Packing For a Month-long Trip With Toddlers

Last summer our friends Pia and Davide Baroncini headed to Italy for a month-long trip to visit family and friends in Davide’s hometown, draw inspiration for their respective labels (LPA and Ghiaia Cashmere), and work on their importing business, Baroncini Import & Co. They brought along their kids, Carmela (4) and Carlo (1), and managed to balance work with beach days and gelato runs. Pia shared how they packed for their multi-leg trip on our Substack, but her advice was so helpful for any families planning summer travel, we wanted to share it again here.

Tell us about your trip! You were gone for a month—I’m assuming for a trip that long you have to check a bag, right?

Oh my god, yeah. On this trip Davide brought one suitcase for himself; I had two suitcases and a rolling carry-on and a bag carry-on. I could have done just one of the biggest Rimowas for me if I’d wanted to, but I brought two because we’ve learned that we always need to bring things back. We buy antique pieces and little things from flea markets, but we also bring back samples so that we don’t have to ship them back.

I try to keep it concise, because we always wind up taking a multitude of road trips, as we did this time, from Naples to Sicily. Italian cars are obviously much smaller, so once we know the start date of our trip, the most important thing we do is to book our car through Sixt and make sure that we get one that can fit all our luggage. Everything fit perfectly in the back of the Audi SUV that we rented. And then we also rent car seats while we’re there.

What’s your strategy for the carry-on?

My bag carry-on is the LL Bean Boat Tote, in which I keep everything that the kids need immediately on the plane—snacks, water bottles, diapers, outfit changes, toys—and then I use it as a beach bag on the trip. It just becomes the bag, and then I have a purse, because I don’t use a diaper bag. I have to have some sort of dignity.

In my rolling carry-on, I keep all of their clothes and extra diapers. I like to assume that there will be at least one outfit change on the plane for a spillage or a pee leak or something. I don’t want that LL Bean bag to be too cumbersome, because it’s cumbersome anyway. So if there’s an emergency, then all their clothes are in the rolling carry-on Rimowa. On this last trip, it ended up being priceless because we missed our connecting flight from Paris after our first flight was delayed. We couldn’t access our checked luggage, but thank God I had all the kids’ clothes, because we had to spend the night in Paris.

Can you walk us through how you actually pack for a trip like this?

I use packing cubes, and I pack by category—short dresses, long dresses, bathing suits. And then I only unpack a little bit at each stop. We moved around a lot—we were in four different hotels and rentals over the month. So by the second half of the trip, the stuff that I wore on the first half of the trip (which I wasn’t going to wear again) got packed in the second suitcase, which is storage. I didn’t even open the suitcase on the second half of the trip until the last day, when it was time for me to pack up other things. So I only unpack what I know I need for certain days.

Do you do the same for your kids?

No, I just put all their stuff in my little Rimowa. When we flew back, one of the cubes was dirty laundry, so I just took that right out into the laundry room. The other half was stuff that’s clean and separated. When I unpack at each stop, I’ll take out only what I know they’ll need. And then I always over-pack for the kids, because kids are so messy, and I just need to be better at remembering that they are, like, naked for most of the trip.

So you do laundry while you’re on the road?

We do laundry throughout the trip, especially for the kids. If we’re at a house rental, we do the laundry ourselves. We did it multiple times while we were there. And then we had to have the hotel do laundry for us once, which I don’t like doing because they charge so much. But the smell of laundry is so good, and they use insanely fragrant detergent that I would never use at home. Davide’s favorite smell in the world is laundry that’s been done in Italy.

For yourself, do you plan full outfits in advance or just sort of throw in pieces that you’re loving right now?

I throw in pieces. I never pre-pack. I never pre-try things on. I have to tell you—and this is going to be a controversial statement—but when I see that people pre-plan what they’re going to wear every day on a trip with photos, it seems to me a little like, is that really your personal style if you planned it so much? But I also understand that’s a judgmental statement. Some people need to focus on things other than thinking about what they’re going to wear every day.

For me, I just pack the things that I love. I pack the new LPA stuff. I pack things that are cozy, and I pack a few accessories that are trendy for that season. That makes me feel like I put in some effort, and then I just catch the vibe of how I feel on the trip. Sometimes I feel more dressy, but, you know, I make clothes, and so I just get excited to be able to wear them in the place that they were designed for.

