Travel Diary » Kids on the road: travel beds
Kids on the road: travel beds
A month into our round SEAsia 12 month trip we started researching what countries we wanted to head to next and found in a lot of countries it was hard to find inexpensive rooms in hostels and hotels that had enough beds to fit all of us. Another option of course is to stay in a double room and put an extra mattress on the floor. The kids are still small and can share a single mattress if they sleep at either end. The problem is some places charge a lot for extra mattress. So we thought it would make things a lot easier and cheaper if the kids travelled with their own beds.
Another reason that we started considering beds for the kids is the fact that in Asia a lot of the budget accommodation and interesting experiences like homestays aren't mosquito proof. Noah is really allergic to mosquitoes so this is an issue for us. We had bought mosquito nets from a camping store before leaving Australia that can hang from a hook or nail in the wall. But we're yet to find a place where its easy to put these up. We thought if Noah had his own tent to sleep in then we didn't have to worry about hooks, nails, hanging things or mosquitoes.
We did some research, spent hours scouring shops in Penang (seriously lacking in camping stores) and debating the best way to go. We wanted something that was relatively light, packed up into a small size in one bag. There are a lot of good travel bed options for babies. Particularly in Asia. Just about every department store had travel beds with pop-up mosquito nets for infants. But for older children we found nothing.
We considered buying air mattresses and a small play tent or pop-up mosquito net, but couldn?t really find anything in Penang. If you have a better range of camping stores nearby its worth looking into this option though.
Eventually we settled on PeaPod Plus Travel Tents. PeaPod Tents are a small pop-up tent with a build in air-mattress designed for kids under 6. They fold up into a travel bag that makes them easy to carry. We've been travelling with them for three months now and thought we'd review whether they're a good option for travelling families.
1) Were they a good purchase?
To be honest we're not sure yet. Overall I think we'll make our money back, even allowing for the ridiculous duty tax that Malaysia imposed on them but we won't save 1000's of dollars so I'm still undecided as to whether they're worth the hassle of lugging them around everywhere.
Since sleeping in the tent we haven't had any issues overnight with the kids getting bitten by mosquitoes. In Laos and Thailand we've found it easy to find triple rooms that are only $2-5 more expensive per night. In Malaysia and Bali it saved us money and it was hard to find places with 3-4 beds in a single room. From what I've seen it will save us a lot of money in China, and a little in Vietnam and Cambodia. Once we head to the US and Europe they will definitely save us a lot of money. One thing we've discovered is that a lot of hostels and guesthouses are happy to put an extra mattress on the floor of a double room for free if your staying for more than four nights. If we had of known this before purchasing the tents we might have reconsidered buying them.
As for negatives - they're noisy! The tent base makes a lot of noise as the kids roll around during the night. They're also a bit heavy and bulky so unless you have them inside your pack their a bit of a pain to carry around. They're also a bit hot so unless you have a fan or AC the kids tend to sweat in the heat of Asia. As well as carrying the tents around you generally have to carry small pillows for the kids (full sized pillows take up a lot of room in the tent) and some sheets, so this can take up a fair amount of room in a pack. I've also seen reports from some people that purchased them that they bend out of shape!
2) Do the kids like sleeping in them?
Hayley really likes her tent. The UV protection makes the screens dark so she often sleeps in a little and seems very comfy. Noah likes it most days, but struggles a little bit at times being bigger. He needs to use a small cushion sized pillow in the tent. If he uses a normal pillow he doesn?t have enough room left to sleep. If he's having a restless night he seems to fight against the tent most of the night, kicking the sides and ends up in bed with us. But realistically I think he has only been in the bed with us maybe 3 times in the 3 months.
3) Sheets for the kids?
Some PeaPod tents come with a sleeping bag. Ours didn't (Ebay purchase), which is fine as sleeping bags in Asia would be too hot. Before leaving Australia we asked my Grandmother to make us some travel sheetbags for the kids in case we stayed somewhere that the bedding was a little suspect. She essentially took a single bed sheet, folded the bottom up to the top and sewed around 2 and 3/4 sides, leaving a gap at the top and a slit on one of the sides to climb in and out of. Essentially a sleeping bag made from a sheet. The sheets have come in really handy for the tents. They tend to twist around a bit at night so we?ll probably put some small pieces of Velcro on the sheets and the base of the tent at some point to keep it in place. When we travel in colder countries we?ll buy some fleece material and get it sewn onto the top of the sheetbags.
4) How do you carry them?
We've actually managed to fit them inside our 55L High Sierra wheeled backpack. We had to cull some toys and colouring books to manage it but it?s a lot easier than trying to lug them around. If we end up accumulating more stuff we?ll work out a way to strap them onto the packs.
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kempiniuko zaidimai on 30/11/2011 3:34pm
[...]Kids on the road: travel beds » Our Travel Lifestyle :: How one couple with two young children decided to change their lifestyle & travel the world[...]
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11/06/2010 2:31am (2 years ago)
The size of the peapods is pretty good and that fact that we have culled our gear down to 2 daypacks and 2 wheeled packs makes it much more manageable. If you had more luggage they may become combersome, but I think they have been a great purchase and well worth it, purely so that we get the bed to ourselves rather than two monsters squirming around in it all night...
11/06/2010 5:51am (2 years ago)
Hi Shelley
We should have some pics of the bed up in a few days, having issues in Vietnam with electricity so the powers always off when I'm ready to upload pics! Here's the link again to the<a href="http://www.kidco.com/main.taf?p=4,5" rel="nofollow"> KidCo Peapod website</a>
If your in North America they seem to be in a lot of stores and cheap to buy online, otherwise Ebay was the only place we could find that shipped internationally.
Tracy
11/06/2010 5:23pm (2 years ago)
Great posts Colin, where can we see a few pics, I couldn't see a link
11/06/2010 6:52pm (2 years ago)
Hey Shelley,<br><br>Nice to hear from you. There are a whole heap of pictures on flickr - <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/ourtravellifestyle" rel="nofollow">http://flickr.com/photos/ourtravellifestyle</a><br><br>How are you going? I'll shoot you an message on Facebook.<br><br>Cheers,<br>Colin
08/10/2010 9:15am (2 years ago)
Don't suppose you came accross any products for older (disabled) children who have a tendancy to escape at night and wreck the Joint??!!
08/10/2010 2:25pm (2 years ago)
Alas no I haven't. Our son is almost too big for his tent now - he's 115cm and I think he'll only get another 6 months out of it. The staff at PeaPod that manufacture these tents were really very helpful when I was trying to get one outside of the USA. It may be worth contacting them to see if they have any suggestions for you. Have you considered a kids camping tent and small air mattress or yoga matt? You can also buy pop-up mosquito nets that can be placed over a bed - I'm sure with a bit of ingenuity you could latch it to the bed to prevent easy escapes.
I hope you have some luck finding something. If you do let me know so I can add this info to the site.
08/10/2010 2:26pm (2 years ago)
PS It must make for fun waking up in the morning if you never know if you're house has been wrecked! Bet you've had some surprises!
09/10/2010 8:36am (2 years ago)
Hi. I replied to you last night but for some reason my website is deleting my comments. I think waking up in the morning sounds like an adventure in your house - never know what you'll find!
I'm sorry to say we haven't come across any beds for larger children. My 5yr old is 115cm and I think he'll be too large for the peapod in another 6mths. You could contact the staff at Peapod to see if they have any ideas or intentions of making larger beds. They were very helpful when we were trying to order the tent from overseas.
Have you considered just a small children's camping tent and air mattress or yoga mat? They would take up similar room in a backpack.