The Ultimate Family Travel Gear Roundup For 2025

Your choice of family travel gear in 2025 can help make or break your family vacation. To help you plan your family travel packing list, we’ve laid out everything you need for a safe (and sanity-filled) packing experience.

Planning for family travel can be an overwhelming experience for parents and caregivers. Whether it’s choosing whether to pack a stroller and a playpen or just wondering whether all of that family travel gear is going to fit in your rental car, and don’t get me started about traveling with teens. That’s an entirely different ball game. I know the stress. I’ve been there, and I’m here to help.

After over 55 countries, 42 of those with my kids, Cohen and Dylan, and countless road trips, flights, and boat journeys with children, I’ve experienced more than my fair share of family travel. I’ve made mistakes, I’ve been forced to find solutions, and you get to benefit from all of that experience.

One of the biggest tips I can give you when planning your family travel gear is to keep it simple.

One of the biggest truths about family travel that I’ve realized is that the more complicated you make travel, the more complicated the experience will be. By learning to trim down gear to the essentials and choosing the right gadgets and accessories for family travel, everything becomes so much easier. If you do the same, I promise that you’ll thank me for it.

When it comes down to what to pack for travel with kids, it’s all about managing expectations. If you overpack, you won’t end up using most of the stuff you pack anyway.

Who Am I, And Why Should You Trust My Family Travel Experience?

If you’re new to my website, my name is Kevin Wagar. I’m the voice behind most of what you see here on Wandering Wagars – Adventure Family Travel. I launched this family travel blog back in 2015 after an epic eight-day journey through Jordan when the boys were just two and five. The goal was to share our experiences and struggles with other parents and caregivers who may be looking for family travel experiences that combine adventure, culture, and education.

Ten years on, and our family travel experiences have only gotten bigger, bolder, and wilder. We just wrapped up an eight-country journey through Africa, followed by three weeks of travel through Ontario and Quebec in our home country of Canada.

Travel for me has become more than just a passion; it’s now my job. This website has welcomed millions of readers looking for information, itineraries, and packing lists for family travel experiences around the world. My Facebook group, the Family Travel Support Group, has grown to thousands of members sharing their experiences, struggles, and successes. And I’ve even been brought on to speak at conferences and events bout my strategies for travel with kids.

What to Pack For Family Travel

My family travel packing lists aren’t about gimmicks or the latest trends. After countless journeys traveling with kids far and wide, I believe that family travel gear should focus on practicality, simplicity, and quality products that last.

I want your family travel packing experience to let you focus on your journey. Create memories, not headaches. Whether you’re traveling near or far, these are the items we recommend when taking a family trip.

What Luggage Is Best For Family Travel?

Luggage is a key part of any family travel journey. Whether you’re heading out on a road trip, taking a flight across the country, or boarding a cruise, your luggage will be a big part of whether your packing experience is frustrating or soothing.

If you need a large, check-in family travel luggage, I recommend getting a durable, hard-sided luggage for all forms of travel. They stack easily and can withstand the abuse of family travel. Personally, I’m a fan of the ‘spinner’ style where all four wheels spin independently. This makes getting around super easy, and it tends to be the least frustrating to pull. Spinners also don’t require much strength to move, so even small children can usually push them through the airport.

My recommendation is the Samsonite Freeform Series. You can pick them up in multiple sizes, from carry-on to family-size. They’re lightweight and durable and are a fit for nearly every situation. You can also check out our guide to the best suitcases for travel here.

You can check the latest prices on this luggage here:

What Is The Best Luggage For Kids?

When you’re traveling with children older than toddlers, it helps if they can handle some of the luggage duties themselves. Letting them have their own small luggage, backpack, or suitcase helps teach them responsibility and also takes some of the weight off the adults. My boys have been responsible for most of their own packing and luggage duties since they were about three years old.

During our early years of family travel, each of our boys managed their own hard-sided carry-on suitcase and a backpack. And everything that they needed for the trip had to fit inside, with the exception of medications and important documents. If it didn’t fit, it didn’t go.

While kid luggage sets such as the Melissa and Doug Trunki and other ride-on suitcases are fun, it didn’t take long for kids to grow out of them. Once they’re no longer toddlers, those fun luggage styles are no longer practical, and standard check-in luggage, such as the Samsonite Freeform 21, is more practical. For many of our travel experiences now, we travel carry-on only, and typically use Patagonia Black Hole backpacks.

The Best Packing Cubes For Family Travel

When I was first introduced to packing cubes before our trip to the Philippines in 2018, I was skeptical. Since then, they’ve been a staple of every packing list I’ve created. In fact, ask just about any regular family traveler who has experienced packing cubes, and you’ll probably have to sit down for a 20-minute story about how these little bags have revolutionized their lives.

Because families often have luggage that doesn’t include a good organization system, the luggage can quickly become a dumping ground for clean and dirty clothes. Packing cubes allow you to separate each person’s clothes (even separating things such as pants, underclothes, etc) into color-coordinated groups so that each family member knows exactly where to find their stuff.

