Long car journeys, train rides, and flights with children can feel like an endurance test. The key to surviving them? The right travel toys. Pack a few well-chosen activities and you can buy yourself hours of peace while the kids stay happily occupied. Here are our best picks for on-the-go entertainment.
What Makes a Good Travel Toy?
Not every toy works on the move. The best travel toys are:
- Compact — fits in a bag without taking up all the space
- Self-contained — no loose pieces that will roll under seats and cause meltdowns
- Quiet — nobody wants a noisy toy in a confined space
- Reusable — something they can do again and again, not just once
- Age-appropriate — challenging enough to hold attention, simple enough to do independently
For Babies and Toddlers (0–3 Years)
Little ones have short attention spans, so you need a rotation of small items. Pack 4–5 different things and swap them every 15–20 minutes.
- Soft books — crinkly pages, textures, and flaps keep little hands busy
- Teething toys — a lifesaver for babies cutting teeth on the move
- Stacking cups — lightweight, nestable, and surprisingly entertaining
- Comfort blanket or soft toy — for when tiredness hits
- Snack cup — sometimes a raisin box is the best travel toy of all
Find these in our 0–1 years and 1–3 years collections.
For Pre-Schoolers (3–5 Years)
This age group can concentrate for longer stretches. Give them activities with a bit more depth:
- Colouring books and crayons — a travel classic for good reason. Crayons are better than felt pens for cars (no lid drama)
- Sticker books — our sticker books with over 1500 stickers keep kids peeling and sticking for ages
- Magnetic drawing boards — draw, wipe, repeat. No mess, no paper, no pens lost down the seat
- Small figure sets — a tube of dinosaurs or farm animals fits perfectly in a bag and sparks imaginative play
- Scratch art cards — compact, mess-free, and the rainbow reveal keeps them fascinated
For School-Age Kids (5–8 Years)
Older children want something that feels more grown-up and challenging:
- Travel board games — magnetic versions of chess, Connect 4, and snakes and ladders are made for this. Browse our magnetic compact games
- Activity and puzzle books — dot-to-dot, word searches, mazes, and brain teasers
- LCD drawing tablets — a digital sketch pad that wipes clean at the press of a button. Brilliant for creative kids
- Card games — snap, memory games, or speciality kids' card games
- Rainbow scratch notebooks — our scratch-off notebooks are compact and endlessly entertaining
For Older Kids (8–12 Years)
Pre-teens are harder to entertain on the move, but the right choices work:
- Puzzle books — crosswords, Sudoku, logic puzzles
- Sketch pads and decent pencils — for kids who love drawing
- Stretcherz figures — oddly satisfying to stretch and squish in the back seat
- Chapter books — if they are readers, a good book beats everything
- Travel games — 20 questions, I-spy, would you rather — free and surprisingly effective
Packing Tips for Travel
- Use a separate activity bag — a small rucksack or tote with just their travel toys, separate from luggage
- Rotate items — do not give everything at once. Drip-feed new activities every 30 minutes
- Include a new surprise — one item they have never seen before creates excitement and buys extra time
- Pack snacks alongside toys — hungry children cannot concentrate on anything
- Avoid toys with lots of pieces — they will end up under seats, in door pockets, or mysteriously vanished
A well-packed activity bag is the difference between a nightmare journey and a peaceful one. Browse our full range for compact, travel-friendly toys that fit in any bag.