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Are you looking for the best travel toys for babies to make your next trip easier? We’ve got you covered!
While taking a baby on a trip can feel daunting, with careful preparation, you can turn it into a smooth and fun experience for the whole family. When travelling with older kids, ensuring you have travel toys and activities is a sure way to make things happier, but we often forget the importance of baby travel toys!
Living in Australia has meant many long flights with babies and toddlers for us since almost everywhere is a long flight from Australia!
To help you with your baby packing essentials, we’ve put together the ultimate list of the best baby travel toys, including ideas for younger babies and toddlers.
Our Top Picks: Best Baby Travel Toys
- BEST 0-12 MONTH BABY TRAVEL TOY – Tomy Lamaze Mortimer The Moose Clip-On Toy
- BEST 12+ MONTHS BABY TRAVEL TOY – deMoca Quiet Book
The Best Travel Toys For Babies
The best baby travel toys are ones that are safe, help with developing fine motor skills and encourage exploration of your baby’s senses.
With this in mind, we have sorted these best travel toys for babies into two categories, since the best toys for a younger baby differ greatly from the best toys for older babies and toddler travel toys.
Best Baby Travel Toys For 0 To 1-Year-Olds
If your baby is at the stage where they are taking an interest in the things around them, bringing a couple of toys for babies such as these will help with quiet playtime.
1. Crinkle Baby Books
As babies explore through touch and sound, these soft-touch cloth baby books make a perfect first sensory toy for babies.
They are tough enough to withstand teething babies who chew everything and are lightweight for easy grip.
The books have 20 different textures, including crinkly pages with bright colours and animal tail decorations. They also have velcro straps to attach them to your stroller, highchair or car seat.
They can also be washed in your washing machine as an added bonus!
2. Fat Brain Toys Dimpl Dots
This simple baby fidget toy from Fat Brain Toys has bright colours and is easy to grip with BPA-free plastic and food-grade silicone. Babies can push and pop the dots for early sensory exploration.
There is also the Dimpl Duo baby toy for travel to help learn colours and shapes.
3. YOGINGO Tissue Box Toy
The YOGINGO Tissue Box Toy is a great travel baby toy for both fun and the development of your baby.
This Montessori toy has 3 multi-themed crinkle papers and 8 colourful silk scarves for your baby to pull out of the soft tissue box. Any parent knows what happens if your baby gets to the tissue box…
Made from soft cotton fabric with non-toxic dye with a lightly weighted base to help it stay in place as your baby pulls out the different fabrics.
4. Soft Dino Book
This adorable soft-touch 3D crinkle dino baby book has a detachable dinosaur toy for your baby to practice gripping. It also has a baby-safe mirror and lots of different textures to explore.
Plus it is machine washable and made of tough, durable materials with BPA-free polyester fabric and a fabric ring to attach to baby equipment.
5. Bright Starts Snuggle & Teethe Plush Baby Toy
This plush baby teething toy is adorable and functional for giving relief to aching gums. Babies will also love the crinkly fabric.
You can choose from 2 designs for these plush animals – elephant or giraffe. These make great baby travel toys since they combine both a teething toy and a snuggle toy in one.
6. Arudyo Baby Teethers
A simple teething toy is always one of the best baby travel toys since travelling with a teething baby is no fun! Anything that will bring some relief is going to make your trip much easier.
The Arudyo baby teething toys are made of food-grade silicone and natural beech wood. The circle design makes it easy for babies to grip and textured silicone knobs to soothe gums.
The silicone rudder can be removed and cleaned in boiling water to keep it free of germs while you’re travelling.
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7. Dr. Brown’s Ridgees Giraffe Massaging Baby Teether
Dr Brown’s baby teether comes in a few different designs, including this cute giraffe option. They each have an easy-grip design to help with fine motor skill development.
The teething toys have firm edges to massage gums and chewable ridges that have been designed by a pediatric dentist.
This teething toy can be placed in the refrigerator for chilled relief on your baby’s gums and can be washed in the dishwasher.
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8. Wrist Rattle Foot Finder Socks Set
You will love these wrist and sock rattles for your family travel, for both hands and feet. It has bright colours that help capture your baby’s attention.
Placing the rattles on their feet and hands helps encourage your baby to stretch and reach for them, to encourage improved coordination and fine motor control.
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9. Tomy Lamaze Mortimer The Moose Clip-On Toy
The colours and design of these Lamaze clip-on toys will grab our little one’s attention and make it easier not to lose, making it an ideal baby travel toy.
You can clip it in anything, from a diaper bag top, highchair, and crib.
The toys are super soft with textured fabrics and a squeaking stomach for sounds and tactile sensations. It also has antlers that are great for teething.
This moose (and the other Lamaze clip toys) were a favourite for both of our girls when they were babies.
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10. Ingenuity Cozy Spot Activity Gym & Play Mat
One of the hardest parts of travel is having somewhere to put your baby down when you are relaxing at your hotel or when staying with family.
If you have the space, particularly for road trips with a baby, this Ingenuity Cozy Spot Activity Gym & Play Mat is a fantastic option!
It has a plush mat for tummy time or baby playtime, with 6 removable activity toys. These include a plush toy, a rattle, a mirror, a silicone toy, a wooden ring and a tummy time pillow.
It also has foldable toy bars to clip the toys onto to turn it into a baby gym. And best of all, the whole thing folds in half with carry handles!
The only negative is that is a little over 2kg (4.8 pounds) but if you have a longer trip planned and want a perfect option for keeping your baby entertained in a hotel room or when staying with others, this is it!
