Airplane Activities & Toys for Babies and Toddlers (From a Mom of 3) – Keep Your Flight Stress-Free
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The best activities and toys for flying with a toddler and baby.
Flying With a Baby or Toddler: Our Travel Experience
We’ve taken our toddler on flights multiple times throughout her life from traveling to Europe when she was 4 months old, to a wedding in San Antonio, to a family vacation in California to name a few. She has always traveled through airports and on airplanes like a champ!
We recently traveled to Glacier National Park with our kids for a vacation with some family friends, which was our first flight with our second baby who was 6 months old when we traveled. In my experience, this is a great age to travel with a baby because they aren’t yet crawling or trying to escape, and they’re usually content sitting with you. I expected my 6-month-old to be easier to keep busy than our toddler, and that turned out to be pretty accurate.
What to Pack for a Plane When Traveling With a Baby or Toddler
When planning your next flight with a baby or toddler, packing the essentials can make all the difference. Here’s what I recommend:
Extra outfits: Bring one or two more than you think you need. Accidents happen!
Diapers & wipes: Pack more than usual so you’re never caught unprepared.
Sleep items: If your flight coincides with nap time, bring pajamas, a swaddle or sleep sack, and a pacifier to maintain a familiar routine.
Toys and Activities: It’s so important for to plan ahead with novel toys and activities to keep your travel experience as stress-free as possible. In this post, you’ll find all of my favorite travel toys and activities for babies and toddlers.
Tip: Keeping your baby’s routine predictable in an unfamiliar environment can make the flight smoother for everyone.
For a full packing guide, grab my baby packing checklist — it covers essentials for trips to national parks, the mountains, the beach, or even traveling to Europe with a baby.
Flying to the beach? Check out my beach essentials for traveling with a baby for seasonal tips.
Flying somewhere cold? Make sure you are prepared with cold weather essentials for your baby!
Tips for Flying with a Baby and Toddler
Flying with babies and toddlers can be stressful, but preparing for the flight, like how to get through security when traveling with kids and tips for fling with a baby, can make a huge difference.
The two keys to keeping kids happy while traveling are activities and snacks. Seriously — activities and snacks!
Novel toys: Bring a few new toys or activities your toddler hasn’t seen before. New items keep their attention longer.
Rotation strategy: At home, I keep a basket of small toys, coloring books, and quiet activities I tend to rotate for road trips and flights. For flights, I pack even more, planning roughly one activity per hour of travel.
Sharing for younger kids: For our Glacier National Park trip, I focused on activities for our toddler and passed toys to the baby whenever she lost interest.
Favorite snacks: Even better if you can do snacks that are slow to eat and keep them busy, like puffs, yogurt melts, and cheerios.
Travel Gear that Helps
One thing that has made flying with both a baby and toddler noticeably easier for us is bringing a lightweight travel stroller through the airport (we use the Zoe double stroller) and pairing it with babywearing when needed. It gives our toddler a place to rest, snack, and reset before boarding while keeping my hands free for bags, boarding passes, and the baby. I’ve found that preserving everyone’s patience before you even get on the plane matters almost as much as the in-flight activities themselves.
Read my full Zoe stroller review here.
Bonus Tip: Wrap New Toys as Surprises
For longer flights, consider wrapping small toys like presents. This adds an element of excitement and keeps kids engaged longer. I really like to use these zipper pouches to keep all of the toy and activities organized in the diaper bag or carry-on.
Wrapping toys and activities for the plane adds an extra layer of fun and will keep your toddler busy for longer.
What are the Best Toys for Flights?
Having activities to keep babies and toddlers entertained on the flight makes a huge difference in your flying experience with kids. In short, think along these lines:
Soft sensory toys – Easy to grab, quiet, and safe toys for a one year old on a flight.
Sticker pads & activity books – Keeps older toddlers engaged.
Compact sensory and fidget toys – Perfect for two, three, and four-year-olds who love hands-on play.
Tip: Keep a mix of familiar favorites and one or two new toys to capture attention longer.