Build and zipper quality are crucial when picking a great packing cube set, as is the availability of multiple colors. That’s why I love these ones by Shacke Pak.

My Recommended Digital Luggage Scale

Nothing is worse than getting to the luggage drop-off at the airport and finding out that your luggage is overweight. One of the most crucial items in our family travel packing list is a digital luggage scale. We use it to check our bags before we head to the airport to ensure that we won’t have to do the “shuffle of shame” at the check-in counter.

I’ve found the Tariss Jetsetter to be accurate, lightweight, and easy to use, which is about all you need in a digital luggage scale for travel.

Car Seat and Booster Seat

Staying safe while traveling means knowing whether your destination has the family travel gear you need or if you have to bring it with you. One of the big family travel packing list concerns is whether there are booster seats and car seats available at your destination.

Obviously, renting these on-site can save a load of room and weight in your luggage. But renting is not always available. And when you do, there’s no guarantee of the quality of the equipment that you’re going to get. For children in booster seats, I recommend packing a MiFold folding booster seat. I’ve written about these before, and I can’t celebrate them enough. For younger kids such as babies and toddlers, the Cosco Scenera is among the lightest child safety seats on the market.

Travel Stroller or Child Carrier For Family Travel

Depending on the age of your children and your style of travel, you may want to travel with a stroller or a kid-carrier as a way to carry your children while you’re out exploring. Travel strollers are excellent for urban environments or places where you might only have to deal with some hard gravel paths. This is our current favorite travel stroller. Or you can check out our list of the best strollers for travel here.

If you love hiking or traveling to more remote or hard-to-reach destinations, you may be more interested in a child carrier. Child carriers are a great way to keep kids comfortable and offer them a wide view of the world around them. You can check out our favorite child carrier here, or check out our breakdown of the best child carriers here.

Travel Play Pen and Crib

This is another item that is only going to affect those who are traveling with babies or small toddlers. But it’s definitely something to consider for your family travel gear, as, unlike car seats, travel cribs are not a free check-in. That’s why I love this super light and packable playpen by Baby Bjorn. It’s without a doubt the most travel-friendly crib out there. And it’s easy to set up as well.

Travel Towel

If you’re planning road trips or excursions while you travel, it might help to include lightweight, quick-dry towels in your family travel gear packing list. We rarely leave home without ours and use them for camping, the beach, or just drying off after a sweaty day of hiking. In a pinch, they can even be used as a travel blanket.

We like these ones since they tend to hold less water and are anti-bacterial so they don’t end up smelling in humid destinations. They also include a carry sack that helps keep everything organized.

Electronics

There’s no denying that electronics are an integral part of our lives in modern family travel. Whether it’s cameras, phones, chargers, or adapters, these are the electronics we pack for family travel.

Headphones

A good set of headphones is so important for family travel. Whether you are watching a movie, listening to music, or audiobooks, a good set of headphones helps to give you your own piece of sanity for a short period of time.

We have thoroughly tested a number of the best headphones for kids and find that these ones tend to be the best for both volume limiting and comfort.

Battery Backup

With electronics becoming an increasingly important part of family travel gear, the need to keep that gear charged grows accordingly. Battery backups are a great way to take power with you for those times when you might need it.

The one that we recommend can hold enough juice to power most phones and tablets several times and charges quickly and efficiently. It’s also small and lightweight, which is important for any family travel gear.

International Power Adapter

If you’re enjoying international family travel, you may need a power adapter. Voltage and frequencies aren’t the same across all countries and regions. Often the plug formats aren’t even the same, so you could end up being frustrated by a lack of power. Travel power adapters typically have adapters that will convert most major power types and plugs so that you can plug in when you need to.

Other Items You Should Include In Your Family Travel Packing List

I’ve laid out some of the key things that are often overlooked when packing for family travel. But the basics can also be left behind.

Here’s the family travel gear that you don’t want to forget when creating your family travel packing list.

• Clothes (underwear, socks, pants, shorts, shirts, sweaters
• Light jacket
• Swimwear (bathing suit, towel)
• Camera (We recommend a lightweight, durable point-and-shoot like this one).
• Reusable water bottle (We like to bring filtered water bottles to avoid stomach trouble).
• Cell phones and tablets
• Card game (Simple, lightweight, and fun for the whole family)
• Passports
• Snacks for travel

Now It’s Time To Enjoy Family Travel

So there you have it. Our recommendations for the best family travel gear. Whatever your travel plans, we are confident that these items will help make the trip a little smoother, more comfortable, and maybe a tad more enjoyable. But it’s important to remember that it’s not the gear that makes the trip. It’s the company you keep.

Did we miss anything on our list of the best family travel gear? Is there a product or category that we didn’t think to add that you would like to know more about? Send us an email here, or send us a note in the comment section below and we will look into it for you.

Don’t forget to join our Family Travel Support Group and join the conversation with thousands of others with a passion for family travel.

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