Traveling with Twins: Should I Take My Stroller?
Welcome to TwinGo Carrier's Traveling With Twins Series, where each week we will answer new questions about the logistics of traveling with twins. We'll help you coordinate everything from stroller storage to in-flight baby soothing, and everything in between. Heading on a trip with your twins this summer? Fear not! We've got you covered.
Traveling with your twins, triplets, or more can be overwhelming and there’s usually a lot of questions about logistics going through a parent’s mind. Summer is coming and I’m getting lots of questions about flying as people plan summer vacations. It can be very stressful taking babies on a plane and that intensifies when you have more than one child to worry about. Many of these tips are general tips for flying with a baby and some of my adapted tips that are particular to flying with lots of toddlers and babies. We regularly fly domestically and internationally with my now 1-year-old twins and 2.5-year-old singleton. Hopefully these answers will help you understand some of the regulations and choices you have when flying and some extra tips to make it as easy as going to the park for the day.
#3 Should I take my stroller?
I hate taking my stroller through the airport but it depends on the ages of your children, how many children you have, and type of stroller you use. Your stroller, like the car seat, can be either luggage-checked or gate-checked for free. Many of the bigger double or triple strollers are hard to get down the jet bridge and put in a bag to be gate-checked as you’re trying to board with your children. I’ll discuss strategies for that on another question. Some airlines enforce limits on the size of gate checked strollers (generally 20lbs, but its more about size than weight). Our family luggage checks our big stroller if we need it on the trip. Here are our favorite ways of getting through the airport:
- TwinGo: The TwinGo is essential for our family in getting through security and the boarding process so it makes sense to completely forgo the stroller or travel systems at all. This is useful if you have tight connections so you don’t have to wait around for your gate-checked items. As my toddlers are becoming more confident walkers this is becoming our go to strategy since we let them down to walk around before boarding.
- Travel stroller: There are a lot of double travel strollers on the market. If you have triplets+ or twins+1 or more then you can combine this with the TwinGo to maximize the ease of getting through the airport. If you travel often I suggest looking at some of the more expensive umbrella strollers so it holds up to gate-checking and travel use for a longer time. We use the Kinderwagon Hop.
- Travelmate car seat stroller conversion: Use a travelmate to turn your car seat into a stroller for each kid. We use these with our narrow car seat to get them all the way into their seat on the airplane. They fold down and we stow them in the overhead bin on top of each other.
- Pitfall: This can be harder to manage if you have more children than adults.
I think one of the biggest problems as parents of multiples is we often have so many options of carriers and strollers that it’s harder to narrow down what would be the best for our kids’ ages and the situation. Think about the pros and cons of each method to decide which would work best for you. Things to consider are ages, layover times, personalities (do they like the stroller or carrier better), mobility (how easy is it to carry if you need to, my triple stroller is a beast), and accessibility of where you’re going (in Europe some airports have stairs you have to go through with limited options around it. It’s not usually a problem domestically).
Be sure to check out our other Traveling with Twins tips!
Q: Can My Baby Sit on My Lap?
Q: Should I Take My Stroller?
Q: What Should I Do About My Stroller?
Q: What Should I Bring on the Plane?
Q: How Do I Get All This Through Security, and What About Liquids?
Q: How Do I Get Everything and Everyone on the Plane?
Q: How Do I Survive the Flight?
Aja Harris is a mother of three toddlers and the wife of a US diplomat currently residing in Moscow, Russia. She frequently flies with her 2.5-year-old son and twin 1-year-old daughters around the world and throughout the United States. They have taken their children to over 15 US States and 4 countries via planes, trains, and automobiles. She hopes that this article encourages families to be adventurous and eases the worries of parents getting ready to fly with their little ones for the first time. You can follow the Harris family’s adventures on Facebook at The Wandering Chaos
