“Let’s do it!” I said as we were planning our family vacation for next summer. I was really excited about heading to Colorado to visit the National Parks.
Here’s the problem.
As our time got closer…I started rethinking our decision to take our long trip with the boys. We have a 5-year-old and a 1 ½-year-old…and Colorado is a 17-hour drive for us.
We have friends who live 4 hours away, and I thought about how hard those drives were for us. The endless times I’ve heard “Are we there yet?” or “How much further?”…but mostly “Can I have a snack?”
The tears, screaming, and the seemingly impossible task of making cranky kids happy, is enough to make me more than a little nervous about taking on a 17-hour road trip. I knew this time we had to pull out all the stops…without relying on too much screen time or video games.
Here’s the good news.
We were able to not only take a 17-hour road trip without losing our minds, but it was actually enjoyable and provided good times of strengthening our family connection. I was thankful that I spent some time intentionally planning and preparing our activities, and both boys handled the drive well. Other than a few declarations of “ALLLLLL DONNNNNNEEEEEE” from my 1 ½ year old’s car seat, they hung in there like champs.
Having a positive road trip experience is possible, with just a little planning and preparation.
Your Ultimate Road Trip Survival Kit
With littles, long road trips aren’t simple. It can take a lot of preparation and planning, but putting some intentional thought and planning into road trip activities will help your trip be more successful, enjoyable, and peaceful for everyone.
Make it Educational!
My inner-teacher is coming alive with this one, but use the time you have a captive audience in the car to learn about where you’re going (or another interesting topic). Get books from the library (and maybe even a video or two).
When you get to your destination, you’ll have more background knowledge to make it more fun. Even a trip to Disney World can be educational. Read about the history and the perseverance and creativity Walt Disney had to use to build such an empire.
Snacks
This is everyone’s favorite tip. When you think you’ve packed enough snacks, pack more. On our first road trip, my husband made fun of me for packing so many snacks…and by the time we got home, we were almost out. Snacks are the key to keeping your kiddos (and husband) happy. Some people love the “snackle” box, but my boys would eat the entire thing in one setting.
I prefer to use individual snack bags, whether I make them myself or buy them ready to go. Packing new and exciting snacks make vacation more fun. I don’t normally give my kids sugary cereal, so I’ll grab a couple of boxes of fruit loops, or similar cereals and divide them into snack-size baggies. These are special treats for us, and they also take a while to eat.
Applesauce pouches, although healthier, are gone in about 20 seconds. A snack-size baggie of fruit loops takes much longer to eat…and when you’re stuck in the car for 17 hours, you’re all about passing the time in the most peaceful way possible.
Pack Meals
Packing our lunches for the drive is great for the budget, but we can also eat while we’re on the road. We then use the time we would’ve stopped to eat and find a good place to run around like a park or rest stop instead.
With a little pre-planning, you can find a great place along the way that’s close to your route. Giving the kids 30 minutes or so of playtime instead of sitting at a sit-down restaurant for lunch or dinner does wonders.
We also get the kids out (almost) every time we get gas-and not only for a required potty break. It’s hard to do when you just want to keep going, but giving them a chance to stretch and get some wiggles out will make the drive more peaceful.
I try to get them to jump and run as much as possible. If the gas station has a little grassy area we will have them do a relay of some sort, and then instead of walking back to the van, they have to jump or skip back to the van.
In the winter, we just run up and down an empty aisle of the gas station. They aren’t touching or hurting anything, and I’ve found most gas station attendants don’t mind, and even enjoy watching the silliness (and cuteness of watching my 1 ½-year-old try to jump) of us trying to get our wiggles out.
Limit Screen Time
I’m big on limiting screen time, but that doesn’t mean we don’t use any screen time (especially on a 17+ hour road trip). There are so many negative effects of too much screen time for kids, so we are intentional about what we watch and how much screen time we have. (You can always grab a portable DVD player if your vehicle doesn’t have one.)
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
To make the most out of screentime, hit up the library for some fun new things to watch. One thing I’ve learned is to leave the DVD cases at home and use a CD storage case. This saves space and it’s much easier to manage the DVDs.
