S4, E4: The Secret to Stress-Free Family Travel? These Parents (And Travel Pros) Say It’s All in the Bag.

On this episode of Unpacked by Afar, host Aislyn Greene chats with the Gemma and Daniel Ng, the parents behind No Reception Club. You might know them for “The Getaway Bag,” a travel diaper bag that immediately became a hit with parents.

Since that first bag, they have launched a popular product line and a travel community to help empower parents to travel.

On this episode, Gemma and Daniel share what they wished they knew when they first started traveling with kids, the nightmare flight that led to creating solutions for families, and what No Reception Club means to them.

Transcript

Aislyn: The more you travel, the more you get a little picky about your gear, right? Well, today we’re going to hear from Gemma and Daniel Ng, two lifelong travelers who became parents and realized that in a world filled with luggage, there wasn’t a travel diaper bag that did everything they needed it to do. So they founded a company, No Reception Club, and they crafted a backpack called the Getaway Bag, and it went on to take the traveling parent world by storm.

I’m Aislyn Green, and this is Unpacked, the podcast that unpacks one tricky topic in travel each week. And today, Gemma and Daniel share the terrible flight that inspired their first bag, their hard-won advice for traveling parents, and what No Reception Club really means to them.

Aislyn: Gemma and Daniel, welcome to Unpacked. It’s so lovely to have you here today.

Could you tell me a little bit about what it is that you do? Like, what is No Reception Club and how did you wind up sitting on the couch doing what you’re doing today?

Gemma: Hello. This is Gemma speaking. We are a travel goods company with a mission to empower parents to go on more family adventures. But on top of that, we’re also a community of travelers who have entered the world of parenthood. And we have a firm belief that travel becomes even more important with little ones and not less.

Aislyn: Daniel, is there anything that you want to add or do you want to share the founding story? I’m sure that there’s a travel story at the heart of this.

Daniel: It’s funny because when, when we think about, you know, my favorite question is, you know, you know, whenever you were last at an airport or maybe at a pit stop, like, do you remember seeing parents there? And they always looked like, at least for us, they always look like, Oh, we need help.

Aislyn: Yes, totally.

Daniel: And how can I help those parents? And then fast forward, you know, to our first kid, we became those parents and it really dawned on us during a flight that we took to Hawai‘i with, with our first, and it was just so painful, everything that went wrong, went wrong.

But then of course you get to the destination and then you, you go full circle feeling like, Oh, that was so worth it. But it, it felt like there was this, this hole, uh, why, why isn’t there a brand that is there to make it easier so that parents can go on adventures? So that there isn’t so much fear, anxiety, stress around it because it is such a valuable part of being a family is, you know, having those memories on trips together. And that really became the genesis of No Reception Club, is being able to, um, to, to address that gap in the market.

Gemma: And this was 2019. So this is prepandemic when people really traveled. And so we did a bunch of road trips and flights with him. And on this trip, we specifically felt like the biggest pain point on that flight was our bag, which was just this bottomless pit, very, very stylish, cool bag from Japan. And we are, you know, won’t go into it—we’re huge bag nerds.We love that stuff.

Aislyn: Got it.

Gemma: Um, and so when we found this bag, we were like, Oh, this is amazing. It’s beautiful. But like, functionally, it wasn’t giving what it needed to for us, especially as it related to travel. So when we got off that flight, like that very night, we had this whole conversation where we kind of said, you know, given our professional backgrounds . . . and so my background, I spent over a decade working in fashion and product development. Whereas Daniel, on the flip side, has a much more analytical background, working in e-commerce and in finance. And so we thought, if we couldn’t find solutions for this we knew that many other people were searching for it as well.

And that was sort of like the impetus to start getting it going. And truly that was January 2020, within a month of that, you know, we kind of just started going for it, started working on it. Um, I quit my job. Daniel started spending his nights and weekends on it. But we just started going for it. Um, funny enough, just as the pandemic really started, we were, hilariously working on, um, a travel goods company when nobody was traveling. But, as we know, product development takes time.

