Screen-Free Travel Kit for Kids: What to Pack for Flights, Trains and Road Trips

Why the phone wins, and how to compete with it

A phone is new every second. A colouring book is the same after ten minutes. So the trick is not one brilliant toy. It is a series of small surprises.

• Pack things they have not seen yet, or have not seen for a month. Put a few favourites away two weeks before the trip.
• Wrap or bag each item separately. Unwrapping is half the fun and buys you time.
• Release one thing per stage: one at the airport, one after take-off, one after the meal, one for the last hour.
• Keep it in your bag, not theirs. If they can see everything, they will want everything in the first ten minutes.

The trick is not one brilliant toy. It is a series of small surprises.

Travel activities for kids: what goes in the kit

Aim for one small pouch per child, light enough to sit on a lap or a tray table.

1. A spotting game. Looking out of the window becomes a mission. Find a fuel tanker, a cow, a red car, a bridge.
2. A reusable sticker book or sticker scene. No glue, no scissors, and the pieces stay on the page.
3. A small drawing kit. A slim notebook and four crayons. Crayons, not sketch pens: pens leak in the cabin and lose their caps.
4. A magnetic or water-reveal drawing board. Endless pages, no mess.
5. One new book. A picture book for the younger ones, a short chapter book for 7 and 8 year olds.
6. A fidget for restless hands. Something that clicks, twists or folds.
7. A comfort toy. Small enough to hold, not so precious that losing it ruins the holiday.
8. Snacks in a box with compartments, so dry snacks stay crisp and fruit does not squash.
9. A named water bottle, so it does not roll under a seat and stay there.

Tip: pack the pouch the night before and let your child choose one thing to add themselves. A child who packed the comfort toy is far less likely to leave it on the seat.

Flights: the airport is the hard part

Most of the waiting on a flight day happens before you board: check-in, security, the gate. That is where the first item in the kit should come out.

• Use the airport as the game. Count the planes. Spot the tug that pushes them. Find the gate number.
• Walk before you sit. Let them burn energy in the terminal, not on the plane.
• Save the best item for after take-off, when seatbelts are on and nobody can move.
• Keep ears in mind. Sipping water or chewing on a snack during take-off and landing can help with ear pressure.

Our I-Spy At the Airport and I-Spy On the Airplane boards are made for exactly this. Each one is a light acrylic slate (8 x 5.5 inches, about 100 g) with reusable tick stickers: find an object, stick a tick on it, finish the board and earn a reward sticker. They are ₹279 each and made for ages 3 to 6. Prices checked on our store on 13 October 2026.

Trains: the long haul

An overnight train is a different game. There is space to move, a window that changes every minute, and a lot of hours.

• Make the berth a base. A small bag hooked to the berth with their things in it gives them a sense of their own space.
• Use the stations. Read the station names together. Guess the next one. Count the chai sellers.
• Bring a card game for the whole compartment. A simple pack of cards turns strangers into a game of "donkey" faster than anything else.
• Do the window journal. Each child draws one thing they saw out of the window every hour.
• Plan for the evening slump. Keep the new book for after dinner, when the lights go low and everyone is tired.

Road trips: car games that need nothing

On the road, motion sickness makes books and small drawing hard for some children. Look-out-of-the-window games work better.

• Number plate games. Spot the plates from other states. Find the numbers 1 to 9 in order.
• Colour hunt. Everyone picks a colour. First to spot ten things in their colour wins.
• The alphabet game. Find something outside for each letter, A to Z.
• Twenty questions. "Is it an animal? Is it bigger than a dog?"
• Story chain. One person starts a story, each person adds one line.

Our I-Spy Road Travel board (₹279) turns the window into a checklist for younger ones who cannot read number plates yet.

On safety: young children should travel in a car seat suited to their age and size, not on a lap or a mattress in the back. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a clear car seat guide for families. Plan stops every couple of hours for a walk, a toilet break and a snack.

How to ration the kit across the day

A rough plan for a long travel day:

• Leaving home: nothing new. They are excited enough.
• First wait (airport, station platform, first hour in the car): the spotting game.
• Settled in (after take-off, or when the train pulls out): the sticker book.
• After the meal: the drawing kit or the board.
• The slump (mid-afternoon or late evening): the new book or the fidget.
• Last hour: whatever they liked best, again. Or yes, a short show. You have earned it.

A short show at hour six is not failure. It is the last card, played at the right time.

For the bag itself: name everything

Things get dropped on travel days: under seats, on platforms, in airport trays. A name on the bag and the bottle gets them handed back. Our guide to luggage tags for a family trip covers the suitcases too.

A shape luggage tag (₹339, 9 x 5.5 cm, acrylic case with a silicone belt) clips onto a child's backpack, and a named water bottle is the one most likely to come back.

For older kids who fidget, the personalised clicker bag charm (₹396, two initials) is a quiet click that lives on their bag.

If you want the whole set for a long holiday, the I-Spy 6 in 1 pack (₹1,299) has six boards: Home, Restaurant, Road, Airplane, Airport and Mall. The full range is in the I-Spy games collection. Swipe to see the boards on the move.

Personalised items take 8 to 12 working days to reach you, so order them at least three weeks before you leave. Orders over ₹399 ship free.

For a guide to choosing a bottle that handles travel days, see our top 10 steel water bottles and sippers. Going to a wedding on the way? Our wedding season with kids tips cover the long evenings.

The best journeys with children are not the quiet ones. They are the ones where you looked out of the same window.