Yes, yes you can! And we do.. Every, single, TIME!!
I get asked quite often if I cloth diaper while on vacation, visiting family, visiting friends and just generally travelling out of town...... YES! Yes I do! We cloth diaper full time all the time. No destination is an exception!
Thankfully for us, our family is VERY supportive of our choice to cloth diaper and we have converted many friends to cloth diapering also!
No matter where we go there is a diaper sprayer, laundry tub, washing machine or toilet ready and waiting for us!
Now, each system/style of cloth diapering is different for travel! Let me explain that.
Pockets. Pockets can be a bit bulky. Stuffed pockets take up a bit more room in your luggage and a lot more room in your wet bag. And lets be honest, not the most practical for packing light! You can only use the cover once before needing to wash it! The good thing about pockets is that both the cover and the insert can be easily washed by hand and hung to dry.
Fitteds. Fitteds (while I have a very fond love of them) are not good at all for travelling. The are SUPER bulky.. They take up A LOT of space and are not easily hand washed and take forever to hang dry. (See pic)
AIO. Well.... See fitteds.. lol
Hybrids. To me hybrids make the MOST sense for travel. The covers can be folded VERY tiny and the inserts (depending on which) can take up very very little space. They can be easily hand washed and left to hang dry. You can reuse the cover for over a day should you want to. And of course when it comes to the wet bag, you can fit many many many diapers in there!
So, in my opinion... If you want an easy, light and option that just makes sense.... Travel with hybrids!
Now, a BIG BIG part to travelling with your beloved diapers is a good wetbag! (See wetbag reviews).
Without a good wetbag, you will DYE from the stench... Its true!
We have had a few different wetbags.. But, I found each of the PUL wetbags let the smell out.. YUCK! So, I decided to look up a waterproof barrier that wouldn't or so I hoped let the stink out, as we travel for days at a time often.
I found some great medical grade barrier, and, WyldeBums was born! lol...
With that said, I know some people who love their PUL wetbags... Again, see the wetbag review if you are curious!
I will share a few different trips of ours and then give you some tips and tricks!
When we go to my grandmas/mums/best bud's (all of them) house its almost like being at home we have full use of laundry facilities and laundry tubs.. So, easy peasy!
When we go to my mother in laws its a bit different. She loves that we cloth diaper and things we rock for doing so.. However, she doesn't have a washer and dryer. Thankfully, she has a laundry tub!
So all of the poopy diapers and the heavily wet overnight diapers go down for a good rinse and then get hung on the laundry tub to dry a bit, and then, pop into the wet bag. So far we haven't stayed there long enough to need to wash, but we would either be washing my hand and hanging to dry or pop in to the laundry mat for a quick wash and then hang at home to dry.
On our trips to resorts with in room laundry facilities we go two or three days between washes depending on the number of diapers I have packed and just treat it as if we were at home, with one exception. Generally there is no laundry tub, boooooo! So we rinse in the sink or bathtub any super wet overnight or poopy diapers, then hang over the outside rail or the shower stall. After each rinse we give the tub/sink a good washing and carry on.
Our longest trip so far (Until July hehe) with our cloth was our 10 day long move (thanks to the military! bhahahaha).. We had one rough patch.. Which I will get to.. haha... So, we started our trip.. Booked into a hotel while they packed up our stuff and loaded the truck (3 days).. We did our normal away without laundry tub deal.. Rinsing any poopy or overnight diaper and hanging to dry in the shower. On day 4 we went to one of my besties house <3 and I said, BRAE!!!! I need to wash my diapers.. lol.. I used my favourite print!! Of course, she said you know where the utilities are, go to! So, we washed our diapers on day 4! Then on day 5 we were off to our new location and booked into another hotel for 5 days.. No laundry tub, no in room laundry, just coin laundry down the hall..
No biggy! We rinsed each and every diaper out very well and hung them in the shower to dry.. And when we got low we just packed up the ones that were hanging dry in the shower.. Occasionally we would toss the stained ones in a bag.. Welllllll.. Let me tell you! My husband had a FIT one morning... I came to find out that bag REAKED.. Yep.. REAKED.. And it was a worse smell coming off the bag than what was left in the diaper.. My husband said THATS IT! I am done with these PUL wetbags, you are making us a WyldeBums bag as soon as your sewing machine is unpacked.. haha.. Yep, I had been making wetbags for about 5 months and hadn't yet made myself one! Well.. I emptied the bag and the diapers and gave EVERYTHING that Mack wasn't wearing for the next few hours a good soaking.. After the soaking I rinsed everything out and away we went again. Had I had my detergent, I would have used some of it.. But water did the job and we got through! 10 long days without any facilities at all!