Aislyn: So I, I want to go back to that first flight and there are a lot of bags out there. I am not a parent, so I think you might have to walk me through like what specifically was going wrong on that flight that that was like the, the pain point that you wanted to solve? And what did you find that was missing? Like how is it possible that, you know, in 2019 with all the bags that are out there, there wasn’t one that was providing, you know, parental needs?

Gemma: Well, you know, we love this question. We absolutely know that there are tons of incredible diaper bags on the market for day-to-day use. But when you travel, these more complicated needs come up because your bag is expected to serve you for such an extended period of time.

So for us, and given our research talking to hundreds of parents, the main things that you’re doing with your kid on a travel day when you’re carrying this travel diaper bag is you’re going to need to figure out how to feed them over and over and over and over again.

Aislyn: [Laughter] Yeah.

Gemma: Um, you’re going to need to have extra clothes. But also knowing that you might be trapped on a 12-hour flight. So you might need more clothes than usual. You will need to put the soiled clothing somewhere. It’s not just a given like, oh, I’ll just, I’ll just throw it in the backseat of the car and then I’ll throw it in the laundry when I get home.

You might not have access to anything like that for 20 hours. Who knows? You need to also have a lot of entertainment things readily accessible for them. And then, of course, things like changing their diapers, so that’s the fourth thing. And then finally, what about all your stuff? What about everything you’re carrying?

And so we couldn’t find a bag on the market that could organize and carry all these items in a way that was easy to pack, but equally important, easily accessible. When you’re on a flight, that real estate under the seat in front of you is so important and also not that big. So we wanted to make sure that the bag that we were bringing, not only does it fit under there, but had accessibility points so that when it’s lying under there, you can still reach everything.

And the thing with most traditional backpacks is they are kind of one big cave, one vertical cave that you access from the top, and that makes sense um, in a lot of places, but it’s not great in a plane, because if you imagine that little area between the seat in front of you and you, you’re trying to get something very specific for your little one, and you don’t want to have to pull up the whole bag, stand it upright vertically, open it up, and begin digging in what’s probably not a very well-lit space, and so what we did was, one of the primary ways you get into the bag, is from the long side of the bag, your right side of the bag.

And because you can enter it from the side of the bag, it essentially can remain underneath the seat in front of you. You unzip the entire side and you can access the entire main compartment.

And I would say, uh, the third major thing that sticks out is when you are traveling, and I mentioned a bit, and little accidents and messes happen. That’s something that is easy to deal with when you’re sort of just on the go, just running to the park. But when you’re locked in a plane or a car ride or a bus ride for 12 hours, you need a place to stick soiled items and I, we didn’t see that at all in bags on the market. So we also added that into our bag somewhere where you could just shove things in, that were a little messy that you didn’t want to touch everything else.

And the fourth thing, even though I said that was the third thing, which isn’t a functional thing, but it was more of an aesthetic thing, was we felt a lot of the diaper bags at the time were a little bit, or a lot, biased towards mom carrying it or someone with more over-feminine tastes. We wanted to have a, a bag that we would be happy switching between, sorry, we wanted to have a bag that we would be happy switching between the two of us because you know, we’re both carrying stuff for the kids. And we didn’t want something also that screamed, “I am a diaper bag.”

We wanted the bag to look just like a cool backpack, like all the backpacks in our too big collection of backpacks, where you wouldn’t even know it was a diaper bag until you opened it up and started seeing these features that only parents would need.

Aislyn: Absolutely, and I imagine that it’s easy to clean too, like I’m picturing the soiled compartment, like you need to be able to wipe all this out at the end, and a lot of backpacks don’t have that.

Gemma: Yes, the soiled compartment is very, very easy to clean. It’s made of a water-resistant, odor-resistant liner that you can just wipe out completely, and the whole bag we did design to be easy to clean and it actually can, as needed be put into the machine, the washing machine on a gentle cycle.

