11 Tips for Road Tripping with Kids

We’ve done a lot of road trips with our kids. Too many to count at this point. My husband and I started dating in ninth grade so our first road trips together were also with our parents and brothers. When we were 15 my mom took us to Yellowstone and we sat in the backseat with my brother playing Pokemon on a gameboy. In college we went on road trips together anytime we had a school break or a long weekend: camping trips to Southern Utah and up to Jackson Hole, multiple trips to California to visit family and friends, up through Glacier and Banff and down the coast from Seattle to San Francisco. So when we had kids we knew we would keep up the tradition. 

We started road tripping with kids when our firstborn was not quite two months old. We drove 8 hours to Vail, CO, stopping every few hours to nurse and change his diaper. We took him to all five Utah national parks by the time he turned one. We moved from Utah to the Seattle area when we had two kids: ages 2 years and 6 months at the time. We explored Washington, road tripping and camping all over the state and started driving back to Utah each spring and fall to visit friends and family. 

The drive from Seattle to Salt Lake City is about 13 hours. 

We started doing this drive in one day, several times a year, when our kids were 1 and 3. 

When they were 6 and 8 we moved into our travel trailer and have spent the last two years traveling full time, driving up and down the west coast each year. 

Here are my best tips for road tripping with kids:

SNACKS

Lots of them. You probably cannot have too many snacks. We keep a large bag full of snacks in our truck at all times and it is most highly utilized on long drives. The key is variety: you need a balance of salty, crunchy snacks, trail mix, bars, and some fresher options. We often have broccoli puffs, snap pea crisps, fig bars, nuts and trail mix, dried mango, bananas, apples, clementines and fresh sourdough. 

TOYS AND ACTIVITIES

We don’t need this as much anymore now that the boys are older and our drives are often only around 3-4 hours when we are towing. When they were younger and we frequently drove 13 hours in one day this was absolutely essential. We kept a bin full of toys and activities between the kids in the truck when we were on a road trip. In this bin we had Water Wow activity books, board books to flip through, magnetic tiles on a baking sheet, and small toys that I would put inside small zipper pouches. Unzipping the pouches and discovering what was inside was part of the activity! Inside I would put things like hot wheels cars, plastic animals, silly putty, etc. When they were really little I would keep some of the toys up front with me to pass back to them when they needed a distraction several hours in.

DISPOSABLE THROW UP BAGS 

This tip is completely unglamorous and will absolutely save you on a rough travel day. Both my kids are prone to carsickness and we had a few unfortunate drives where they got sick and we did not have these bags. Then my amazing mother in law gave us about a zillion of these things and we have kept them stashed in every nook and cranny of our truck ever since. Around age 2.5 our kids were able to hold the bags and aim well enough to use them effectively. 

PACK EVERYTHING IN THE CAR THE NIGHT BEFORE

A smooth road trip morning starts the night before. Pack everything the night before. I don’t just mean packing bags and setting them by the front door. Put all the bags in the car. Make sure the snacks are in the car where everyone can reach them. Fill the water bottles and put them in the car cup holders. Put the kids' shoes in the car if you’re going to carry them to the car at 3 am. Put your sunglasses on the dash. Do everything you possibly can the night before so the morning of your drive you just need to get dressed and grab the kids and the keys. 

LEAVE AT 3 AM AND COVER AS MUCH GROUND AS POSSIBLE WHILE THE KIDS ARE ASLEEP

This tip probably sounds crazy but I read about it when my kids were 1 and 3 and it was our go-to strategy for driving 13 hours in one day with two toddlers. We would put the kids to bed in clothes for the next day (sweatpants and a tee shirt–comfortable for sleep and sitting in the car), go to sleep right after we got them in bed and set an alarm for 3 am. When we woke up at 3 am, we would carry our sleeping kids into the car and they would either stay asleep or go right back to sleep as soon as we started the drive. I always drove first so my husband could go back to sleep as well. Everyone except the driver would go back to sleep until around 7 am and by that time we were already 4 hours into our 13 hour drive! And to the kids it felt like we had only just started the trip. Amazing. After a park break we would switch drivers and the first driver could take a nap. 

TAKE LONG BREAKS

Around 8 am we would stop at a park to eat breakfast and run around and play. Sometimes we would grab some breakfast somewhere and then head to a park, other times we would just bring something from home to eat. After breakfast the kids get a chance to play and we would all go on a walk around the park to stretch our legs before getting back in the car. Since we started the drive so early and weren’t in a rush we sometimes we would spend an hour or two at the park. Park breaks let us all get some fresh air and exercise and break up the monotony of being in the car all day. 

EVERYONE USES THE BATHROOM EVERY TIME WE STOP

We do not ask the kids if they need to use the restroom when we stop at a gas station or park. As a rule, we all go to the bathroom every time we stop by a bathroom on a road trip.

PLAN YOUR STOPS

We especially use this trick when towing our trailer since we want to make sure that our stops can accommodate a 22 foot truck pulling a 33 foot trailer. We plan which truck stop, gas station or rest area we will stop at when we do our route review the night before. This way we know exactly when our next bathroom stop is. We will tell the kids, “ok, our next stop is in 40 minutes. You can start drinking water now.” This prevents trying to find a decent bathroom stop when it's urgent. 

BRING A POTTY FOR TODDLERS

When our kids were toddlers we would bring our little potty along with us and put it in the bed of the truck. This way we could even just pull over on the side of the road and let them use the truck bed as a private little bathroom stall. Bring bags and toilet paper too. 

PACK EASILY ACCESSIBLE CHANGES OF CLOTHES

You may think that since you have a duffle bag full of a week’s worth of clothes that you don’t need a change of clothes in the diaper bag. But depending on how the back of the car is packed, said duffle bag may not be all that accessible when you need to pull over on the side of the freeway because your toddler just threw up or your baby had a blowout. Keep a change of clothes for each child (and maybe yourself) where you can quickly access it in a pinch.

AUDIOBOOKS

Audiobooks make the time fly by on a road trip. We love using the Libby app to check out library books to read on Kindle and love using it for audiobooks as well. Some of our favorite family audiobooks are Harry Potter, Because of Winn Dixie, My Side of the Mountain, and Once Upon a Camel. When a book is really good, our family doesn’t want the drive to end so we can listen to the end of the book!