In the following sections, I’ll share the best airplane toys and travel activities that keep little ones entertained, quiet, and happy on flights. These toys are perfect for short or long flights, busy airports, and even road trips.
Airplane Toys & Activities for 1-Year-Olds
Traveling with a 1-year-old comes with unique challenges: they’re curious, not yet fully mobile, and easily entertained by simple activities. Here, I’ve rounded up the best toys and travel activities for 1-year-olds that are safe, quiet, and compact — perfect for keeping your baby happy while flying.
I recommend having multiple toys on hand because the attention span of babies 0-12 months is so short. It’s easy to keep these small toys organized and clean with these zipper pouches.
Suction Spinner Toys: These are a must have! Perfect for clinging to the airplane window, table while you’re out to dinner, or to the car window.
Teether Sticks: We love these teether straws as they are easy to sterilize and keep clean. They are also super lightweight and small, making them easy to throw in the diaper bag.
Small Rattle for Travel: This rainbow travel toy was perfect for the long car rides we had to and within the park.
Sensory Book: This has been a favorite for each of my babies and they also love it as toddlers.
Teether Rattle Toy: this is so cute and doubles as a teether and rattle toy to keep your baby entertained for longer periods of time on the flight.
You may also consider browsing the toys and activities under the 2-year-old section below!
Pro Mom Tip: If you have multiple kids, you can always do a toy swap on the flight. I’d hand down the toys I bought for my toddler after she got bored with them to my baby. My 6-month old absolutely loved the light up busy board and fidget toys!
Airplane Toys & Activities for 2-Year-Olds
Two-year-olds are more active and curious, which means they need toys and activities that capture their attention for longer periods. In this section, you’ll find top airplane toys and travel activities for 2-year-olds that are engaging, mess-free, and easy to pack for your next flight.
Any sort of fidget toys: We love these magnetic people, and also these dog fidget toys - both are great for tiny toddler hands and compact for travel (just throw them in a ziploc bag or zipper pouch to keep all the pieces together).
Mini Magnetic Tiles in Compact Travel Container: boy, if I had a dime for every time my two-year-old and four-year-old have fought over these (ha)! These are an absolute favorite in our household. I regularly keep them in my car.
— If you don’t already have a basket / caddy in your car, this will totally change your life! I use it as a catch all for all of my kids’ car toys and activities but also store extra diapers, wipes, and pajamas in there as well.
Melissa & Doug Water Wow! Coloring Books: I wish they made a subscription for these because these are on a repeat order for my house of toddlers.
Educational Pop It to Learn Numbers & Letters: this is so cool. Kids love pop its, of course, but this also doubles as an educational toy to teach early words, numbers, animals, and colors in both Spanish and English.
Reusable Pet Shop Sticker Book: I bought this for our family vacation but I think my toddler was a little too young at the time to really enjoy it (she was about 18 months). She was very into it as a two-year-old.
You may also consider browsing the toys and activities under the 3-year-old section below!
Airplane Toys & Activities for 3-Year-Olds
Three-year-olds are starting to enjoy more structured play and imaginative games. The right airplane toys and travel activities for 3-year-olds can keep them entertained, prevent boredom, and make your flight smoother. Here are my favorite compact, kid-friendly options for this age group.
Light up busy board: This is a TOP CHOICE of mine. It has different switches, knobs, and buttons to turn on and off colorful lights. My toddlers will play with this for long periods of time and even my baby found it entertaining too!
Mini Magnetic Tiles in Compact Travel Container: These are truly great for all ages! I find my (current) two and four-year-olds use them differently but they are both equally entertained, and for long periods of time. These are a must-have for the airplane or for the car!!
Dinosaur Color Sorting Sensory Toy: This is a fun fidget toy. It’s lightweight so it’s another great option to keep in the diaper bag or your purse while you’re out and about.
Melissa & Doug Sticker Wow! Activity Books: Entertaining and a lifesaver for both flights and restaurants to keep kids busy.
LCD Drawing Pads: My kids love to draw. Love that these are mess-free and compact for travel!
