We’ve rounded up a list of 13 small travel gifts for children. These are items that can be used during your travels or to build enthusiasm for an upcoming trip. They are small enough to fit into Easter baskets or stockings.
Most of these small travel gifts for children are inexpensive too, so they make great little surprises for any time of year that you can give your child to get them more excited for their next vacation.
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Airplane Suction Fidget Spinner
If you’re taking a flight soon with your baby or toddler, airplane suction fidget spinners are a fantastic way to keep them occupied while you’re in the air!
They suction to the airplane window, and then your little one can spin them around. This is one toy you won’t have to worry about dropping and picking up 100 times during your flight. When you’re not on a trip, your baby can play with them in the highchair or bath tub.
Travel Sized Games
Have a long road trip or flight planned and not sure how to keep the kids entertained the whole time? Get them a travel sized board game! There are all different kinds from Checkers to Bingo to Connect Four. These mini games will provide hours of entertainment for your little ones and can be played with when you get back from your trip as well.
Window Paint Markers
If you have a road trip coming up, everyone in the family can get in on the fun of decorating the car windows with window paint markers. It’s sure to get you a few honks of appreciation while you’re on your way too which kids will love.
The car window paint is chalk based so easily washes off when you’re ready to say goodbye to your artwork.
Map Puzzles
A fantastic way to introduce geography to your children is through map puzzles. They can learn about the continents with a world map puzzle or the US states and what they’re known for with a US Map Puzzle.
The whole family can get in on the fun with a 1000 piece world map puzzle. For several days, everyone can work together to complete the puzzle and talk about which places they’d like to visit most!
Search & Find Around The World
In this search and find book, a country from each of the 7 continents is featured. The publisher also has a search and find on various modes of transportation too – so your child will be ready for all the taxis, buses, planes, and trains that you plan to take during your trip.
Coleman Kids Adventure Mini LED Lantern
If you have a family camping trip coming up, your child will love having their own lantern to explore around in the dark or make funny shadow puppets. The Coleman Kids Adventure Mini LED Lantern is smaller than a typical lantern and comes in 4 colors. It also has a lifetime LED bulb!
Let’s Explore Hiking Play Set
Your child will be excited to explore nature with this Melissa & Doug Let’s Explore Hiking Play Set. The backpack helps children to learn the things you typically take on a hike. They’ll have a blast pretending they’re trekking through the rainforest in Costa Rica or hiking to castle ruins in Scotland.
The set includes a play first aid kit, play binoculars, sunscreen tube with flip-top, multi-tool (compass, magnifier, saw, ruler), durable canteen, wooden snack bar, 6 double-sided animal track cards, trail guide activity book, and a pencil. And it all fits inside the cute backpack shown above!
Beach Toys
You can’t take a kid to the beach without some fun beach toys to play with! We love this set that comes with moulds to make sandy ice cream cones and this one where you can dig for dinosaur bones.
Toddlers (and adults!) may enjoy a velcro toss and catch game or this netted catch and toss game where the nets look like shark mouths. The toddler age is also a fun time to fly a kite for the first time!
You can also never go wrong with a simple inflatable beach ball. Babies can practice their coordination by rolling it back and forth in the sand, toddlers can practice throwing and catching it, and older kids can see how many times they can hit it back and forth. Bubble wands also make great small gifts for children of all ages!
First Camera
Children love being just like adults, and getting them their own kid-friendly camera is an excellent way to make them feel grownup. With the Dwfit Kids Camera, children aged 3-10 can take pictures, record videos, play music, and play games! There are also a few fun frames and filters for them to choose from.
With the included 32G SD card, the camera can store up to 5,000 photos! There are 4 fun cases to choose from that will protect the camera from breaking if it is dropped.
Your mini photographer in the making will love snapping pics of your family vacation, and you’ll love getting to see the world through their lens.
Activity Packs
Activity packs are a great form of entertainment to bring on trips. Kayla’s daughter loves the ones listed below, and Kayla does too because they are generally mess free, self contained, and take up practically no space at all. These nifty small travel gifts for children also made our list of 15 Must Haves For Traveling With Children Under 3:
- Imagine Ink Coloring Book Sets – Come with a magic marker that only works on the Imagine Ink coloring books. So you won’t have to worry about marker getting all over everything! There are a TON of different themes to choose from.
- Grab and Go Packs – Themed activity packs in a ziplock-style bag that include stickers, a mini coloring book, and crayons. These hardly take up any space at all and children under 3 will enjoy being able to open the bag themselves to discover what’s inside. Amazon doesn’t have the best selection, but Target usually always has these in their value section for $1 per pack.
- Reusable Sticker Book – These fun sticker books typically come with a portable handle, and the foldout “case” serves as a backdrop setting to use your stickers. Since the stickers are reusable, you can use these time and time again throughout your trips.
- Sensory Busy Board Book – These busy board books make learning fun! They are designed to improve fine motor skills, dexterity, and hand eye coordination. The sensory books come in a soft sided zippered pouch, and each page is loaded with activities that will keep your child entertained for hours.
Travel Barbie Sets
Mini adventurers can pretend their dolls are going on a grand adventure with the Travel Barbie and Travel Ken dolls. Both come with a handful of accessories that will create hours of imaginative play for your little one. We especially love that the Travel Barbie doll comes with stickers to put on her suitcase!
Fans of Barbie’s younger sister can get the Chelsea pilot doll play set that comes with her 2 seater plane and flying pup.
Lego Postcards
A fun way to build enthusiasm for an upcoming trip is putting together a lego postcard as a family! It will be so exciting for them to visit the places you built in your Lego set!
Lego has created these 3D postcards for several of the world’s capital cities including London, Paris, and New York City to name a few. They are generally recommended for ages 9 and up. Older kids may also enjoy the Lego Architecture series which features skylines from around the world.
Books Set Around The World
Reading books set around the world will broaden your child’s worldview and teach them about the various cultures they will be exposed to when they travel. Our list of books that will inspire wanderlust includes books for all ages set in various countries around the globe.
We hope you enjoyed this list of small travel gifts for children! Tell us in the comments below what your favorite small travel gifts for children are so we can add them to our list!
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Great ideas for keeping little fingers and minds busy!! You nailed it!