Oahu Packing List:
Traveling With Kids
Need to have
**FYI that you can rent a lot of the bulky items (like strollers, carriers, pop up tens, beach toys, etc) from BabyQuip if you want to avoid purchasing them or taking up room in your suitcase.
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Kids Reef Safe Sunscreen
Banana Boat makes both a spray and lotion for kids.
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Refillable Kids Water Bottles
Takeya and Hydro Flask both make ones that are insulated (keep things nice and cold) and have a soft silicone on the bottom so your kids aren’t banging them on tables and stuff. Both come in cute colors.
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Keep them covered up. The sun is pretty intense, so you’ll want some extra coverage when they’re in swimsuits.
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Kids Beach Towels
These ones can double as bath towels when you get back home.
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Swim Diapers
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If your kids aren’t strong swimmers, especially while you’re in the ocean.
Healthy Snacks That Travel Well
Keep hangry kids from crashing. Trail mix and grass fed beef sticks are great for keeping meltdowns at bay. Yogurt covered raisins, ZBars, and real fruit snack rolls can be thrown into a backpack without getting smashed into a million pieces.
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Insanely helpful when traveling with kids. You can separate out each kid’s clothes, keep bedtime stuff (monitors, blankies, etc) together, and so on. When you get to where you’re staying, you can easily move cubes around your hotel or Airbnb and still keep them organized. Makes unpacking so much simpler.
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Mesh Beach Bag
Find one with tons of pockets — perfect for carrying towels, extra clothes, sunscreen, water, and snacks. Mesh bags are good for carrying beach toys because you can knock the extra sand out pretty easily.
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Clean up sticky hands and faces on the go.
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Baby Carrier
A must if you’ll be on the go with an infant or toddler. Ergobaby 360 is a great one. You’ll be happy you have this if you’re taking the little one on a hike. For toddlers, you may even want a backpack carrier for hikes. You’ll be thankful when your kid decides they’re done with the hike and wants to be carried the rest of the way. Ideally you’ll want a backpack that comes with a sunshade. If you’d rather not buy one (or don’t want to take up precious suitcase space) check out BabyQuip and rent the gear from local families.
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Mini First Aid Kit
Welly makes some cute kits with fun bandage patterns that are kid approved. The case is nice and compact too and is stocked with Ibuprofen and single use ointments.
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Nice to have
This sounds crazy but if you dust your kids with baby powder when you’re getting ready to leave the beach, it’ll dry up the sand and you can wipe it right off.
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FYI they look kinda weird, but they work great and the kids will love getting to see underwater.
You'll be amazed how much time kiddos can kill trying to spot dolphins and turtles.
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Keep little ones comfortable when you’re on the go.
Collapsible Sand Bucket and Toys
Something nice and compact so it doesn’t take up valuable suitcase space.
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Infant Pool Floaty Boats or Kids Intertube
If your hotel has a good size pool or you plan to hang out at one of the family friendly lagoons or calm beaches (like Kuhio) you might have some fun with a pool floatie. For little littles, grab one with a sunshade. If you bring one with you, you might save a little money (and have a better chance of getting one that looks cool in photos).
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Wet Dry Bag (or Garbage Bags)
Throw wet clothes in and keep the rest of your stuff dry.
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Kids Books About Hawaii
Great for the plane ride. Some cute ones are Down at the Beach, Too Many Mangoes, Good Night Hawaii, Fascinating Facts About Hawaii, ‘Ohana Means Family, We Are Water Protectors, Islandborn, Twinkle Twinkle Small Hoku, Shave Ice in Hawai’i, and Hawaii Travel Activity Book and Journal for Kids.
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Help the littles take a break from the sun during a day at the beach. You can also rent one from BabyQuip if you don’t want to purchase one.
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They sell island style baby / toddler moccasins, handmade in Hawaii. They’re machine washable, come in super cute patterns (like pineapples or even spam musubi) and there are waterproof versions too.
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“Hawaii’s toy company” makes all sorts of wooden Hawaii themed toys like a shave ice play set, a pho puzzle (complete with Sriracha), and also some cute books. Fun souvenirs to remember your trip. They’ve also got some island themed printables if you need activities for the flight.
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