15 Awesome Ways to Entertain A Toddler on a Plane or in the Car!
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hi! I am tavia & I have flown over 100 flights with my 3 kids! We’ve got loads of tips and experience on long flights and long roadtrips!
If you’re looking for the best toddler activities on a plane or the best car activities for a toddler, you’re in the right place. There are many ways to entertain toddlers on a plane without putting them in front of an iPad, so I have tried and tested many of these travel activities for toddlers on my own kids.
I've traveled with a toddler. Actually, I’ve travel with TWO toddlers now. I consider myself a master toddler entertainer. HA! But seriously, I have conquered toddler boredom time and time again. OH, and while we do love a good movie, I don’t always resort to screen time to entertain our three.
I’ve compiled a list of the best toys for travel, the best books, and games that will entertain our toddler while traveling around the world with them. How to keep a toddler busy on a plane should be the last thing you’re worried about when planning your next trip, we’ve done the testing for you! So, grab a few of these and head out the door!
Check out my guide to the 100+ Best Road Trip Snacks ideas. Never have boring snacks when you travel again!
1) Dinosaur Pack
Get your regular sized pack HERE.
You can find dinosaurs of all sizes on Amazon, but the TWO we love the most are the Medium and Small sizes. The small ones are TEENY, so we recommend constant supervision with these. We normally bring 3-4 of each size and they fit nicely in the side pocket of our diaper bag or in our designated toy packing cube inside of the diaper bag. These toys are cheap, they entertain the kids for long periods of time, AND they are so good to bring along to Airbnbs for entertaining toddlers through imaginative play! Dinos on the tray table is one of our favorite activities for toddler on airplane!
Let’s be honest, we will lose toys while traveling with toddlers and babies, and losing one of these will not cause a meltdown for me or the kids!
My son brings this particular dinosaur on all of our travels - so now we have jurrasic park photos of
2) Tegu Magnetic Blocks
Get yours Tegu Blocks HERE!
These Tegu blogs are one of the best toys to keep a toddler entertained on a plane! (or in a car!) These things are genius. Each block has a magnet inside, so when you stack them together they stick!
We have carried these on international flights, to countless Airbnbs and all over the United States. We have 2 sets and of all the places they have gone, we’ve only lost the travel bag — probably because it isn’t magnetic!
All of our kids love playing with these blocks. The kids stack them and watch them attract and repel each other. These blocks are small enough to add to the diaper bag too! Tegu Blocks are a family travel must have!
3) Melissa & Doug Water Wow Books
Get yours HERE.
Can we get a heck yea for mess-less coloring? And a second heck yea for reusable pages? Melissa & Doug have made just that. These books use water to change the color of their pages as your child colors. As they dry, the pages return to black and white. Water Wow books are genius the perfect way to entertain a toddler in the car or entertaining a toddler on a plane — mess-free & reusable!
These Melissa & Doug water wow books are compact too, so it makes it easy to pack light with a toddler in tow! We have several of these books and have used them since our children were young toddlers all the way through elementary school! They really are one of the best activities for toddler on plane and are generally great travel entertainment for kids!
4) Stacking Cups
If you’re wondering how to keep an 18 month old entertained on a plane…well, these cups!
It’s always the simplest toys that get the most attention, so stacking cups are one of the best things to keep toddlers entertained on a plane! (or in a car!) My kids have always loved cups. As a matter of fact, I used to ask for empty cups on airplanes just to entertain my kids. BUT, bringing a small set of stacking cups on your adventures is GENIUS. Here are a few ways your kids can get a ton of use from these cups:
Stacking
Filling with Sand/Rocks/Water on the playground
Use for washing hair/bodies in the bath
Use them to make mountains to crash
Use them to put other toys into
So many ways to use these bad boys and definitely worth adding to the travel toy repertoire for entertaining toddlers in the car or on the plane. This simple set of stacking cups is the perfect plane activities for 1 year old.
5) Melissa and Doug Reusable Sticker Book.
Get yours HERE!
Toddlers LOVE stickers! Reusable stickers are a fantastic way to quietly entertain toddlers in the car for a long period of time. These books offer different scenes to apply and reapply for as long as their imaginations allow!
If you’re considering putting together toddler busy bags for airplane travel or a long road trip with toddlers, these stickers will be a great addition!
6) Suction Cup Spinner Toy
Get your Spinner Toy HERE.
The spinner toy is perfect to stick to an airplane window. One pack comes with three different size spinners. We have used this for travel since our third baby was 6 months.
We use the Spinners in the airplane, but also in the hotel or airbnb, in the car, in the bath, etc. I love how versatile it is and how it keeps little hands busy.
Our third baby has loved this toy since he was a very young infant.
our spinner in the window to entertain the baby on a long haul
7) Search and Find Books:
Get yours HERE:
Search and find books are not just for big kids. Toddlers love helping find things and these books are the perfect quiet entertainment for them.
