Is Slumberpod Worth It For Travels with Baby? NOT Sponsored Review
Slumberpod is a relatively new product, but it’s been viral on social media for a few years. If you travel with a baby, even for occasional trips where you need to share a room, you might want to invest in one.
Slumberpod frequently collects numerous positive reviews, and the product itself is pretty good. Whether the SlumberPod is worth getting will depend on how and where you travel. That’s why, after trying it out with two kiddos, I can honestly say that it can be a great product, but it can also be unnecessary.
We bought a Slumberpod pretty early on and tried it out on a few trips, but ultimately, in our case it was collecting dust. It doesn’t mean that it won’t be good for your travels though – keep reading! In fact, I gifted it to our neighbors and they absolutely love using it.
What is Slumberpod and What Does it Do?
SlumberPod is a very simple but clever product. Essentially, it’s a privacy pod that provides dark environment for a baby or toddler to sleep in.
It folds into a small package measuring just 6 inches in length and weighs about 6 lbs. It can be assembled in just a few minutes. Most importantly, nothing will break as it’s made of durable but foldable materials.
The pod is designed to be tall enough to allow your baby or toddler to sit or stand up comfortably in their bed.
Slumberpod is sort of a tent, but made from a stretchy blackout material, not the loud material that most tents are made of.
It can get stuffy inside on a hot day, but there’s a slot to insert a fan. You can also insert a baby monitor to keep an eye on the baby (but do check if your monitor would work because not all are compatible with SlumberPod pouch).
Honestly, it’s a genius product that a family can use when sharing a hotel room with a baby or toddler. You won’t need to eat in the dark or stick blackout curtains to the windows to create a dark environment for your baby to sleep in when traveling.
Why SlumberPod Didn’t Work for Us?
As I said in the beginning, for us a Slumberpod wasn’t worth it, but I still believe that it’s a great product that can be fantastic for various families. It all just depends on the situation and style of travel!
It’s fully blackout inside
Ironically, the fact that Slumberpod created an entirely dark environment was a con for us. Neither of my kids every slept in complete darkness, as we taught them to sleep when they’re tired.
At home, they always had a nightlight and when we traveled we only dimmed the lights of the room when it was nighttime. For naps, we told the kids to sleep when they were tired (this method was mastered by 18 months) and would turn on a sound machine.
My kids were actually both terrified when we put them in Slumberpod, because it was completely dark. They never let us close the top flap opening entirely, which defeated the purpose of it.
We often used hotel cribs
If we lived somewhere for more than 2 months we used to bring our Guava Lotus travel crib. Slumberpod would fit perfectly over it. In fact, it even fits perfectly over an inflatable toddler bed once your little one grows out of the crib.
But, we stopped bringing our own travel crib on most trips and relied on hotel cribs. Sometimes it was because we were visiting destinations that wouldn’t allow us to have another item (like small islands in the Pacific), or
SlumberPod works over a travel crib or pack&play, but not a full-size crib and many hotels (especially nicer ones) would bring you a full-sized one.
European rooms were often too small for it
When we had just one child, we could easily get a double room and put a crib. The problem started when we had our second child and occupancy mattered. Suddenly, in some European capitals like Paris (due to occupancy laws) we couldn’t even get a room at some hotels as all, unless we booked two separate rooms.
Most of the time we were booking family suites which is basically a queen bed and a sofa bed. Our older toddler slept on a sofa bed, but we could barely squeeze a mini crib in between the bed and a sofa.
Slumberpod simply wouldn’t fit as it ads additional two inches on top of the crib.
