Traveling With An Infant

[GA Peach]

I have a 7 month old and we often travel to visit family. Problem is, our 'lil guy ONLY likes his crib. We have one of those play yards (or play pens) and thought this would work out great. We bought a mattress to go inside it so it is softer. Put him in there and within an hour after he fell asleep, he was screaming bloody murder. The play yard has a mesh siding and he tries to poke his fingers thru it, which is one of the reasons he doesn't care for it.

He moves around constantly so when we tried to put him in the bed with us (only this one time that we were away from home - we're NOT co-sleepers), he kept us up all night. After two nights of this, I tell my husband we're never traveling with him again until he's older - which isn't realistic b/c his grandparents aren't able to travel and would never be able to see him.

Has someone else out there encountered this problem? What else is out there for infants to sleep in that's more like a crib?