What I love about this series of Search and Find books is that you can get simple ones or more difficult ones as your child gets older. These books can be used over and over good, so a price point of $10 is a great deal! These are a perfect way to entertain a toddler while you travel.
8) Felt Play Books
This super quiet felt book is great for entertaining toddlers on a flight by giving growing minds the chance to use their imaginations! Your child can place farm animals around the farm! They will get the chance to see each animal and see where it fits on the farm. This book is very easy to pack, provides some quiet entertainment, and encourages learning!
These types of books were perfect when I was traveling with a baby and toddler. I could help move animals around with the toddler and the baby would be engaged with the colorful photos!
This is a one of the best airplane activities for 3 year old.
9) Travel Tangram Puzzles
Get yours HERE:
My kids are obsessed with Tangrams! The tangram is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap.
Jigsaw Puzzle Games is traditional teaching mathematics for above 3 years old, making this one of the best airplane activities for 3 year old (and older)!
10) Gel Window Clings
Get your gel window clings HERE or pick some up from your local Target Dollar Spot.
Before we fly we pick up several packs of gel window clings. This is one of my all time favorite activities for toddlers on airplanes! They can stick them to the window, peel them off, stick them again. Or in my son’s case — rip the clings to shreds. We always pick ours up from the Target Dollar Spot for $1 a pack. Window clings are amazing for keeping toddler entertained on plane! Since each pack is cheap, I don’t mind tossing the pack after each flight.
We flew in early december from san fran to washington dc and my kids loved these santa window clings! I love to buy the seasonal ones!
11) Keep Em’ Quiet Travel Packs
Get yours HERE!
Use code: social for 10% off your purchase!
Keep Em’ Quiet Travel Packs are pre-packaged bags of entertainment for your little ones. You can choose between a girl or boy bags AND you can choose which age range. (1-3, 3-5, or 5-10 years) This means your kid is going to get age-appropriate toys and entertainment to last the duration of your trip! These bags are an absolutely perfect (and easy) way to keep your child entertained and busy without using screen time!
Bags include “toys, activities, crafts, educational items, books, learning activity workbooks, puzzles, games, collectibles, healthy snacks & more - all crammed into our bespoke child-friendly rucksacks that kids love to wear!”
12) Leslie Patricelli Board Books
Get yours HERE:
While a book is not necessarily a toy, they are great for entertaining a toddler on a flight or entertaining toddlers in the car.
We have almost every book Leslie Patricelli has written for kids. We have at least 150 kids’ books in our house, but somehow these are the ONLY books our kids constantly ask us to read. They are obsessed with the stories and the illustrations. Each book has a fun story or lesson. Often our kids want to “read” these books by themselves. I highly recommend adding a few of these books to your toddler travel entertainment collection!
13) Color Wonder Stow & Go
Get yours HERE!
This is for all the toddlers out there who love to color & draw! This kit may be a tad bulky for plane travel, but if you have a large bag it could work! However, for a long car ride, this kit is amazing. It comes with a coloring book & 4 mess free markers. What makes this particular set so toddler friendly is that the markers only color on the special color wonder paper! This means if your child goes rogue and starts coloring all over their carseat or on the airplane tray — no harm is done! I love that this set is self contained. You can buy additional blank pages for free coloring or other color wonder coloring books to stash inside the kit!
This set is one of the best airplane activities for 4 year old!
14) Clip Connect
Get yours HERE!
Wand something that is fantastic for keeping toddler entertained on plane?
- Link together pieces while improving independent play, hand-eye coordination, spatial skills, and dexterity. Great for sensory development, occupational therapy, and autistic individuals.
Comes with a reusable travel bag & 100 pieces. This means if you lose a couple along your travels, no sweat! It also means you can pack 10-20 pieces instead of all of them to help you pack light with a toddler in tow.
15) Tablets
Get your iPad mini HERE or Amazon fire HERE.
I would be kidding myself if I tried to pretend our kids never watch movies or play electronic games when we travel. We have a regular iPad and an iPad mini. Both are great. You can load movies, games, or apps onto your tabled and do not need the internet to access your stuff either.
Easy-to-use parental controls allow parents to personalize screen time limits, set educational goals, filter age-appropriate content and also manage web browsing and content usage.
We’ve had the same 2 ipads since these two were little toddlers!
There are so many ideas for entertaining toddlers while traveling, but these are some of the best tried and true things we’ve found. What I love about all of the toddler activities listed above is that they are also some of the best toys to keep toddler busy at home too! This means you can pack them for the flight and use them at the hotel!
As always, we love your feedback!! What are your go to Toddler Entertainment ideas for travel?
DON'T FORGET! If you buy one of these awesome toddler entertainers, be sure to tag Big Brave Nomad in your Instagram Stories & Post or on Facebook so we can see your kids staying busy!
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