We just wrapped up a road trip with our kids ages 4, 6 and 8 that lasted 12 days. Of the 12 days we spent 8 of those traveling from one spot to another ranging from 6 hour drives (which as most parents know, equals like 8 hours in the car) to 12 hour drives (from sun up to sun down!).
As we started planning for this trip we knew we didn’t want them to spend all day every day on screens using their tablets or watching movies and I’m happy to report the used them for about 20 minutes on the first day and 40 minutes on the last day and that’s it.
It took a lot of planning on my part but the planning resulted in (mostly) happy and content kids who thrived in the car and didn’t just survive. This blog post will share everything that I did to hopefully help you as you embark on your own family road trip!
Road Trip Essentials for Kids
1. Activity Binders
The best thing that I did was inspired by my own mom and road trips that we took as a kid. For the activity binders I used a 3 ring binder and divider tabs with a front and back pockets.
I knew that we would have 8 long days of driving I included 2 things – a laminated map of where we were starting that day and where we were ending along with some stickers so they could keep track of where we went as well as a pocket divider tab full of printables.
I used one divider tab for each day. In the front pocket I printed off tons of printables for the state we were going to be in that day (things like state flag, state flower, state bird, etc). That way it was a little bit educational and the kids could learn a bit about each state we were going to! We actually realized some states have the same state birds doing this!
In the back pocket I printed off things that would be interesting for each kid (word searches, soccer coloring pages, unicorn coloring pages, i spy pages, etc). I also included things like the map of the United States so they could get a better idea of where we were going.
I had about 10 pages for each section so 20 printables in all. I chose to only start with Day 1’s printables and then each night I would add in the next day’s divider tab full of printables. This kept things fresh and the kids were SO excited each morning to see what was in there.
I got a mix of paid and free items. I actually created an etsy shop where you can get some of the things that I made for my kids that they loved!
Here are some of the best sites that I found a lot of printables on to get you started:
- etsy
- Monday Mandala
- Stevie Doodles
- Paper Trail Designs (iSpy sheets)
Road Trip Tip
Print off extra copies of different things – from time to time our kids went through all of their printables quick so I had a few extra things to fill time!
2. Retractable Markers
I shared this on this road trip essentials for your car post but they’re the best. After going on one road trip and having to throw away so many markers because my youngest would drop a marker cap and not be able to reach it since was in a car seat, I bought these retractable markers.
Yes, they’re a bit of a splurge but when you’re not having to buy new markers because yours are all dried out, they’re worth it!
3. Books
I also shared this in my road trip essentials for your car post, but I had trunk organizers for both our middle row in between our youngest 2 kids and one in the back next to my oldest. I stocked these full of books, coloring books, activity books, leap frog books, etc.
On our first road trip I took the kids to the library right before our trip so it was all fresh books but then it got to be stressful ensuring books didn’t get lost or ruined so I chose to only bring books that we owned. I always say I wish libraries would be more universal so we could keep stopping and swapping libraries as we drove through the US!
I ended up buying a few story series and National Geographic books for our 2 older kids on eBay and actually ended up having a few neighbors give us a ton of books that their kids had outgrown – lucky timing for us!
Road Trip Tip
If you’re going on a long trip like we did, I recommend packing a bag of half the books so you can swap books as you go. Every couple of days I would add in some new books and put away books that were already read. This was the game changer in keeping moods high and preventing boredom since they had fresh books to read (even if it was books from home that they’ve already read before at home).
4. Surprise Bags
Our kids quickly caught on that every day of a long drive mom would randomly hand out brown lunch bags full of a couple surprises. The amount of excitement and joy that came with these bags made them 100% worth it but the funny thing is they were full of very random and inexpensive things!
I picked up classic brown lunch bags and labeled them by day and kid and also wrote a little note on each. Inside each bag was a snack or treat (a baggie of a few Swedish fish, a sucker, a marshmallow, chips, etc) and some sort of toy or activity.
Some of the highlights were magnet people (I bought one pack and split it up between the 3 kids), wikki sticks, and sticker faces.
I usually handed these out in the afternoon after the kids started to get squirrley and need a boost in morale. These don’t need to be anything big or expensive but if you have the space and the means to give out a little surprise, it really helps!
5. Garbage Bags for Pillows and Blankets
This is something that I thought about as I was going to sleep the night before our trip and I’m SO glad that I thought of it. We brought along the kids’ pillows and a small blanket since we knew we would be driving at night and past the kids’ bedtimes numerous times.
With such limited space in the car and give the fact that the kids have little legs still, I just put their pillow at their feet. When they were done using their pillows and blankets and ready to put them at their feet, I would put them in a garbage bag and tie it shut. With all of the hikes and things we did, these bags saved the kids’ pillows so they didn’t get incredibly filthy but still allowed us to store them under their feet.
6. Colorful Pillowcases
This one is for anyone who brings their pillows on a road trip and brings it into a hotel – put a bright colored pillowcase on it! I bring my pillow everywhere and brought it with on this trip. The very first day I brought it in to the hotel to sleep on.
As we were getting ready to leave, it got put back on the bed because I had a white pillowcase on it and it matched the bedding AND I LEFT IT. I literally cried ha! I love my pillow and didn’t want to go through the whole trip without it but that’s what I had to do.
Learn from my mistake. Skip the white pillowcase, even if that means you have to buy a new one just for the trip. It beats buying a new expensive pillow!!
7. Snacks
It’s not a road trip without copious amounts of snacks! We opted to do mostly the single serve items rather than divide up large bags food in the car. It was more expensive and created more waste but it worked the best for us, especially being on the road for so long.
The best way that I did this was to get a ton of different snack options. We did our best to stick with mostly healthier options so we got things like fruit bars, fig bars, mini Lara bars, raisins, granola bars, nuts, dried fruit, etc.
Before we left, I picked up these bags and divided up the snacks into those. Each bag had somewhere around 15-20 snacks of different varieties. Rather than having 10 big boxes of food to sift through to get a snack, I would just grab one of those bags each day and that was the snacks of the day!
It worked so well that I passed on a few to my sister when we parted ways in Yellowstone since her family had a lot more driving to do as well.
And there you go! I truly hope this helps you with prepping for your own family road trip!
Thank you! Summer road trips with kids are daunting and this helps so much!