The 2 most important things for us are comfort and security.
Baby Carriers : we decided to invest in Deuter baby carriers with a Deuter Comfort 3 (left in the picture) for Elio as it is, in our opinion, the best for the parent carrying and the child inside. The back is well supported and the storage space is brilliant. We recently bought the rain protection which is a great addition even though we wish it covered Elio a bit better at the front. The Deuter Comfort Air is the one we use for Alba. It is less expensive than the Comfort 3 but the quality is still great and is perfect for little walkers who need a break.
Shoes : We bought our walking shoes from Decathlon which allowed us to get a good solid shoe for a good price. The ones above are our lighter summer shoes and we strongly advise waterproof shoes that support your ankles.
Clothing : We always have K-Ways in the baby carrier for the 5 of us. We had a bad experience at the lac de Taney when we arrived at the top and the weather changed suddenly even though we had been suffocating from the heat few minutes before so its useful to have these to throw on in case the weather catches you by surprise.
Snacks & Water : you can't go hiking with your children without these two. We take some compotes and cereal bars to make sure we have something to eat and take 2 flasks that we can easily refill along our journey. Those are necessary to energize us and motivate our little ones when they start to flag.
First aid kit : Including all the usual things along with sunscreen, emergency blanket and our Swiss knife.
Baby kit : 2 nappies and wipes plus a bag to put the rubbish in. The wipes also come in useful for sticky hands after eating.
Phones : fully charged phones. Jean is obsessed with making sure his phone is fully charged and leaves it plugged in the car until the last minute before we start our walk. We also have a portable battery charger but we always lose it at home. Phones are also very useful to find your way and so important in case of emergency in the middle of nowhere.
Money : we always leave some coins in the bag just in case we need a small thing on our way or to bring back a light souvenir.
Drone : Jean always take his drone DJI Spark with us to get a birds eye view of our hikes. He is getting better at it now but at the beginning it was very long and somewhat tedious for the rest of us. You can discover all our videos on the Youtube channel that we are developing to offer you more video footage of the places we visit.
Selfie-Stick : it's always nice to keep a snap from a hike with the 5 of us in front of a nice landscape and our families are always happy to see the places we have visited.
Camera : Nikon D5300 (750g with lens) around Jean’s neck. Amazing and affordable camera to capture the beauty of nature.
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Hello! We would generally always choose the structured baby carrier as Alba at 2.5yrs is really too big for the Ergobaby - it's hard on our backs and doesn't offer her enough support. We only use the soft carrier as an emergency back up for example if we are doing a short walk but worry she might need a bit of help at the end as we can squash it into the pocket of Elio's carrier. I hope that helps :-)
Thank you for the useful tips. I notice in your photos that you sometimes use a soft-structured carrier (I think an ergobaby) for Alba. Can you comment on using soft-structured carrier for hiking/travelling? In which situation would you prefer it to the hard structured one? We are beginners wanting to start
easy hikes with our toddlera and decidingif we should invest in a hard carrier while we already have a soft-structured one we use for running errands in the city.