Are you about to embark on a family trip? If so, you’ll want these tested and approved road-trip travel tips for kids.
Traveling with kids can be stressful. Long car rides, layovers at the airport, keeping them quiet during flights, emergency bathroom breaks, and the need for ALL the snacks can make any trip challenging. How can we ensure that the travel to vacation sets a good tone for the remainder of the trip?
Planning and having some ideas ready will go a long way. My personality is one of list-making, organizing, and, as I like to call it, “planning for the worst but hoping for the best.” For those of you who aren’t wired that way, that’s okay. God made us all unique with different ways of navigating this thing called life. It can be hard to know where to start, so I took my hours of research and planning and made this blog a helpful resource for you.
This post is all about travel tips with kids – planning with the hope of keeping everyone happy for long car rides, travel-friendly activities for kids, meal planning for longer trips, and emergency preparedness. Enjoy!
Travel-Friendly Activities for Kids
When looking for travel-friendly activities to keep the kids engaged, there are a few things to remember: the size of the supplies, the mess they can create, and the requirement for small pieces that could easily be misplaced. The type of activities that will work best for your family will depend on your child’s age and interests. Here are some ideas of what worked well for our 7 and 4-year-olds for a recent 11-hour car ride.
Coloring & Activity Books
– Small activity packs
– Crayola Color Wonder Mess Free Coloring Sets
– Sticker activity books
Books for All Ages
Compact Toys
– Barbies (Chelsea size is great for travel)
– Travel scavenger hunt card game
– Drawing pads
– Lego travel build & store box
Electronic Entertainment
– Travel DVD player and headphones
– Nintendo Switch, but don’t forget a game or two; or if you don’t have one yet, check out the system and game combo
– iPad utilizing apps like PBS Kids, ABC Mouse, and Bible for Kids
Organizational Tips
– Clear bags for organizing easily see what’s inside!
Snacks for the Journey
Allow yourself to over-prepare in this area. Nothing is worse than a tired, bored, hungry person (kids AND adults). I recommend keeping a variety of snacks within arm’s reach in the car and storing extras in the back of the vehicle if needed.
One trick that came in handy was to have lollipops for the kids. Save them for that time when you just need a little quiet. If it’s a busy city you are navigating driving through and you need a little extra focus or the kids are just nagging each other. It’s hard to talk when you’re enjoying a lollipop….Win-win for all!
Make sure you have all the favorites. Consider individual packs for ease. See some of our favorites here:
- Lollipops
- Nature’s Bakery Raspberry Bars
- Made Good Chocolate Bars
- Good Crisp Chips
- Gogo Squeeze Applesauce Pouches
Meal Planning for Longer Trips
During longer trips, planning for meals is essential. For some, this will be a quick, last-minute decision to stop by whatever restaurant or fast food place is nearby. For those of you like us with food allergies and special dietary needs, this takes more planning and preparation. Before your trip, search online for allergen menus for some popular restaurants. I went a step further and made a list of safe options for each family member so that when we stopped, it could be a quick order that we knew would work for each person’s needs.
Another option to maximize travel time with minimal stopping is to have a bag ready with all you need to make your family’s favorite sandwiches. We assembled the sandwiches when we stopped for gas and used our other snacks to accompany them. It was quick and easy, and it kept us moving toward our vacation destination.
Emergency Preparedness
Emergencies are not something you want to happen, especially on vacation! Here are some things to consider:
Bathroom Solutions
Stuck in a traffic jam, and someone has to go to the bathroom? Here are some products to consider purchasing to get you out of this stinky, I mean sticky, situation:
– Collapsible toilet
– Female urinal
Electronic Essentials
Many of us rely on our phones for directions. Be sure you can charge your phone and other electronics in the car.
What about the slim chance that you are in an area with little cell phone signal or a cell tower goes down, and you need to know where to go? Call me “old school,” but I like to take a printed version of the directions so I can keep on going in case technology fails. Printing hotel confirmations or codes needed to get into your condo is also a good idea if you cannot access this information on your phone for whatever reason.
Fuel and Safety
My rule of thumb is always to keep the gas tank at least half full when it comes to fuel. I was shocked at the limited number of gas stations available in the last 3 hours of our recent road trip. We could have been in a real pickle if we hadn’t planned ahead on fuel. This is especially important when traveling late at night or early in the morning when gas stations in smaller towns may not be open 24 hours a day. This also keeps you prepared for an unexpected traffic jam without panicking and needing to conserve fuel.
Getting the kids to potty, get shoes on, get car seats buckled, and get everyone in the car ready to go can be a whirlwind, even for the most prepared families. Once we get in the car and are about to leave, we always do the “driveway check” of essentials. Do we have wallets, phones, driver’s licenses (passports if needed), and emergency medical equipment (we carry an EpiPen everywhere we go for food allergies)? Finding out one of these items has been forgotten is much easier to remedy when we are still in the driveway rather than at our destination.
Conclusion: Embrace the Adventure
Traveling can be stressful, and there is no doubt about that. However, preparing and using some tips from this blog can help you hit the road more confidently. It is imperative to go into traveling with the right mindset. View the travel to vacation as an adventure and opportunity for memory-making with your sweet family.
Take the trip and make the memories; it will be worth it. They are only little once, so don’t miss it!
This post was all about travel tips with kids. Safe Travels!
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