The Best Kids’ Travel Trays

Buying Guide for Kids’ Travel Trays

Why buy a travel tray for your child?

Travel trays generally offer the same useful components for a long trip: a hard desktop for coloring or snacking and pockets for stashing multiple things to keep your little one busy while keeping them within reach. These features can help keep them entertained, keep their things organized, and keep your car tidier.

What should you consider when choosing the right travel tray?

• Portability: Trays that fold and are lightweight so that they can easily store and travel wherever you go.
• Materials: Soft trays can be great for extra comfort and storage, but plastic trays can offer a sturdier work and play environment.
• Storage: Depending on how much food or how many activities you want to give your kiddo during travel, the number of extra pockets will determine how much stuff you’ll be able to store.
• Multi-Purpose: A great kids’ travel tray is one you can use repeatedly and offers your kiddo lots of things to do, from coloring and snacking to playing with toys to watching their favorite shows or getting a quick drink from a conveniently placed sippy cup.

Are travel trays safe?

Yes, travel trays are safe and many are even crash-tested to be sure they don’t pose any threat to your child. In the event of a quick stop or a sharp turn, objects may move around on the tray more than usual, so it might be wise to keep sharper objects like pencils on the side storage pockets if you’re anticipating a bumpier ride.

Our Picks for the Best Kids’ Travel Trays

Pros: Strap this travel tray around your child’s car seat, and they can have everything they need within reach to keep them comfortable and entertained. This travel tray has a dry erase board built in and an iPad holder that won’t slide or tip while the car is in motion. Close enough for your child to interact with the screen for a game, the holder protects the iPad screen while still allowing the child to engage. If your kids don’t use tablets, it’s a great space for holding books. It also includes a cup holder and compartments for markers, toys, or snacks. The compartments and cup holder are detachable in case your kiddo wants more space for drawing or other activities. The tray can fold for easy portability, but its walls are sturdy to prevent spills. The tray comes in five colors to best match your car’s interior or car seat.

Cons: Buckling the strap around a larger booster seat with a five-point harness can be a bit of a pain.

Bottom Line: Instead of fumbling for coloring books, markers, a tablet, a deck of cards, or their cup and snacks, keep them all within reach with this tray that can be used for so many things.

 

Pros: Fit your kid’s snacks, markers, tablet, toys, and more in this tray to keep it all within their reach. A fun pattern decorates the tray’s surface, which is waterproof and easy to clean. When it’s time to eat, the surface makes a great table for less mess and more control. The tray has sturdy sides that include compartments, zipper pockets, and a cup holder. With all this storage, your child can keep everything they love within reach without adding clutter to the backseat. Some compartments are removable so your child has a larger space for coloring or playing. A plastic holder keeps your child’s tablet in view and keeps the screen touchable for easy interaction. The tray easily folds up for portability and comes in three fun patterns.

Cons: The main cup holder is on the side of the tray, which may limit its accessibility depending on which side of the car the child is sitting and how large their booster seat may be.

Bottom Line: From tablet entertainment to coloring to a sturdy place to eat a meal or snack, this is a favorite companion for long car trips with children.

 

Pros: Travel trays boast the ability to fit all your child’s entertainment and snacking needs. But what about the ease of clearing the tray for bathroom breaks or arriving at the destination? Enter this easy and convenient solution. Simply unzip the bag and hook it over the headrest. Opened up, your child has a tablet holder, snack pockets, mesh pockets, a cup holder, zipper pockets, a large space for coloring books, and a tray table that can sit on their lap. The tray table can also be detached from the piece on the headrest with three simple snaps. When they need to get out of the car, but maybe it’s not time to take everything with them, they can put anything back into the pockets and stand up without having to undo everything. When it’s time to take it from the car, they can unhook it from the headrest and zip it up into a kid-friendly messenger bag. It comes in four fun colors.

Cons: The travel tray doesn’t zip up when it’s hooked on the headrest. The distance between the seats will determine how successful this travel is to sit in the lap of your child—smaller children or cars with a more spacious leg area may not be able to use this as an attached piece.

Bottom Line: Being able to get your child in and out of a car seat without having to pack up their travel tray is a huge draw for parents. Long road trips can already be a hassle, and this product is trying to solve some of those issues.

 

Pros: This travel tray can be used in a variety of ways. First, it can be propped on your child’s lap as a great place to play with their favorite toys, which can be conveniently stored in pockets on the side. The other way to use it is to hook it on the headrest for viewing a show or movie on the tablet. Finally, it can be taken anywhere as a bag with a few belongings and the storage pockets stored inside. It comes in two designs, one with Disney princesses and the other with Toy Story characters.

Cons: The tray is not as sturdy. It can be used in a variety of ways, but only one way at a time. It also doesn’t have as many storage options as other kinds.

Bottom Line: This travel tray comes with less storage and functional design features, but it can still be helpful for children who want to snack or play in the car. This may be best for toddlers who won’t have as much variety of things to keep them busy.

Final Thoughts

Long road trips may not be easy for everyone in the family, but having a travel tray may help your kids earn “Road Warrior Status” quite quickly. With so many types to choose from with extra fun features, these can help make the drive more peaceful and something that everyone looks forward to.