In today’s post: 37 hacks for road trips with kids! How to prepare, how to stay organized, and how to keep kids occupied, plus the best snack ideas and ways to encourage good behavior in the car.
Once again, it’s road trip season. Honestly, I used to think people who packed up a bunch of kids and drove for fifteen hours and called that fun were completely, certifiably insane. There are times when fifteen minutes in the car with kids who won’t stop bugging each other is almost more than I can handle. However, I’ve realized that with the right preparation, a road trip with kids can be rather less miserable than expected – maybe even fun. All sorts of smart people have posted their favorite tips for road trips with kids online, and I’ve sorted through to find the best ones (and thrown in a few of my own). From preparing the car and organizing your supplies to packing snacks and prepping activities, this post has you covered. You’ll find links to hundreds of ideas to make your road trip with kids a little less horrible and a lot more fun.
Road trip with kids: How to get prepared
1. Start your road trip preparation off right by making sure you have everything you need in case of emergency. This post at Simply Preparing gives great guidelines for collecting items for an emergency road trip kit.
2. Here’s another car kit idea, this one from Simply Kierste:
3. If you’re traveling with kids, one thing you definitely want to be prepared for is sickness. Cleaning up after someone’s been sick in the car is NOT FUN. Line a mini pop-up trash can like this one with a few grocery bags and stash it somewhere handy in the car. Hopefully you won’t need to use it, but if you do you’ll be so glad you have it!
Road trip with kids: How to stay organized
4. It’s hard enough fitting all your luggage in the car for a road trip, so when you add in things for kids to do (coloring books, iPads, toys, etc.) the stuff can get overwhelming. This is where seat back car organizer can really come in handy!
Here’s a seat back organizer that holds an iPad plus a water bottle, wipes, toys, books, crayons, and more:
And here’s one that folds out like a tray table giving kids a surface to draw on as well as keeping their things organized:
5. Or just buy an over the door shoe organizer like this one (from the dollar store!) and keep the things you or your child will be using the most in easy reach. Idea from Decor-ganize Crafts.
6. Here’s an absolutely genius idea – build a simple bucket and pulley system using rope through the handles above the car windows – you’ll be able to get things back and forth to your kids without relying on their throwing and catching ability. Find more info at Kids Activities Blog.
7. Pillows are a must on a long road trip, but full size pillows can take up too much room (and cause arguments when “his pillow keeps touching me!”). I made these travel pillows with carrying cases last year and the kids loved them – they’re just the right size for using in the car and the case has a velcro pocket perfect for books, crayons, or a kindle. Easy sewing tutorial and free pattern provided.
8. I love this road trip idea: use shower caddies on the window to keep cups and toys handy! This idea plus 10 more road trip hacks at The Krazy Coupon Lady:
9. Organizing Junkie has great tips for corralling art supplies, DVD player, wipes, and snacks all in one place to cut clutter on a road trip. She also has some great printable picture packing lists the kids can use to get ready for the trip.
Road trip with kids: How to keep kids occupied
This is the most important part, right? I’m totally ok with kids using electronics on road trips, but mine do tend to turn into monsters if they stay plugged in for 20 hours straight, so I try to make sure they take breaks and do other things as well. Here are some great non-electronic activities for road trips with kids:
10. Download some audiobooks! We love listening to audiobooks with kids on road trips: it helps everyone relax and quiet down. Check out my favorite audiobooks for kids, teens, and adults here.
Or play some fun games! This is a list of the best road trip games that don’t require any special supplies (plus they’re actually fun!).
11. Help kids keep track of where you are on the trip and countdown how much further you have to go with this road trip countdown from The Dating Divas:
12. Another way to count down the hours is by prepping road trip goodie bags. Fill bags with small toys or fun things to do in the car, then let kids open one every hour or every hundred miles. Click through for 25 ideas for road trip goodie bags.
13. Make a portable lego kit, like this one from Mama Papa Bubba, so kids can bring their favorite toys along in the car without making a mess:
14. Road trip bingo makes it much more fun to sit and look out the window for a while. Get the printables from That’s What Che Said:
15. Keep kids from getting bored coloring with these alphabet pictionary printables from Laly Mom:
16. Play road trip games! Here are 10 games you can play together in the car, most of which don’t take any supplies (like the alphabet game).
