Traveling in 2022 is not what it used to be a few years ago. Things have gotten a little wild and crazy in this world, right? Then, add traveling with little ones on top of the world’s craziness, things can be a little hectic.
We’ve always loved traveling. I traveled all growing up with my family, and Austin and I have continued to travel before and after kids. I don’t want to look back and say, “why didn’t we travel for 3 years during Covid?” Live your life, as best as you can in the moment, because there’s so much to see in the world and tomorrow’s not promised.
Anyways, since Spring Break is coming up and so many people are picking up their travels, I thought I would share our traveling experiences from our most recent trip to St. Thomas (with an almost 2.5 year old).
Packing with a Toddler
First thing’s first, packing. When it comes to packing for this trip, I don’t treat it much differently than any beach trip. For the most part, we spend the day in swim suits, pack a few extra day clothes for any other outings and workouts, nap clothes for Ansley, dinner clothes, and pajamas! I did get a few new swim suits, a cute coverup, and hat that I’ll link below! We loved having the hats, coverup, and a few long sleeve swim suits for Ansley for those really sunny days!
I love to use packing cubes, especially for Ansley’s stuff. They help keep everything organized and categorized making everything easy to pack and easy to grab on your trip.
We did make sure to throw in a puddle jumper for the pool and beach, native shoes and some of her favorite sandals. Plus, blankets for sleeping, her babies and animals, hatch sound machine, and monitor. (There’s always a crib provided in the condo where we stay and most hotels or airbnb’s can arrange to get you one as well). We always travel with her Tubby Todd products too! They’re super easy to bring on trips and allow you to get the same at home bath experience while you’re away. Speaking of Tubby Todd, we also brought their sunscreen stick and lotion for the first time and loved it! She didn’t get burnt once! (Ps: you can get 10% off any Tubby Todd products through my link here).
We tried these sunscreen products for the first time on this trip and loved them. All clean ingredients and Ansley didn’t get burnt once. Get 10% off through my link.
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We also chose to bring our umbrella travel stroller and our normal toddler carseat. This is a total personal preference depending on your child and your car situation, once you arrive. We knew we would have to get her from the airport 45 minutes to our resort, plus we knew we would have a few dinners off-property. We chose to check the carseat with the rest of our luggage and check the stroller at the gate, so we could use that to push her through the airport (or to hold some of our bags for us). I’ll note that we also have brought a carseat on the plane in the past, when she was a little bit younger. You would need to make sure your child has their own seat for this (2 and up are required to buy a plane seat, as far as I know. We typically fly Delta). That allows your child to stay in their seat and even nap longer. (I’ll chat more about the plane in the next section).
This year we did bring 3 full sized check bags (I love my Delsey luggage), because yes, I tend to over pack, hehe! We each got our own suitcase, and I also always make sure to bring a carry on bag that can serve as a beach bag (typically my Stella & Dot Getaway Bags), and of course we always have her diaper bag as well. Needless to say, we needed to get a cart when we arrived at the airport to help us with all of our bags! 😉
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Getting There
This was our third year traveling to St. Thomas with my whole family. Since we first came, things have changed a bit with COVID, of course. We have had to do a little extra research and plan ahead a little more to be prepared. The process of getting there actually wasn’t too bad. (Each destination has it’s own protocols with COVID now so just make sure to do your research for that specific location beforehand). We were required to have a negative COVID test to go and had to upload it to the St. Thomas travel portal site at least 24hours before traveling. (Ansley was not required to test). Once you arrive in St. Thomas, you were required to show your approval forms and that was it! They do not currently require you to test to come back home.
As far as getting there on the plane, with Ansley being 2, she had her own seat. We went without the carseat on the plane this time. On the way there, she surprisingly passed out within the first 20 minutes on my lap, which was glorious, LOL! That is rare for us. During her wake times though, we made sure to have a few books, her tablet, headphones that also plug into the airplane TV, flash cards, snacks, water, and milk to keep her occupied! I tend to bring the smaller books and toys that can fit in her diaper bag. I also always have a ziplock bag with an extra outfit, plenty of diapers and wipes (we haven’t started potty training quite yet), and we even stuck one of her smaller blankets and coat in her bag, since the weather was different in both locations. That way she was able to use those to nap with on the plane. (She chose not to nap at all on the plane ride home, so we had to put our patience pants on and get creative). I suggest slowly pulling out one toy or snack at a time, so everything in your bag will last longer and create more excitement for your child. Don’t stress too much if your child is being wild or making a lot of noise on the plane. It happens. Get up and walk around when you can, but take a deep breathe and do the best you can while you’re confined.
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Arriving to our Destination
We were so thrilled to make it after a long day of traveling. It’s a lot on parents and kids, but it’s all worth it once you’re at your destination.
If you’re flying to your destination, it’s super helpful to arrange a car service to take you to your location, which is what we did. We were thankful we had the carseat for this! I believe you can also arrange to rent one, but it was easier for us to have our own.
