We took our first trip with our newborn twins to the mountains in Big Bear when they were two months old. We were at a point where it felt like an endless cycle of eating, tummy time, sleep, and repeat, and we needed to get out of the house and just have a reset with the cycle in a new environment. After much debate with myself (my husband was all for it from the inception of the idea), I finally agreed we should go for it just to change up the scenery for a bit. Once we were there we were so glad to have gotten out of the house and be able to take our daily walks in the mountains!
Sloooowly by slowly our small trips did start to feel a liiiittle easier (it took a lot of time), but for a long period I had the same anxiety about packing and leaving the house. I would say this probably got better starting around 8 months. What helped me the most in preparation for these trips was to plan everything out and have my go-to packing list. Ever since our first trip I kept a running list of every single thing we need to pack when we go out with our twins. I just put a strikethrough on the items that were not applicable for a certain trip but reuse this same list every time. This truly helped me with the mental anticipation of going anywhere because all this was one less [huge] thing I didn’t have to mull over.
Our trips got more *daring* when we ventured further out to Mammoth, and then later took the boys on their first flight to Texas to see the total solar eclipse, and to the wineries near Portland with our friends. The packing list below, along with our plane travel tips, includes everything we consider when taking our twin babies on vacation!
We’ve compiled all the things we pack and everything we’ve learned and now consider when traveling on vacation with our twin baby boys!
Packing List for Traveling with Twins
Sleeping
- Guava Pack n Play – normally we use the hotel or airbnb provided pack n play, but when it’s not available this is the lightest and most convenient!
- Crib sheets
- SlumberPods – we love our slumber pods to help the boys sleep, and also for us to be able to move around our hotel room with the lights on
- Hatch Portable Sound Machine
- Nanit
- Sleep Suits
- Pacifiers
Feeding & Meals
Bottles
- Bottles, bottles, bottles – up until about 10 months we probably packed 8 bottles for each trip we took. We wouldn’t have to worry about washing bottles if we were out all day and knew we would be back at the hotel or airbnb to wash their last bottle before bedtime
- Grownsy Sterilizer and Warmer
- Bottle Brush
- Portable drying rack – helpful if you’re staying in a hotel room where there isn’t a lot of room to put all those washed bottles
- Baby’s Brew Bottle Warmers + charger
- Formula + formula container (optional)
Meals
- Pop n’ Sit High Chairs
- Bibs, utensils and plates (optional)
- Extra wipes
- Life Vac
- Snacks
Pumping
- Spectra + extra flanges
- Willow Go Pump and extra pump parts
- Milk storage bottles
- Milk storage bags
- REI soft ice chest
- Ice pack
- Medela pump wipes
Bathroom
- Diapers, wipes, changing pad
- Butt paste + butt stick
- Baby shampoo
- Lotion/Tubby Todd
- Toothbrush + toothpaste
Misc. Essentials
- Clothes
- Baby sunscreen
- Nail clipper/nose picker
- Baby medicine (Tylenol, Zyrtec)
- Muslin blankets – helpful to cover sun if baby is taking stroller nap
- Ziplock bags
Plane Essentials
- SNACKS
- TOYS! the boys love the suction cup spinner toys
- Pacifiers
- Sanitizing wipes
- Diaper stuff
- Doggy bags for tossing dirty diapers
Plane Travel
All Travel Items and How We Packed and Carried Everything
On top of our one personal luggage and one carry-on luggage piece, some airlines allow you to also bring a cooler bag, diaper bag, and pump as additional items.
Curbside Baggage Drop Off
- Dropped off 1 big check-in luggage
- This is where we pack the pack n plays, Slumber Pods, bath stuff, sleepstuff (Nanit and sound machine), bottle warmer, twins’ clothes, stuff we don’t need during travel
What Teddy Carries
- Twin A in carrier
- No Reception Diaper Bag 1 – bottles, formula, bottle warmers, bibs
- Stroller cover bag
- Car seat bases inside
- Car seat cover bags inside
- Extra diapers
What I Carry
- Twin B in carrier
- No Reception Diaper Bag 2 – diapers, wipes, butt sticks and paste, changing pad, extra set of clothes
- Stroller
- Soft ice chest in stroller car seat that has pump, extra pump parts, milk storage bottles, and ice pack
- Carry-on roller luggage – our clothes
The next time we travel we’ll be able to cut out a lot of these big travel items, like 1 diaper bag that has all the bottles and the soft ice chest (no more bottles or pumping YAY). We’ll probably also buy a cheaper lightweight stroller that we don’t need a cover for and rent car seats at our destination.
What our new list will look like:
Curbside Baggage Drop Off
- 1 large luggage
What Teddy Carries
- Twin A in carrier
- Diaper Bag
- Maybe small luggage?
What I Carry
- Twin B in carrier
- Lightweight stroller
Parking at the Airport
When we travel out of LAX, Teddy drops all of our stuff and the boys and I off at curbside dropoff, goes to park the car, and shuttles back to meet us. When we travel out of SNA it’s soo easy to just park first and walk all together into
the airport.
Going through Security
We use our carriers to baby-wear the twins through security. We read this tip online and probably agree, since you have to put each car seat through the x-ray machine.
For milk and all things pumping, they allow you to bring a cooler, ice packs, and all things baby food through security. This means formula, breast milk, and even baby purees in amounts larger than 3.4 oz can be carried through security. However, TSA does run an extra test on the milk. When we had the clear plastic Avent bottles they stuck the entire bottle in a bottle liquid scanner machine and didn’t open our bottle. However, when we had our clear plastic Avent bottles they opened it and used some sort of test strip on the liquid. If you’re not comfortable with this I think you can let them know, although at the time I didn’t really know what they were doing.
Plane Seating Arrangements
If you’re traveling with twins both as lap infants, just know that each row on the plane only has 1 extra oxygen mask. This means you’re not allowed to have 2 lap infants in the same row. For 2 out of the 3 flights we’ve taken we were able to sit across the aisle from each other in the same row. For one of our flights we chose the same seating configuration but the airlines ended up moving us to different rows.
Tips + Things to Think About When Traveling with Twins
#1 tip that I still have to tell myself every time we travel, or just even go out – just go for it! You’re always going to come up with a reason why it would just be easier to stay home. If you overthink all the reasons you shouldn’t go somewhere, you’ll never get out. In the first few (or more than few) months we would go anywhere with the twins, I would feel unmotivated and want to stay home the night before any event. My husband would remind me that it’s worth it, it’ll be good for us and the boys to get out of the house, and sure enough once we were out and about we were having so much fun with the boys.
Plan and make lists! I have a go-to packing list that I keep pinned in my phone notes and check off each item as we pack to go out for the day or for a trip. This ensures that we don’t forget anything. On days we have a quick outing and don’t use the list, we seriously always forget something.
Baby equipment – Research what baby equipment your hotel or Airbnb will have! When we went to Portland and stayed in a kid-friendly Airbnb, they provided us 3 pack n’ plays for us and our friends. However, when we went to Denver and stayed at Residence Inn, we called ahead and they said they were having a busy weekend and might only be able to provide us with 1 pack n’ play. Also ask about high chairs, and maybe request to be on the first floor if you have a lot of luggage to carry.
Does the hotel have a mini fridge and/or microwave? We loved our stay at Residence Inn because they had all the amenities we needed for storing and warming milk, and prepping meals for the boys to eat.
Flight times – our twins, and most people with kids who we’ve talked to in general, say their flights go more smoothly when traveling in the morning.
Everything is a season! Here’s a picture of Everett listening intensely to the flight attendant’s safety briefing:
