Our Packing Advice for Traveling with Children


Wise packing is a challenge on long journeys to unknown places. With children there are a number of factors that make packing even more complicated. In this article we want to help you organize your thoughts and find your own packing strategy.



Packing with Children - Aggravating Factors


Sparsam gepackt für die Familie

Packing with and for children is a responsible and fairly complex matter. First, wrong decisions multiply. So, you are not lacking only one down jacket, but worst case four, five, six ... This can get either expensive or at least very annoying.

Secondly, there are those things where children can be terribly inflexible with. For example, pacifiers, cuddly toys or hats. Buying a replacement can often not be done without the kids acting up at some point.

In addition, the children's capacity of suffering is significantly lower than the one of an adult – and rightly so. Freezing for a day until you can buy warm clothes is usually not a problem for us. With children, it can mean that there is constant screaming for a day followed by a nasty otitis media for another two weeks.

The circumstances in which you pack for the family are not ideal. Most of the time you start when the children are playing peacefully. But when you tear apart all the cupboards twenty minutes later, the drama begins: One child is crying because it surprisingly hurt itself while trying to ride the trampoline scooter. The second has just found a pack of chocolate biscuits, opened, half-eaten and runs smeared through the living room, while the third, completely absorbed in thought, rubs the soil from the pot of your houseplant onto the sofa. Then when you stand in front of the pile that was left at the last attempt three days later, you no longer know what you had already put together and what else you had in mind that still needs to be done.

On the other hand, you are not traveling to a crisis area and most things can be found easily in a very short time. Children can also learn that you can and sometimes have to do your travels without a lot of things. Therefore, our personal formula for successful packing means:

  • Structure well
  • Start in time
  • Do not exaggerate
  • Keep calm

Structuring Well When Packing with Children


If, for the reasons described above, you cannot pack everything at once in a phase of maximum concentration and performance, a concrete plan is needed. In our case there were two lifesavers:

  1. A really good packing list
  2. Packing cubes

We got the packing list from Jenny of "Weltwunderer" . We found it so good that we decided not to post our own on our website, but simply to refer to hers. We especially liked the sensible considerations about hand luggage. We took ourselves brought a little less than Jenny's list suggested, but with the checklist in your hands you will surely won`t forget a thing. The rest of the blog is also worth reading if you are traveling to New Zealand.

You can print out the list and then check off what you have packed already. Since there you will find separate lists, i.e. for “Clothes for Children” and “Clothes for Adults”, we have printed out each list once per child and per adult, so that not only one of the kids will end up with the t-shirts in his/her suitcase due to the check that was made on that list.

The packing cubes (we have thesebut there are certainly many other good options) were also wonderful. We bought 5 sets with 7 bags of different sizes. Each set had its own color. In addition, the pockets on the top have only a net, so you can see immediately what's inside.

Therefore, each family member had its own color. We all filled the bags according to the same scheme (except for the baby):

  1. Large pocket: pants, long and short
  2. Large bag: pullover, long sleeves, fleece etc.
  3. Middle pocket: T-shirts
  4. Small pocket: underwear
  5. Small pocket: socks

That left us with a few spare pockets. For us taller people these appeared to be small and for the baby very large bags. We will go into more detail as to how we used all three of them.

With this system we could easily keep an overview. For instance, I was just packing some socks. In this case, I simply put the socks in the small pocket provided and ticked it off the list of the corresponding family member. It may sound exaggerated, but it helped wonderfully to be able to continue packing at any time. The packing cubes were also of great help when I later packed things into my big travel bags. We could repack as much as we wanted without chaos and we could easily store the bags in the vehicle. The children immediately knew which color was theirs and so they always found what they were looking for.

We used the other panniers as follows:

  1. Small bag: first-aid kit 1 (medication hand luggage)
  2. Small bag: first aid kit 2 (medication that must not be carried in hand luggage)
  3. Large bag: one set of spare clothes for hand luggage during the flight. We disassembled this bag after the flight and used it as a laundry bag.
  4. Large bag: shoes
  5. Middle pocket: rain jackets, rain pants
  6. Middle pocket: sun hats, caps etc.

This distribution may not work for every family constellation, but the idea can certainly be adapted.

We carried our luggage in two travel bags and two backpacks. In our opinion, suitcases are fundamentally impractical if you want to be in a camper or motorhome because they cannot be stowed away and take up a lot of space during the trip. We later kept our travel bags in a storage compartment under a bench, where they didn't bother us. Then, we used the two backpacks for our daily activities.

Start Packing in Time


If you are not living in Fiji, the seasons in New Zealand will be the opposite of those at home. This has the advantage that many things can be packed weeks before departure without missing them in your daily life. And what is packed away is not accidentally put on shortly before the trip and might get dirty in the moment you want to go.

Packing early also has the advantage that you will notice early enough if items of clothing that you actually wanted to take with you are missing, are too small or broken. This gives enough time to take care of replacements.

And with all the other things that you have to think about shortly before a long trip, it is extremely comforting to be able to look at your finished luggage two weeks before departure.

Except for the clothes we wanted to put on during the flight, we packed everything very early. We had planned ski underwear and comfortable jogging suits for the train journey through the freezing winter wonderland in Germany, which felt just right for us to leave.

Do Not Exaggerate


As mentioned above, a trip to New Zealand or Australia is a huge and wonderful adventure, but it's not a survival trip. There are people who live there permanently. They raise children of all sizes, even with organic food, pollutant-free toys and baby carriers. Everything, really everything you need for living, you will get there. Of course, it is annoying when you have to buy expensive equipment because you forgot yours at home. But mostly it's the toothbrush or daddy's underwear that accidently stay behind. Or you have decided against your rubber boots and find out on the way that you do actually really need them. So, if you pack something too sparingly, that's no problem!

We took very little clothing with us, no rubber boots for the children and no rain pants for the adults. Simply because we knew beforehand that we would not go on multi-day hikes and would neither want to go on a day tour in the wild rain. We also didn't use a buggy because we generally carry a lot and therefore it wasn't necessary for us. With a bigger and heavier child (our smallest was eight to 10 months old) we might have decided differently. But even if we had started to miss one during our trip, it wouldn't have been a problem to find a buggy on-site.

When packing, you should keep in mind that you want to keep all your things tidy and clean in a motorhome on the go. Anything you don't take with you basically gives you time and space. Special equipment that you may only be able to use on one or two occasions can usually be borrowed.

We already dealt with the topic of toys in our article "Camper Life with Children". We brought nothing with us except a book to read. You can get some sand toys from the rental companies, a lot was also distributed on the plane, every child could choose a cuddly toy - there was nothing else we needed. Nothing was missing.

Keep Calm


Sometimes it hits you hard - the fear of your own courage. For weeks you have planned, packed, cleared and the anticipation was huge. With all the settlements, there was little opportunity to worry. But then you sit there, a few days before departure and suddenly it begins to overwhelm you: Isn't that total madness? Why are you doing this to yourself? What if the kids go crazy on the plane? What if the luggage doesn't arrive? Is it okay to live in a car for so long? What if someone gets really sick? Did you really want all of this, or did you just tell yourself that something is great because everyone thinks it's great? All these questions start to pop-up.

So maybe you sit there late at night after a hard day full of work, travel preparation, kids' business and think about it without interruptions. Then try to think back to that point. Certain things perhaps happen differently in the end than they were planned, but each day that you break out of your everyday routine and experience something extraordinary together will remain in your memory as a family forever. And: Any trip that comes after that, you will master more easily and relaxed, because who has experienced an adventure like that, cannot be disturbed so quickly!

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