Traveling with little ones requires being well-organized, resourceful, and most importantly, well-prepared. Since we travel quite a bit, I wanted to share some tried and true ways that get us through a road trip, with relative ease. Relative is the key word; however, these simple tips and trips will lead to much smoother road tripping with kids.
1. Plan a variety of engaging activities for the car.
I found these adorable, kids’ backpacks at Walmart and we use them every time we travel. I like to load them up with snacks, activities, and their water bottles.
These activities are favorites for my kids. They love the Water Wow, Melissa and Doug coloring books, they’re also way easier than trying to color with crayons or markers in the car. I let each of them pick a few of their favorite princess figures, which they play pretend with for hours. A few days before our trip, we stopped by the dollar store and I let them each pick one new toy and I also picked up these Shimmer and Shine on-the-go activity packs (you can find these in different styles all over).
The Disney books on CD have become such a lifesaver in the car, they love listening to these. The multiple packs with just one CD are the best because then you don’t have to change it out as often. I put several of their favorite books in their backpacks as well. Lastly, when I’m driving by myself, I like to pack snacks in their individual backpacks rather than handing stuff out the whole time.
These backpacks work great for my older girls. For my baby, I packed a bag of activities and snacks that sits next to me during the drive. Periodically, I’ll hand back a snack or activity. Below, I listed out some of the ones that are most engaging and exciting for my little guy.
- Leap Frog ABC bus, this comes with all 26 letters of the alphabet that can be fitted into the bus. Different songs are sung based on which letter is in place.
- Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes Music Toy, there is a reason there are over 11,000 almost 5-star reviews of this toy on Amazon. It’s a favorite to all kids!
- I bring a small cookie sheet with several of these foam magnets sitting on it, and it’s fun and engaging.
- Infantino multi-texture balls, provide great entertainment, especially to hand back one at a time.
- The Spin and Learn steering wheel, with it’s multiple switches, buttons, and activities is highly interactive.
- Touch and Feel picture cards are another exciting and fun activity for babies. Mine have loving feeling the different textures, looking through the cards, and moving them in and out of the box.
2. Pack a bedtime bag.
One reason why I prefer driving to flying, in most travel situations, is the ability to pack in a more organized way. After many road trips, I learned that packing a bedtime bag, basically a bag including everything that is needed for bedtime, makes our first night (and subsequent nights on the trip), much smoother.
In this bag, I like to include our white noise maker, baby monitors, bedtime books, a blanket and stuffed animal, and all of their pajamas for the trip. Corralling all of these items into one place makes every bedtime easier and less of a hassle. It can be really frustrating to dig through suitcases looking for a small item that we need for bedtime, and this is an easy solution.
3. Pack healthy and exciting snacks.
An exciting aspect of traveling, especially for little ones, is the snacks they get to enjoy. I like to make individual bags of snacks for each child. I also like to use an old diaper box, to keep snack foods contained and easy to access throughout our travels. Below are some of our favorite snacks including, cheerios, raisins, dried mango, Larabars, fruit and veggie food pouches, fruit leather, Craisins, and trail mix.
Road tripping with kids can feel daunting. Hopefully some of these will be helpful ideas for your next trip! We love to travel and spend time with family, so we have learned how to adapt to creating as smooth of a trip as possible. Comment with some of your hacks for road tripping with kids, I would love to hear your ideas!
Sincerely,