No child will ever say the best day of their life was the day they watched tv all day. On vacation, I’m a little looser with the screen time limits, but there are still limits. If we are driving cross-country, I want the boys to look out the windows and soak up new places and landscapes. Our goal is to be making memories together as a family, not having everyone glued to a screen.
Road Trip Boredom Busters
Our Road Trip Boredom Busters were a lifesaver. I printed these road trip games and put them in page protectors to use with dry-erase markers. You could also laminate them and bind them to make a book. Every family member will need one, minus the driver. (You’ll only need one bingo sheet per book though.)
Road Trip Scavenger Hunt
My oldest loved the scavenger hunt, and this accomplished my goal of looking out the window to appreciate places that look different than home.
Road Trip Story Starters
I wasn’t sure how my son would do with this, but he caught right on. I read the first sentence, and we went around the car imagining and making the funniest story possible.
Road Trip Alphabet Search
The alphabet game is a favorite that has been used for years and years…but for younger children, it can be hard to keep track of where you are in the alphabet. They can use the tracing sheet that helps keep track of what letters they’re looking for and provides fine motor practice and letter writing practice. For really young children, you can also change the game so you find the letters out of order, which will make the game go faster.
Map It!
One of my favorite things is the map. Before we left, I drew out our route so the boys could see where we were traveling. Every time the boys got a little grumpy, we would trace how far we’d traveled, so they could see the progress we were making and how far we had to go. This is a great geography lesson too.
Road Trip License Plate Game
Finding license plates from all the different states is a challenge, but super fun for older children. If you have younger kids, they can team up with an older sibling to make this fun for the entire family.
Road Trip Bingo
Look out the window, and when you find something on your bingo card, cross it off. The first one to get 5 in a row wins!
Tic-Tac-Toe
My oldest is just learning tic-tac-toe, so it was nice to have a pre-made tic-tac-toe board ready to go that we could use again and again.
Are you tired of hearing “It’s TOO HARD!” followed by a meltdown?
Using this one simple phrase you’ll get in this powerful lesson, you’ll not only be able to help your kiddo not give up but you’ll:
>Activate their superpower of perseverance so that they can turn around a meltdown and keep trying
>Inspire them to use perseverance…even when it’s hard
>Teach them to recognize the warning signs of giving up, and how to turn it around by taking control of their choices.
Grab your powerful FREE video lesson to teach your kiddo one of the most powerful keys to perseverance.
Other Great Travel Games
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
Coloring Books
These aren’t just for the littles anymore! Grab some adult coloring books for older kids (or yourself). You can enjoy coloring while listening to a book on tape or making up your stories with story starters.
Unleash Your Creativity
Unleash your creativity with blank paper, crayons, and stickers. Crayons often melt in the car, so you may prefer these colored pencils.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
Water Wow
These are great for the littles. Using a special water pen, you can color in the picture and the colors magically appear. You can get pictures to color, or there’s a letter book to trace letters and a number book for tracing numbers.
Ultimate Alphabet Book Bundle
My preschooler loves doing the mazes and other fun letter activities in The Ultimate Alphabet Book Bundle. It’s also a great way to keep up with a few academic skills in a fun way while you’re on the road.
Super Kid Adventures
I brought our Super Kid Adventures Lessons. This is screen time, but it’s easy to watch a 5-10 minute video and do the activity with it while you’re in the car! It’s also a great opportunity to do the activities together and leads to some great family discussions.
Surprises
Before we left, I hit up the dollar store and bought several fun surprises for each kiddo. I wrapped them in different wrapping paper so we would know which gift was for which child. I even wrapped some toys we had at home that the boys haven’t seen in a while and they were as good as new.
When the boys got grumpy, I gave them a present. I didn’t care if they got lost or broken because they were from the dollar store, and they loved new toys and the excitement of unwrapping gifts.
Some people get a gift for every hour you’ll be in the car…but we were on a 17-hour road trip, each way. That seemed like a little much for us, so I just grabbed what looked like fun. I even wrapped some bags of new, exciting snacks just to give them something else to open.
Books on Tape
Listening to recorded books is great for kids’ imagination. Before you go, either find some books on audible or Hoopla (we got a free subscription to Hoopla through our local library) and borrow some books the family will enjoy.