Daniel: I just wanted to add too is, you know, these were all hypotheses that we had, let’s call them, and different things that we thought, Hey, we think these things are problems and, um, I come from tech and, and you know, a big thing is, is you know, this mantra you don’t, you don’t design for yourself. You, you need to make sure you’re designing for what people actually want. And we took a, a really heavy research-based approach.

We surveyed hundreds of parents. We, we, we took detailed notes about, you know, what were the most commonly packed items and we, we really designed the bag around that. And, you know, at the time, it was kind of a scary leap of faith for us because I think the notion, you know, in 2020, 2021, this idea that you’d create a diaper bag specifically for travel felt excessive.

And, and then also, when people google, it wasn’t even something that people googled, you know, travel diaper bag. So that, that wasn’t a category that existed.

But fast forward to today, you know, we created the category. I think it was really cool to see post-Kickstarter that it went from idea to a resounding yes, people want to, to, to, uh, you know, have that problem solved and, and took a leap of faith and, and, and took a chance on us.

Aislyn: Well, congratulations on your success. And you know, it’s 2025 and here you are. As you’ve developed this robust product line, you’ve also developed a travel community. So was that something that you added later? Like, how did that travel community become part of your business?

Daniel: Yeah, the travel community was always something that we wanted our brand to ultimately fulfill the mission of, you know, how do we empower parents to go on adventures with their little ones? The most important part of that is, you know, creating category-defining products that really offer the best-quality organization and being able to solve the real pain points that parents have. But it’s also how do we help parents in other ways? So included in that would be, you know, a lot of the resources that we put together online on our Instagram.

We have packing guides, we have blog content and really in-depth how-to articles. But then in addition to that, it’s also creating a community where ultimately, it’s, it’s about parents helping each other too, uh, and, and really crowdsourcing, you know, how do, how do you travel in a better way?

I think No Reception Club draws in a particular type of person.You know, it’s someone who, who loves travel, but then also knows that, that, you know, there are really great solutions out there to make those adventures easier. And so, when you draw in that particular person, they’re probably experts in a lot of areas, too. So our community ends up being this starting point when you plan your trip.

You know, just yesterday, for example, someone said, Hey, I’m traveling, uh, to Japan. Like, should I bring a stroller or not? And that’s such a hard thing to google, right? You know, because one person’s opinion won’t really answer that for you. But you end up getting 10-plus comments from people who have brought a stroller to Japan.

What were the pros and cons and really long detailed answers and, and then you hear that and, and you really, um, get to feel more confident about the choices you make. And really, I think travel in itself can be anxiety inducing, whether you’re a parent or not a parent. And, you know, if you, if you just go into it, you know, feeling confident, I think that that trip ends up being more successful.

Aislyn:  Well, I’d like to get a little more philosophical. But first, you guys have two children now, right? And how old are they?

Gemma: We have one who is five and a half, so he’s in kindergarten and we have our younger one, who is a couple weeks from turning three. So still, still a toddler, but you know, on the verge and obviously we have all the feels about that.

Aislyn: Yeah. I bet.

Gemma: But it’s been really great because now we’ve been traveling with kids for the full five-and-a-half years and getting to experience the shift from doing everything and all kinds of travel with one, to then doubling numbers and then figuring out the whole new configuration of, and the varying needs of two kids and, and how they’re growing and all of that has been really, really great.

Aislyn: So you’ve traveled with your kids from day one, which is so inspiring. And we’ve talked a lot about this at Afar. Like, is it worth taking really young children who may not remember the experience, especially on big trips?

And a lot of people that I work with who are parents feel like it is worth it because they’re raising a traveler. So even if the kid doesn’t remember, they’re being shaped by the experience. So I’m curious why did you make traveling with your little ones a priority?

Gemma: This is definitely something that has come up a lot, even since when we became pregnant and we started hearing from many people saying, travel now, travel now, get those trips out because you’re not going to go anywhere for seven years or you’re going to go to just Disneyland, which, by the way, Disneyland is very fun.