Were there any pieces you love that you kept reaching for on this trip?

The Evelyn shorts—they’re white shorts that I was nervous to make, because I never make short-shorts like that. But I just wore them non-fucking-stop. The Kate midi dress is this low-back dress that’s kind of shimmery and kind of sheer, and every time I put it on, I was like, I’m a princess. And then the Emmy midi dress I made with Italy in mind. It’s an off-the-shoulder dress and just so comfortable. I saw so many other girls wearing it when they were traveling this summer. All this stuff just rolls up really easily.

Almost every day I wore LPA and I felt fantastic. All of our swimwear is just a 10 out of 10. My body’s been through a lot of transformations having kids, and I just felt so confident in everything that I wore. The other thing that I wore a lot of is Helsa—Elsa Hosk’s brand—and Dôen.

What about shoes and accessories?

I wore Havianas and water shoes as real shoes—my husband and I like the Italian jelly ones. I basically pick a sandal for the summer. I wore the jelly shoes to the beach and then wore them out at night. And I always pick a necklace or two, or an earring. I brought two necklaces that I love and wore to the beach, and then wore them out at night, because I like when they are lived in and a part of the trip.

Do you roll or fold?

Everything folded up really well into the packing cubes on this trip, but I will roll sometimes if there’s something that tends to get more wrinkly. I did both.

For toiletries do you buy anything there or do you bring everything with you?

No, I love minis. I’m obsessed with travel-size versions of things, and I have the travel toiletry case from Parallelle. It’s the absolute best travel makeup bag on planet fucking Earth. It stands up and then the sides fold down. Mine is the medium, and I’ve been using it for years. There’s nothing better.

And what goes in the bag?

I have the Barefaced Hypochlorous Spritz, which I reapply like 18 times on the plane to kill bacteria, and then I spray my hands with antibacterial and then I use the Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask. I don’t wear makeup on a plane.

I also brought Crown Affair Shampoo, Conditioner, Leave-in Conditioner, and a mini Necessaire Body Oil, because we get so dry. We baked in the sun every day, so that oil was really important. I brought minis of the Evereden Detangling Spray for my daughter, because her hair is down to her waist. Also the Saie Glowy Super Gel, the Osea Ocean Cleanser and the Osea Wave Cleanser, a mini Tweezerman, a mini nail file, the Skinny Confidential Mouth Tape, and a mini of the Photo Finish by Smashbox. The original Photo Finish Smooth and Blur Primer is really good if you’re going to events in Italy, so your makeup doesn’t sweat off your face.

Is there anything you bring on the plane for your kids to keep them entertained?

This will be controversial, but I give them melatonin. I’ve seen parents try to be heroes. We wake up well rested when the plane is landing and we’ll see other parents who refused to give their kids melatonin and they have not slept for 11 hours, and then have to get luggage and the car rental and then drive two hours. You’re just starting your trip on the wrong foot.

I also give them busy books that I get on Amazon—little pads where they can draw, and it’s not a real pen. I got the mini set of Magna tiles, and what I realized is you do not want to travel with small pieces. Carlo sleeps with a stuffed soccer ball, so I brought that with him on the plane and he was really happy to have it. I have pre-loaded shows on an iPad. That’s the only time they’re allowed. They love Post-It notes on a plane—they peel each piece off, they’ll stick it to the wall, and then they think it’s so funny to take it off the wall and stick it on each other. They both love the emergency pamphlets on the back of the seats, which is so funny.

Anything else you bring for the kids?

Coterie Travel Wipes. Otherwise, you’re carrying a brick of normal size wipes in your bag, so I travel with both sizes. I’ll always keep three or four of the travel wipes with me in my bag, but then I bring two packages of the regular wipes, and those stay in our hotel room.

Anything else you need is in Italy. I bring a lot of diapers, but then if they run out, I get them in Italy, no problem. But I will tell you, the Coterie wipes are just superior to any wipe that I’ve ever found anywhere. My other secret that is life changing is that micellar water and a wipe will get off stains, or anything stuck under their nails. If you just do a squirt of the micellar water on a wipe, you can get anything off of them.