Brilliant Travel Toys For 1 Year Olds

Traveling with a 1 year old internationally by plane or planning a long road trip with a baby will likely mean your little one will need some entertaining on the go? In this post you will find my tried and tested travel toys for 1 year olds for flights and car journeys.

With some epic journeys from the UK to Australia and other long haul flights with toddlers and babies under our belt, we have needed to keep our little ones occupied with a variety of toys and travel activities.

However, we needed some baby travel toys that were were light, portable, quiet, plus easy to clean and not too small that they got got fallen behind a plane seat or car seat! Some big requirements but we found the perfect toys to take on holiday for a 1 year old!

How To Entertain a 1 Year Old on a Plane or in The Car? 

When you are flying with a baby, a variety of baby travel toys help – especially with the short attention span that infants have. Using every day objects helped too – and attaching some smaller items to toy clips for easy recovery if they did fall to the floor. Toys that are suitable for any mode of transport, or have multi ways to entertain, make the best toys for traveling with 1 year old.

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Best Travel Toys For 1 Year Olds

Munchkin® Caterpillar Spillers™ Stacking and Straining Cups Baby and Toddler Bath Toy

Little ones love putting things in them and taking them out again. I particularly liked this caterpillar bath set from Munchkin. which is neatly stacked for hand luggage and ideal for in and out of water. We found these cups were great to play with in a bath or a pool at the destination too, making them a great multiple use travel toy for babies.

Melissa & Doug K’s Kids Take-Along Shape Sorter

Melissa And Doug’s Take Along Shape Sorter. A popular game for little hands and one that is easy to transport whilst traveling. It does have pieces which could drop, but this is useful for little ones to play with in the more secure airplane bassinet or at your destination. Its like a puzzle but the shapes only they drop in.

Includes a padded case with 2 activity sides and a take-along handle, textured blocks in various colours plus 9 shapes including cube, oval, star and etc. For more information on these toddler travel toys see here

Sassy Ring O’ Links 2 Pack

Sassy Ring-O-Links Teethers. A firm favourite since she was a tiny baby and she still loved them as a small toddler.  The bright colours engage and provide visual stimulation, whereas the links have different textures on which appeals to babies sense of touch.

All linked together they can be used as a rattle, or separated for teething babies. Another very versatile toy. They work brilliantly on airline bassinets so are ideal to bring along as part of your airplane travel toys and are ideal for travel car seats too, making them versatile and one of the best travel baby toys.

Buckle Toys – Blu Whale

My 1 year old LOVED this buckle toy whale  and it kept her so busy. So many people have sung its praises to me after purchasing it. I firmly believe it’s one of the best travel toys for a 1 year old and often buy it as a travel gift for friends with little ones.

The Buckle Toy Whale has several buckles to do up and a zip mouth. The only issue is once they master the buckle, you may get asked a few times to unbuckle it, until they discover that skill.

Nonetheless, it has easily occupied her for over 30 minutes. A firm favourite on all our journeys, car included.  It’s one of the best toddler travel toys for airplane use, because it is so quiet.

Busy Board – Toddler Backpack with Buckles and Learning Activity Toys –

If you have an older baby or one who enjoys sensory play; creating an activity mat covered in buttons, different materials and things for them to flick, twist, scrunch and tap can be great travel toy for a 1 year old. Although time consuming to create, this can be something to keep until your little one gets older. Alternatively, a Montessori style travel activity bag like this does the trick.

Busy Board Montessori Toy

Combining busy book and traditional busy board, Features over 18 learning activities that help kids build dexterity and develop learning skills for preschoolers, including zippers, gears, buttons, shoelaces, clocks, alphabet, animals, numbers, calendar learning games and more. This toy is great for airplane activities. It has fun things like zippers and buttons that help kids learn while they play.

Melissa & Doug K’s Kids My First Activity Book

This machine washable soft cloth book is one of the best toddler travel toys for car travel and airplane activities, as it is so light, portable and engaging. With activities such as buttoning, buckling, peek-a-boo, counting, matching and telling time, it helps promote sensory development, fine motor skills, color recognition, and other early learning skills.

Find the Duck

Lots of things to spot on each page and a complete classic. Both have loved this book so much that I had to buy two copies due to over use!

Hide-and-Seek Pig (Tales From Acorn Wood)

Julia Donaldson ‘Lift the Flap’ series, (the author of the popular Gruffalo) . We love Fox’s Socks, Hide and Seek Pig etc.  Again lots of things to spot and fun lifting the flaps to see who is hiding and perfect all the way through from baby to learning to read.

The pictures are by Axl Schelffler and are so engaging. It’s easy to see why these books are so popular with young children. Both of mine loved them from an early age and now the older one reads it to my youngest. Win win! 

LEGO DUPLO My First Number Train 10847 Learning and Counting Train Set Building Kit and Educational Toy for 2-5 Year Olds (23 Pieces)

The Duplo number train, with its versatile cube pieces, proved to be a versatile and compact travel toy, perfect for keeping little ones entertained during flights or car rides.

My one-year-old and four-year love Duplo. The number train is easy to pack and fun too. (We just discarded the box for easier packing). We actually bought this on one of our trips away and then kept bringing it along as it was such a success. I think it has been so popular because you can build towers, roll wheels and play with the characters to kind of 3 in 1. For more information and prices see here.

Pieces can obviously drop on the floor of a car or airplane, so we opted to just use a couple of pieces from this set on the plane and saved the rest for playing with at the destination. If you are staying in a hotel room, villa, or Airbnb which doesn’t have any toys, bringing a few toys for moments of boredom or quiet time can prove invaluable.

CHEAP TRAVEL TOYS FOR 1 YEAR OLDS

• Post it notes – kids love peeling them off and sticking them anywhere. Same for band aids/plasters or stickers. If they do get stuck on to the plane tray table or elsewhere like my toddler enjoys doing, they are easy to remove!

• You can also make puppets out of the on-board sick bags or paper cups if you are feeling creative! It’s amazing what you will do on a 15 hour flight!

• The humble balloon! Does only fit as airplane activities but we always put a few more in our luggage to inflate in the hotel room for a game of catch.

• Coloured rice in a tic-tac or similar plastic container for a small rattle

• An old spice jar and pipe cleaners can make a great fine motor skill activity, which is quiet too!

• Small pom poms and a plastic tub with a lid with holes in – babies and toddler love ‘posting’ things so posting the pom poms can while away some time.

• Use some old baby wipes lids to make a sensory toy or lift the flap toy like above.

More travel toys, games & activities for kids

For other travel toys and suggestions see our list of travel toys, games and activities for various ages and stages.