This trip typically looks a little different than most of our trips. We stay in the same place each year, the Ritz Carlton Condos, which allows us to have a better idea of what to expect. Thankfully, our condos have a full kitchen, laundry, bathrooms, cribs provided, and more. For any trip that we haven’t been able to get a crib, we always bring our Pack n Play, which has been great for us. Figuring out sleeping situation for babies and toddlers on vacation can definitely be tricky. We typically put Ansley in the darkest space, where she can’t see us, with access to a plug for her sound machine and monitor. This trip, she was in our closet, other times it’s the bathroom, and if we’re lucky, occasionally, she will have her own room. You gotta do what you gotta do to make it work. She was slightly confused at first, but ended up sleeping great at night and took 3 hour naps almost everyday! My biggest suggestion for baby/toddler sleep on vacation is to mimic your home routine as much as possible and don’t break your habits just because you’re on vacation. We have learned this the hard way and had to retrain Ansley to sleep after one of our Summer vacations due to poor sleep situations and us getting sloppy with her typical habits and routine. I get it, some things are totally out of your control, and won’t be anything like your home situation. Luckily, kids are adaptable and resilient, and you should be totally fine after a week or two back in your own home. Just make do while on vacation, so everyone gets rest and has an enjoyable trip!
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VACAY time! (and the schedule)
The resort we stay has pools and beaches, both on the condo side where we stay and also the hotel side, which is about 0.5 mile walk. We chose to bring our smaller travel umbrella stroller, which really came in handy for walking to the other pool and beach daily. (By the way, Ansley is not a big stroller fan, but she did enjoy having it on this trip! Little legs get tired and so do pregnant mamas carrying their toddlers! lol).
Each day, Austin and I would typically take turns going to the gym in the morning, and once we were done, we would either meet up for breakfast on the resort with Ansley or cook in the condo with my sis and her fam that were staying with us. Then it was sun time!
I like to get outside as much as possible and soak up that sun during the day, so we try to get out as soon as we can after working out and breakfast. Typically, we would grab chairs as our home base, but we would end up at the beach, then the pool, then the yard games, etc, as you know, toddlers don’t love to stay in one place for long. We did decide to bring a puddle jumper, which I was very glad to have being so close to so much water. We didn’t need to bring any beach toys, since they had some there. But if you’re going somewhere that might not have any, it may be fun to bring some. Also, bringing a blow up pool for babies and toddlers works well for keeping in the sand while also keeping your little one cool in water. I also made sure Ansley wasn’t in the sun too much, but it was super helpful to bring a few long sleeve swim shirts, and a hat to keep her covered when it was super hot. When she was a baby on this trip, we also brought a stroller fan to keep her cool.
About mid day we would order lunch by the pool, but we also had the option to go back to the room to make lunch or even bring a lunch down. (I also make sure to stick a few snacks in my beach bag for her before or after lunch). This is what we have done on other trips to save money when we have had access to a refrigerator in our rooms. We also do the same with drinks. I like to bring my own tumblers on trips, whether you’re making your own drinks in the room or ordering one, it’s nice to pour it in your personal tumbler to keep it cold. (I’ll link a few below).
Each day, we made sure to put Ansley down for a nap with plenty of time before dinner reservations. At home, she goes down around 1:30-2ish. We were an hour later in St. Thomas, so we typically put her down around 2:30-3ish to keep her on her same schedule, but also that allowed us to have plenty of sun time and also time to get ready for dinner. One of us, or both, would go back, give her a quick bath, and get her down for nap time. Again, we keep the same routine, as best as we can, for nap time that we do at home.
After nap, it was time for dinner reservations. Here are a few of the restaurants that we love to visit in St. Thomas: Caribbean Fish Market, Pesce Italian, Sunset Grill, Agave Mexican, and Alloro (on Ritz property). We did cook in one night with the whole family, but most nights we went out. We had 8 adults and 3 kids, so we tried to go on the earlier side. We always make sure to fill Ansley’s diaper bag with her normal essentials, plus throw in a few easy entertainment pieces, like books or toys, in case she gets wild at dinner. We also have recently cut out screen time, since Christmas, but on this trip, we did give Ansley some time to use our favorite Homer app (click to try it for FREE for 30 days) or watch videos to keep her from going crazy in a restaurant.
The Final Night
The last night of the trip, we finally had our gender reveal! If you followed along on Instagram, you probably already know the whole story. If not, I’ll save that for another blog post. Even though things didn’t go as we had originally planned, it ended up turning out perfectly and in the most beautiful location! Shout out to the Ritz concierge, who went above and beyond to make this moment as special as possible! I loved this pink maxi dress for the reveal (comes in 4 colors) and vacation in general. It would also be a great baby shower dress. My sister got the bright pink.
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Trip Outfit Details
My sister and I are both pregnant again at the same time, and it’s so fun to be able to share dresses when on vacay! Both of these are from Pink Blush. The floral one she’s wearing is mine from a few years ago, so I’m linking a similar option. Mine is brand new and comes in a handful of colors. I love the fit, and I’m wearing my true size medium (20 weeks here).
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First time trying a swimsuit from Pink Blush, and I was super happy with this one! Comes in 8 colors and fit really well. Wearing my true size medium.
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This pink ruffle dress was so sweet for Valentine’s Day but also great for any vacation or Spring and Summer in general! Wearing my true size.
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This Oventure combo was perfect and so convenient for our trip. It held my cards, room key, sunnies, a diaper, headphones, and more. The ring allowed me to be handsfree and easily slid onto the stroller handle too! You can get 15% off through my link here.
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Overall, it was a great trip. We love the St. Thomas Ritz and highly recommend staying, if you get the chance to visit! I know it can be slightly stressful at times to travel with kids, but the memories you make are 100% worth it! I hope this is helpful for you if you’re planning to travel with your little ones soon!