In July we will be going on a 2 week long vacation to Florida.. We will be flying in... Staying at a resort for 3 days.. Then, boarding a Disney cruise ship for 6 days, then back to the resort! We WILL be cding on the plane, we WILL be cding at the resort, we WILL be cding on the ship!
- I will be packing my Flip and GroVia hybrid covers for day time use with our very thin, very awesome Alva 3-layer bamboo inserts. Our little guy (14 months today) uses just one most times during the day.
- For overnight I will either be bringing fitteds and wool OR pockets. Generally when we travel for more than a couple nights I bring 3 or 4 overnight stuffed pockets or fitteds and once we put the last one on we start the wash.
- I will be bringing two of my WyldeBums wetbags and possibly some soap for washing.
The resort has in room laundry facilities and the ship has out of room coin laundry facilities. So, the plan is... Pack up all our clean diapers <3 and get on the road to Gamaman's house! While we are at her house, at the airport and on the plan we will be using our wetbag and going with the flow! If we have a poopy diaper at the airport we wont be rinsing it.. Not to worry! We are on our way to a resort! lol... Then, once at the resort we will do any rinsing we need to do and carry on with normal life from there... Then, night before the cruise we will wash everything up and get it super fresh! Morning of the cruise we will rinse the overnight diaper out super good and pop in the the washing machine for a spin.. Then, into the wetbag it goes.. We will carry on rinsing in the sink of the Cruise cabin when need be and do a load on the 3rd or 4th day of the cruise in the coin laundry.. We will either hang to dry in our room or dry the INSERTS ONLY in the dryer.. (Haven't decided that yet.. I am worried to leave my diapers too long... What???? I love them!! lol).. Then continue with our regular cruise routine. When we get back to the resort we will do another full wash and carry on from there.. And wash the night before we leave and do the same thing at the end of the trip as we did at the beginning... GOSH! I am so excited! And I cant wait for all the awesome comments on his sweet fluff!! lol...
Before you leave on your trip....
Don't forget about those lovely diapers in your diaper pail!!!!! It would be most unpleasant to come home to diaper who have been sitter for days or weeks.. :S
If we don't have time to wash before we go, because I have been busy or forgotten.. I pop them in the washer for a quick rinse and leave them..
If not, I give them a washing and they hang on the line my hubby put up for me in the basement until we return... JUST DONT FORGET ABOUT THEM!!! lol... You may loose a diaper!
Cloth diapering and travelling ROCKS! Does it sometime take some adjustment, YES! Is it easy, YES! Does it make sense, YES!
I think the convenience of cloth is incredible.. I honestly don't understand why people use disposables.. At all! I don't get it!
When I travel with cloth I don't have to leave stinky garbage at my loved ones houses, I don't have to try and find a garbage every time I have to change a diaper.. I don't have to worry about ANYTHING! I just get to do exactly what I do every single day!
When we travel, our kids don't leave garbage everywhere we go! Do yours?
Tips and Tricks and Things to think about!! With love from Mrs Wylde! :D
1) Where are you going?
Ask yourself.. What kind of facilities will be there? How much will it cost to wash my diapers? Will it be better just to take 5mins and hand wash? How often will I have to wash?
Have a plan before you get there... Then you won't have to worry about it! And plan accordingly.
2) How long are you going?
Do you have enough diapers for your whole trip? Do you have enough room to bring all your diapers? What diapers do you want to bring? How many days do you want to go without washing?
3) What diapers do you use when at home?
If all you use are fitteds at home, and you are going to a place that isn't cd friendly.. Is it worth it to bring your diapers? Is it worth it to get some hybrids? or pockets? Or, is it better for you to just go with disposies (hopefully the answer to this is NO)?
4) Night time?
What does your little one need for overnight? Is it practical to bring whatever that is? Is it more practical to use disposies overnight? Do you have a place to rinse the overnight diaper?
5) How many diapers does your little one use in a day?
This will give you an idea of how many diapers you will need. How often you will need to wash.. What you will need to bring.
6) How to store your diapers?
What will you put them in while away? Do you need a new wetbag? A bigger wetbag? A better wetbag?
Important questions to ask yourself before you get moving!
7) Hand wash?
Do you want to hand wash? Willing to hand wash? How do you hand wash?
Hand washing is EASY! Most times you wont even need to use soap! It takes only minutes and is worry free!
9) Hand to dry?
Where? How?
We usually use a raining outside or the shower stall.. But we have also brought and used a small rope from the dollar store to make a hanging line.
10) What to pack?
This is the BIG one! What diaper essentials should you pack?
You don't want to forget anything.. Especially if you are going to a place that wont have the things you need!
- Diapers of course... Any print, insert, kind you want.. Don't forget any!
- IMPORTANT! Even if your baby NEVER gets a rash, pack a cloth friendly diaper cream.. Because if you don't bring it, you will end up needing it!
