We're giving a warm welcome to Judy here on the Babipur Blog to share with us her experiences of flying long haul and travelling with kids. Keeping kids comfortable and entertained on flights isn't always easy, but with some careful planning and a few key items it can be a much more enjoyable experience. Over to you Judy ...
Hi, I’m Judy, a Babipur Buddy! I’m married with two boys aged 5 and 7 and we recently went on along haul flight to see friends and family in Australia. In this blog I’ll be telling you about Babipur products which we took away with us and how we used them. It includes items for the kids as well as for myself, things which helped make the journey easier and what was worn, used and played with on our holiday!
Flying Long Haul With Kids
We were flying from Manchester to Brisbane which involved a 7 hour flight to Dubai, a 3 hour stopover and then a 14 hour flight from Dubai to Brisbane. This was our second time doing this flight as a family of four but the kids were much younger then and so we had to find different ways to keep them entertained this time.
Toys For The Flight
The boys managed to sleep for a good chunk of time on each of the long flights. They were also entertained/kept busy by their personal TVs and the food and drink which was brought round regularly. We didn’t want them on screens the whole time so we took a few things with us to help keep them entertained. They both had their own Frugi Backpack with all their items for the plane in. The following Babipur items were either played with on the plane or whilst at the airport waiting for our flights.
Babai Tic Tac Toe Hearts Board Game. This was great because my boys could play this with each other.
Green Rubber Toys Dachshund. This was a new toy for my 5 year old, a little companion for the trip! He had the biggest smile when he found it in his bag! Because it’s made of rubber, it’s great for beach play and water play too!
Grimm's Relaxing Bird. This is really lovely to hold. As well as using this at the airport and on the plane, my 7 year old also used it whilst on holiday too as something to help him relax.
Babipur B Is For Buzzz Book. My 5 year old especially enjoyed doing the dot to dots in this book! If you’re after felt tips, Babipur sell those too OkoNorm 12 Felt Tip Pens.
PlanToys Rectangular Puzzle and PlanToys Log Puzzle. My boys had one of these PlanToys puzzles each in their bags and they both had fun trying to solve the puzzles!
Other Flight Essentials
To help with ears popping on take off and landing, we took some Mintastic Sugar Free Natural Mints with us. On the plane I also had my Klean Kanteen 16oz TKWide Twist Cap. You couldn’t take liquids that large through airport security but you were able to take empty bottles to fill up with water once through. This meant that I got nice cold water on the plane as my Klean Kanteen kept it nice and cool. My Klean Kanteen was invaluable throughout the holiday too!
Travel Toys
These are the other toys which with took with us. Some were played with where we were staying and others were taken out and about with us and even to the beach.
Grimm's Mini Rainbow (6 Pieces). This is such a great toy to take on holiday! It’s small to carry and it’s fun to play with. We took it to the beach with us, stacked with it, made patterns with it and my son used it to make a home for his toy Dachshund with it too.
Ostheimer Kangaroo Father. How could we not take a toy kangaroo with us to Australia!? We don’t have many Ostheimer toys but we really love this one. We even got to introduce it to some real kangaroos at Australia zoo!
Abel Golden Ratio. We took this set partly for the boys to play with and partly for me so that if I found the time then I could make some mandalas with it. And I did - we were at the beach one day and I got the chance to make one. Abel blocks are also great for imprinting patterns in the sand.
Nins. We took a Nin on all our adventures with us - either in my pocket or backpack! We chose one from the Grapat Advent Calendar.
Babipur x Lanka Kade Elephant. Lanka Kade are great for taking away with you as they’re really robust and such great value. We chose our Babipur x Lanka Kade Elephant to join us.
Candylab Beach Bus. This is such a cool toy! It separates into four parts including the surf board and magnets help hold it together. My boys loved playing with it especially since they got to go away camping in a real campervan whist in Australia too!
Long Haul Holiday Clothes
My sons mainly wore Frugi, Maxomorra and Little Green Radicals whilst we were on holiday. As they're made from cotton, they helped keep my boys cool. They wore their Maxomorra sun hats and/or Frugi swim hats everyday!
They wore Frugi and Little Green Radical swimwear with long sleeves and long shorts to help keep them protected from the sun. On their exposed skin we used Green People Children SPF30 Sun Cream. This was the first time we’d used this Sun Cream and we were really happy with it. The boys both commented about how they liked the smell of it. I found that it covered them both well and I love how it contains no parabens or other harsh chemicals.
Things For Me!
I ordered a Patagonia P-6 Logo LoPro Trucker Hat just before going away. The first time I wore it was on a day trip to Australia Zoo. Wearing it all day, I and found it super comfy and not too hot, it was great at keeping the sun off my face.
I used the Green People SPF15 Edelweiss Tan Accelerator Sun Lotion mainly on my face. It protected me well but also helped me get a healthy glow.
My Klean Kanteen 16oz TKWide Twist Cap, which I mentioned early, came out with me every day! It was so great to have cold water when out in the heat. There were plenty of water fountains around to fill it up when I needed.
Another Babipur product which I’d really recommend when travelling with kids are wet bags, they are such a useful item to take on holiday. Our favourite ones are Baba and Boo. We use them for spare clothes, dirty clothes, swimming costumes, toiletries etc. They’re not expensive and are much better than using plastic bags.
Babipur sells so many great products which are ideal for taking on holiday, check out their Summer Shop for some more great finds! You can find me over on Instagram at @_bloomwhereyouareplanted_