But, um, and, you know, we knew because, um, without going too far into it, you know, we have been a couple for almost 20 years and most of those years, we were not parents and we loved traveling as individuals and also together. That was a huge part of our relationship because almost 10 of our years together were long distance.

So we had a lot of traveling . . .

Aislyn: Yeah.

Gemma: . . . to meet up, but also, you know, if we weren’t going to be living in the same city, we certainly used the opportunity to go on adventures. And so I say that only because when we were pregnant and expecting, we knew that we were going to travel. We were literally planning our first trip, asking our doctor, how soon can you put this baby on the plane?

Of course there are the benefits to us. It’s such an important part of our identity and an important part of how we feel that we get to grow as people through travel, through new experiences, through meeting new people, through breaking out of the norm.

And we feel that the benefits that we personally have from travel are also things that our children can benefit from, whether or not they can tie memories or characteristics that they form directly to, Oh, it was probably that trip to X that—no, of course not. But the fact that our children are able to go on different trips and adventures, which is such a blessing and a privilege that we’re able to bring them on.

We strongly believe it has helped in forming their characters and who they will become. And I think one of the number one things that stands out is adaptability. And the more that we’re able to bring children on different types of adventures, the more they are almost like exposed and tested in a way that helps them realize they can be happy and live in different environments.

They don’t need to necessarily be in the comfort of their own home with all of their, you know, blackout curtains, and “I like this bowl” and “I need to have these 10 stuffed toys in my, my crib.”

All these like specific things that are great and same with routines and schedules and all of that, which again, of course, children do thrive in that most of the time. But going on adventures and stepping out of their daily life is for us, and then also for them, a great way to help build that adaptability and when you do it when they’re so young, they don’t even realize it’s happening.

You know, it’s a lot more natural. I thought of this quote that we had heard, which was, we read to our babies, to our toddlers, to our children. We read and read and read them so many stories. We don’t think that it’s pointless to read to them just because they don’t remember every storyline, right? It’s, it’s still enriching them. It’s still feeding them and growing them in ways that are super important.

Daniel: I love how Gemma put it, which is we all want, you know, to think about raising, you know, you know, being thoughtful about their character, right? The character of our children. And, and specifically, we want them to be curious. We want them to be empathetic. We want them to be resilient.

And we really kind of think about travel as this, this way. It’s a crash course in accelerating all of those different, you know, parts of one’s character because, on a per day basis, you’re gonna be confronted with those things at a much higher volume than, than regular life, regular life.

At an early age, you’re exposed to different ways that people talk, different ways that people, you know, eat, you know, here we use chopsticks or here we use our hands, here we use, you know, a fork and knife. And, you know, at that early age where you don’t have sort of biases at that point, and it just becomes the norm that there are differences that exist in the world.

I think we both independently have memories of, of sitting on a bus and doing bus tours and being shepherded to different places and, and, you know, as a kid, did I think that was the most thrilling way to spend, you know, a day, probably not.

Aislyn: Probably not.

Daniel: But then fast forward to today, you know, we, we both independently ended up getting international business degrees.

We’ve lived in different countries outside of Canada and we started a travel brand and, you know. Would we point to those trips as a kid as being an influence? Like, I think it’d be hard to, to say that that didn’t play a role. And maybe that’s the last thing, is related to family is that it seems to be one of those very few things that you can share as a family over and over and over again.

You know, we always hear about, you know, there’s a certain age where your kids will probably want little to do with you as parents. And, you know, as parents here, you’re probably trying to not, not be too intrusive.

You want to give them space, etcetera. But travel seems to be a uniting, we can almost call it a hobby, but a shared, you know, thing that you can look forward to over and over. And it can span generations, you could travel with your grandparents, you can travel with your cousins, you can travel.

And so, uh, to foster that in early age, we think that that’s, that’s super exciting as a concept. And, and just being that thing that you look forward to every year and, and, and hopefully we’re all planning it together. And, and, and, uh, you know, even when they move out, it’s something that they would want to do with us.

