11 Tips to Survive a Road Trip with Kids

I LOVE a good road trip! Sounds crazy right? Especially when you think about doing it with a car full of kids. But to me, there is something so exciting about packing up the car and heading out on the open road.

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Maybe because it is nostalgic for me. When I was little, my family moved to South Carolina for my dad’s job, and the rest of our extended family continued to live in Ohio. I spent a lot of time in the car traveling back and forth to visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I’m sure my parents dreaded the long car ride back and forth (this was the 80s, so there was no technology to keep their kiddos occupied), but I loved it because it meant going home to my family.

Every parent knows the overwhelming feeling of preparing for a trip, especially one that includes a long car ride. Over the years, our family has taken quite a few road trips. My extended family rents a beach house in the Outer Banks every few years, and my husband and I have a slight obsession with New York City that we have passed on to our kids.

In the years we have been a traveling family with kids in tow, we have taken many road trips requiring a drive longer than 6 hours one way. I am a super type-A organizer and planner, so I have spent a lot of time perfecting what works for our family when we travel by car.

Below you will find some of my tips for making your road trip a little less stressful, as well as my road trip packing list.

Tips #1-6: Vehicle Prep

Getting the vehicle ready before you even leave the driveway is imperative. Knowing that I have prepped the car as much as possible before the trip alleviates a lot of my stress about road trips with kids.

1. Car Prep & Clean Up

Get rid of those stale french fries and mashed-up goldfish! If your vehicle is anything like mine, it is destroyed within minutes of the last cleaning. I always ensure the car is a blank slate before prepping.

Also, make sure the vehicle is not just clean but mechanically ready for a road trip. Check the oil, windshield washer fluid, tire pressure, and fill up with gas. Also, make sure you have packed the essentials, including your driver’s license, insurance, registration, money for tolls/E-Z Pass, membership cards (AAA), sunglasses, tools/jumper cables, flashlight, umbrella, road atlas, handsfree phone mount, and charging cords.

I also put a small trashcan in the backseat for easy access. Remember extra trash bags!

2. Snack Time

Sometimes I feel like my kids are going to eat me out of house and home. They are constantly eating! When we go on a road trip, I pack each child their own “snackle” box with some of their favorite treats and snacks.

I also stock a bin on the floor between their seats filled with extra, easy-to-grab, individually-sized snacks. I include their tried and true favorites so they aren’t begging for candy or junk every time we stop for gas or a bathroom break.

We pack a small cooler with drinks and fresh snacks like fruits and veggies. I also tuck away a secret stash of suckers, fun-sized candy, and gum for when the wheels start to come off and I need a good bribe to get everyone back on track.

Eating meals in the car can be messy, but sometimes it is necessary to keep driving instead of stopping to sit down and eat. To contain the food and make it more manageable for little hands, I put their food in a storage caddy they can keep on their laps.

3. Essentials

I pack some essential supplies for the car that can be easily grabbed in the same bin as the extra snacks. The essentials include hand wipes, hand sanitizer, small and large baggies, and, just in case someone gets carsick, I also pack emesis bags, disinfecting wipes, a roll of paper towels, a stain remover stick, and trash bags.

The kids also bring travel blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals for snuggling. A trick I use for beach trips is having the kids use beach towels as blankets. We’re bringing them anyway, and it is one less thing I have to pack in a suitcase.

4. Staying Busy

Okay, so this is probably the most crucial part. What will you bring to keep them occupied for hours on end?

The first thing I do is have my kids pack a travel book bag with items they want to take. This ensures they have items they enjoy playing with that they purposely decided to bring. These bags then get placed under their feet on the floor where they can reach them during the ride.

I also pack a separate bin that I put on the seat between them. They can both easily access the items inside, and it acts as a barrier to avoid the “he/she touched me” arguments.

Items that I typically include in the bin are: notebooks, coloring books, activity books, sticker books, favorite books from home or new books from the library, crayons, colored pencils, markers, pencils, pens, post-it notes, dry-erase boards, dry erase markers/erasers, safety scissors, painters tape (sounds weird but it can be used for so many things including putting small pieces together to make a design or picture on the window or seat in front of them), Wiki sticks, stickers, stamps, fidget toys, and water ring games.

We also have car backseat organizers on the driver and passenger seats with trays that fold down (similar to an airplane).

5. Screen time or no screen time? That is the question.

All parents have different opinions on allowing their kids to use technology. My husband and I agree that whatever keeps them occupied on a road trip is good with us.

My son is content to sit and watch his iPod or DVD player for a large chunk of the journey. My daughter… not so much.

