Kauai Family Travel: Toddler Travel Gear
This post may contain Amazon affiliate links for your convenience. You can view my disclaimers here. Of course, I never share products I don’t personally use and love.
This is not going to be a packing post. But I did want to share some of my standby favorites for beach trips and travel and some new products I have discovered, especially as we adjust to traveling with an entirely new human. There is so much stuff, so much stuff, to bring along when you have a young child.
Case in point - we packed all the things despite making a genuine effort to not pack all the things
Personally, I have been working toward being more intentional about keeping and buying only the things that actually add value to my life. It’s a journey, a journey that still involves far too much insomnia motivated shopping. That said, these are the things I packed for Kauai that I highly recommend that perhaps may not already be on your packing list.
Pockit Lightweight Stroller: I initially bought this stroller for Harrison’s first trip to Arkansas and his first trip on an airplane last year and have consistently used the stroller both at home and when traveling. It is small enough to fit in a backpack and can be carried onto an airplane instead of being gate checked. This stroller has been to Arkansas, Hawaii, and San Diego and I expect will join us for many future adventures. It’s easy to toss in the car “just in case.” Not only do I love this stroller, Harrison loves this stroller, perhaps because it’s associated with all kinds of fun adventures. I would argue it’s the perfect stroller for traveling if flexibility and mobility are high on your priority list. It is compact enough to take anywhere. We will be using this with Harrison until he reaches the 55 pound weight limit.
Cosco Car Seat: Listen, car seat recommendations are tricky. Let’s just say that people have feelings about them. However, time after time, the Cosco convertible car seat rises to the top of the list of best car seat for travel. We bought this as a backup car seat and to take when traveling. This no frills car seat is affordable, lightweight, and easy to transport and install (relatively speaking). Cosco car seats also meet the FAA requirements to be used on an airplane. Another controversial topic: whether or not to check the car seat when flying. If you don’t know, you can always gate check things like strollers or car seats, but on most airlines you can also check these infant and child items into the cargo hold at no cost. On our trip to Kauai, we elected to check the car seat, protecting it in a car seat travel bag that we also stuffed with durable items like diapers on the way there and dirty clothes on the way back.
Kelty Child Carrier: Soon after Harrison was born, we were generously given a hand-me-down Kelty hiking backpack. We LOVE it. It has allowed us to have many more hiking adventures with Harrison than we could have had otherwise. We knew we wanted to bring it with us to Kauai, so we packed in such a way that it could have been one of our free checked bags (thanks to my Alaska Airlines credit card, each person ticketed on the reservation receives one complimentary checked bag). Thankfully, flying both directions, the ticket agents allowed us to check it as a child item, so we could check both of our bags, including the carryon size one, giving us one less thing to drag through the airport. Your mileage may vary, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Despite the hassle (I mean, do you see all of the stuff two adults lugged from place to place to and from and around Kauai?), I would absolutely do it again - we were able to do multiple hikes that we couldn’t have done with Harrison’s toddler legs and stamina. Although ours is an older model, the newest ones have even more storage space, which may or not be a good thing depending on how much child you are carrying on your back.
KAVU Rope Bag: Not all the things were for Harrison. I’ve talked before about how much I love KAVU bags. I’ve been carrying them for years, especially for travel and outdoor activities. They come in so many cute colors and patterns, are comfortable to wear, and can hold so much stuff - all of the snacks and activities and clothes and extra stuff Harrison needs.
Beach Bag with Detachable Cooler: I won’t link a specific one (the one I actually bought is no longer available), but if you search for this you will get a million options. This makes the perfect bag for a beach vacation - it is a great size for a carryon personal item and the cooler, although I didn’t have anything cold in it, made the perfect spot to stash easily accessible snacks for the flights. Once in Kauai, I was able to transition the bag to its intended use as a beach bag (the mesh made it super easy to remove sand) and the cooler came in handy pretty much daily. I brought a freezer bag for ice to keep things cold.
Packable Beach Chair: Ummmm. Let me give you some advice. Buy one of these. I have zero regrets about packing and bringing this surprisingly comfortable beach chair all the way to Kauai. It easily fit in my suitcase, was lightweight to carry to the beach, and was the envy of all, or at least of Harrison. If you’ve been to Hawaii, you know most of the best beaches are not connected to a resort, which is actually great. I love finding a beach that feels almost all my own. As I get older, I also appreciate having a place to sit on the beach that isn’t a towel in the sand. This is really the perfect compromise. It’s quick and easy to assemble and disassemble. One thing to keep in mind is it is so lightweight that a breezy day means it might need some extra weight to keep it in place. But seriously, this might be my favorite thing I packed.
Columbia Hiking Sandals: Fun fact. My feet grew when I was pregnant and never went back to their previous size. Brandon had gotten me some really nice Danner’s for Christmas in my new, larger shoe size, but I wanted something easier to pack and more diverse for this trip and my Chacos no longer fit. After a lot of comparison shopping, I ended up purchasing these Columbia Sports Sandals. They were perfect. These sandals were comfortable for hiking and were ideal for hikes that involved a transition from trail to water activities. They were great for the beach and continued to be my go to “river shoes” for the summer. The longest hike I did in these was 4 miles, which is probably about the max I would want to do in sandals rather than hiking boots. If you’re looking for a shoe to fill a similar niche, I can confidently recommend these.
Turkish Towels for the Beach: If you’ve followed my blog, you know these are my go to beach towel. They are packable, dry quickly, and sand is easy to remove. Brandon and I have been using them for years and we bought Harrison his very own for his first (warm) beach trip. These are literally the perfect beach towel.
So those are the things - my recommendations for some specific items I am really glad I packed for our trip to Kauai. I’d like to say a word about the Amazon links. Mostly, this blog is a labor of love. I’ve been blogging now for over a decade and if nothing else comes from it, then I am perfectly content documenting our adventures for my own benefit. I truly enjoy it. But, it can also be a lot of effort, especially when I am being intentional about creating useful content. Things like affiliate links and using my travel planning services are small ways I can potentially make a little (very little) income from this hobby of mine. So if you are inclined to do so, I certainly appreciate you choosing to shop through affiliate links or purchase a travel plan. Regardless, I hope I’m still doing this another 10 years from now. So what about you? What are your “must haves” for traveling with little ones?