Gemma: And to prove that, you know, we do have multiple, multi-generational trips that we have done and that we are going to do. And you know, all parents know the greatest travel hack is grandparents. And it truly is the best. And I think, you know, sometimes you see on social media, this idea of, I only have 18 summers with my child.

It’s so depressing. I have to make them all count. That’s not true. I mean, we’re nearly 40. We still go on summer trips with our parents. You don’t only have 18 summers. And as Daniel said, when you build in the normalcy of, you know, we’re a family, we’re a team, we go on adventures together. That doesn’t stop when they are 18, it can continue on forever. You’re sort of building that, I don’t want to say habit, but a little bit. Like, this is one of the ways that our family comes together and spends time together.

Aislyn:  OK, so you two have learned a lot over the years. What is your best travel advice? Like, what do you wish the first-time parents, Gemma and Daniel, knew five years ago?

Gemma: I can’t help but start by talking about packing. So I would say the number one thing that I usually do, starting out with packing for the kids—I try not to pack too much and an early parent’s fatal flaw when traveling is bringing everything.

And when I think of our very first trip, which was a road trip, um, we were living in the Bay Area and we drove to L.A. with many stops along the way, and back with our three month old. And, um, we literally brought his bathtub. Like we brought an entire bathtub, which, while small, is quite large, right? We brought an activity, a full-size activity gym. So that’s one of the things they lie on their back and they’re sort of batting and swinging toys above them.

We packed, we brought so many things. It was unbelievable. Fast forward to our first trip with our second child when he was three months old, and we, we just bathed him in the kitchen sink, lining it with towels. And so I guess the first tip is don’t overpack. Do not overpack, especially in terms of large gear. Your child needs so much less than you think.

And I think that is a little bit of what we touched on, but maybe not deeply, but that traveling and the adaptability that your child learns, and that you learn, shows you how little they really need. All they really need are their clothes and some items that will make them feel familiar when they’re sleeping.

Um, sleep of course is something you really want to protect. But the toys and all the extra things, like if you have something that’s like swinging them to sleep. You don’t really need to bring all those extra things. You can kind of pack 15 percent of what you might think as a new parent. The second tip I would have related to packing is to think about the number of days that you’re going to be there and how frequently you can do laundry.

We often stay, we often stay at Airbnbs. It’s a lot easier to stay in places like that where there’s a kitchen and a laundry and things like that.

And then you can kind of allow yourself to just pack about a week’s worth of clothing, which fits very easily into, you know, our own hideaway carry-on duffel and know that as long as I’m doing laundry about once a week, which as a parent is very, very infrequent. If you’re only doing it once a week, you’re doing something right because the rest of us seem to be doing it almost every day.

And what I do, and what I find the most helpful is organizing your bag, in a way that mimics how you organize things at home. So if you’re someone who puts the T-shirts together, the onesies together, you know, the pants together, the sweaters together—do that in the luggage.

Do that also so that it’s quick for you to, like, know what you need, retrieve it, live out of your bag and eventually also, which is a benefit as your child gets older, they can dress themselves out of their own bag and kind of just be more independent. You can mimic the organization in your luggage as what you do at home.

Um, I would also say, um, in terms of packing things, when you’re thinking about the actual flight or the journey. I, I always think in terms of 1.5 times what you think. So when you’re just getting from your home to the destination, bring about 1.5 times as many diapers as you think you would need for that to cover that duration of time.

1.5 times as many outfits, backup things. Do they normally spill on themselves twice? Let’s assume it’ll be three times.

Aislyn: Yeah.

Gemma & Daniel: You’re not going overboard, but you’re, you’re having contingency. You’re having contingency plans. Um, 1.5 times as much food as you think you’ll need. Um, because there are always delays when you don’t expect it.

