Review and Giveaway: Snack and Play Travel Tray

As some of you know the munchkins and myself recently returned from a sixteen hour road trip to include my friend and her two munchkins, yep all in one car! So in preparing for this trip I knew I had to find some items that really did their job. My three year old sat in the third row area with my friend's three year old and so I knew that I would not be able to reach him over the nine week old and my one year old easily. I could pass back the occasional drink/snack but that was going to be about the extent of our contact. Definitely not any "mommy, I dropped my Color Wonder marker, mommy, my car fell" you get the idea. As I was scouring the travel sites for words of advice and products I came across the Snack and Play Travel Tray and thought it looked really awesome and might be just the ticket for our trip. Alyson who is the mom behind this product and the founder of Star Kids was super responsive to our request and is offering one Snack and Play Travel Tray to our readers.

Click on Read More to find out what I thought of the tray and learn how to win one for your munchkins.

The first thing that really set this tray apart from the few I have seen and one other I have tried was the safety aspect. The tray is made of impact collapsing foam and covered with an easy to clean nylon fabric.
The second thing that I fell in love with is the rim that surrounds the tray to keep order in the car as much as possible.
The third thing were the pockets, yes it has nifty large pockets in a net material so you can see what is actually in there and hopefully it is not the string cheese you gave him 6 hours ago.

All of these aspects panned out. The tray is super easy to manipulate and I really feel it would not cause any harm to my child if we were to be in some sort of contact collision. In addition, the tray takes up much less room when it is not in use.
The rim does keep items on and it is high enough that even if jarred items will not go spilling off. However my son's car seat is at an angle backward. I like the reclining for when he falls asleep, which actually he did none of the entire way back! So, back to the reclining, due to the recline of the seat it did not keep items on the tray, but at least they mostly fell into his seat where he could retrieve them on his own without the assistance of mommy.
The pockets are big and there are two on each side. A Color Wonder book easily fit into the wide pocket and the accompanying markers fit into the smaller pocket and that is just on one side.

The tray also comes with a strap that keeps the tray where you want it, but I found it to be in the way and my son did not want it on. Without it on he was able to take the tray off when he wanted and not get frustrated that he had to wait for mommy to stop to release him. The tray is large enough and sturdy enough to stay put on its own without the strap.

Full Review based on 4 stars:

Functionality *** This item is a great solution to a difficult problem, keeping your kids satisfied in the car for extended periods of time. But you can also use it for those times when you are just running around and the kids are eating in the car. I think that on a more regular basis this is what our Snack and Play Travel Tray will be used for. It lets the kids spread their food out a bit more and keeps your eyes on the road where they belong. Safety wise it is really the only safe solution I have seen out there. For reclined seats there might be some additional tweaking of the design like to extend the rim a bit more so that it encompasses the part of the tray that is against your child. Then if a spill happens it might stay more on the tray and not all over your child.

Style *** It is gender neutral and a dark color so any stains that develop I am sure would not show up. The material is easy to wipe off. I can see where offering a variety of designs might get the child more interested in the tray versus just the parent.

Price **** Super good price. Most places online were between $19 and $40. Amazon has them for 19.99 with free shipping.

Overall Rating *** I really like this tray. My son, not as much, partly due to being crowded leg wise in the third row seat already. Since being back from the trip we have not had the opportunity to try it out in his usual place in the car with plenty of leg room.

Star Kids is offering one Snack and Play Travel Tray to one lucky Kid Buy Products reader. To enter the giveaway, visit the Star Kids site and tell us what was the inspiration behind Alyson's design of the Snack and Play Travel Tray. Come back here and leave us a comment and you'll be entered in our giveaway of the Snack and Play Travel Tray. Giveaway will run through 11:59 CST on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008. Read our giveaway rules here. Thanks for reading and good luck!