If you are okay with your child using some form of technology on your trip, here are some ideas of what to pack: headphones, a tablet (download new games, apps, or movies as a surprise), portable DVD players, DVDs from home or borrowed from the library, handheld electronic games, charging cords and adapters for the car’s ports.

6. Paging Dr. Mommy

Did I mention I love to be organized and prepared for anything? Maybe it is the former Girl Scout in me.

The final thing I pack before we leave is a first aid/medical kit. Yes, I know I can stop along the way at a store if I need something, but I don’t want to chance my daughter screaming her head off because she cut her finger or got stung by a bee while sitting in 6 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic outside of Washington D.C.

I typically pack pain relievers, stomach medication, antacids, allergy medicine, cold/cough medicine, cough drops, lip balm, peppermints, tweezers, bandages, antibacterial cream, antibacterial wipes, bee-sting stick, thermometers, and any other medication that my family has specifically been prescribed. I pack all of these items in a medication organizer, along with paper plates, cups, plastic cutlery, napkins, and wipes in a bag that I keep on the passenger side floor.

Tips #7-11 Are we there yet?

Finally, the car is packed, everyone is loaded up, and the real fun begins. Here are some other helpful tips I use for our road trips.

7. Map It Out

When we went on our first road trip with our kids, who were two and four years old at the time, I knew we would have to stop a lot more than we did when it was just the two of us.

My type A personality took over, and I decided I needed to have preplanned stops mapped out for about every two hours of our journey. I pulled up our route on my phone and started looking for exits that would fit into my time frame.

Did we stop at all of them? No, but it was nice to have some idea of what restaurants would be available to us at meal times, roadside attractions we might want to check out, and what rest stops had playgrounds for the kids to burn off some energy before we hopped back into the car.

Sound too overwhelming? There are apps you can download to your device that will tell you how far away the exits are on your route and what is located there. I use the app iExit.

Tip, pack some small items to help encourage movement at stops, such as bubbles, sidewalk chalk (hopscotch anyone?), sports balls, frisbees, or jump ropes.

8. “Are we there yet?”

One of the most dreaded sentences of every road trip. “Are we there yet?” I know it used to drive my dad up the wall when we would ask over and over again.

Before our first family road trip, I decided to avoid this question at all costs. I started brainstorming ideas for tracking the journey with my kids so they could visually see our progress.

Now that they are older, this can be as simple as just showing them the miles and time counting down on the navigation screen. They can easily monitor it themselves. Another idea for older kids is to give them a checklist of various cities or landmarks we will pass along the way that they can mark off as we travel.

I had to be more creative when my kids were smaller. One way to track the trip was to make a timeline on the car’s ceiling. This can be done with a strip of painter’s tape, pictures of symbols for along the way, and a little car cutout to move along the line as the trip progresses.

I have also packed small treat bags or wrapped gifts (see tip #9 below) to give at intervals. Another idea I have used is to make stars for thirty-minute intervals and tape them to the car’s ceiling. Your child can pull one down after each time period has elapsed so they can see how many stars are left to go.

If your child is young, help develop an understanding of the concept of time by connecting it to something meaningful they can relate to. For example, each star equals one dance class or episode of a favorite television show.

One piece of advice: if you have multiple kids, give them each their own tracking device so they can avoid fighting over whose turn it is to show the trip’s progress.

9. Christmas in the Car

Another way to get rid of ants in the pants is to have small “gifts” for them to open. The simple act of opening a wrapped treat is sometimes exciting enough to take the focus off of their boredom.

This does not mean you need to go out and buy a whole bunch of toys as a bribe. It can be as simple as wrapping up items you already planned to bring.

Items I have wrapped up in the past are snacks, candy, coloring books, crayons, small notepads, tiny toys from the dollar store, glow bracelets, stickers, and post-its.

10. Activities & Game Time

Who doesn’t love to play games in the car to pass the time? Over the years, I have bought various activity books, games, and supplies for the vehicle.

Some of our favorite games include Would You Rather and Guess in Ten. Other favorite supplies include tangram puzzles, rainbow scratch paper, and sticker books.

I recently created a printable activity book for my kids to use on trips. It provides a travel journal and memory pages, i-spy, scavenger hunts, guessing games, mazes, and other activities and games.

Check it out in my Etsy shop.

11. Music

My final tip for surviving a road trip with kids is creating playlists for music.

I have created playlists with beach-themed songs, family favorites, and individual lists for each of my kids. When they get sick of being in the car, I turn on a playlist, and we belt out their favorite songs.

There you have it, 11 tips for making your road trip less stressful and more enjoyable.

Need help packing your car? Print my road trip packing list.

Road Trip Packing List Printable

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