags are a slightly more customized version of the large vinyl laundry bag you used in college. They come in different sizes and shapes for car seats, umbrella strollers, and regular strollers. Airlines allow you to gate check strollers and car seats, so this is a way to keep your gear clean and protected when it's out of your hands. For proof of utility, our gate check bags have gotten totally gross over the years, whereas our car seats and strollers are just fine.
- Travel Bottle Brush and Drying Rack: for all the glamorous times you find yourself cleaning bottles, pump parts and pacifiers in hotel sinks. Though in all seriousness this product is great and compact and really gets the job done. I actually bought a second one to keep at work when I was pumping to wash and dry my pump parts in our mother's room.
- Travel Baby Tub: Munchkin makes a $12 inflatable travel tub that folds down to basically nothing and is super easy to bring along on trips. I wouldn't recommend it for a newborn because it doesn't provide enough support, but it's great for that 6-12 month range. It's also great to create a tub if you are going to a place that only has a shower.
- Baby Gear Rentals: most cities have baby gear rental companies that can deliver pretty much anything you'd need -- travel cribs, strollers, car seats, baby bathtubs, high chairs, age appropriate toys, etc. We've had great experiences using rental services and it makes it a lot easier to pack light.
- Car Seats from Rental Car Companies are not the best (as in, sometimes they are kind of dirty or just feel excessively "used"), but they really help reduce the amount you have to pack, particularly once you've outgrown the infant bucket car seat. Toddler car seats are huge and generally not compatible with strollers, so they are a giant pain to bring on flights. That said, some kids do best in flight in a car seat, in which case it might make sense to bring the big car seat and get a car seat travel cart.
- Cribs: we have done a mix of renting cribs (regular and travel cribs), bringing our own travel crib, and using hotel cribs. With hotel cribs, be sure to ask about the size -- we once got a "crib" that was really a glorified bassinet, and was way, way too small for our 14-month old. We will usually bring our own travel crib if we are driving, and then rent one if we are flying to place where we won't have a hotel crib.