17. This fantastic road trip post from Burlap and Denim has plenty of tips, including a printable packing list, but my favorite part is her take on the cookie sheet tray. Buy cheap cookie sheets at the dollar store to use as a lunch tray, magnet board, hard surface for coloring, or even a place to make friendship bracelets. The best part of this post is how she secured a cookie sheet to the booster seat arm rests so youngsters aren’t constantly dropping it during the ride.
18. For more magnetic game ideas to use with a cookie sheet, check out this huge post from 123 Homeschool 4 Me. I especially love the idea of using family photos to make magnetic popsicle stick “puzzles”.
19. Or make a chalkboard activity tray, like this one from I Heart Arts N Crafts:
20. Make your road trip time a bit more educational with this mini word building travel kit from I Heart Crafty Things:
21. I just discovered the existence of this next item: washable window markers. Kids can color directly on the windows of the car! The markers wipe off easily with a wet paper towel or window wipe.
22. Creekside Learning has a really great idea for forestalling the constant “are we there yet?” questions during a road trip – laminate a map of your route and use dry erase markers to keep track of where you’re going and where you’ve been. You can keep kids updated on your location and they can cross off locations as you drive through.
23. Download this road trip license plate map at Happiness is Homemade. Kids can color in the states when they see a car with that license plate!
24. Here’s another variation of the license plate game, from Comic Con Family:
25. And I love this take along tic tac toe from Mama Papa Bubba:
26. Have fun talking to each other with these road trip story starters from Somewhat Simple:
27. Keep younger kids busy in the car with this DIY I-Spy bottle from Mommy Suite:
28. Here’s an idea for older kids – a road trip scavenger hunt for teen and tweens from Meander and Coast:
29. For even more car trip printables, visit The Crafty Working Mom. Print out your favorite activity pages, then slide them inside plastic page protectors to create a re-usable road trip activity binder (use dry erase markers).
30. Even more printable road trip games at The Joys of Boys:
Road trip with kids: Snack ideas
31. This post by Toni Spilsbury is actually about organizing snacks at home, but her “fridge snacks” example would be perfect for putting in the cooler for healthy road trip snacks. She also includes a price breakdown showing how much you can save by packing your own snacks instead of buying at the gas station or drive through.
32. Make a fun, munchable snack necklace like this one from And this is how the story goes:
33. Kids are sure to love these tackle boxes turned mega snack packs, from Inner Child Crochet. I like the idea of giving one to each child and letting them control when and what they snack on, so I don’t have to rummage through the snack container every fifteen minutes to find someone more food. I’d be a little nervous about one getting tipped over, however, so I might look for a divided container that has separated lids so you can open just one compartment at a time (maybe in the jewelry making section).
34. Use straws for yogurt and applesauce – genius! I love this idea. We’ve done this plenty of times in the car, and even as a healthy snack at Disneyland. Cut straws in half so they’re not so long and tape one to the side of each snack in advance. (photo credit unknown)
35. For lots of healthy road trip snack ideas, visit this post from Wholefully.
Road trip with kids: How to promote good behavior
If there’s anything out there that will convince my kids not to poke each other while we’re on a road trip, I’m willing to give it a try!
36. Use these road trip clips to promote good behavior. If your clip is up, you know you’re doing well, but if it gets taken down…let’s just say you might not be getting a treat at the next rest stop. See how to make them at Just a Little Creativity:
37. Or try rewarding good behavior in the car with printable car bucks from The Dating Divas. Click through and scroll to bottom of post to get the free download:
Good luck on your next road trip!
Tracey Jones says
Great blog! I was searching some good stuff regarding road trip with my naughty toddlers and to handle them. Wondering what things should get in the bags while having a road trip. Well Thanks much for sharing this amazing at least for me <3
Car Travel with Pets: 10 Tips for Safety and Security says
Hey Autumn,
Thanks for sharing your nice and informative words. Above tips road tips you have shared are not only the road tips but includes resources, activities and having a lot of fun with kids and family. Informative stuff… keep it up……..
