MARCH, 30 2018 Add to Favorites

Travel Packing Tips for Parents

Travel Packing Tips

We all look forward to our vacations, they represent a chance to spend some time away from the stress of daily life and enjoy something new. One thing to remember to ensure that living out of your suitcase for a few days is not a problem is getting the packing right to begin with! This is especially true for parents, so to help you along we have some tips for vacation packing when traveling with children.

Make a List!

The first and probably most important tip is to make a list of what you will need. Not just toiletries and so on, but the clothing your children will need for their stay. Do a bit of research in the week before your vacation, check out weather forecasts for your destination and pick outfits to suit. Once you have your list, if you plan on following our next tip, create outfits for each day and list them all together. One thing not to forget, pack an outfit each for your children for the journey home! It's easy to forget that extra day!

Make a list!

Pack Outfits, Not Items!

When you are on vacation, kids will be excited, and you will want to have the easiest time possible. It IS vacation, it is supposed to be relaxing after all! Being prepared means having everything to hand so the kids aren’t left waiting (and thereby stressing you out, even more, when you are supposed to be relaxing), and a good way to do that is to pack complete outfits together, rather than individual clothing items.

How it works is simple, put together outfits for your children, tops, pants, socks and underwear, and pack them as a single item. You can do this a few ways, some people fold the items on themselves to keep everything together, others roll the entire outfit up (a great idea that actually takes up less space) so you can use smaller bags or take more stuff! 

After organizing as suggested you can simply grab a roll of clothes each morning, knowing it has all the clothes your child needs for the day making it a time saver and space saver in one. You can combine this brilliant idea with another, and also use Ziploc bags for each outfit. 

Place each outfit roll in its own Ziploc bag, and not only can you be sure everything stays together even if your airline plays basketball with your luggage, but at the end of the day you can place the dirty outfit back into its Ziploc bag, label it as dirty, and its organized and ready for when you get home as well. It’s also useful for labeling each outfit so you can note which outfits have long sleeved shirts and pants for a cooler day or short sleeves and shorts or skirt for a warmer one.

Organize Your Bags!

Depending on the kind of vacation you are taking, and how many children are involved, another way to organize your vacation packing is to have a separate travel bag for each child. If you put their name on it and maybe even let them put a sticker of a favorite character or object on it to customize it a bit, you will give them a sense of ownership and responsibility that can be good for them too. 

Organize your bags!

In fact, by getting them involved in this way you can avoid a lot of frustration they can feel at not really knowing what is going on, and that can make life easier for you throughout the whole vacation. We know traveling with children has its ups and downs, this is an easy way to get them excited and remove the downside of frustration. 

What do you REALLY need to pack?

Think About What You Need, and What You Can Buy!

One mistake that is very easy to make when vacation packing is to get into the mindset that you have to take absolutely everything you may need with you. It sounds good, but when traveling with children, that means a lot of stuff! It does depend on your destination of course, but in most cases, there are plenty of stores wherever you are going, you can buy what you need when you get there. 

If you have very small children, think about diapers. They take up a lot of room, do you need enough to cover the entire vacation? No, take enough for a couple of days, and that gives you plenty of time to find a store and buy what you need for your stay. Some stores, like Walmart, now let you order online and pick up at a local store, so it's all ready to collect when you arrive saving you precious vacation time as well! 

Remember, you have plenty of options, and you can think of it this way: the less you have to pack, the fewer bags you need to carry, the easier the journey will be!  Also keep in mind no matter how much you plan ahead and pack everything you think you will need you will almost ALWAYS forget something!  So why not pack for your vacation with that fact in mind: you're going to have to go shopping for things you forgot anyways!


Last But Not Least, Enjoy Yourself!

While these vacation packing tips will help you get organized and save you time when traveling with children, whether you use them or not, don’t forget to have fun and enjoy that vacation, you deserve it!

For more great vacation tips check out the other articles in our News and Articles sections.  If you've made up your mind and would like to commit to a great vacation, give Timeshare Recyclers a call and find out about our great timeshare rental and resale options today!

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