Travel With Kids Carry On Luggage Ideas For Flying With Toddler

As a family, we travel a lot locally as well as internationally. It is easy to travel with kids if you come prepared! These kids carry on luggage ideas will make it so much easier when flying with a toddler. This is also great as a restaurant kit or doctors office visits. When flying with a preschooler, you wont need to stress out keeping your child seated when the seatbelt sign is on if you prepare a special airplane bag for them.

Travel With Kids

Having taken over 40+ flights with my children, I wanted to share tips and tricks that I learned. You can see some of our family vacation ideas here.

If you are flying with a baby, check out my travel essentials for flying with an infant and younger child. I have also done a post on airplane travel toys for toddlers too. Traveling with kids can be easy!

I suggest you watch the video first because I explain it all so much better in the video. Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel for more helpful tips. You can watch the video in a larger form on YouTube.

I have included links below to all the items I recommended. I stand behind each and every item and purchased these items myself.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Kids Carry On Luggage

My favorite iPad covers are these Unicorn Beetle covers . None of our iPads are free from covers. Not even mine. I had a situation many years ago where a brand new iPad was dropped by my then 3 year old. It shattered immediately and there was nothing I could do with it. After that experience.. the kids aren’t allowed to use iPads without covers. I have tried many covers in the past and these are by far my favorite. Knock on wood, but I’ve never had an iPad break in one of these cases. Please make sure that you purchase the right version for your iPad. When I travel with kids, their ipads often come along with us.

I do not allow my four year old to see what I have packed in her bag. I want the whole thing to be a surprise!

In my kids carry on luggage for my 4 year old I packed:

Preschool Sticker activity book (mostly used on the airplane)
Airplane books called Airport and Richard Scarry’s A Day At The Airport. I just saw this other book called The Airport Book and it looks amazing too. I always pack books because they keep her entertained and she loves talking about what she is currently experiencing on the airplane. Hearing her talk about the runway or luggage carts are amazing too. That’s why I also love this free printable airport scavenger hunt. It’s great for those vocabulary words!
A Travel Adventure activity book (which you can get for free at the link) – This is the book I reference in the video above. It has so many unique pages and activities to keep your child busy.
Monster Zipit Case with Twistable Crayons – This has come with us on countless flights now. We love it.
an Ipa
Headphones – They aren’t allowed to use iPads on the airplane without it. I also like that it restricts the volume so that my daughter can’t hurt her ear drums.
Water Wow Activity Book (another hit)- There are so many different versions. Check it out to see what would most interest your child. You fill the pen in with water and then your child colors over the book with the water pen. Magically, a picture appears. Let it dry and then use it again and again.
Princess Puffy Sticker Set (she LOVED this and played with it throughout the whole holiday.) – they also have farm themed stickers, a glamour book, a career set and an adorable pirate version!
Small toys and figurines themed towards the place we are going to. – Since we were going to Disney world I purchased these princess figurines. These are perfect for airplanes and other travel with kids or doctors office visits! You can see more about the figurines I chose at the bottom of this post.
Throw away cups and snack containers.- Take and toss cups. They also have a baby toddler version here.
Sometimes I put in the game Rush Hour Jr. It is so much fun to play. I always change up the items I put in my children’s airplane sling bags. I love that Rush Hour Jr can appeal to all of our ages.

Kids Carry On Luggage for my 8 year old and 12 year old, I packed:

1 kids travel activity book each – I bought this one for my 7 year old and this one for my 11 year old.
Nintendo Switch with a case – I love that the kids can play with this together. There are two remotes for them to use together. If you need specific game recommendations let me know. We love Mario Kart.
Water Wow Make up version for my 8 year old daughter. My 4 year old used this as well.
Pencils and crayons
Headphones
Headphone case
an Ipad
Some snacks (not pictured)

When I posted about the Little Kingdom princess dolls that I planned on giving my daughter throughout the trip, I received A LOT of questions and requests about where to purchase these dolls. While I love traveling with small toys, I did remove the smaller pieces that could easily get lost. I put those pieces away for when we return from our trip. It was mostly the shirts, as they would constantly fall off. But the figurines were a hit with the girls. They just loved the little kingdom dolls!

Here are the ones I purchased:

Frozen Snow Sisters Anna and Elsa as kids
Jasmine’s Golden Vanity Set
Princess Sparkle Collection (This one includes the most princesses)
Frozen Anna Figurine

Flying with a toddler

Don’t stress out when flying with a toddler or baby. Once you have prepared yourself with the right tools and toys, the whole family vacation will go smoothly.