There are always these things, you know, we recently flew, um, to Toronto. It’s a five-hour flight. We got to the airport. We were delayed five hours. Who knew? Who knew? Did we have the stuff we needed? Yes, it ended up being fine, but just always sort of expecting that the journey will be longer than what you think, really will take away a lot of the stress. So in one way I’m saying pack 1.5 times the journey, but when you’re actually at the accommodation do not overpack. That’s when you’re going to be fine.

Daniel: We’ve also had experiences where they’ve lost our luggage at the destination.

Aislyn: Ooh, yeah.

Daniel: We took a trip to Indonesia and then we arrived and all our luggage was missing. And I think normally that would have been a moment of panic.

But then luckily we had all of the essential stuff for the kids in, in our carry-on, you know, and we, we, we were just designing the duffel at that time and we had it all in the duffel and we had everything in our getaway bag. And so I think having the right gear and making sure that, you know, that gear works for you during that journey, uh, so that you can be as stress-free as possible.

A lot of times the hacks are just, you know, around, like, how do you decrease your anxiety, you know, for that trip? And, and I think kind of investing in that time and energy, um, into that I think goes a long way.

And then I think the last point is crowdsourcing different tips. One challenge that felt a bit difficult was, um, my searches went from, you know, what were the coolest, you know, places to go in a given destination. But then, we’re kind of, like, not optimizing.

We still want cool, but we also want something where, you know, our kids aren’t going to be, you know, super disruptive to the other guests. Uh, we want something kid friendly, what, what’s easy to get into, what locations are best.

So it’s just kind of those micro tips where, where you can crowdsource them in different places. Um, I think you can learn from a lot before landing there and then being surprised about what’s going to happen.

Aislyn: Yeah, yeah, like something as simple perhaps as do you bring a stroller to Japan, right? Like you said, and then you can make your own decision based on what you’re seeing out there. And you’re right. I mean going, doing an event with a kid versus just another adult.

Two completely different experiences, right? Even dining out, I’m sure. Well, Gemma, you had mentioned that sleep is one of the things that you really try to prioritize and protect when you all travel. So do you have tips, especially as you start to get into jet lag, that adds another layer on how you try to protect your kids’ sleep as much as possible?

Gemma: This is a hot topic and it’s awesome that you brought it up. So I’m going to answer this in two phases. So in terms of the actual, you know, preparing for a new time zone and, you know, being on a flight where they might have to nap, well, let’s tackle that first and then we can talk about how do we deal with it when they’re actually in the hotel.

So—and we are not professional sleep consultants. We have traveled a lot with, um, babies to, you know, the under-six set. So we do have a lot of experience and we’ve spoken to a lot of people. So this is where that is coming from.

First I would say, we, we do not force them onto a new time zone when we are on the way there. When we’re on the flight, we do not try to get our kids to sleep when they’re not tired on the flight, which different sleep consultants have different thoughts around that. And for us, it’s really more around following. And then when it is time for them to sleep, of course, we do try to schedule flights around sleep wherever we can but you know delays happen. But we do try. And to help foster the best kind of sleep, we bring items that will help make it feel a little bit more familiar like home.

So we are bringing a portable sound machine to help mask some of the ambient noise and the announcements. The nonstop announcements that seem to happen on a flight. We are bringing sleep sacks or comfort blankets or a couple like loveys, the bed buddy type toys onto the flight and we’ll bring a favorite book and we will go through a version of, a truncated version, but still, a version of our whole bedtime routine on the flight and something that really helps is ahead of the flight, we let our children know, not as much now because they’re familiar with it, but we let them know what to expect.

So we’re going to get on the flight. The announcements will come on. We’re going to eat a fun dinner. We’ll have activities, this and that. And then we’re going to go to sleep on the flight. And, you know, kids love to know what to expect. And it’s like exciting for them that the thing that you said was going to happen is happening.

They feel like they’re telling the future. Are there flights where everything goes wrong? Of course there are.

Aislyn: How could there not be?

Gemma: We don’t want to minimize it.

