RVing with a Toddler

This is a post I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Our daughter was 7 months old when we bought our first camper and 9 months for her first trip. Three seasons later, we’ve learned a lot and are still learning. I hope to keep this updated as we go along. None of this is sponsored and is all just my opinion based on our experience.

First, a few notes on our camper:

• We have a 2021 Grand Design Momentum 21G toy hauler with an onboard generator. 
• Our old rig was a 2020 Wildwood FSX 190RTK.
• We opted for a toy hauler mostly for ease of getting gear in and out the back (bikes, kayaks, paddleboards, etc.) and the fact that if we ever wanted to take our actual “toy” (a Spyder trike) anywhere, we could. The bonus that I LOVE is the deck (more on that later).
• We opted for a towable RV versus a motorized RV because of car seat safety. Many motorized RVs do not have seat belts that bolt through to the frame. This can become a danger in the event of an accident because the seat belt can break off sending the car seat flying. No thank you. Safe in the Seat, my absolute favorite child-related Instagram account to follow has a great post on RV safety. 

An RV is an amazing way to travel with a young child. For starters, you have all of your stuff with you that you need. You can also cook meals and have a space to hang out after bedtime. I love it even more than I thought I would. 

A few things we have learned along the way:

• A child needs a lot of things, and campers do not have a lot of storage. We’ve tried various configurations and basically have accepted that a bench is always going to be out of use until there is no longer a pack-n-play in the rig. We move one out of the way and turn it into child land (photos above). 
• We prefer to use our own travel crib in the RV vs modifying a bunk or bed to accommodate a baby/toddler. Specifically, we LOVE the Bugaboo Stardust for its size and ease of opening/closing. It’s great when we get to a site late and are trying to set up and get a kid to sleep in 15 minutes or less. We can also close it up during the day and move it out of the way to have plenty of play space. 
• I recently got a cheap storage cube situation with 3 bins that works GREAT to keep all of the kid stuff corraled. I have one for clothes, one for diaper changing stuff, and one that I was using for random stuff but will now be for baby’s clothes.
• We blacked out the windows in the back of the rig and use magnetic hooks and a shower curtain to section off the travel crib and give our daughter the darkness and privacy she needs to sleep. We opted for this cheap blackout material because we can still tuck it out of the way during the day and have light.
• Toys are another storage conundrum. We’ve settled on these rope laundry baskets for them everywhere, including the camper. 
• Our toy hauler has an awesome patio deck because the back door is a ramp. This has worked out incredibly well with a young child because this basically becomes a giant playpen. 
• The biggest challenge every trip is what to do with our daughter while we are setting up. It’s an ever-evolving situation. When she was very young, she would stay in her car seat with the door open while we were setting up. Then, we transitioned to putting her in her Veer basecamp with some toys, in the bed of the truck, or I would wear her in a soft carrier. Now, she wants to be involved so I will hold her while my husband backs in then she helps with the leveling and stabilizers. We expect she will be able to set us up next season. 😛
• Over the years, we’ve found having dedicated camper items like bibs, bottles, wipes, diapers, a sound machine, a high chair (this one works great for picnic tables), toys, etc. is better than having to remember to pack them every time. We’ve also bought our daughter her own camp chair and she loves it. 
• Items like a play tent, bouncer, jumper, etc. we bring along as needed and try to bring the smaller “travel” version. That way, when not in use we can collapse them and keep them out of the way.
• We tend to bring either our Veer wagon or our Burley stroller/bike trailer with us camping. The advantage is they are GREAT on various terrain and can hold a lot of gear. The disadvantage is they are big and don’t fit in the camper easily. We tend to store them in the truck bed while camping.
• We try to structure our days so that we are back to the camper for at least 1 nap a day. It usually gives us time to eat lunch/prep dinner or do some outdoor projects around the camper. 
• At night, we generally hang out outside while our daughter sleeps. We bought this amazing clamshell pop-up tent so that we can hang out when it’s hot and not get eaten alive by bugs. We put a portable fan inside to keep us cool and voila, an outdoor living room. If it’s pouring, we retreat to the camper. We now have a separate bedroom so we can hang out and watch TV when the weather is bad.

General advice that applies to traveling with young kids:

• Be flexible. Things will not always go according to plan. We try not to plan for more than 1 activity a day. If we do more than one thing, great! But we’ve learned inevitably if we pack it in we can’t do it all and are bummed about it. 
• Just go! You will figure it out. We’ve reconfigured our camping setup countless times and still aren’t totally satisfied but we’re still out there! I trust that eventually, we’ll sort it out.
• We keep hikes to about 3 miles and plan for our toddler to hike a little herself but mostly be carried. We LOVE the Osprey Poco. When she was younger we used to go a little further but never more than 5ish miles. I admire people who do more but those are our limits. 
• I made an “adventure kit” and keep it in a packing cube. That way we have safety essentials in a grab-and-go form for hiking, boating, whatever we get into. It contains:
  • Medical kit
  • Flint / saw
  • Pouches for child, snack bars for adults
  • Spare pants and shirt for kid
  • diaper/wipes
  • Plastic bag to pack out trash
  • Emergency blanket/shelter
  • Headlamp
  • Sunscreen
  • Bug spray
  • Pacifier when applicable (added after a disaster hike where we forgot a binky)

Where to Go

• Anywhere! We originally bought the camper to mostly go hiking, since all the good hiking is a minimum of 90 minutes from our house and hard to day trip with a young child. What we’ve learned along the way is the RV is actually a really awesome way to travel anywhere! We’ve taken it to the beach, to lakes, and yes, to lots of hiking destinations. 
• The camper allows us to travel with friends and family. We join our friends in Cape May every summer for a weekend while they are in town for the week. My parents also have a camper and we try to camp together once a season. Last year, we finally pulled off the family camping outing with some siblings tent camping with us. These trips are some of the absolute best memories we make!
• We try to stay at campgrounds that have at least a playground and prefer a pool or lake to swim in. It’s hands down our daughter’s favorite part of camping. 
• We’ve learned that where we are in NY and NJ, a lot of state parks do not have hookups (i.e. water, electric, and sewer). Because electricity makes life with a young child far easier, we upgraded our battery to lithium to enable us to dry camp for 4-5 days and still be able to use the generator to run the air conditioner for a bit to cool the rig. We also have a small solar panel on the roof which recharges our battery enough to power our 110V fridge. Our daughter basically can’t sleep if it’s over 80, so if we are dry camping, we run the air for an hour or two during generator time before bed, then switch over to battery-powered fans overnight. It’s worked well this season whereas in our first 2 seasons, we avoided dry camping during the summer. We also have a battery “generator” that we use to power her monitor and sound machine so we don’t kill our battery.
• For the most part, we stick to long weekends and 1-2 locations tops on a trip. We’ve found that it’s just too hard to set and break up several times a trip. This does limit our options a bit (we also stick to a 6 hour or so drive time), but we’ve found some GREAT places we probably never would have explored without the camper (looking at you Tupper Lake). We’ve also found some great campgrounds to just go to and have a fun relaxing weekend at, like the Jellystone resorts.

We’ve made a lot of incredible memories so far and can’t wait to make more when we start camping with 2 kids next year! I’m also excited to see how camping evolves as we move through various phases of our lives.