Traveling with toddlers doesn’t need to be scary. I’m here to share my experience traveling with a toddler, which will help you to be more confident to do the same. One of the most tricky parts of traveling with a toddler is those long travel days. Based on my real-life family travel, I can help you keep your little one occupied with my list of the best 2 year old travel toys.
Two year-olds have very short attention spans and are way more active and playful than babies. They love to move around and explore, and are more likely than not going to be very stubborn about doing so! Keeping these independence-craving toddlers contained in one seat during a trip can prove to be quite the challenge for parents.
When choosing the best travel toys for 2 year-olds, we first start with their development milestones. A 2 year-old can match shapes, sort and do simple jigsaw puzzles. Also look for fun options for coloring (or scribbling) and building. At this age, cause and effect toys can be engaging (wind up toys, etc).
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Best Travel Toys for Two Year Olds
It was only a matter of time before some toddler travel toys became one of our top travel essentials when packing for a trip. Carrying a variety of toys can definitely come to the rescue during a long flight or a car trip.
Like I mentioned in our post on flying with a toddler, your time flying is going to now be spent cycling through all the toddler activities. But I also like finding fun, interactive 2 year old travel toys that will keep them occupied even for small portions of time (giving you a breather!).
Here are all our recommendations for the best 2 year old travel toys:
Magnetic Puzzles for Toddlers
Magnetic jigsaw puzzles are excellent travel toys for 2-year-olds, offering screen-free entertainment that enhances spatial reasoning, patience, and problem-solving skills, with child-safe, rounded pieces ideal for little hands.
Jumbo Stickers for Little Hands
A Sticker Book is the perfect non-screen time activity you can do together. Sticker books are one of our favorite travel toys for toddlers!
This Jumbo Stickers for Little Hands book includes 75 stickers and features several scenes to place these reusable stickers within its pages. The stickers are large enough for small hands to use and are also easy to peel and replace!
Melissa & Doug On the Go Water Wow!
Another of our all-time favorite toddler travel toys, the Melissa & Doug On-the-Go Water Wow! Activity Pads are an amazing mess-free activity. Each activity pad includes four reusable pages and a refillable water pen, allowing children to reveal vibrant colors with each stroke; once dry, the pages can be colored again, providing endless, mess-free entertainment that’s easy to carry.
Gel Clings
These window clings are excellent & inexpensive 2 year old toddler travel toys for airplane travel! You have a window right there for your toddler to decorate again and again!
They are easy to reuse, remove and replace over and over again, without leaving behind any residue or mess.
My First Flight: A Toddler Airplane Coloring Book
I created My First Flight Coloring Book just for you and your little traveler! This book helps toddlers understand what to expect on travel day – from packing a suitcase to soaring through the sky. It’s the perfect way to prepare your 2-year old for their first flight while keeping them happily entertained along the journey!
Anti-Roll Crayons
While we are on coloring books, learn from my experiences and pick-up some anti-roll crayons. I’ve spent many flights on the floor digging around my ultra-tight economy-class seats searching for round crayons that rolled off the tray – not fun!! Whoever invented these amazing triangular, anti-roll crayons is a true genius!
Busy Book for Toddlers
Toddler busy books make excellent travel toys for toddlers! This Busy Book is an educational book for children ages 2 and up. This almost indestructible activity book comes with 12 pages of fun, sensory-oriented learning.
Toddlers will learn colors, letters, vehicles, planets, and more through matching games. Whether it’s for a long car ride or keeping toddlers entertained on the plane, toss this one into your hand luggage.
Wikki Stix
Another super-fun and inexpensive toddler travel toy, Wikki Stix are versatile, wax-coated yarn strands that children can bend and shape into various creations, promoting creativity and fine motor development. They adhere easily to surfaces with light fingertip pressure, are mess-free, and come in a compact package, making them convenient for travel.
Buckle Travel Toy
One of the most popular toddler travel toys of all time! Help your little one learn to “snap” and “click” buckles with the easy-to-carry, fun and engaging Buster the Buckle Toy! This plush toy has vibrant colors with a bunch of buckles in clasp style that encourage toddlers to strengthen their pincer grasp and improve their hand-eye-coordination.
Crayola 2-in-1 Doodle Board
The Crayola 2-in-1 Doodle Board is a sturdy, compact travel toy for 2 year olds. It’s easy to clean, and includes a sealed gel surface for doodling with little fingers on one side, and a reusable drawing surface for use with three washable markers on the other side. Being able to use fingers instead of crayons makes it so much easier for young toddlers! Plus you don’t have to worry as much about losing the crayons.
Lego Duplo
Lego Duplo sets are one of the best travel toys for 2 year old toddlers. Getting a new Duplo set for each trip became a tradition in our family!
I love that they can be used on the plane and in the hotel room. They’re perfect for imaginative play that little hands can easily play with.