Daniel: I think one mistake we’ve made in the past is, I think to your point about not forcing them onto a different schedule or even just forcing anything is just following the cues of the, the plane itself. And so I think we can all picture sort of, you know, this is mealtime and, you know, it’s quite, you know, a lot of commotion.

And then, uh, and then there’s also a part of the flight where all the lights go off and there’s no service. And we kind of usually follow that, because we’ve done the opposite where we put our baby to bed and we’re like, Yes, we did it.

And then all of a sudden it’s like, beeboom. And then, you know, carts come out, food’s coming out, and they’re saying, what would you like to drink? And it’s like, can’t you see my baby here?

Aislyn: My baby. Yeah.

Daniel: It’s just, uh, you know, I think the whole look of horror is like what you’re going to, about to see, a lot of that is avoidable by just sort of following the cues of the plane. And I think as a result, what ends up happening is when you land at the destination, we sort of follow a similar pattern where we follow the cues of the place we’re at. And so we’ll set the, you know, five different alarms at 7 or 8 a.m. to make sure that we’re out of our funk and then be exposed to as much daylight as possible, uh, to really, you know, do a lot more outdoor activities at the early days, like, you know, less, you know, indoor things and more outdoor things in those first few days.

Gemma: It just helps like reset their like circadian rhythm, similar to when we put them to bed on the plane when the lights go down and the service ends, it’s giving all those cues, do give them sleep pressure. In the same way that being outside in the sun doing something active, um, is giving them awake pressure.

Aislyn: Yeah. I mean, I think that’s great advice for adults too. We need routine and to get on a schedule quickly as well. Well, you mentioned that sleep is a hot-button topic, so let’s throw another one out there. How do you handle electronics and screen time?

Gemma: What feel like I can’t help but bring up is the name, our company’s name is No Reception Club, and the spirit behind our name is that we do want to encourage parents and when we, we really meant parents, but I think as you know, time goes, we mean the whole family to unplug from their screens, from their day-to-day responsibilities, which, you know, for adults often involves screens, so that we can be fully in the moment and present as a family in the experience with each other, creating these memories.

Having said that, we very much understand when you’re on that 14-hour flight to Hong Kong, you’re not going to not turn on the screen on the, on the seat in front of you. So I think it really comes down to a balance. We love to pack activities and toys. We usually bring some kind of building toy, some sort of like magnetic building toy. We bring an art toy, whether it’s, uh, some sort of drawing pad, markers, things like that. We always bring Play-Doh, or another sort of sensory type object.

Books. We bring books, whether it’s I Spy books, sticker activity books, and things like that. And whatever our child is interested in at the moment, we might try to get little, you know, our youngest one was very, very into dogs for a while, so we bought a bunch of tiny little dogs for just them to open.

Aislyn: Cute.

Gemma: And things like that.

So as much as possible, we are bringing a diverse number of activities for them to play and certainly a lot of snacks, which cannot be understated how much eating can take up time on a flight. At the same time, we do watch some of the screens.

We think there is a place for that. I think what we do encourage is that shouldn’t be the first thing you do. You certainly don’t want to do that as your first move. That’s going to be your last move. That is, we’ve already gone through everything in the backpack. You cannot eat anymore.

You did your math. That is that special treat at the end. And I think there’s, there’s a lot of benefit to when your kids don’t get a ton of, uh, screen time, you know, I know some people who like, they don’t do any screen time for two weeks: one week leading up to the trip, so it’s a real treat on the plane.

When Daniel Tiger shows up, your, your kid is pretty happy. They’ve been a little bit starved of their screen time, which is, which, there’s no downside to that, right?

Daniel: Yeah, I’d say, I’d say, you know, with like, with anything in life, there’s always the plan and then there’s what happens in reality. And I think you, very much, you know, go in with that plan that Gemma describes. But we’re also believers of, you know, anything goes on travel days. Really, the goal is, you know, get to the destination and, and being a team.