🤩 Check Prices and read reviews
Travel Baby Toys For 1-Year-Olds
The baby toys for travel in this category are great for keeping kids occupied who are a little older, making them great toddler airplane toys and travel toys.
1. Suction Cup Spinner Toys
These fidget toys are great baby toys for a long car ride or a plane ride.
The suction cup spinner toys stick on flat surfaces such as a plane tray table, a window or a highchair tray. Babies will develop hand-eye coordination as they learn to spin the toy and experiment with speed and stopping the spinning.
The suction feature makes them great for planes since it helps prevent them from being dropped as easily.
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2. Exorany Busy Board
This busy board toy is a great learning tool for your older baby and toddler with so many different activities to learn and explore with.
It’s a great early introduction to learning alphabet skills, colours, and shapes, as well as fine motor skills with opening zippers, buttons, buckles and shoelaces.
It is also lightweight and compact which is why you can carry it around while travelling to different places, making it perfect for car and plane rides.
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3. Silicone Pull String Activity Toy
This pull string baby travel toy will keep your little person occupied, as well as teach them about pulling, pushing buttons, and grip control.
The pull cord allows your baby to feel vibrations. The slide buttons help with grip strength and coordination. There are also other buttons and sounds to explore.
It has a soft texture that your teething babies love and can chew for relief.
This one is a little noisier than the other baby travel toys, so it might be best for road trip toys instead of airplane baby toys.
🤩 Check Prices and read reviews
4. deMoca Quiet Book
The best gift our daughter got for her first birthday was one of these quiet books. It was the main toy we took for all of our travels with her as a toddler and again when we started travelling with her little sister too. She would play with it for hours!
These soft-page busy books have different textures and activities to explore and they really are the best toys for travel! They are so easy to pack.
With zippers buckles, velcro, laces, and small toys to remove and put back into pockets. They promote imaginative play and are wonderful for placing on the tray table for plane travel.
🤩 Check Prices and read reviews
5. Melissa & Doug K’s Take-Along Shape Sorter
This Melissa & Doug shape sorter baby travel toy will help keep your baby busy on planes and car rides.
The shape sorter has soft sides and a bag handle that makes it easy to carry and pack into your luggage or carry-on bag for trips.
This can also help your child to learn and know different shapes in this brightly coloured toy. This makes it a great option for toddler travel toys as they are learning their shapes and colours.
Other Ways To Entertain A Baby On A Plane
Entertaining a baby on a plane is going to make your flight more enjoyable and those people around you. Fussy babies sometimes need a little extra stimulation when they are stuck in one place for a long-haul flight, just like the rest of us!
Here are a few simple ideas to keep your babies active baby occupied and entertained during the long haul flights:
- Play Peek-a-Boo: Peek-a-boo is a time-tested game that babies and toddlers love, hiding your face behind your hands or a swaddle and surprising them when you reappear.
- Baby Massage: You can lay your baby in your lap and gently stroke your baby’s face, arms, legs, and back. It helps your little one relax and drift off to sleep.
- Snack time: Ready some age-appropriate snacks like your baby’s favourite teething rusk for a snack between feeds.
- Singing and Humming: Your voice is actually a comforting presence to your baby. You can sing lullabies, and nursery rhymes, or just hum to your baby quietly. This can help calm them if they are having trouble settling with the plane noises around them.
- Silly Faces: Babies learn through copying facial expressions and movements. Make silly faces, clap your hands and stick your tongue out to entertain your baby.
Do Babies Need Toys For Travel?
A baby’s world is one of curiosity and exploration. Where every sight and sound as well as texture is a new discovery for them to unfold.
Travelling with a baby, whether by car or plane, can be overwhelming for them as their routine changes and they encounter unfamiliar environments and experiences.
When travelling with babies, their comfort and safety come first, however, once your baby moves out of the newborn stage, suitable baby toys can also help the experience feel more familiar.
A baby’s attention span is limited, so while you certainly don’t need toys for a newborn, as they will sleep for a lot of your trip, this will start to lengthen from around 6 to 8 weeks.
From this time, a couple of sensory toys are good to bring for young babies, and a few extra options for older babies and toddlers.
What To Look For In Baby Airplane Toys
When choosing the very best airplane toys and travel toys for a baby, the first thing we always think about is their safety. Here are some tips to help you choose the best baby travel toys:
- Safety: Choose toys that are made from non-toxic materials, such as food-grade silicone, that do not pose a risk of choking or have sharp edges.
- Age Appropriate: Choose toys that are appropriate for the age of your infant, so that you can avoid risk. Most toys have some age range indicated on the packaging, such as 0-6M or 6+ months.
- Visually Appealing: Babies are usually attracted to bold colours (including black and white), different textures and patterns.
- Interactive: Babies enjoy sounds and music, however when choosing baby toys for airplane travel especially, you don’t want anything that will disturb other passengers so consider noise. Instead go with different forms of interaction, such as baby fidget toys.
- Size: Bring compact and lightweight toys that you can carry around and won’t take up a lot of space in your hand luggage (or car if road-tripping).
- Attachable: Consider toys that can attach to strollers, car seats, or your diaper bag. This means they are less likely to get lost or dropped.
- Mess-free: Anything with a lot of pieces or parts, like a tub of blocks, isn’t ideal for travel toys.
If you are going on a longer trip, the Ingenuity Cozy Spot Activity Gym & Play Mat is great because it has detachable toys for when you aren’t using the mat & frame.
Final Thoughts: Best Baby Travel Toys
When you’re travelling with a baby, having all the care essentials is always what first comes to mind but also having some travel toys for babies is a great way to keep your baby entertained away from home. And the clip on Lamaze toys and quiet books both definitely made our travel with babies much easier!