Educational Toddler Busy Book: A bit bulkier so maybe not great if you are tight on space, but definitely a must to keep in your car for road trips if not for the airplane too.
You may also consider browsing the toys and activities under the 4-year-old section below!
The toys and activities I’m bringing for my toddler and baby on the airplane!
Airplane Toys & Activities for 4-Year-Olds
Flying with a 4-year-old often requires toys and activities that are more interactive and challenging. From puzzles to quiet games, this section covers the best airplane toys and travel activities for 4-year-olds on a plane to keep your little one engaged, happy, and calm during your flight.
Magnetic Build-It Kit (pictured above): Okay, I love these for travel! 1) because they’re interactive and creative for kids, and actually keep them engaged, and 2) because the magnets keep all of these pieces together — nothing is more annoying during on a flight (when you’re already a little stressed) than having to constantly pick up and keep track of toys.
These are from a brand called Mudpuppy - they have a lot of great travel-friendly magnetic toys, including these travel-friendly magnetic puzzle sets, that are both fun and affordable, especially for this age range. I’d highly recommend checking them out! To browse all of their travel -friendly products, click on one of the links above to go to their website > then click “explore” > then under featured collections, click “travel friendly puzzles and games.” There are tons of great themed options for both boys and girls - unicorns, dinosaurs, princesses, space, you name it.
Melissa & Doug Water Wow! Coloring Book: This makeup and hair Water Wow! coloring book is EVERYTHING for my four-year-old daughter!
Imagine Ink Coloring Books Girl / Boy: I looove Imagine Ink books. Coloring but without the mess.. sign me up. These are a staple for us and I always try to keep them stocked up so I can pull one out for the car, airplane, restaurant, or other outing.
Travel Matching Game: How fun is this?! I got this for our last flight and my four-year-old loved playing the matching game with me. Even my younger daughter kept busy by enjoying opening and closing the little flaps.
Melissa & Doug Puffy Sticker Books: These come in sets for both boys or girls so check them out!
Ice Cream Puzzle Board: I recently bought this for a long road trip and my daughter enjoyed sorting the colors and counting the colorful magnet balls in each ice cream cone. Definitely one of those that is both entertaining and educational.
Best Quiet Toys for Airplane Travel
Quiet toys are a lifesaver for both babies and toddlers. Perfect for flights, these options prevent meltdowns and keep your little ones happy:
Soft toys and loveys – Comfort items are always welcome.
Magnetic drawing boards – Mess-free, reusable, and quiet.
Sticker pads & activity books – Entertaining without noise (or mess!)
Small puzzles & engaging toys – Compact and keep attention for long periods of time.
Tip: Always keep one surprise toy for melt-down emergencies or long delays.
Airplane Snack Ideas for Flying With Babies & Toddlers
Snacks are just as important as toys when flying. Keep your little ones happy with:
Pre-packaged snack packs – Easy to portion, mess-free.
Smoothie pouches or dried fruit – Portable and healthy.
Puffs, cheerios, yogurt melts – Quick, no-prep options that double as an activity if you incorporate sorting and counting.
Meat sticks and bars — Don’t require refrigeration but are protein-packed snacks for travel.
Tip: Always have extra snacks in case of delays.
How to Pack Toys for Airplane Travel
Organized packing makes flights less stressful. Here’s how:
Use clear zip pouches for age-specific toys. These are also great for packing extra outfits together, organizing diapers and wipes, and packing snacks on the flight.
Pack one activity per hour of travel.
Wrap a few new toys as surprises to keep interest high.
FAQ: Flying With Babies & Toddlers
How do I entertain a toddler on a plane?
Rotate toys every 30-45 minutes, include a mix of familiar favorites and new surprises, and offer snacks regularly. I recommend packing one toy or activities for every one hour of travel.
What toys are best for a toddler on a flight?
Sticker books, magnetic drawing boards, busy books, and simple sensory or fidget toys are perfect for keeping two-year-olds and three-year-olds entertained.
What are quiet travel toys for toddlers?
Mess-free coloring books, sensory toys, and travel magnetic tiles or puzzles keep little ones engaged without noise.