- Wipes wipes wipes!
- Wetbag... Sounds silly.. But its happened!
- Don't pack all your diapers in your under luggage... Should your bag get lost.... Uh oh! Make sure you pack enough in your diaper bag carry on to get you to the next day!
- Soap.. If your going to need it... And its not something you can buy anywhere.. Pack it!
- If you use wipe wash.. Don't forget it.. If you want it..
- If you travel with dry wipes, as I do.. Its a good idea to have a water bottle packed.. or some wet wipes in a ziploc.
11) Remember... If you come into any problems with your diapers while you are away... WATER WATER WATER! Nothing is your friend when you cloth diaper more than water... Except maybe the sun.. If you have any stink, repelling, ANY issues... Water and sun. I promise!
12) HAVE FUN AND ENJOY YOUR AMAZING VACATION WITH YOUR AMAZING FLUFF! And remember, you are NOT causing any harm leaving crazy waste that doesn't leave the earth for over 500 years! You are leaving your beautiful and awesome destination just as you found it. Give yourself a green pat on the back! You deserve it!
What you think!!
Krysta (Canada)
Yep, 4 day trip to niagra falls, cloth all the way, 1 garbage bag of dirty diapers that were rinse before we left lol.
Michelle (Canada)
Yuppers I have, two kidletts by myself 10 hour car trip. It was fine, just had a VERY full wet bag at the other end. (And a LOT of rinsing to do) Then cloth while I was away and cloth on the car ride home. I was staying with family though, so I had access to laundry :) It's not a big deal if you just have the mind set that this is what we do and there isn't another option for us. You figure out how to make cloth work.
Karen (Quebec)
I've done it for long weekends at hotels, trips to the cottage with limited water supply, trips to my parents farm ( use of washer on those visits) Camping but only 2 nights but will have longer trips I hope this summer for camping. THe camping was the best for cd'ing for me anyhow.
Serena (Alberta)
We went on a 7 day long tenting road trip with DS#1 when he was 16 months old and I was 7 months pregnant with DS#2. I brought a small bucket, soap from home, a big wet bag and a rope to hang between trees for drying - worked like a charm and I would absolutely do it again :)
Christina (Canada)
Yup I have. But always to visit family so we were lucky enough to have washers and dryers on the other end. But across the country on an airplane and smaller trips on the ferry.
Crystal (USA)I'll be taking a road trip in two weeks, planning on using cloth diapers all the way...probably going to use flushable liners under the cloth for extra absorbancy though.
Jennifer (Ontario)I have sometimes and haven't others. If I have easy access to a washer I almost ALWAYS CD while away. When we travelled to the Dominican, I took sposies and this last trip out west I took sposies for lack of space in the suitcases. I almost exclusively use fitteds, which would be VERY difficult to wash porperly by hand, so that really isn't an option.
Julia (Canada)Depend on the traveling. We went away for thee days so I just had a BIG wet bag and washed them all when I got home. If im visiting family I'll do laundry there. If I'm flying I use disposibles because I already have SO much to carry...
Adam (Canada)We took our son away to Dominican in feb and we used flats while we were there . I believe we also had mutts and kawai's for the trip down and back. We washed the flats in the bathtub soaked them in the sink and dried them on the railing or in the closet with the hair dryer blowing on them ( We will save that story for another day ). Had no problems and would do it again.
Lauri (Canada)
I tried. We did disposables on the drive & cloth when we got there. It was too much for me though. We were out and about and my husband had just had shoulder surgery (reason for trip). Disposables were easier and one less thing for me to deal with.
On an actual vacation it might have been easier for me to do cloth.
Darla (Trenton, ON)
I used to take all my supplies etc for use while at the destination but (blush) would use throwaways while en route.
Liisa ( Canada)
We always use cloth for short trips - 2-3 days or so. We have also used cloth on longer trips if the destination has a washer/dryer. Once we used cloth when camping, and dh drove into town to wash the dipes at a laundromat half way through. Honestly, though, it was not very easy because they did get a bit smelly. We have gotten a little lazier now and on longer trips use disposables.
Amy (Trenton, ON)We CD from BC to Ont lat summer! We stopped ever third day and did laundry at a laundromat. The only down side was drying the diaper in the dryer, we ALWAYS hang to dry. We had planned to use disposables but our last day at home she blew out of the disposables TWICE so we tossed the laundry basket full of clean diapers and our soap in the trunk and away we went! CD'ing while on the road was not hard at all, it easy to pull off the road any wheres and just change her, we didn't have to worry about keeping stinky dirty disposables in the car or tossing it in the ditch!
