Best Items Logo
Products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission.
Back to Reviews

Holiday Travel With Kids: One Tablet and Two Screen-Free Toys for the Car and the Airport

By Best Items Staff
Holiday road-trip family lifestyle: two young kids in car seats in the back of a minivan at golden hour, one watching a cartoon on a 10-inch tablet with kid headphones, the other building a tiny haunted house from mini magnetic tiles with pumpkin and ghost squares on a lap tray, a parent turned around from the front passenger seat smiling and passing back a bag of snacks, autumn highway and orange trees through the windows, candid editorial

The holiday travel stretch starts with Halloween weekend at the grandparents' and runs straight through Thanksgiving and the December drives. Anyone who has done a four-hour car ride or a delayed flight with small kids knows the plan can't be "one tablet and hope." What works better is a short rotation: a screen for the long middle stretch, something to build with when the screen time runs out, and something for the youngest that doesn't need reading yet.

The three pieces

Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet, 10.1" 1080p Full HD Display, Octa-Core, 4 GB RAM, 32 GB, Black is the screen in this kit; check its product page for the current price. Per the product page, it's the latest Fire HD 10, with an octa-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, a 10.1-inch 1080p Full HD display, up to 13 hours of battery, storage expandable up to 1 TB with a microSD card, a 5 MP front camera for video calls, and strengthened aluminosilicate glass. Catalog rating: 4.5 / 5.0.

MAGNA-TILES microMAGS 24-Piece Spooky Travel Set is the building toy (see its product page for the current price). The listing describes 24 mini magnetic tiles, including arch windows, pumpkin and ghost deco squares, and black roof triangles, packed in a travel case so kids can build and rebuild a little haunted house anywhere. Catalog rating: 4.8 / 5.0.

LeapFrog Learning Friends 100 Words Book, Bilingual English & Spanish is the toddler pick (the current price is on its product page). Per the product page, it introduces more than 100 words with Turtle, Tiger, and Monkey across pets, animals, food, colors, opposites, and more. Touching a word plays the word, sound effects, and fun facts, a light-up star button plays songs, and everything works in English and Spanish. It's listed for ages 18 months and up. Catalog rating: 4.5 / 5.0.

Set up the tablet the night before, not at the gate

Download everything at home. Car Wi-Fi is unreliable and airport Wi-Fi is worse. The 32 GB of built-in storage fills up faster than you'd think with movies, so if you're planning a long trip, a microSD card is the easy way to add room; the listing says it supports cards up to 1 TB.

Charge it fully and pack the cable where you can reach it. Up to 13 hours of battery, per the listing, covers a long travel day for most families, but screen brightness and what's playing will change that. Keep the charger in the bag at your feet, not in the trunk.

Bring headphones. Nobody else in the car or the row wants to hear the same cartoon theme song for the fortieth time. Set up whatever parental controls and profiles you use before you leave, and test that the downloads actually play with Wi-Fi turned off.

Use the camera for one thing. The front camera makes the tablet a decent way for kids to video-call the relatives they're about to see, or the ones they just left.

Why the screen-free pieces matter

Screens are great for the long middle of a trip, but they're also what kids get cranky coming off of. Having something hands-on ready for the switch makes the transition easier. A small set of magnetic tiles is good for that because the case keeps the pieces in one place and the build can be different every time: a haunted house on the lap tray in the car, a tiny town on the airplane tray table, a ghost tower on Grandma's coffee table. The pumpkin and ghost squares make it a natural Halloween-week toy, and the plain shapes keep it useful well after October.

Two practical notes. Mini tiles are small, so check the age guidance on the box before you hand them to a younger sibling. And count the pieces back into the case before you get out of the car; seat cracks eat small toys.

For the youngest traveler

Toddlers can't follow a movie for two hours and aren't ready for building sets. A book they can press is about right. The LeapFrog book's touch-to-hear words, sound effects, and songs keep small hands busy, and the bilingual English and Spanish content is a nice bonus for families who speak both at home or want to start. Because it plays sounds, save it for the car or a moment when noise is fine, rather than the quiet part of a flight.

A simple rotation for a long travel day

First hour: no screens. Kids are usually still excited, so start with building, the LeapFrog book, snacks, and looking out the window.

The long middle: tablet time, with headphones, a downloaded movie or a few episodes.

The last stretch: back to the tiles or the book, so nobody arrives at Grandma's straight off a screen and overtired.

Keep all three in one small tote by your feet. Anything packed in the trunk might as well be at home.

Who this is for

Families with a long Thanksgiving or December drive coming up, parents flying with a toddler and an older sibling, and grandparents who want a few things on hand for visiting kids. Skip the tablet if your kids already have one they travel with; the two toys still work on their own. And skip the LeapFrog book if your youngest has outgrown first-word books.

What we're not claiming

We didn't take these on a trip, test the tablet's battery life, or check how well the tiles hold together on a moving car seat. The Fire HD 10's octa-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, 10.1-inch 1080p display, up-to-13-hour battery, microSD support up to 1 TB, 5 MP front camera, and aluminosilicate glass, the microMAGS set's 24 pieces, tile shapes, and travel case, the LeapFrog book's 100-plus words, characters, sounds, songs, bilingual content, and 18-months-and-up listing, and the ratings above come from the product pages and catalog. Check the current prices on the product pages, download the shows the night before, and keep the tiles within arm's reach.