What to pack when travelling to Bali with a 6mth old baby and 7year old!

When travelling to Bali with a an infant I’m not going to lie…. it does require some degree of organisation and preparation!  But it is all worth it 🙂

I am going to share with you my pack list from our most recent trip, I hope it helps you prepare for you upcoming trips.

Baby pack list (6 month old on formula)

  • Mozzi net for pram
  • Pram fans (the BEST thing ever to help bubs sleep in pram and be cool).  I got mine from Aldi but you can get them online quite cheap too
  • swim nappies
  • Milton steriliser tablets
  • Antibacterial wipes (Milton have a brand of these too)
  • Baby/child sunscreen
  • Infant friendly mozzi repellent and stick on patches for pram/clothes (I got mine from Baby Bunting – the brand is Mozzigear and they are great!)
  • Enough formula to last for your whole trip
  • bottle cleaning brush
  • baby bottles
  • Nappies – you can buy extra over there quite cheap but the quality isn’t great
  • Wipes – you can buy more over there very cheap and they smell divine!
  • Baby rusks and food – you can also buy baby food over there but it is quite expensive
  • Dummies
  • Baby Panadol
  • Nappy rash cream/Sudo cream
  • Infant pool floaty – We took a cheap one with us and left it over there when we came home
  • Sippie cup
  • Baby toys
  • Baby monitor – we found this really handy if we wanted to go and sit outside or have a swim with our older son during the day or evening while the baby was sleeping
  • Baby bathers, clothes, singlets, etc.
  • Sarong to use as blanket in car, aeroplane, etc. We found this really useful as it took up a lot less room in the nappy bag/luggage than an actually blanket plus it was nice and large for baby to sit and play on, etc.

Adults pack list

  • A few shorts/t-shirts/dresses (I really do mean ‘a few’ as you wont need much and can get your washing done every 3 or 4 days very cheaply)
  • Hand sanitiser – lots of it but you can buy it in the Circle K convenience stores if you run out (make sure you put this on ALL the time – especially after touching money and before eating)
  • Electrolyte tablets
  • Waterproof band aides
  • Betadine (just in case anyone cuts/grazes themselves)
  •  Gastro stop
  • Sunscreen
  • Hats (for everyone)
  • Mozzi repellent with high DEET (Bushmans has 80% DEET Cream)
  • Plug converters
  • Charges for phones, cameras, etc.
  • Hairbrush
  • Underwear (for everyone)
  • Toothbrush/Toothpaste
  • Hairspray if you need it (I thought I would buy some over there the last time we went and I found out that I could not get it ANYWHERE so if you like to use it then take it with you)
  • As for all the other toiletries like shampoo, conditioner, etc. you can honestly go to a supermarket or even a convenience store and buy it all so cheap….it saves room in your luggage – personally I never wash my own hair when I am in Bali anyway – I go to the salon/spa’s every couple of days and get a hair wash or cream bath very cheap and its AMAZING!
  • Most importantly triple check before you leave home that you have your PASSPORTS and CASH!

7 year old pack list

Adults pack list covers off all of the clothes, etc. so I will focus on the stuff that your 7 year old will see as the really ‘important’ stuff!

Back pack filled with the following items

  • Snacks and treats for the plane
  • Tablet iPad with movies/games
  • colouring books and texta’s
  • A stuffed toy they might like to bring along on holidays with them

When the 4 us travel we only take 2 checked bags with a 25kg limit for each.

We have one dedicated to the baby items (the smallest person is the heaviest packer by far!) and the other is for my husbands and my clothes and all of the other items.

Hand luggage consists of the following:

Husband – back pack filled with 7 year olds clothes

Me – Nappy bag back pack filled with bottles, formula, nappies, wipes, change of clothes for bubs, sarong, baby toys, hand sanitiser, thermos filled with hot water to make bottle heating easier

7 year old – his back pack with toys, snacks, tablet

Infant – you can take 1 item for oversized baggage free of charge for infants so we take the pram!!

