Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts for Traveling Kids

Earlier this week, I offered my gift recommendations for travel gifts for the toddlers and preschoolers in your life, but what about older kids?  Next up in the Trips With Tykes Holiday Gift Guide series are ideas for gifts for traveling kids ages 5-12.  I own several of these products, and the others have been carefully researched and recommended to me by travelers I trust.  Coming next is a gift guide for parents who travel, so be sure to come back for that in a few days.

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Gift Ideas For Older Traveling Kids

1. Bubble Bum Inflatable Car Booster: It is so freeing for parents when their traveling tykes graduate from car seats – less luggage to haul!  But kids need to be in boosters for several years after that, so a portable booster is a necessity.  We have used this inflatable booster with our daughter on numerous trips.  It is small enough when deflated to fit in checked or carry-on luggage and can be used for kids ages 4-11 (40-100 lbs)
2. Fodor’s Kids City Guides: Travel guides written for kids!  Available in current versions for Paris, Washington DC, New York City, London, but you can also locate some earlier editions for cities like Boston, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Rome, Seattle, and Atlanta. If you are headed to any of these destinations in the next year, the guides are a great way to get your child reading, excited about your destination, and a part of the trip planning process.
3. Little Passports World Edition: Little Passports’ subscription service for ages 5-10 is a great way to expose the traveling child in your life to a variety of different countries.
4. Kidz Gear Headphones: Available in multiple colors, these child-sized headphones are an essential item for air travel.  They are reasonably priced at about $22, and ours have held up through much use and abuse for nearly 4 years.
5. LeapFrog LeapPad3: If you are looking for a tablet for your kids that won’t completely blow your budget, the LeapPad3 is the best-reviewed product on the market for the price (currently $89).  Recommended for ages 3-9, the LeapPad has a variety of games and learning apps (10 are included, and others are available for purchase).
6. Hasbro Travel Trouble Game: One of my favorite things to do on family trips when I was a child was play travel versions of classic board games like Trouble.  Luckily, those games are all still around years later for our kids to enjoy.
7. Scratch off Travel Map: Let your kids track their travels and learn some geography in the process with a travel map for their rooms.  Scratch off each country as your family travels take you there.  If your family’s travels are mostly in the U.S., check out the United States version instead.
8. Vacation Fun Mad Libs: A perfect inexpensive stocking stuffer for kids who like to travel.  Also available in a road trip version.