What Parents Should Know Before Traveling with a Baby or Toddler
Updated
Have Baby Will Travel is a family travel resource site, running since 2007, built to help parents plan trips with babies, toddlers, and young children. It is aimed at first-time parents and families with a new addition who want practical, first-hand answers on packing, choosing destinations, baby travel gear, flying with infants, and road trips — the site's stated mission is to "inspire, motivate, and help families travel with babies, toddlers, and young children." If you are deciding whether a trip with a small child is realistic, or you want a starting point for planning one, this site is organized around exactly those questions.
What the Site Covers
The homepage groups its guidance into the practical decisions parents face before a first trip:
- What to pack — packing advice for babies and toddlers
- Where to go — destination ideas, including beach vacations in North America and more ambitious trips such as visiting Machu Picchu
- Baby travel gear — equipment and accessories, with a linked Amazon store for gear recommendations
- Flying with infants — flight-specific tips, including an "Ultimate Tip List" for flying with a baby or toddler
- Ground travel — road trips with a baby, gate-checking a stroller, and traveling while potty training
The site also notes that its answers are "based on actual, first-hand experience," and includes travel stories from other families.
How to Use the Site for Your Situation
The content is organized by trip type and age/stage, so the fastest route is to match your situation to a section rather than read top to bottom:
| Your situation | Where to start |
|---|---|
| First trip, general planning | Homepage overview and "Traveling with an Infant: The Good, the Bad, and the Stinky!" |
| Flying with a baby or toddler | "Flying with a Baby or Toddler: The Ultimate Tip List" |
| Beach or resort vacation | "Beach Vacations with a Baby or Toddler: North America" |
| Need gear recommendations | The site's Amazon store |
| Older children | Sister site Have Kids Will Travel |
The site states it has "hundreds of pages" of resources, so searching the site directly is reasonable once you know your topic.
What to Expect and What to Watch For
- Reassurance is part of the content. The site explicitly addresses the anxiety of organizing a first trip, noting it hasn't "forgotten the anxiety and fear that comes with organizing that first trip." If your main blocker is confidence rather than information, that framing is useful.
- Advice is experience-based, not institutional. The guidance comes from parents' first-hand travel experience, so treat it as practical peer advice rather than official airline, resort, or medical policy. Verify current airline stroller and infant rules, and any health guidance, with the relevant provider.
- Gear links lead off-site. Gear recommendations point to an Amazon store; the provided site information does not include prices or purchase terms, so check those on the retailer's page.
- Support channels are social. The site invites questions via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram if you need advice beyond the articles.
Bottom Line
If you are a first-time parent weighing a trip with a baby or toddler, Have Baby Will Travel is a reasonable first stop for packing lists, destination ideas, flight tips, and gear suggestions — all framed around the concerns that make first trips feel daunting. Use it to build your plan, then confirm time-sensitive details like airline rules and health advice with the official source.