“At the end of the day, what kids really want is just more time with us.”

By Steven John

This Mom-and-Dad Team Develop Travel Gear That Helps Families Hit the Road

You’ve dreamt of this vacation for months. You’ve worked on plans for the getaway for weeks. You’ve spent days packing. You have replied to the last email you’ll check for a week. 

And now the time has finally come! You set your out of office auto reply, you toss the last of the leftovers, you grab your bags, double-check the locks, and you’re off! You’re gone! Soon enough, you’ll be so far from your workaday world, you may not even have reception on your phone, and who cares? You earned this trip to the mountains or beach or vineyards or overseas metropolis or wherever you find your happy place, and wherever that is, it’s all yours, no interruptions, no deadlines, no responsibilities, you are free!

Oh… wait… except you have kids. Right. OK, so maybe we’ll need to reframe our expectations for this travel business a bit…

That, in a nutshell, is exactly what happened for one travel-loving husband and wife, Daniel and Gemma Ng. When they became parents, they didn’t suddenly stop enjoying travel; they didn’t stop exploring new environs and revisiting favorite old haunts, they didn’t abandon outdoor adventuring, they didn’t change fundamentally as far as their interests, but, as all of us parents have to accept at some point, they realized that everything was going to be different going forward.

Gemma and Daniel found that, far too often, traveling with kids was not only different, but frustrating. And here’s where their story diverges from that of many travel-weary moms and dads: they decided to do something about it. And upon learning about their brand, No Reception Club, we decided to talk to them about it.

What inspired the creation of NRC? Was it a slow burn or a flash of inspiration?

“Basically, when we picture parents at the airport, we always picture a lot of folks just juggling with a bunch of things and really just struggling,” Daniel said. “For us that really hit a peak of frustration on our ninth or 10th flight with a young kid. We were going to Hawaii, and it was just this crazy moment of: ‘Why is there just so much stuff that we need to bring, yet there's not a lot of space to actually handle all this stuff?’ Airports and airplanes. Airplane bathrooms, it's all very tight corners. That was really our inspiration moment, that trip. We asked ourselves: ‘Why aren't there brands tackling this?’ There are parent brands that exist. There are brands that exist for travel. But there was nothing really at the intersection of the two that could really deliver on both the functionality and style.”

“For us, that was really this moment of: ‘Oh, this is an idea and we should definitely be the ones to go do it.’ It really was the moment when it went from idea to let's definitely do it. And now we're motivated by being able to enable parents to go on more adventures. That's something that we could see ourselves doing for a really, really, really long time. We think we're the best ones to go do it because of both our personal and professional experiences.”

What was the inspiration for the brand’s name, No Reception Club?

Daniel turned to Gemma who smiled, then said: “I love this question, but he’s taking it.” Which her husband did, answering: “We created this name driven off of this feeling that we think is very, very powerful, which is just being off the grid. Whether you're on an airplane and you're turning on airplane mode and no emails can get to you, or you're in a cabin and really the reception is so bad you have no choice but to actually just be in the moment with each other, that's really what we think is the spirit of No Reception Club. We thought it was perfect for this brand because, our kids, they don't want more toys or books and things like those. Those things are nice, but at the end of the day, the core of what they really want is just more time with us. The sooner that we could find ways, and more ways to really kind of act like we're out of office, I think that's really the basis of that relationship with your children and the opportunity to create memories that end up lasting a lifetime.”

What makes a No Reception Club bag unique? What makes this actionable parent gear?

“When we were creating this bag, we tried to think of literally anything and everything that could go wrong when you're traveling, especially on a flight, but, of course, also the car ride or when you're on the journey there, whichever mode of travel you're taking,” Gemma replied. “The result was that we ended up with over 10 features in the bag, but I'm only going to quickly highlight a few, because 10 is crazy. It was because we were like: ‘We want this bag to address anything that could be thrown at you.’ The top, top thing that we love about the bag, and the thing that really sets it apart, are the shelves inside.”  

NRC’s flagship bag, The Getaway Bag, features a customizable interior with movable shelves that can help you curate your packed gear and apparel, separating clothes and toiletries, shoes and underwear, baby stuff, toddler stuff, parent stuff, and so forth as needed. This design arose out of need.

“Our experience  after all those flights had us turning together and saying: ‘Hey, can you grab this or that for me?’” Gemma continued. “Then the other person is just digging through the bottomless pit of the old diaper bag and not being able to find anything. We came up with these shelves because the idea is that it would be, essentially, like creating a locker inside of your backpack. If we all remember a high school locker, when you open it, you can essentially see everything all at once. It’s unlike most bags, which tend to have a lot of pockets lining the inside. You can kind of feel around, but you still don't get the visibility.” 

