Seeking Road Trip Tips

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by

Amy
in

Our family is pretty well air-traveled. The kids (and the adults) know the drill when it comes to long flights, short flights and really long flights, too.  We’ve dealt with jet lag, canceled flights, lost luggage, broken DVD players, airsickness and more. We’ve also had lots of beautiful trips where everything has gone right.

(If you are interested, here’s a link to several other articles I’ve written with tips and checklists for traveling with kids...)

But now we are preparing to embark on a journey we haven’t attempted since our first was nearly 2 and our second was 4 months… the great American road trip.

And since I know there are tons of well-traveled moms out there with good advice, I thought I would call on you to help us out.

We’ve already got the route mostly mapped out and have plotted a few stops here and there. And I’m guessing I can use many of my air-travel techniques on the road.

But we could certainly use your pointers on successful road-tripping.

We are cruising from Houston to Southern Illinois for a family reunion. We are planning on starting out in the evening, spending a night out and arriving the next day. The way back we broke into 3 drives with a waterpark visit (and a quick trip to meet a blogging buddy live in person!!) along the way.

So… what do know, girls?

Please, please, PLEASE comment away with any and all wisdom you have to share….

I’m counting on you!

PS This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday… because I need to know what works!

Comments

12 responses to “Seeking Road Trip Tips”

  1. The Happy Housewife Avatar
    The Happy Housewife

    Who are you meeting? Do tell!

    Reply
  2. mom2fur Avatar
    mom2fur

    When we used to travel with the four kids to visit Grandma in Ohio–a 600-mile-trip–we always left in the ‘middle of the night.’ We’d have everything ready before the kids went to bed, then we’d wake them up around four in the morning and be on the road within half an hour. The idea was that they’d fall back asleep again in the dark. (BTW, let them bring their own pillows!) Not that they really slept–it was fun to be awake at night! But, of course, in a twelve-hour trip they did take plenty of naps.
    We made breakfast part of the trip and always stopped at the same diner. I know people will picnic on the roadside, but who wants to pack and carry food?
    One fun thing we had on the trip was a cookie sheet. I had some colored pieces of wood in various shapes that I glued magnets to the back of (if you get those fake credit cards in the mail, you can cut those up), so they could play with that and the pieces didn’t end up all over the place.
    My kids range from 19-26 now, so those days are gone. I’m hoping to visit mom by car this fall, but I’m not sure if any of the kids will be able to come along. All I know is, I don’t have to entertain them any more, LOL!
    .-= mom2fur´s last blog ..My frugal, florist daughter =-.

    Reply
  3. grannyann Avatar
    grannyann

    I have done a Lens on just that subject. Check it out:
    http://www.squidoo.com/Travel_Games
    .-= grannyann´s last blog ..Get "Christmas Ready" NOW =-.

    Reply
    1. Amy Avatar
      Amy

      LOVE these travel game ideas!! Thanks for the link!
      –Mom

      Reply
  4. Heather @ Just Doing My Best Avatar
    Heather @ Just Doing My Best

    Best wishes on your trip! I recently wrote a post on Easy Travel Snack Tips that you might find helpful.
    http://justdoingmybest.com/index.php/2009/05/15/easy-travel-snack-tips/#more-164

    Reply
  5. Meagan Avatar
    Meagan

    What we always did was put all the snacks in a bag before hand. All the candy, cookies, etc. for everyone was in their own bags. That way, they could ration them on their own. We kids would spend hours trading for different items, and if we ate it all at once, it was gone. No complaining because we knew it was our own fault.

    Also, my mom always froze our water bottles so that we wouldn’t drink them too quickly and also so they’d be cold. Fewer bathroom breaks too!

    Meagan’s last blog post..Making Homemade Bread

    Reply
  6. Nikke Avatar
    Nikke

    I did a post last year when we took our road trip. You may find something helpful in my post.
    http://momsinthefishbowl.blogspot.com/2008/07/road-trip-with-kids.html

    Nikke’s last blog post..BIG DAY! More visitors coming our way

    Reply
  7. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    My best friend, Alexa, and I have a blog (I’m one of the ones that won your magazines for Earth Day – thanks!)… check it out because today Alexa did a WFMW post and it has to do with something you’ll want to read about! :) (traveling)

    ourcomfortandshelter.blogspot.com

    hope you have a chance to visit her/us there! :)

    Have a great roadtrip!
    Jen

    Jen’s last blog post..Word Filled Wednesday ~ wind

    Reply
  8. Tara Avatar
    Tara

    Our family drove with our four kids (2-8) and another adult friend of our family from Minnesota to Chicago to Kentucky and then all back again. We did this without screens, no video games, dvd players, game boys, mp3s, I-pods etc. I was actually part of a panel discussing road trips with pre-schoolers at our MOPS group after that trip! Here are my favorite tips:

    1. Pack smart. When you’re laying out the kids’ clothes designate one walmart type bag for each day and pack all the kids’ clothes together. So, for our 8 day trip I had 8 walmart bags labeled per day and had one outfit for each kid in the bag. That way on Monday of the trip you only have to pull out Monday’s bag and everyone’s everything is in it! (I hope that makes sense.) I then put the bags in a Rubbermaid tub rather than a suitcase. It fit very nicely in the back of the van! Also, since you’re making a stop on the way pack a small suitcase to take out at that destination so you don’t have to completely unpack and repack the car/van for clothes for one night.

    2. When you’re packing toys and snacks gather up everything you want to bring and then cut it in half. Put one half up front for the trip there, but then reserve out the other half in the trunk for the ride home. By the time you get to your destination the kids will be sick of the toys and they may not hold their attention for the ride home. This way you have “new” toys for them to play with on the way home!

    3. For one of our snacks I packed it “brown bag” style for each kid. I put a juice box, a baggie of snacks and a little McD type toy in the bag. It was just a fun little something to do. :)

    I think those are my favorite tips. Have a fantastic trip!

    Tara’s last blog post..The Update List

    Reply
  9. deirdre Avatar
    deirdre

    if your kids like to sing, bring a hymnal. I LOVED road trips with my parents. We sang our way through the hymnal.

    old fashioned I know, but hey, that’s me.

    deirdre’s last blog post..Boulder photos

    Reply
  10. barbara Avatar
    barbara

    Hey!
    Great to hear you are taking a road trip! I love road tripping! The thing I don;t love is how messy the van gets from trash and just kids toys and books, so if you could put stuff in totes….food, books, toys etc. This way things don’t get to smooshed and are easy to put away too at stops. I also like to take a laundry basket to put dirty clothes in. You can put stuff in it for the ride, then when it empties…put the dirty clothes in there! Then you are ready to put it right in the laundry room when you get home!

    Reply
  11. Tonja Smith Avatar
    Tonja Smith

    If you do an amusement park – make sure you have vaseline for chapped arm pits – the first time we didn’t have it, so the only resource we had late at night in the hotel was chapstick – it worked fine.

    Reply

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