6 Simple Ways To Enjoy A Family Road Trip (without losing it!)

A seasoned mom once told me that in order to make a vacation successful, you need to remember that the vacation starts when you leave your house. Do not fool yourself into thinking the vacation isn’t going to start until you get to your destination. Be prepared to make it fun for everyone right from the start!

Here are some unique tips that our family has found helpful on our long road trips.

1. Pack activity bags for each child.

In your child’s travel bag, include age-appropriate activities such as:

coloring books/workbooks/maze books
colored pencils or crayons (so they can’t make a mess)
surprise activities (like silly putty)
flash cards
kids books (educational or story books)
new toys (or ones they haven’t seen in awhile)
travel games (like light brite, magna doodle, memory)

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]You can also search pinterest for road strip hacks and ideas, but if you are like me, sometimes it can be overwhelming and simple is best.[/perfectpullquote]

For our most recent trip I packed a magna doodle sketch board for each child. I planned to make it the same for each child in order to avoid the kids fighting over someone having an etch-a-sketch or something different than they did.

I also thought a magnetic sketch board would be perfect to play made-up versions of I-Spy where they had to draw a picture of something they saw (i.e. a letter, a tractor or a cow). I’m excited to say that the game was a success!

2. Leave as soon as they wake up.

I know everyone has a different opinion on this. Some families like to leave just as your child is about to fall asleep and then drive while they are sleeping and quiet. While this can work well, we find that our children are too excited in a vehicle to sleep usually.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]If we leave in the morning right when they wake up, they are well-rested, happy, and eager to go.[/perfectpullquote]

We have the van packed the night before, and literally put them right in the car when the first one wakes up. We delay breakfast by about an hour, and the first part of the trip is down in a flash!

We pack a snacky no-mess breakfast. This saves us money and time since we can keep driving and don’t have to stop and pay for a meal. Give them their food first, and their drink last. It is inevitable that after kids drink, they need to pee almost immediately! So be ready to stop soon after breakfast is served.

I always like to include healthy options as much as possible, like fresh fruit, cheeses and meats. I also included a frozen no-bake energy bite as an extra-special surprise! Cold pancakes or even scrambled eggs (depending on your child) could also be good ideas to include.

The above photo was of the container my husband and I shared, but our kids like to use divided lunch containers that we found at the dollar store. This helps keep the food in order and separated in case there are some picky eaters in your family.

3. Have fun with some Oldies music.

Oldies music makes the start of your trip fun. It gets you moving and maybe is music they haven’t heard too often, so its new to them.

I found an old CD I made years ago and popped it in for the first part of our drive. Our kids loved to listen to “lollipop lollipop“. They had so much fun trying to do the ‘pop’ with their finger in their mouth!

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Just before your trip consider signing up for a FREE Amazon Prime 30-Day trial so you can have access to Prime songs![/perfectpullquote]

And don’t be afraid to put your hands up and have a little dance party. Your kids might be hesitant at first, but will soon jump no the bandwagon and think it is hilarious fun! Some of the best moments I have in motherhood are when I find the simple joys in life and become a kid again with my kids!

4. Make your own music lyrics book.

We love to sing while we drive. I’m not sure how it started, I think it might have been on our drive to church on Sunday mornings. We were having challenges getting to church peacefully, so I printed the words to several of our favorites hymns and songs.

I keep this little hand-made booklet in the glove compartment and pull it out whenever it is needed. I have a variety of songs in our little book, including . . .

Kids Songs (sometimes there are extra verses we don’t know all the words to)
Silly Songs (In my childhood I loved the Wee Sing Silly Songs, so I looked up those lyrics!)
Hymns (because we can’t always remember all the verses, or just need help in thinking of another song to sing)

5. Plan on frequent potty breaks.

You might need to make frequent potty breaks, so be OK with that. It might go slower than expected just like on our family rails to trails bicycle ride, but you can still find ways to enjoy it.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]I couldn’t even imagine driving for hours in a vehicle, where I couldn’t move or turn around![/perfectpullquote]

When you hear the phrase, “Can we please go to a place that has a potty again”, for the fifteenth time, just take a deep breath. And if you think you are really going to lose it, try putting yourself in their shoes.

Near the end of our trip, I realized little kids are strapped in a five point harness and can’t move.

That thought alone helped me to have extra grace and sympathy for my little ones (who were maybe whining, fussing and complaining more than I wanted them to).

6. Show them the blue dot.

The last part of the road trip is always the hardest. You’re almost there, so just hang in there! When we had about 20 minutes until we reached our destination, I showed the kids the GPS map on my phone.

I pointed to the destination dot, and made sure they knew where it was and that it was the color red. Then I showed them the blue dot.

You wouldn’t believe the excitement in their eyes!

That was us!!

We were moving closer to our destination!!

They loved to watch the blue dot get closer to the red dot.

I started to play a game with them, where I would turn off the phone and we’d guess how far the dot moved until we looked at it again in a few minutes. I shocked myself as to how much a 2, 4 and 6 year old could get into this simple little game!