And so if, if that episode or, you know, an extra, you know, X minute or whatever, however, screen time helps you get through that moment, anything goes, you know, it’s, you know, and, you know, we’re, we’re definitely, you know. Chocolate. New toys. It’s just, it’s really anything goes.

Aislyn: So when you get to your destination then, do you really try to make travel travel, and screen time is like a minimal part of that? So that you’re a little bit more unplugged?

Gemma: Honestly, yes, it really is our goal. When we are all awake as a family, we try to not have any screens. We try really hard to have no screens when we travel. And we find that with there’s, there are a couple of benefits of that. You know, one is you’re really present. You’re really there.

You’re really creating memories together.

Daniel: I think day-to-day life, sometimes you hear a notification, email, text message, and it just, it’s just so natural. And I’m so guilty of it, of just playing on my phone. But I think our kids. see that, right? You know, you’re playing with them. And then all of a sudden, even if it’s just for, for two seconds, right? But the two seconds you’re taken out of that moment with your child and then, and then you’re brought in and then maybe you feel like you didn’t miss a beat.

But I think they still notice it. And I think something special about trips is yes, seeing new things, seeing, you know, tasting new foods, meeting different people around you. But ultimately, it’s that undivided attention time with their parents too. And it’s also, I think subconsciously allows us to be more, like feel the place more too. I think a fun origin story about our name is that we came up with this company name before we knew what the business was going to be. And I think a lot of that stemmed from the fact that, uh, you know, Gemma mentioned we, we did a lot of long distance. And at that time, uh, to reach each other, we used calling cards.

Aislyn: Oh my gosh.

Daniel: So you can imagine, like, dating ourselves, right? But, you know, there was no real ubiquitous internet, access to internet.

And, I think maybe we romanticized that time a little bit, but you truly didn’t know what was happening in the news. You didn’t know what was happening at home, but you were just in that place. You were immersed in that place. And then you came home feeling like you had time to think about, you know, what kind of things you liked about yourself that you wanted to keep doing on this trip and how do you bring those pieces back home with you?

And I think that that applies to family travel as well as, you know, what are some of those things you did as a family that, that you really loved and new traditions and you can bring that back home. And I think travel, um, in many ways, in character and daily life can shape who we are as people.

Aislyn: I could not agree more. Well, thank you so much for being  here today and for sharing your wisdom, as parents and as product designers.

Daniel: Yeah, thank you so much for having us. This was such a great conversation.

Gemma: We had so much fun. Thank you.

Aislyn:  And that was Gemma and Daniel, founders of No Reception Club. In the show notes, we’ve included links to their very helpful social media handles and to their website.

And here’s a special bonus. Afar listeners can get $25 off of any purchase at noreceptionclub.com using the code AFAR25. You’ll also find that code in the show notes.

Next week, we’ll be back with advice on traveling to Rome and avoiding the crowds with journalist Laura Itzkowitz, who has lived in the city for years.

Laura: My friend, Elisa Valeria Bove, she once described Rome to me as a sort of mother figure, “Mamma Roma,” she said, you know, wise, sage woman who sort of envelopes you in her warm embrace.

Rome is a city that has been around for thousands of years. She’s seen it all. She’s lived through it all. She knows who she is and what’s best for her. And she probably knows what’s best for you, frankly, because she’s an Italian mamma. And she definitely wants to make sure you’re well fed.

Aislyn: Ready for more Unpacking? Visit afar.com and be sure to follow us on Instagram and Tiktok. We’re @afarmedia. If you enjoy today’s exploration, I hope you’ll come back for more great stories. Subscribing always makes that easy, and be sure to rate and review the show on your favorite podcast platforms. It helps other travelers find it.

And if you want to ask a question or suggest a topic for coverage, you can leave us a voicemail at the link in the show notes, or email us at unpacked@afar.com

This has been Unpacked, a production of Afar Media. The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland. Music composition by Chris Colin.

And remember, the travel world is complicated. We’re here to help you unpack it.