How to have a comfortable flight with young children, review of the TravelSnug
I have done several long haul flights with the older two adventurers but this summer was the first time we would be taking all three on long haul flights (flight times of 15 hours each way) and the first time when none of them were babies. I am pretty relaxed about parenting and travelling with my children in general but I was a little worried about having three children and such long flights. So I started to look over the internet for ideas on how to have a comfortable flight with young children and came across the TravelSnug. The lovely people at TravelSnug sent us three lovely TravelSnugs for our trip and for us to review.
So what is a TravelSung?
The seats on aeroplanes are not designed with children in mind. Maya who is tall for a 6 year old still cannot reach the headrest at its lowest setting. So TravelSnug is an ingenious yet simple solution to the problem of making even they youngest travellers comfortable on flights. The TravelSnug is a cushion which can be added to the seat provding support and comfort for the head, back and arms for the youngest of adventurers. The Travel Snug is available in two sizes so perfect for children from the age of 15 months old until 6 years old. Each TravelSnug has a blanket which is perfectly sized for a child and keeps them nice and snug especially on flights where they may not have blankets provided.
So did they work?
During our trip to the Far East, we did a total of 7 flights in the space of 19 days. We used the TravelSnug on all of our flights and our boy adventurers slept like logs, with our youngest even managing a whole 7 and half hours uninterrupted sleep and actually had to be woken up when we arrived at Doha Airport. Zayn has serious ants in his pants but on all of our long haul flights he was incredibly comfortable (he got lots of jealous stares from the nearby adult passengers) and was quite content to watch the inflight entertainment or sleep.
The TravelSnug adds so much comfort to the seats and you could really tell how much more comfortable the children were. I remember from my own long haul flights as a child once the initial excitement of flying wore off one of the things I remember the most is how uncomfortable I was in the aeroplane seat. The seat can get uncomfortable after some time, even for adults but none of our children complained and were extremely content through the flights.
What we loved
- When the children fell asleep, there is enough padding to really make them comfortable. On our previous flights we were conscious that Maya looked really uncomfortable and the cushions provided were not padded enough to prop up her head whilst keeping on the seat belt. In comparison the TravelSnug had lots of padding on the edges so were perfect for this.
- They are excellent for making the children comfortable on the normal seats whislt they are awake. Raihan was awake for many hours throughout our flight and never complained once (he is the adventurer who is usually susceptible to a whine or two!)
- They are not counted as part of your hand luggage, I was a little worried about this especially for the low cost airlines but these were completely ignored when counting hand luggage pieces. Good job as we had a few of them on each flight!
- The blanket is part of the design, and you use it to put the travel snug back together. I loved this as I know it would have otherwise been lost on one of the flights or would have been another thing to look after.
- They have many uses and can be used as a cushion whilst waiting to leave flights (as demonstrated below), somewhere for the little adventurers to sit whilst you are waiting in the long queues at the airport and are ideal for making airport seats that little more comfortable if you have a few hours to spend at an airport.
What we didn’t like?
- They are bulky. They arrive very compactly packed but putting them together hurriedly as you leave the aeroplane can mean that they are not so neatly packed.
- As we had a few of the travelsnugs, we had lots of extra things to hold and look after in addition to our three little adventurers. As e were moving around a lot during this trip, it could at times be cumbersome.
- Even though you are sent some great instructions and we had a few tries at home, we still found it difficult to keep the travelsnug packed neatly.
Would we use them again?
Oh yes! The Travelsnugs are like my comforters for flying with children. I would be worried about not taking them just in case our next flight wasn’t as comfortable or we had lots of complaining children. I will be honest, if we were doing a short flights (i.e. 2 hours or less) I would probably not take them with me. Not that they aren’t great, but as each adventurer would need to take one and for short haul flights we tend to pack very lightly.
Overall, I was very impressed with the TravelSnug. I (and especially Doc) had our concerns about how effective they would be but after great flights and happy little adventurers they were travel products which we would happily recommend parents to buy. They are priced at £59.99 but you will get your monies worth when you see how comfortable your children are!
That are a fab idea. We haven’t done any long-haul flights with our two yet but I can see the benefit of investing in something that makes things a bit more comfy for them.