HOW TO ROAD TRIP WITH LITTLES [UPDATED]
Since it is currently the middle of summer and road trips are in full swing, I thought it would be a good time to re-share one of my most popular blog posts: How To Road Trip With Littles. If you have pre-teen or teenagers, alot of the same things apply 🤣.
Taking a long road trip with small children can be daunting. However, if you plan and prep well it can be a really enjoyable experience. We drive to Texas 1-2 times a year to visit family, which is about a 15 hours drive from our house. I’m going to share a few things that we do to make the trip fun for the kids (and the parents)!
Please remember that this is a no judgement zone. We have been road tripping these longer distance trips since Jack (now 7) was 3 months old. At this point, we’ve road tripped while breastfeeding, pumping, teething, a baby with extreme acid reflux and potty-training. These are the things that I’ve found work for my family, after ALOT of mistakes along the way. My hope is that if gives you ideas for your family too!
If your trip is longer than 8-10 hours, I highly recommend stopping halfway and staying in a hotel/Airbnb. When people are well rested, everyone benefits. The driver is able to be more alert, the person taking care of everyone in the car (aka ME) has more patience and the kids won’t be as cranky or meltdown as much because they got a good night sleep in a bed instead of a car seat.
Last July when we drove to Texas and Korben was still sleeping in a crib at home, my sister-in-law let us borrow their Slumberpod and it was the best thing I’ve ever traveled with for a little one. The fabric is very breathable and we placed his Hatch inside the tent so it really felt like he was in his own room. He slept the best he has ever slept in a hotel, which meant WE slept the best we’ve ever slept in a hotel.
2. Plan out your stops. We try to plan stops every 3-4 hours, when possible. Typically these stops are around a meal time. Before we leave on our trip, I research places along the route that have good truck stops and try to find places to eat that have some type of play area so the boys can burn some energy.
**If you have young children that are still potty training, they will need to stop every few hours so they don’t have an accident. If you have children in diapers, breastfeeding, bottle feeding or don’t have the dexterity for a snack bowl, you will need to stop to accommodate those things.
Planning your stops in advance and having clear communication with the person driving, helps eleviate the added stress of “oh no, I have to go to the bathroom!” However, if there is an emergency and someone needs to use the restroom before the scheduled break or when there' aren’t a lot of options for stopping, we always carry a portable toilet with us. You can place an open diaper in the bottom of the portable toilet for your kiddo to relieve themselves in and then fold it up and place it in a Ziploc until you reach somewhere that it can be thrown away.
We use this one. I actually keep it in the car, even when we aren’t on road trips. It comes in very handy when we’re at the park!
3. Come prepared with snacks! Fed kids are happy kids. My boys rarely sleep in the car, never have, so making sure we try to avoid the grumpies at all costs is my #1 goal on a road trip. I use these 4 compartment snack bowls and fill several up before leaving home. Bentgo boxes are also a great option for snack containers. I also bring large Ziploc bags of snacks from home so that I can refill their bowls at stops or at night at the hotel.
4. I keep a bag of “activities” for the kid’s to do throughout the trip and give them a new one every few hours. I usually grab things from the Dollar Store or Target’s Dollar Spot, like new coloring books, stickers, cars, Colorforms, Magic Ink Coloring, etc. The kids usually bring a few toys or activities in their backpacks from home that they picked out and I reserve the “surprise bag” for when I see they are getting antsy.
Both boys have a travel tray that straps behind the car seat. These are AMAZING for eating, coloring, playing with action figures, puzzles and books.
5. Technology! One of things I did on our last road trip was check out a bunch of DVDs from the library that the kids haven’t seen before. We use the DVD player in the car for the kid’s to watch shows throughout the trip and I love that they have built in head phones. For us, we don’t set alot of time limits on technology on road trips. My goal on road trips is sanity for all!
The boys don’t get to use their kindles at home very often, so it’s an extra treat on a road trip. I also found that on the rare chance that Korben DOES fall asleep in the car, it’s much easier to keep Jack quiet if I let him play on his kindle until Korben wakes up.
I’m linking all of our favorite road trip items below for you!
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