LADIES – I know you all love your hair straighteners (as do I) but please believe me when I say its only taking up room in your precious luggage and there is no point taking it with you – the humidity over there will mean that any amount of straightening is pointless!! 🙂 

luggage

Travelling with babies can be easy when your prepared!

The thought of travelling with young children and babies can be very daunting.  I would like to share with you some tips that made our lives very easy and stress free when we recently travelled to Bali for the first time with our 6 month old baby.

Our son is currently being bottle fed on formula and also starting on solids so here is what I did to make this process as easy as possible…

Airport

  • 10 bottles filled with sterilised water (6 in carry on and 4 in checked baggage for arrival at hotel).
  • 2 formula dispensers packed with a total of 6 feeds for the trip (always packing more than should be needed in case of flight delay, etc.)
  • 1 thermos filled with boiling water to make is as easy as possible to heat bottles (just adding enough boiled water to bottles to heat them to right temp)

This made our flight and time at the airport such a breeze and was great to not have to rely on busy flight attendants for hot water etc.

The great thing is that airport security on BOTH ends (leaving Australia and leaving Bali) are both really lenient on baby items/liquid so we were not stopped or questioned at any stage which was a relief and really made the entire experience smooth and relaxed.

Other things to remember to pack in carry on luggage for infants:

  • Nappies/wipes
  • Jar/sachet of baby food for airport/flight
  • Baby toys
  • Baby blanket (as we were going to Bali I just packed a sarong to use as a blanket as it took up less room and it was nice and large for baby to sit and play on at airport, etc.)
  • Dummies
  • Hand sanitiser
  • Milton sterilising wipes (to clean dropped dummies, etc)

Sterilising/cleaning bottles at Resort/Hotel

Of course if you have a Villa as we did for part of our trip then this part is really easy as you can wash your own bottles and then soak them for 15 mins in bottled water with a Milton sterilising tablet.

If you are staying in a hotel room without a kitchen then you will have a couple of options.  The first hotel we stayed at had a very good understanding of baby bottle sterilisation needs and they would take the bottles each morning, wash them (I provided them with the bottle cleaning brush and detergent I bought from home) and then boil them in ‘good water’ for 5 mins and bring them back to me.  This was terrific as not only were they being cleaned properly but I didn’t have to do it.  A true holiday indeed!

The second hotel let me use their kitchen sink to wash the bottles in detergent but when it came to having something I could use to soak them in the Milton tablet water they didn’t have anything I could use! If we had of been near a larger town or city I would have gone to a hardware shop or large supermarket and purchased a plastic container but this was not an option for where we were at the time.  After washing in warm soapy water I would take them back to our room, fill them up with boiled water and then wipe them dry using Milton sterilising wipes! It was time consuming and fiddly so I am glad we only had to do this for 2 days!

The other thing to note if your staying in a hotel room without a microwave is to fill up the thermos with fresh boiled water before going to bed so you can make bottles throughout the night with ease.

Day to day organising

Each morning before heading out on a day trips or a walk down the street for lunch, etc. we would make sure we had the following packed in the nappy back pack:

  • Nappies/wipes
  • Formula dispenser container filled with formula
  • Thermos filled with hot water
  • Bottles filled with sterilised or bottled water
  • Baby food jar/sachet and spoon
  • Baby rusks
  • Dummies
  • Clip on fans for pram
  • Suncreen and hat
  • Mozzi repellent
  • Mozzi net for pram

It sounds like a lot when you read through it all but its honestly not and after a couple of days you really get into the swing of things and it all just comes naturally.

If you follow the above tips and tricks then you will be sure to have everything you could need while travelling around Bali with your infant.

flight flying plane air travel
Photo by Josh Sorenson on Pexels.com

Thanks for reading!

The Journey Begins

Hi, thanks for joining me!

My biggest passion in life (after my family) is travel…. especially overseas travel.  I love the excitement of arriving at the airport, I love discovering new places and discovering new places to eat and things to do in old places!

Please follow my journey through North Bali and all I hope is that I inspire you to visit this amazing, beautiful and interesting part of Bali that is nowhere near as popular for Australian tourists as the South.

I travel with my husband and 2 young children (aged 7 years and 7 months).

Happy reading!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

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