As the holiday season rolls around, chances are you have a trip or three in your calendar in the weeks ahead. And holiday travel always brings its own version of magic…and stress: Busier-than-usual airport or an exhausting road trip. Complicated family dynamics. All the events and activities.
So how to get where you need to go and make the most of the time there? We asked a few pros for their best tips for traveling with a baby to ease travel stress and find the season’s peace and joy.
A little chaos is a given!
Anushka Salinas, Nanit’s CEO and mom of two, has very simple and wise travel tips for anyone on the go with kids: Embrace the chaos. “[Traveling with kids] is not going to be like it is when you travel by yourself or just with adults, so be prepared however you can,” she advises.
Maristella Lucchini, Nanit Lab’s Senior Clinical Researcher, agrees. “The truth is that no matter what you try to do [when you’re traveling with kids], the first couple of days will be messy.” Despite your best efforts and intentions, your baby's sleep schedule might be disrupted, and a nap may be missed. But rest assured that over time—either on the road or when you’re back home, depending on how long you’re gone—routines will settle back in and everyone will start to sleep again.
Plan activities for long flights or car rides.
Stocking up on things to do en route will make the miles pass more peacefully. Need a few helpful packing tips? Pack some extra diapers and extra clothes in your diaper bag for your newborn baby. Baby food and snacks are high on Salinas’s list of holiday essentials when traveling with little ones. Games like travel bingo or art supplies can be fun for toddlers. Lucie Fink, content creator and mom of two, loves to listen to the podcast Storytime With Tula Jane and her Mother in the Wild with her 3 year old on long road trips.
Download any movies/shows/music/audiobooks before your trip so spotty service (or WiFi that you have to pay for) doesn’t get in the way of entertainment. And if your kids are old enough, let them take part in planning their activity kit. They’ll look forward to their hand-picked to dos and you’ll know they’ve got something along that they’ll enjoy.
If possible, travel early in the day and/or plan around nap times.
Morning travel means you’re less likely to have travel backups, with delayed or canceled flights leading to more delays. Traffic is often better in the early morning as well. Also, one excellent way to avoid the “Are we there yet?” refrain? Travel while your kids snooze. Whenever Lucchini can, she tries to map out her travel plans around when her children usually sleep. “I often travel to Italy where my family lives, so I book flights when we can sleep during the flight.” If you’re driving to your destination, do your best to cover a longer stretch of miles during your child’s naps. Incorporating thoughtful tips for traveling with a baby, such as planning for sleep schedules, can make the journey smoother for everyone involved.
Problem solve as a team.
Talk over holiday and travel plans together with your partner. “It’s important for partners to stay on the same page and that’s really about sharing expectations and wishes ahead of time,” advises Dr. Tracy Dalgleish, psychologist and author of I Didn't Sign Up For This: Stories of Unlocking Old Patterns and Finding Joy in Our Relationships. Do you want to spend one night or three at your in-law’s house? Would it feel more relaxed to book a hotel?
Once you’ve decided what feels best to you both, Dr. Dagleish recommends communicating plans to family as a united front, so no one person is to blame. “So, instead of one partner going to their parents and saying, ‘My wife doesn’t want to stay with you,’ which creates separation—my family vs. my partner— use language like, ‘What works best for our family is this.’” Thinking as a team lets you validate each other’s needs and find solutions together.
Lean on routine for better sleep.
Ideally, wherever you go, your nap and bedtime routines can go with you! Bathtime, stories, songs–they work at Grandma’s house, too! And maintaining that regular routine will help cue your little one that it’s time to sleep even if it’s in a different bed. Salinas says a reliable sleep routine is one of her keys to easier travel with kids.
“Consistency of our sleep routine is super important. For us, it’s having great white noise and our monitor handy. When we travel, we bring the Sound + Light audio monitor. It’s really lightweight and battery operated and helps recreate the routine that we have at home.”
Look forward to bedtime with the Nanit Sound and Light Machine, designed to grow with your child from the early days of newborn sleep through toddlerhood and beyond. This all-in-one device creates a soothing and consistent sleep environment to promote more restful routines. 
And, take your Nanit Pro Baby Monitor with you on the go to help recreate your home environment and keep you connected. Use the portable Flex Stand that allows you to set up the camera virtually anywhere for 130 degrees of room monitoring no matter where you are.
TIP: For security purposes, Nanit is designed to only connect to password-protected WiFi networks. If you do choose to stay in a hotel or other location that only offers an open or captive portal network option, please refer to our suggestions here.
Figure out where to be flexible.
Staying at someone else’s house often means trying to merge different schedules and plans. And with young children, that can be tricky if, say, your parents’ big family dinners happen at 7 p.m.…which is your baby’s usual bedtime. “Ask yourself, What am I willing to be flexible on?” recommends Dr. Dalgleish, “And how can I accommodate us to get there? So for example, you might say to your mom, ‘I love that you want us to all be together, but 7 p.m. is our baby's bedtime. Would an earlier dinner be something you could do?’ Or maybe the togetherness around the table is the important thing, so you feed your child earlier, but sit together for a bit at the family dinner before putting your child down for bed. It’s important to have those back-and-forth conversations and avoid an all-or-nothing approach which keeps us rigid and stuck.”
