My favorite road trip necessity is a good long nap. But in all seriousness.
In the spirit of Summer, I have been thinking about all the different things that our family uses to keep our kids happy in the car. Whether it be a trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s (just about a good nap away) or a long trip across the state, I’ve found that there is no such thing as being too prepared when it comes to keeping kids entertained.
I asked Emilie and Jessie to chime in on their favorites and must-haves as well. For some fun activities and other ideas, check out my Traveling with the Little Dudes Pinterest board.
Snacks
- Munchkin Snack Catchers – We use these absolutely every single day, regardless if we are driving 5 minutes or 5 hours. They are so amazing and prevent so many messes. Worth every penny.
- GoGo Squeez Applesauce Pouches – These are easy, fun and healthy snacks with virtually no mess. You can order them off Amazon for as low as $.50 each or Costco sells them for around $.48/pouch.
- Snack and Play Travel Tray – Provides flat surface for playing or eating, buckles around kids, has 2 large pockets and folds flat. Perfect for road trips!
Entertainment
- Leapfrog Tag Reading System - We have 2 of these, one for each kid, and they are fantastic. They boys could spend hours reading through the 4 or 5 different books we have, as each one has a story and multiple games included.
- Leapfrog Leappad – Emilie’s kids have one of these and love it so much they fight over it.
- Griffin iPad Cinema Headrest Case – This suggestion is from Jessie. Turn an iPad into a movie player attached to your headrest. Brilliant!
We are planning a trip to the Oregon Coast and this will be our first long trip with both boys. We have a huge bag of snacks packed and extra water bottles. I cleaned out the car (surprising how messy it can get!) and went through their toy/book tote we keep between them. I replaced batteries where needed and added some fun new toys and coloring books. I also picked up two new Crayola Color Wonder packets to give them something they have never seen before.
I’ve always been a fly by the seat of my pants packer, but this time I used this amazing Road Trip Pack List from Burlap & Denim. While there are some items that don’t apply to us, the majority of them were super helpful.
Please share your suggestions for traveling with kids, whether by plane or by car. We’d love to hear your tips and tricks!
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We just got back from Idaho where we put over 1000 miles on the car with our 4 & 7 yr olds. We also have laptrays that I absolutely wouldn’t do a long car trip without. Ours aren’t collapsable, but I got them for 50 cents at a garage sale a couple years ago and I rave about them to all my mom friends.
I let the kids fill a small backpack with car toys, and we set it aside a few weeks before we travel, so the toys are exciting again. We also take them to the dollar store and let them pick out 3 new toys that we save for the trip. I add crayons, coloring books, their white boards & markers as well.
This year we got audiobooks from the library. The kids listened really well, and it passed the time a bit easier for the adults than kid song cds do. We also had 2 really decent length stops to stretch legs which made a huge diffence in the previous year when we pushed through with just 1 break.
I love the Oregon Coast, have a great trip!!
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