We are a family that likes to travel. We like to explore new places and meet new people. We like to revisit favorite places and visit old friends. Sometimes we find ourselves on a long road trip to get wherever it is we want to go. Here are our road trip survival tips ranked in order of importance.
1. Happy Snacks – Road Trip Goodies for Kids – I usually make each of the kiddos one of these. Each bag contains semi-healthy snacks, a small toy, paper, stickers and writing utensils.
2. Movies – preferably movies based on books.
3. Audio books – preferably books that have been made into movies. This past year we listened to “How to Train Your Dragon”, “The Call of the Wild”, “The One and Only Ivan”, “Peter Pan”, and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. After listening to the book, the kiddos got to watch the corresponding films. We also listened to “The Hundred Dresses” and “The Phantom Tollbooth” without corresponding films.
4. Pez – pez dispensers are filled at the start of the drive and doled out incrementally along the way, every so many miles, depending on the length of the trip. Road trips are the only time our kiddos ever get pez.
5. A cooler or RV fridge packed with more snacks and cold beverages. When we stop to get gas, we make a quick sandwich and grab a drink for lunch. If I have planned well and have enough time, I will make ranch dip to go with fresh veggies, Edamame Dip, hummus, and Egg-less Vegan Tofu Salad.
6. We pack as much as we can the night before and leave first thing in the morning. For a 12 hour road trip we try and leave at 6 am. For a nine hour trip we leave by 7 am. The kiddos are usually so tired that early in the morning that it seems to suppress their metabolism on the drive.
7. Breakfast in the car – We bring orange juice mini bottles, Kind breakfast bars and homemade Banana 🍌 Bread mini muffins to eat en route. If I’m really on my game, I’ll also pack some “breakfast cookies”. I’ll have to post my recipe for “breakfast cookies” sometime soon…
8. Dramamine – Our middle child sometimes gets car sick so we keep the children’s chewable Dramamine in the glove compartment of the truck.
🚙 What special things do you do to prepare for a long road trip?
heavens to betty 
The road trip sunrise is beautiful! A sunrise is God’s reward for getting up early. 🙂 We used to play the license plate game. The breakfast cookie recipe sounds interesting. I buy Belvita crackers and eat them for lunch. Safe travels!
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I need to get some dramamine…Ari gets carsick and that would be good to have. All the things you listed are great, we also add kindles for some individual screen time and mad libs for group hilarity and sort of language arts.
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We have Mad Libs but lately the kiddos complain of writing/reading in the car. 🤷🏻♀️
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What an amazing list of goodies to bring! You are so prepared. Except for Chris, we all get car sick…more the kids than me. We use chewable Bendadryl for motion sickness and that seems to work well. Each kid brings one favorite stuffed animal, packaged snacks, barf bags, water bottles, and K-love music.
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