Reusable Sticker Books for Toddlers
Need more stickers? As we mentioned, sticker books are some of the best travel toys for 2 year toddlers! We especially love reusable sticker books like these ones! The best part is you can choose something that your toddler gets excited about! Does your 2 year old like vehicles or dinosaurs? Maybe it’s animals?
Magnetic Wooden Toddler Maze Puzzle
We love this maze puzzle as a travel toy for 2 year old toddlers as it helps develop their fine motor skills. Toddlers get to guide the beads through the maze with the help of a magnetic wand in this fun maze puzzle toy by Hape.
The game provides endless entertainment and is great for toddlers who are just learning to problem solve.
Pocket Magnetic Wooden Block Set
This compact set of six heirloom-quality magnetic blocks by Tegu is a fun travel toy for 2 year olds. Great for supporting open-ended and unscripted play, this toy helps kids develop skills like pattern recognition, balance and sense of scale while keeping them occupied.
The safely embedded magnets make the blocks harder to drop on the floor, making them great airplane travel toys for 2 year olds.
Magnetic Puzzle Game
The HABA Town Maze Magnetic Puzzle Game is a compact, engaging travel toy where children use a magnetic wand to guide colored balls to their matching garages, enhancing fine motor skills and problem-solving abilities. Its self-contained design ensures no loose pieces, making it ideal for on-the-go entertainment.
Toddler Construction Toy Trucks
Small cars and vehicle toy sets are some of the best travel toys for toddlers! We especially loved them for our 2 year old!
Toddlers get to enjoy working on their hand-eye coordination and imagination while they play with their tractor, dump truck and bulldozer.
Counting Animal Matching Game
The Montessori Counting Animal Matching Game is an excellent, compact travel toy for 2-year-olds. This educational toy set includes colorful animal figures and matching bowls, designed to enhance counting, color recognition, and fine motor skills.
Mini Animal Toys for Toddlers
This 54-Piece Mini Jungle Animal Toy Set is an excellent travel toy for 2-year-olds. This set includes 32 unique, realistic animal figures, encouraging imaginative play and learning about wildlife. The compact size of the figures makes them easy to pack, providing engaging entertainment during travel.
Educational Stuffed Plush Doll for Toddlers
This educational plush doll teaches essential dressing skills—such as snapping, hooking, fastening, buckling, zipping, looping, and tying—through interactive play, promoting fine motor development. Its compact size and included carry-along clip make it a convenient companion for travel, keeping your child engaged and learning on the go.
Buckle Toy – Buddy Activity Backpack
A buckle toy that also carries other toys?!? Awesome!! Toddlers love to carry their own backpacks, so why not make theirs a fun too too?
Munchkin Snack Catcher
Wait! I know it’s not a toy, but if your goal is to have a happy, occupied toddler on your travel day, a snack catcher will be your best friend! Fill one with a small snack that requires fine motor skills (like Cheerios), and your toddler will take a long time enjoying their mid-flight snack!
Our 2-year old son loved his so much, his snack catcher is in every single family picture we have!
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Toddler Travel Toys Considerations
Keep in mind, the only way carrying a bunch of travel toys for 2 year olds makes sense is if they are compact, and easy to carry, take out and put away. You should be able to fit your toddlers travel toys in your backpack diaper bag or, better yet, in your toddlers travel backpack.
Don’t pack everything from this list! Just a few toys for your 2 year old, some coloring and sticker options, plus some snacks is all your likely going to need. Pair that up with a few fun iPad apps, like those we mention in our favorite airplane activities for babies and toddlers, some shows and a pair of comfortable toddler headphones!
Books are also a great screen-free option for travel because of how engaging and enriching they are. They also help in maintaining a familiar bedtime routine which can help get toddlers to sleep on a plane.
Investing in a good toddler airplane bed like the Flyaway Kids bed is another good idea for getting your kid comfortable on a plane. And with all that sleeping, you won’t have to pack too many different ways to keep your toddler occupied!
Toddler Travel Packs
As you can see, there’s a healthy amount of toddler travel toys. Rather than do all the individual shopping for the above toddler activities, you can make your life easy with KeepEmQuiet activity packs. Each activity pack is a curated selection of screen-free entertainment tailored to a child’s age and interests.
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Celine Brewer is the owner of Baby Can Travel. Not only does she have years of experience traveling with babies & toddlers, but she’s helped millions of new parents travel with their babies and toddlers for over a decade. In addition to writing on her baby travel blog, she has shared her expertise on traveling with a baby or toddler by contributing to articles about traveling with a baby with the Washington Post, USA Today, the Lonely Planet magazine and Pregnancy & Newborn magazine.
Celine also writes about family travel on the site FamilyCanTravel.com, which she co-owns with her husband. Being from the Canadian Rockies, she shares her passion about her home and travel to Banff National Park and area on their site TravelBanffCanada.com.
