Top Kit For Car-free Kids
Talking to friends, one of the biggest perceived barriers to car-free journeys or car-free living when you have children, especially small children, is the huge amount of STUFF they require. Travel cots and changes of clothes and sterilisers and prams and potties and toys and highchairs. It can all feel completely overwhelming, and sticking everything in the boot of the car, including a whole pile of ‘just in cases’ can easily seem like the best or only option.
Because we have never had a car, but have had two children, we have had to come up with some workarounds. These are the pieces of kid kit we found invaluable because they were lightweight and/or foldable, but also did the job, and sometimes multi-tasked too. I have included links where possible, for the reader’s convenience, but this isn’t an advertorial post. All views are the author’s (and her children’s!) own.
A pop-up travel cot – we bought one of these after a recommendation on The Man in Seat 61 when our eldest was a baby. We had a Samsonite travel bubble, which now seem to only be available 2nd hand, but the Koo-di pop-up bassinet or cot (one for newborns, one for older babies) get very good reviews. They are very easy to pack and put up and down, and have the huge added advantage that they fit neatly in the compartment of a sleeper train if that is how you are choosing to travel. When our children outgrew this they graduated to a mini air-bed which you can use until around 5 ½ , at which point they can generally sleep in pretty much any bed going.
Potette Travel Potty – these are a genius idea for potty training and beyond. And they are just as useful for a trip to the local park as they are for an inter-rail trip around Europe! I am the mother of girls, so wild weeing has never been particularly successful – dribbly shoes and damp leggings – so for that phase in early potty training where when they need to go they need to go NOW this lived in my bag. If you are outside (and they only need a wee!) then you don’t even need to use a liner, saving money and the environment, just pop it straight onto the grass. The liners are brilliant for when you are indoors though, and with no mess or fuss you can just tie up the bag and pop it in the nearest bin. The travel potty can also be folded the other way to act as a child’s toilet seat when they are too small to feel confident sitting on the big one unaided. Finally, I will say that in the middle of the night, in a sleeper compartment, when the toilet is at the other end of a long corridor, it might not just be the under-5s who benefit from this!
Fold-away highchair - slips into your bag and can be used on almost any chair in a cafe or at someone’s house.
A good rucksack – self evident, really, but keeping your hands free is always a good thing when travelling car-free with young children. Ideally have a 30l or bigger one for going away for a weekend, and a smaller one as a day sack.
Travel wash – if you are going away with children for longer than a weekend then don’t even try to pack all the clothes they could possibly need. Pack a bottle of this, and rinse things out in the sink as needed.
Bits of plastic from party bags/free toys from magazines – I am really not a fan of plastic tat in party bags, even though children seem to love it. In my experience it gets broken or lost, and I hate seeing so much wasted plastic. However whether you like it or not, you are going to be the recipient of it at some point. I developed the strategy of abstracting it immediately while they were distracted by the cake/sweets element of the loot, and keeping it in a separate place. When we went away on holiday then it was light to pack, completely novel, and if it got broken or tired of it could just be discarded as we went. Quite often you get miniature colouring/puzzle/sticker books and little packs of crayons too, which are also great.
Muslins – wipe, impromptu changing mat, light blanket, emergency nappy – you name it, a muslin can do it. I love this extra large kind. And they weigh next to nothing
Demonstrating the use of a Bugaboo Bee and a large muslin in one photo!
Bugaboo Bee – we did extensive research when I was pregnant with our eldest, and decided that the Bee best met our needs. It was pricey, but luckily for us my parents had generously offered to pay for whatever pram we wanted. But if money is an issue they come up second hand on Ebay and local Facebook selling sites pretty frequently. Our Bee was a brilliantly nippy little city pram, negotiating escalators with ease and slotting neatly into place on a bus. However, we also used and abused it off-road on beaches and woodland paths and muddy fields, and it stood up to that admirably too, lasting for both children. You can get adaptors to fix a Maxi Cosi car seat to it, so if you are likely to be travelling car-free but then needing to get a taxi or a lift with a friend or relative when you are there, then that is well worth investing in.
Folding buggy – the one thing the Bugaboo Bee isn’t great at is ease of folding. For that reason, once our daughter reached toddler stage we invested in a light-weight, easy-to-fold stroller. Again, very easy to do as we did and pick one up second-hand.
Carabinas – I always think these sound like Italian police officers, but actually they are those little clippy things you put over the handle of your pram and can attach bags to. Just beware attaching things that weigh more than the baby and pull the pram over backwards. Obviously I have never, ever done that…
. A big scarf/pashmina – when my children were little I almost always wore a big pashmina style scarf when we went anywhere – wool in winter and cotton in summer. It isn’t another item to pack, because you wear it, but it also can act as a blanket for a napping child, or a wrap for an older child who has got cold, or a picnic rug, or a screen if you feel you might like some privacy while breastfeeding. My big scarf has even been used sarong style to create an emergency toddler outfit when all else failed.
Travelling car-free on a boat across Lake Geneva! With a scarf, of course.