Cheryl (Hamilton, ON) I did the grovia with the disposable pads. I was worried about wet bag smell in car (and it leaving a stink, like in Seinfeld), but I couldn't imagine not having a wrap incase there were any explosive poops.
Julie (BC Canada)Nope, it is the only time I use disposables.
Monica (Petawawa, ON)I normally do even though I only travel to my moms lol but every single time I go there and do my diaper laundry my diapers get all messed up because of the soaps she uses in her washer and or the water diffrence. Its frustrating and although I dont know if I could even bring myself to stick a sposie on him next time I'll be trying to save myself the stress of stinky ammonia stenched diapers!
Dana (Canada)I do cloth when I go visit my parents for the weekend and when camping. I also did cloth on a 12 day trip to Ontario. Green line diapers work best for me when travelling.
Abby (?)
On the trip to and from no....I don't want a stinky diaper in the car for hours but when we get there yes.
Cassandra (?)We have CD for the last two days of our trips so far (baby is 6m old), so 3-day weekends involve one day of using disposables. I only have enough diapers for three days' worth of diapering, this allows us to use cloth the day after we get h...ome while I do laundry. I don't like to let the diapers go for more than 2 days without washing in general anyway, and am not comfortable with using coin laundry for the diapers (ewww, yeast or other nasties). Maybe I would use a hotel laundry service, but only with prior arrangements with management regarding using our detergent, etc...
I am terribly picky about washing our diapers, lol!
Leanne (Canada)I used flip covers and disposable inserts. It's nice to have a holiday away from diaper laundry :)
Kim (Ontario)I did when we visited my dad in Iowa but wont be for our trip to Nova Scotia, PEI I dont have enough of a stash to get us through the 9 days nor do I want to visit a laundrymat on vacation.
Sarah (Ontario)When I travelled to the US in November we used disposables, because I didn't want our cloth diapers to get 'contaminated' if you will, with the fragrances and residues in the machines we would have been borrowing. My stash is only big enough to take us through two days so we'd have to wash while away.
Lindsey (Bancroft, ON)I never really thought of it because it's just what we do lol. I have a ton of inserts so I just lay the insert ontop of the pocket dipe with a fleece liner overtop so the microfiber isn't against his skin. That way each diaper shell could do 2-3 changes instead of one. I have also washed by hand in hotels and hung to dry on the towel racks. I've gone nine days away with hand washing once in there.
Bridget (Ontario)I was just coming to ask that question! I don't want to buy disposables for a week vacation, was just planning on washing while I'm there. My only concern is finding a giant giant giant wet bag to store dirty ones while in the car and at our destination.
Collen (Ontario)Yep...my inserts are different (AppleCheeks bamboo 2-layer flats), but I do it the same as Lindsey does, to get more uses of the shells (although that's how I use my dipes all the time, but normally just use the shells once). Definitely worth investing in a good wetbag. I'm not a fan of dealing with poop without my sprayer. For DS, he nearly always pooped first new diaper in the morning, so I bought some g-diaper flushable inserts and used those for the first diaper each day. In my case, travelling ran the spectrum from interior camping in Algonquin Park, to staying in a hotel in Toronto. In the park, I just hand washed using 2 pails, but I've since seen online that people have used a (clean) plunger as a 'camp washing machine'...might have to try that for this year's camping trip...like our boat isn't overloaded already, lol!
Jamie-Lee (Barrie, ON)I just did it to travel to MOntreal to visit family. I brought only my AppleCheeks bc I do not need to unstuff them so easier for family as well. I always used my disposiable liners so poop was easier to clean and didn't have to worry about using a sprayer or having a diaper soak in someone elses toilet. I brought my soap, large wet bag, 2 sm wet bags. I had it all in a duffle bag. when I used one I would put any wipes(disposable) in a small grocery bag and keep that with my lg wet bag in my rm. I would have 1 sm wet bag in the diaper bag and the other was in the house with us( we slept outside in a tent for part of it) I also did a bit of reasearch of the area's water, to see what my washing routinemay be like and I also asked on the cloth diapering boards to see what other's washing routines are like. :)
Crystal (Canada)
Just got back from a 2 week trip visiting family, used gDiapers all the way. Used the flushable liners while driving and changed her any time I took a bathroom break (makes me feel better knowing that in addition to no landfill, there's also no wasted water when flushing :D ). Didn't really need a wet bag while we were at the desination, there were a lot of people and there was always a load of laundry going so I was able to just throw them in with the rest of the clothes.
Yep, thats a heck of a lot of diapers... What can I say.. This mama likes to have lots to choose from! I also had to bring a couple (4) themed diapers for the pirate night arrrrrrrgh!
And before we knew it, our vacation was over. We had to wave goodbye to Star Island, Sea World, Disney Cruise Lines and Florida. We had been having such a blast our two weeks had flown by!
