Traveling with children is exciting and fun for everyone but can definitely be tiring. Whether your younger kids need a nap or you just need to take a rest yourself, you’ll definitely find yourself with some downtime in your hotel room while traveling with young children. It can be helpful to have some ideas of ways to keep restless kids busy when relaxing in your hotel room. Here are a few tips to help keep them entertained.
Do an Art Project
Bring along some easy to pack art supplies such as coloring books, activity books, and crayons. Most kids love to color and it’s a great way to keep them busy. You can even encourage kids to get creative and tell them to write up a reflection of your vacation so far (or the journey to get to your destination if you’ve just arrived). Even if you forget to bring art supplies, most hotel rooms will have a small notepad and a pen so this is a great way to encourage your young children to draw or write a story. Pick some items around the hotel room and challenge your child to try drawing them.
Break Out the Snacks
Food is a great way to keep young children entertained, they’ll be excited at the sight of a snack and it will likely lift their spirits to get some food in their stomachs. Young children are constantly on the move and their bodies are growing non-stop, so they could pretty much always use a snack. Keeping kids blood sugars stable will also help them stay in a good mood and prevent any tantrums due to hunger. Pack plenty of travel-friendly snacks that don’t require refrigeration such as apples, bananas, granola bars, trail mix, and healthy chips. Once you get to your destination, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to find a nearby grocery store and get some fresher food that you can stash in the mini fridge.
Plan Some Activities Ahead of Time
By planning ahead of time, you can bring along fun activities that are hotel friendly. Throw some card games and balloons in your bag. These will help you keep your kids entertained in the hotel room and won’t take up much space in your suitcase. Balloons are a super fun activity that won’t cause any damage to your hotel room. You can blow up some balloons and play volleyball with them or challenge your kids to keep the balloon off the ground for as long as possible. Card games like Uno are a fun way to involve the whole family in a fun activity.
Have a Dance Party
What better way to burn off energy and have fun than to have a dance party? Play some of your favorite songs and just get lost in the music. You might have to encourage your kids to start dancing if they aren’t in the mood for it but once they see you dancing they’ll definitely want to join in the fun. Dancing is a great activity because it encourages kids to do some exercise and is tons of fun.
Build a Pillow Fort or Obstacle Course
Toys are great and everything but you may be surprised with the amount of fun you can have with the supplies that are simply included in your hotel room. Use a big blanket or towel to build a fort in the hotel room and put pillows or couch cushions on the floor underneath. You can also use couch cushions and towels to build an obstacle course for your kids. Your kids will likely want to be involved in the construction process which will be a big part of the entertainment. Sometimes you don’t need extra toys to have fun.
Have a Scavenger Hunt
Create a hotel room scavenger hunt and challenge your kids to collect certain items such as a pen, shampoo bottle, towel, and anything else you can think of. If you have multiple kids you can make it a competition and pick a reward for whoever finishes the scavenger hunt first.
Watch a Movie
Obviously movies shouldn’t be your first option to keep your kids entertained because it’s one of the easiest choices and it doesn’t help them burn off their restless energy. But if you’re running out of ideas and your kids seem like they could benefit from resting for a while, turning on a movie might be a smart move. It can give everyone some time to rest and relax. Your hotel TV might offer different channels or movies that you don’t have at home so this could be fun for your kids since they’ll get to watch something different and new.
When in Doubt, Get Out of the Room
While it’s important to have activities that will keep your kids busy inside of the hotel room, if they’re really getting restless and no activities are working, this may mean it’s time to get moving and go do something. You are on vacation after all, so it’s good to stay busy and you don’t want to spend too much time in the hotel room because you might miss out on all of the great offerings of your destination! If you don’t feel like going far you can even just head down to the hotel pool. Kids will definitely be excited about going for a swim.
Hotel Safety Tips for Young Children
Although having fun and keeping kids entertained is an important part of traveling, safety should be your ultimate concern. Depending on the ages of your children, they may not face many safety risks in a hotel room. If you have younger kids though, you’ll want to take some steps to child-proof your hotel room to keep them safe.
- Bring a playpen for younger children (such as toddlers and babies) so that you always have a safe place to lay them down or let them play.
- Make sure there aren’t any loose sharp items laying on the floor such as paper clips and pens.
- Watch out for loose wires or opened power outlets. If you have younger kids, you may want to pack some power outlet covers with you.
Ultimately, traveling with young children is a lot of fun. It will present its challenges and it is obviously way different from traveling without kids. If you just plan ahead and prepare to be creative with activities, you and your kids will have an absolute blast together.
The Pop N’ Go Mini is a travel-friendly accessory that can help keep babies and toddlers safe in hotel rooms.