My preschooler is beginning to enjoy some chapter books, so we opted for those instead of short picture books because they take longer. Be sure to download some to your device for those areas where you don’t have service.
The Drawing Game
Another great game for the road is the drawing game. Pass a piece of paper around the car and let everyone draw one line to make a picture. To make this more fun, don’t talk about what you’re drawing. When your picture is complete, color it!
Legos
Legos can be tricky to take along on a car trip. This container has a little drawer to keep the legos organized. This is a great way to keep those little fingers busy and those imaginations going.
Board Games
Some of the most popular board games have great travel versions. Scrabble, battleship, and monopoly are fun games to play in the car. Board games have incredible benefits for kids as well.
Cookie Sheet and Magnatiles or Letter Magnets
Magnatiles are a little bulky but super fun and will entertain kids for hours. Bring along a cookie sheet for a stable place for kiddos to build their masterpieces on.
Sticker Books
Sticker books are the perfect way to pass some time on a long drive. Just remember to set some rules before you hand them out: No stickers on the car windows, etc. Stickers stay in the sticker book!
Dot Stickers
There are many educational activities you can do with dot stickers! Grab a pad of paper and some dot stickers and the possibilities are endless.
Pipe Cleaners
Pipe cleaners make a great road trip activity. You can use them again and again, trying to build something or just making a unique piece of art. They are inexpensive and travel well. Unleash your imagination- what can you make?
Wiki Sticks
Similar to pipe cleaners, kids love wiki sticks! They are easily portable, and won’t collapse with every bump in the road because they’re sticky.
Tangrams
Tangrams are great for kids. They build spacial reasoning, math skills, problem-solving, patterns, and creativity and imagination. This magnetic set is perfect for the car.
Other Ways to Make Your Road Trip Successful
Prepare the Kiddos
Before you go, talk about where you’re going and what you’ll be doing there. We watched videos of the National Parks we’d be visiting to get the boys excited about it.
Getting kids excited about where they’re going will help make the road trip more fun because there is purpose in the pain. After all, Indiana doesn’t have mountains and we can’t see the beautiful Colorado mountains without 17 hours in the car.
Organization
The key to a successful road trip (besides snacks) is being organized and being set up in a way that allows the kids to be as independent as possible. We add the middle seat to our van, folded it down, and attached a basket to the top of it with a bungee cord.
I fill the basket with things for the boys to do during the trip so activities were easily accessible to them…as long as they don’t throw things on the floor when they’re done.
Prepare For Quiet Hour
We were traveling during naptime, which can be a risky move. To help with this, we implemented “quiet hour.” The screens were off, and the boys were allowed to look at books, but we weren’t talking.
Beforehand, we prepared them “We’re going to do lunch, and then after lunch when we get back on the road, it’ll be a quiet hour. This means we won’t be talking, and there will be no screens. You’ll be in charge of choosing what to do, and trying to take a rest.”
Honestly, I was surprised, but this worked really well.
Let Go of Your Timeline
This may be the most important thing on my list. Adding a strict timeline to your road trip just adds more pressure. Embrace the silliness, the abundance of energy, and allllll of the potty stops.
Allowing your kiddos to be kids and giving them ample opportunities to release their energy will make your road trip much more fun…and you’ll have more fun if you join in on the silliness too!
Make Activities Easy
Grab a travel tray for kids to use in their seats. It’s a mini desk and makes so many more activities possible.
Ultimately…
A road trip is what you make of it. Whether it’s 4 hours or 17, if you adopt the mindset that a road trip is a gift, a time to strengthen your relationship with your kiddos, and fill it was fun, new experiences, you’ll make memories that’ll last a lifetime….
some of which will be listening to “ALLLLLLLL DOOONNNEEEEE” from the backseat.
Want More?
If you liked this, you’ll love:
15 Powerful Problem-Solving Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
43 Children’s Books about Friendship that Teach How to be a Good Friend
Best Board Games for Preschoolers that Adults Will Love Too
Your Turn
What are your best road trip tips for traveling with littles?
Wonderful ideas! I really enjoyed seeing how you planned and prepared for your trip. Your hard work sure paid off!