Review of the Newton Baby Travel Crib & Play Yard

The time had come, we had officially grown out of the traditional Graco pack ‘n play. And by we, I really mean our 3 year old. He had reached the 30 lb weight limit and just seemed so scrunched when laying down. The next step for traveling seemed to be the toddler inflatable bed. It seemed to do the job, until it didn’t. Our toddler was climbing out at all hours of the night. And then one day, we went to blow it up while on a trip and there was a massive hole on the outer bumper part of the blow up bed. I took that as a sign from the universe that it was time to find a different travel bed solution for out toddler, especially because we had a lot more travel in our future.

After a lot of research, I decided to get the Newton Travel Crib and Play Yard for a few reasons. Because the mattress sits on the floor, there is no weight limit. It has sides to keep our toddler confined and the mattress is much bigger than any other pack ‘n play.

Newton released a 2024 version of the play yard that had solved a few of the common issues with the 2023 version. Mostly having to do with disassembly. While disassembly took a few seconds longer than the Graco pack ‘n play, it was not too bad. I was able to assemble and disassemble without having to look at the instructions. The fold was a little tricky, but not terrible.

How does it compare to other pack ‘n plays/travel cribs:

Size: It is so much bigger! In the best way possible. This is especially important when it comes to my toddler, because he’s on the older end of needing a travel crib ( he’s 3.5 years old), options were limited. He fits so comfortably in the Newton travel crib and has so much space to move around length and width wise, which was necessary. It’s not so important for my 9 month old baby who still fits in the Graco pack ‘n play with lots of room to grow.

Mattress: The mattress is also pretty thick when it compares to other travel cribs. I tried it out and could not feel the firmness of the floor beneath me. It uses the same technology and material as their crib mattress (which we use in our crib at home). It is 100% breathable and you are able to take the cover off of the mattress and wash it, if need be.

Crib: Because the mattress is on the floor, when my toddler stands up, the top of it comes to his armpits. So hopefully, he won’t be able to climb out. It is lighter than the Graco pack ‘n play.

Measurements:

The mattress is BIG! It’s almost the same size as a crib mattress.

Newton Travel Crib: 47” long x 33” wide.

Graco pack ‘n play: 38” long x 26’ wide

That is 9” longer and 7” wider! I’m sorry, but that is a pretty big difference!

The size of the travel crib is really what sold me to buy it. I needed to to be big to be comfortable to fit my toddler. He still has plenty of room to wiggle around and grow.

Cost:

Here is the thing…its not cheap. It is a substantial amount of money for something that you won’t use everyday. What made me pull the plug was then they had a 20% off promotion for Father’s Day, I said Happy Father’s Day to my husband and bought it! It is currently $299 + tax/shipping. But with the discount, I got it for $260 total. Yes, its a lot of money, but when compared to other travel cribs that have similar features, they are all around the same amount and the Newton Travel Crib is the biggest by far.

Traveling with it?

The one con of the travel crib also is a major pro. It’s BIG. It’s big when its folded up and its big when its assembled. Because we don’t have any airplane trips in our near future and will mostly be using this at the grandparents house, I was okay knowing that its big. The bag that is comes with is amazing. It seems very durable and its easy to put the travel crib in. There is a lot of extra space in the bag that it goes in, so I will pack the Slumberpod and sheet in the bag as well.

Does the Slumberpod fit over it?

YES! We live and breath by the Slumberpod, so this was a nonnegotiable. It HAD to fit under the Slumberpod! And thankfully, it does. Almost better than the toddler blow up mattress we had.

We will be using it next week on a week long trip and will update when we get home! I am optimistic that it will solve all of our toddler sleep issues, but as I’ve learned, expect the unexpected when it comes to toddlers…they are creative!