• it's a reliable, familiar surface for play anywhere
• a tray/desk is washable, and thus adults know the cleaning history of the child’s eating & playing surface
• a tray can lower frustration by reducing the frequency of dropped pieces, toys, activities, etc.
• a lap tray/desk can greatly expand the options for toys, games and activities that can be used for travel
• you can have a basic Multi-Use Craft Tray WITH a piece of felt for $2.95 (or FREE with a purchase of $49 or more!).
• you’ve tried a lap tray/desk, you won't believe you had a child travel without one

Suggested Steps on How to Best Use this Site

1. If you are here to shop for non-travel related reasons (‘imaginary’ journeys), the following information doesn’t really apply to you (but you may find it interesting!).  If this is the case, just choose a category, age, price, or brand, and enjoy browsing!
2. If you are here for kids travel purposes, we suggest first choosing a tray based on mode of travel, and age of child.  We recommend the Multi-Use Craft Tray as minimum (free with orders of $49 or more).  If you aren’t interested in a Tray, just check out ‘No Travel Tray Required’ section, or feel free to use you own judgment and browse the entire site.
3. For help on choosing a tray, click here
4. Once your tray has been selected, start shopping for games and activities that work well with your tray/lap desk choice, or, as mentioned above, shop "No Tray Necessary" if you decide not to purchase a tray 
5. NO time to browse?? Choose “just send me a kit” and fill out the brief questions. We guarantee next business day shipping of a kit made of in-stock items of your specification, and budget.

Things to NOTE about Trays: 

• We have done our best to measure and categorize the games, toys and activities based on the trays that we have chosen for this site.  However, if there are any questions with any specific toy/tray combination, we encourage you to clarify and/or confirm any concerns prior to purchasing. We are happy to physically check anything we have in stock on any of the lap trays or desks.
• The youngest age recommendation for travel trays is 9 months (Taby Tray), below this age, we suggest NOT using one, and we have tried to provide items that would work well without a tray for the youngest travelers, or items that an adult could aid in the play.
• If your child has his/her own play surface already, make sure you are measuring the smallest usable dimensions so that you are accurately choosing items that will fit the space.  We try to be as accurate as possible when providing dimensions of items.
• When searching through travel trays, you may find some things within a tray category that do NOT require the use of the tray.  We do this in order to expose the searcher with ALL the options that would work with and without the chosen tray.  We don't want you to miss out on all the cool stuff!
• A reminder that it is the purchaser’s responsibility, however, to buy age and skill appropriate items, and to provide the appropriate parameters for safe play on the go.

    How are things categorized and described?

• There are two main category menus, one column to the right and a horizontal menu below our logo.  Within these menus are many subcategories, making multiple search options.  If you want the entire list, please go to the bottom of the page and click on ‘category list’, this is the best way to see all of your options at one time.  You can also enter keywords of things you may be looking for in the search field (upper right)
• Sometimes we come across what we feel is an exceptional toy, activity, or game that just isn’t completely practical for ‘on the go’ use.  This has lead to items that don’t fit on a tray, thus they are categorized as perfect for layover, rest stop, rainy day or at the destination use.  In general, ALL of our products fit into these categories, so keep this in mind if you are just ‘shopping’ for ‘imaginary’ journey. 
• We list manufacturers recommended ages unless we feel strongly otherwise.  We will NOT, however, lower the range of ages below 3, to insure that small parts do not create a potential danger. 
• WITHIN EACH item we have included a description, features, age recommendations, and a section we call “our humble opinion”, which we must point out is ONLY our OPINION.  We do hope this opinion, however, gives you further insight into a product - it's sort of like having a review of an item before there is a review of the item!