“Then the second thing, and related to that, is we really opted for side access,” Gemma explained, holding up a Getaway Bag and unzipping a large side panel, which does indeed swing open and allow easy access to the interior. “While you can open the bag from the top and the front, the side access is the number one way we see this bag being used, because you get the visibility right away.” Gemma said. “Also, when you think about sitting on an airplane, you're in tight quarters; this bag can be under the seat in front of you horizontally, you can open the main compartment and actually retrieve something. If you're lucky and you have the seat beside you, you put the bag beside you and, again, you can open it from the side, see almost everything you need.”

Then, with a wry smile, Gemma showed off the bottom of the bag, saying: “The next best feature that we love is the bottom, the emergency compartment. We came up with this on a flight when we had a diaper blowout with our son and we were kind of surprised, as you always are when those happen. We got rid of the diaper, but we’re like: “Where do we put all his ruined clothing?’ You're searching for a plastic bag that you forgot to pack, and it's just all kind of gross and you don't want the mess to touch the other things. We created this bottom compartment so that we could separate the things that get dirty, wet, a little bit gross, from the rest of the things. It's waterproof and it's also odor resistant. Whenever you get to your destination, you can deal with it then.”

Gemma also showed us the Essentials Compartment, saying it’s “where we really encourage people to put their diaper changing essentials. We've sized it perfectly to fit the NRC hip pack, or The Sidekick, which has enough room for everything you need to change diapers – the wipes, everything.”

Long story short, the first No Reception Club products are going to be the last child-centric travel bags many parents need. But we wanted to get back to the story of the Ngs and their experiences on the go with young kids.

What were your biggest surprises about how life changed post kids, especially regarding travel and adventure?

“We traveled a lot before kids,” Daniel said, adding: “We actually are a couple who has been together for 16 years, but our first child is only three years old. You can imagine how many years of getting to glide through with TSA pre-check, just having our rollers, never, ever checking in. It was so smooth. The biggest surprise from our first air travel trip we took with our first child, Emmett, was just how much stuff you have to shoulder for this tiny human being. From all of the clothing, because they're changing multiple times a day, to all of the gear, the car seat, the stroller, the pack and play. And then there’s the unpredictability of this little human. I guess realizing that it was not going to be so smooth or quick anymore.”

What are some of your best tips for traveling with kids?

“Yeah, we have a few tips here,” Daniel said. “The first thing is, researching for trips is really different now. A lot of it is trying to optimize for what we're interested in, but also what our kids are interested in. The thing that we found most effective was actually crowdsourcing family-friendly recommendations. There are these different pockets of communities, specifically some Facebook groups, where anytime we're in the planning phase of a trip, we're going to lob a question in there, which is: ‘Hey, traveling with kids – do you have any tips for Palm Springs?’ Which is actually what we did last November. Then all these folks, who have not only been there, but some folks who even live there, will chime in and say: ‘These are the must do's! And also these are the tourist traps that you should skip because your kid might be super bored about this.’ We really appreciate that insight in terms of where to go, where to eat, where to stay.”

“Another minor logistical thing is we always, always try to book our flights around our nap schedule,” Daniel added. “We really try to make sure that we're taking advantage of those moments when you can guarantee they're down. Then, also, the last thing is, while there's no way to avoid bringing a lot of stuff, some items you can buy at your destination, like diapers, and this helps you to pack a little bit less stuff. We try to minimize the amount of inventory we’re carrying everywhere.”

Are there any things that you have learned that are to be absolutely avoided when traveling with kids?

“Yes,” Gemma replied at once. “The number one thing that we always say to avoid is trying to do too much on a trip. When we're planning the whole itinerary for our trip, we try as much as possible to stay multiple nights in the same place. That way you don’t feel you're having to pack up and turn it all around in 24 hours, because then you're not relaxed. The second thing is we try not to cram too much into any single day. As you know, the younger your kids are the more times they're napping and eating, and trying to juggle these napping and feeding schedules with an over-packed itinerary is no good.”

“What we always try to say is, have one awesome thing planned for the day, maybe two” Gemma continued. “Anything outside of that is a bonus. It really allows for flexibility. At the end of the day, the less you have planned, the more you can actually enjoy each thing that you get to do versus racing through it.”