For trips, holidays and sunny adventures with pram and baby.
Travelling with baby to a hot country changes your pram setup
When you use your pram abroad and away from home, your pram setup needs to be organised and self-sufficient in a way the home setup doesn't.
At home, your pram routine is probably pretty dialled in. You'll know your routes, your weather, your local coffee shop. Everything is in its place and you can always pop back for that thing you forgot. When you travel somewhere warm, a lot of this changes or disappears.
You might be using a different pram entirely
A lot of parents don't take their main pram on holiday. They take a lighter, more compact travel stroller - something that folds small, fits in an overhead locker, and doesn't take up the entire boot. Which means a different seat, different storage, a different setup altogether.
The days can be longer and less structured
At home, a pram outing might be a couple of hours. On holiday you're out all day - lunch, an afternoon wandering, dinner as the sun goes down. Baby is in the pram for far longer stretches than normal, in the heat, in an unfamiliar place, without the usual routine.
The terrain is unpredictable
Cobbles. Sand. Airport floors. Steep slopes you didn't expect. Narrow restaurant aisles. You won't know the routes the way you do at home.
The weather is normally quite different - often in both directions
It can be much warmer than home, and you're probably also out with the pram more when you're on holiday or travelling. But even on a beach holiday, an afternoon storm can come from nowhere!
You can't just pop home
Forgot the rain cover? Left the liner at home? No spare muslin? At home, these are minor inconveniences. On holiday, they can be a problem if you can't quickly nip back.
You're managing more with less support
More to carry, fewer familiar landmarks, less support around you. Everything needs to be a bit more sorted before you leave.
So what does a good hot weather travel pram setup actually include?
With all of that in mind, here's a few items and products that can be genuinely worth using alongside your pram when you are abroad. Not a list of pretty pram nice-to-haves, but things that solve the real problems travel throws at you.
TRAVEL PRAM CHECKLIST
Your hot weather travel pram checklist:
- Pram travel bag or cover for the flight
- Sheepskin pram or buggy liner
- Rain cover (the right one for your travel pram)
- Clip-on pram fan
- UV sunshade
- Travel changing mat
- Lightweight baby carrier
- Insect net (destination dependent)
A pram travel bag or cover - for protecting your checked-in pram on flights
If you're flying, your pram goes into an aircraft hold as checked luggage. Without protection, it can comes back scratched, sometimes dented, and occasionally damaged in ways you only notice later.
A buggy or pram travel bag - a padded or heavy-duty cover made for the purpose - keeps it safe. If you don't have one, most airports offer polythene wrap at the oversized luggage desk, which is worth doing as a minimum.
The exception is when when you might be hiring a pram or buggy to travel with and might find the travel bag is not worth it.
One thing worth knowing: always gate-check your pram, not at the check-in desk. Take it all the way through the airport to the gate and hand it over at the steps. You'll want it for the full terminal journey - and you won't be stuck in Departures with a tired baby and nowhere to put them.
A sheepskin pram liner - yes, even if you are travelling somewhere warm!
A few years ago, our liners won a Silver Award at the M&B Awards for Best Travel Product. A sheepskin liner is a great item to take for baby and the pram when you are travelling because of how much time baby spends in the pram on holiday versus at home.
One of the thing most people don't expect is that sheepskin works just as well in warm weather as it does in the cold. The fibres are naturally thermostatic - they wick moisture away from baby's skin in the heat and keep them warm when it's cool. So whether you're pushing through a sun-baked piazza or a chilly air-conditioned airport, baby stays comfortable.
Our buggy liners are also designed to fit a wide range of travel strollers - including Bugaboo, Babyzen Yoyo, Cybex and Nuna - so even if you're on a different pram on holiday, there's a good chance it works. It's one less thing to think about.
Check our pram fitting guides to find the right fit before you travel. And of course, the liner works just as well back home too - it's one of those things that earns its place in the pram year round.
A pram rain cover
Even on a hot weather holiday, a rain cover earns its place. Afternoon storms are common in many warm destinations - the kind that come from nowhere and are over in twenty minutes, but are very wet while they last.
If you're using a travel stroller rather than your main pram, make sure you have the rain cover that fits it specifically -not the one sitting at home. A well-fitted rain cover seals properly and is actually usable in a hurry. A universal one always has a gap somewhere.
Keep it at the top of the pram basket, not buried underneath everything else. When you need it, you need it immediately.
A clip-on pram fan
You don't need a fan on your pram at home in the UK. But in genuine heat - pushing through a busy airport, along a sun-facing promenade, sitting outside at lunch - it makes a real difference.
Babies can't regulate their own temperature, and heat builds fast under a canopy even when you're moving. A small USB fan clipped to the hood or handlebar keeps air moving around baby throughout the day. Charges in the hotel room overnight, and doubles as a room fan when the air conditioning isn't up to much.
A UV sunshade
On holiday, naps happen wherever you are - on the promenade, outside a restaurant, on the way back from the beach. You're out in proper sun, for longer stretches, in a way that doesn't really happen on a normal day at home.
Most pram canopies have gaps at lower sun angles. A UV mesh sunshade covers them, blocks direct light, and still lets air through. It doubles as a proper blackout shade for naps on the move. Look for UPF 50+.
One tip - especially if you are in serious heat - is dampening the shade slightly before heading out actively cools the air underneath baby. Worth trying on particularly hot days.
A travel changing mat
You might already have a travel changing mat - but if you don't, a dedicated travel changing mat is worth having for any trip. You're away from home changing facilities, often out all day, and public changing tables (when you can find one) aren't always the cleanest.
A foldable, wipe-clean travel mat keeps things hygienic wherever you end up. The travel mats from Mama Shack are a lovely option - compact, foldable, and made in beautiful hand-drawn prints that feel a step above the standard.
A lightweight baby carrier
At home you never suddenly don't have a pram. On holiday, you do - the moment it goes into the hold at the gate and you still have boarding, passports, and hand luggage to deal with.
A lightweight carrier - think an Ergobaby, a Babybjörn, or a soft structured wrap - folded into its own pouch takes up almost no room in your hand luggage and makes that moment manageable instead of chaotic. It earns its place again on the trip itself - cobbled streets, beach steps, anywhere the pram can't go or isn't worth unfolding for.
Again, if you don't have one already, you can hire one from Badoodle.
An insect net
Okay, this one isn't going to be necessary for every trip. But it some countries you might travel to, a fine mesh insect net that fits over the pram without blocking airflow will be quite handy. The pros are that it's a very light weight item to pack.
A note on muslins
One thing worth knowing: most muslins offer no UV protection. If you're thinking about draping one over the pram for shade, it's not doing the job you might think. A proper UV mesh sunshade is worth the investment.
Happy travels!
