Going on a road trip with kids is no easy task! They always seem like such a fantastic idea when you are preparing them. Discovering new places on the open road, the freedom to take as much time as you want to get to your destination stop, no schedule, road trip games– just great family time!
But that’s not exactly how it turns out every time…
When we moved from California back to Illinois, we decided to drive and see the country instead of flying. Many of our friends and family members thought we were crazy. Three kids driving 1,200 miles!
It honestly was not as bad as I had envisioned. Sure, there were times of restlessness and relentless asking of questions. Then, the boredom when excitement of the road wears off. And, obviously, the mess (and smells) left in the vehicle from the kids. Luckily, we had taken a few mini-road trips in the years leading up to “the big move” and I have been able to create and tackle these issues with some tried and true road trip hacks. Use these tips and discover a little more ease on your next family vacation.
Trip Kit
I decided to create a trip kit for each kid. This can be as simple as a dollar store pencil case filled with crayons and pencils to more elaborate backpack filled with similar items. You can also just pack everything into a big gallon sized Ziploc bag for easy carrying and storage. Here are some items to include in the trip kit:
- Pencils
- Crayons
- Printable activity pages
- Coloring books
- Seek n find books
- Scavenger hunt checklists
- Bingo scorecards
- Small books
- Map activities
Entertaining the Masses
When we were planning our road trip, I became overly anxious about how bored the kids would be. These are kids that love to jump and run and swim. Sitting still in a car for upwards of 12 hours was going to be rough on all of us. At the last minute I did the unthinkable, I purchased inexpensive DVD players for the trip.
Purchasing new DVD players was not the plan at the beginning since we already had one that kid of worked. But when I started to think about how boring long car trips were when I was a kid, I couldn’t resist. But I had some ground rules:
- The dvd players did not come out until day three, after the novelty of travelling had wore off for the kids.
- I packed a bunch of DVDs in an old CD car case so I wouldn’t have so many dvd boxes to contend with.
- Headphone always had to be worn while watching the dvd player.
- Only two movies a day.
If you don’t have the budget to purchase new or enjoy everything digital, using a tablet with downloaded movies and shows work the same way. Just try to limit the amount of time your little ones are on devices. If they are anything like mine, sometimes they might get a little car sick from looking at the screens so long.
Don’t forget to also load electronic devices with audiobooks and music. One of the biggest hits of the road trip was the old iPod Shuffle that I loaded with kids songs.
Healthy Snacks
One of the best things that we planned for on our cross-country journey was to provide the kids with healthy snacks versus junk food. Pack items that are very easy to store and get to when hunger arises to help make food stops more manageable. Snack options include:
- Carrot sticks
- Celery sticks
- Beef jerky
- Raisins
- Nuts
- Berries
- Apples
- Cheese and crackers
Rest Stops
Mapping out rest stops really helped to keep us on track as well as give everyone something to look forward to. A couple of days we drove for 12 hours so having dedicated rest stop times/places really helped to break up the monotony of the road.
Most of our meal breaks (usually lunch) were at dedicated roadside rest stops. Those that had visitors’ centers attached were a plus for us as it gave the kids a chance to learn something new about the state in which we were travelling through.
Here we would all get out to stretch our legs, use the bathroom, tidy up/ air out the car, eat our meal, and run around a little (read: tire the kids out so they will take a nap in the car).
Gas Stops
One thing we discovered on a shorter road trip that we incorporated on our cross-country road trip was the art of gas stops. Now, you might think a gas station is a gas station. But let me tell you, stopping at gas stations that were associated with a grocery store was a game changer.
Why you ask? Because if you are anything like me, not all gas station bathrooms are created the same. We stopped at one bathroom that, I kid you not, only had a toilet and no sink. It looked like it had not been cleaned in a year and with little kids touching everything…ewwww.
Grocery store bathrooms, on the other hand, tend to be a lot cleaner and anything you could want for your trip (ex. Paper towels, extra diapers, cleaning supplies, medications, water, snacks, etc.) will be in the grocery store.
Let the Kids Decide
When I was a kid on long road trips with my family, one of the most exciting things to do was to be able to pick out where we would eat dinner. But with three kids and the fighting…well you can imagine how that would go. So, my dad devised a plan…license plate bingo.
License plate bingo is just like any other kind of bingo except you had to find the MOST plates on your game card in order to be the winner. And the winner got to choose where we would stop for dinner. You just had to hope that your bingo card didn’t have Alaska or Hawaii on it!
You can use games or other challenges (ex. Reading, writing, etc.) to play this. This will give the kids something to do on the long trip and you a little quiet time. Plus, the one that wins will feel a sense of accomplishment from winning the game or challenge.
Have you gone on a road trip with kids lately? What are your road trip hacks? Leave a comment below.
