Thinking of going on a roadtrip with kids? It can be overwhelming!
A reader asked, “My family wants to visit Vancouver, BC. Any suggestions on where to start finding things to do. It will be me and my little ones, yikes! We will be driving for about 16 hours to get there, and staying for 7 days!“
If you’re thinking of going on a roadtrip with your kids, these road trip tips will help!
• Check out these great free printable road trip games for kids. •
My husband went ahead of us to begin his new job, while we stayed behind to sell the house.When my boys were 6 and 3, we moved from Ohio to North Carolina, a ten hour car ride.
For a close-knit family, that meant lots of road trips with kids to spend time together. I learned a lot about road trips from that short season. Here are some of my favorite tips and tricks to surviving a road trip with young kids.
Tips for family road trips with young kids!
Road trip tips #1 — Stop for them and play!
While I prefer to hurry up and get there, that’s not the best of road trip tips for families with young kids.
Children cooped up in car seats won’t be happy for too long.
They like to run, jump and play.
They don’t understand, much less appreciate, the value of a long car drive to reach a wonderful destination!
Sitting still in a car seat for hours on end is B-O-R-I–N-G!
I learned that when going on a roadtrip, my kids do better when we stop for breaks, not just bathroom breaks.
These are great road trip tips to break up a long drive:
- Stop intentionally at welcome centers to play and run.
- Take some outdoor toys to play, such as a playground ball (use it far from the parking lot), sidewalk chalk and bubbles for fun playtime on rest area breaks.
- Instead of walking to the restroom and back to the car, have jumping contests to see who can jump farther.
These fun activities are among my best road trip tips help kids stretch their muscles and get the wiggles out!
With older kids who don’t “need” as much stretch time when going on a road trip, carry a frisbee or football for restroom breaks. I’m amazed how 15 minutes with a frisbee helps everyone travel better.
Road Trip Tips #2 — Pack healthy snacks!
Snacks are essential for going on a roadtrip!
The only other alternative is to stop every few hours to feed that bored, hungry crew.
When it comes to road trip tips, I have to say, avoid that option. It’s expensive!
And, not even remotely healthy!
Some snack tips for family road trips:
- Bottled water is inexpensive. If you prefer a refillable water bottle, consider the Camelback BPA free bottle when going on a roadtrip with kids. It’s wide mouthed, so easy to clean and comes in a number of different prints to help kids know whose is whose. (Anything to prevent fights ranks high on my best road trip tips!)
- Healthy snacks help prevent grumpy, sugar spikes. Some of our favorite snacks for going on a roadtrip are raisins, pretzels, nuts, apples and bananas.
- If you have a cooler (we like this electric cooler that plugs into the DC outlet), consider cubes of cheese, veggies and gogurt for a change of pace.
Road Trip Tips #3 — Use lunch break to your advantage
Instead of stopping for fast food, pack a lunch of sandwiches, chips, fruit and bottled water.
Find a park or city center (the West Virginia capitol has incredibly gorgeous grounds and is an easy on-off from I-77) that’s near the highway to stop. You get a break from highway traffic noise and the kids get wide open space.
Enjoy your picnic lunch, play some frisbee, tag or whatever active game you enjoy and move on.
It might seem like this takes more time when going on a roadtrip than stopping for fast food, but since we don’t have to stand in line or wait for our order, it actually saves us time. And money! And it tastes better too!
I also like stopping at locally owned restaurants for a longer break and delicious food when time allows. A couple of my favorite “detours” are:
- Route 11 in the Virginia Mountains, just off I-81 and
- HWY 301 which parallels I-95 in North Carolina.
- Historic Route 66 in Illinois (yep, it goes that far north).
Road trip tips #4 — Consider a new twist on car games.
Besides printable car games and electronics, there are lots of ways to entertain kids when going on a roadtrip.
When my boys were too little for games like license plate bingo, we played roller coaster. This is one of my secret weapons for road trip tips with kids. It’s so easy to play!
As you drive up hills, have the kids make roller coaster noises, “clackity clackity clackity.”
As you reach the top, say something like, “We’re almost there. Are you ready?”
And then, going downhill have them wave their arms in the air. Rounding turns tell them to lean left or lean right and watch them giggle through the whole thing.
Don’t wear out the roller coaster game. Change it up:
- Pretend they’re riding bikes and make them pedal hard going uphill. Seriously, those little legs will churn so hard, you will find yourself laughing! Going downhill, they can “coast,” with arms and legs stretched wide!
- Or play “pterodactyl. After all, dinosaurs are about the coolest thing in the world to little kids! As you come down the mountain, tell them they’re dinosaurs and need to stretch their wings to fly down the hill like a pterodactyl. If you have the patience for it, encourage them to make screeching pterodactyl noises. They will end up giggling adorably!
I hope these fresh ideas will inspire your family to create some games of your own to pass the time on your travels!
More tips for family road trips
We’ve been going on a roadtrip for years. It’s budget friendly and easy! Here are some more tips for family road trips to help you get wherever you’re going with ease!
- Top tips for family road trips,
- Scavenger hunt for the car — use technology to your advantage!
- Road trip tips to prepare your car for travel — includes a timeline checklist so you don’t forget a single thing!
- Tips for road trips with teens and tweens — they can be fun!
Pin our tips for road trips post for later
If you’re not planning to travel soon, save these tips for family road trips to your road trip tips boards so you can find it when you’re ready!
Samlucas Lincon says
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Muhammad Ahsan says
Road trips tips are most necessary when travelling with the kids. I enjoyed reading your story.
RichlyMiddleClass says
oh my gosh! I can totally relate and love your suggestions! I actually love the welcome centers! Thanks for your blog, it is wonderful.
Mommy LaDy Club says
These are great! I like stopping at each State's Welcome Center too…something nice and different:)
mrsmomx6 says
Great ideas!
With 6 kids we've had to get creative. We tell them miles and hours to our destination and to all of our pit stops and let them guess and make bets on how close to accurate they were 🙂
Sharon
Shannon Milholland says
You know one thing we do is tell them what time it will be when we get there, to lunch, etc. and have them calculate how many more hours. Another thing we'll do is have them look out for the mileage posts on the side of the road and tell us when we get to “1” because that means a new state is coming soon and we should all watch!
Karen Dawkins says
One mommy,
SMART! It's hard to remember life as a two year old, but when we do, they travel so much better!
OneMommy says
Definitely agree you need to stop for play time!
We drove 16 hours to Florida last year, and I had to keep reminding the adults we were with just because we all went to the bathroom didn't mean we were all ready to get in the car!
When we travel I like to pack picnic lunches to eat at roadside parks so they have time to run and jump and swing their legs while they eat.
Familytravelsonabudget says
Perspective parenting, what a great idea. Does mom get to keep the coloring book if she wins? 🙂
This Busy Life says
Thanks for sharing your ideas. They good. Traveling with kids can be challenging.
Perspective Parenting says
Great suggestions!! I like the stopping at each state's welcome center..a must when the states you travel through are big!! We started an I Spy game where the kids pick things they think they might see and put points on it…like a Dunkin Donuts sign or rest area sign would get less points because you'd see them more often and a pink car would get more because it would be a rarity. Whoever had the most points at the end of the trip (or within an hour) would get a prize- like a coloring book or a pack of new crayons or something). It's fun and everyone can get involved.