Thanks
Thomson John
Leilani Gamboa says
Thanks for these ideas! I love all and planning to do it too
Towing Service Pittsburgh says
Road trips are such a great way for the family to get away and see so many sights, we loved this article because it’s so jam packed full of ideas to stay safe and keep the kids busy too. As towing professionals we can’t urge enough the importance of bringing an emergency kit with you on vacation. A first aid kit, road flares, white cloth to hang from side window in case of breakdown, tire pump, spare tire, road map, extra cellphone batteries & jumper cables. Taking some precautions before your road trip like checking tire pressure, adding air to tires and making sure all fluids have been topped off in the vehicle are all important points to cover. An oil change before you go too is recommended. Happy travels! Great article! We are going to print it out and hang it up!
Rosealind says
I am a mom with lots of kids and I saw a license plate game on Pinterest and clicked the link but it didn’t show up when I searched for it on this website. I LOVED the hacks and car trip tips, they were very useful and I used every single idea, genuinely genius! Although it was disappointed when I couldn’t find the license game printable.
Melissa partida says
I live in Goodyear AZ Dec 28 2018 My husband 3 kids and i are driving Nakina North Carolina for my nieces wedding i need all the tips tricks and being sane for a 3 day long driving road trip
Thank you for the Great tips
Melissa
Lisa says
My sister and I are going on a trip this summer. We’ll be flying to California and driving up the coast to Oregon. Do you have any suggestions for boredom busting for adults? I think the snacks are a good idea, but trying to come up with some activities for driver & passenger besides sleeping, music, and reading.
Laura says
So many great ideas here! I plan to use some of them for our 12 hour trip in a few days. Thanks for the help!
Lorrin @ embracetheperfectmess.com says
These are really great ideas! Taking road trips with kids can be interesting. We have taken many road trips with our kids, and some of these tips have really come in handy. there are a couple of new ones here too!
Binfi says
Great ideas!! Weekly larger medicine/vitamin organizer would also work for #10 if you need individual lids, too
[email protected] says
Great suggestions. We have done many of these before with our family of 6. On our last 24 hour road trip to Florida we did bring along the map so the kids could see where we were. This was great. It reinforced the benefits of a paper map (being able to see the whole trip at once) and provided a start and end point.
Here was one of our favorite games to pass the time QUIZ QUESTIONS – http://growingplay.blogspot.com/2015/12/quiz-question-road-trip-game.html
Carrie says
Last road trip I took, we met each kid pick out a CD, and when they would get grumpy or tired of coloring, we would take a vote on which CD to play. They had a lot of fun singing along to their favorite songs and even dancing (safe in their seatbelts of course).
Suzanne Holt says
Thanks for all of these great suggestions! Pinned to my “Traveling with Kids” board.
Tiffany says
I’ve been pointing people to this post for the last year- it’s so comprehensive! 🙂 Also, wanted to let you know that we have a new post up for 2015 :). Thanks again for all the hard work that you put into this post! http://www.playeatgrow.com/2015/05/traveling-with-kids-ways-to-keep-your.html
Gwen says
We’ve gone on long road trips every year since 2010. The boys are now 8&6 and do wonderfully in the car. We listen to lots of music (Christmas in July is great!), read lots of books, play games. I used to pack toys in ziplock bags, I got soft lap trays made for the car and the boys would play w their Legos etc. we’ve listened to some books on cd (Little House in ththe Big Woods is still a favorite) but we’ll have to do more this summer.
Jordan says
Where did you find those individual packages of pickles and dips? Those are adorable and would be perfect for my trip this week!
April says
I love this list. My 3 children and I are driving from Nashville, TN to Los Angeles in April and then up to Vegas on the way home. It’s going to be a long month.
izzy says
Please forgive me if this has been mentioned already in the comments, but I believe the word you were looking for was “desert”, not “dessert”. When I read the line about being stranded in the “dessert” without water, I just had to chuckle because I had an image of a family stuck in ice cream (and I questioned if that would even be a bad thing lol).
Anyway, the article will hopefully help us on our first family road trip!!
Rachel says
GREAT tips! I used the presents along the way during a 3-day car trip with my 3 and 5 year old! Activity trays with sides were amazing,and we did reward tickets for good behavior to turn in for special surprises! But oh my goodness, audiobooks are a must!!! The best one BY FAR that we’ve found is “A Thicket of Takes” by A.D. Hasselbring – they sell the CD on their website, and also have the mp3s on Amazon and iTunes too I think. We did the CD, just because that’s easier for me than dealing with charging an ipod, but I have a friend who thinks the ipod was easier on their trip. I have a boy and girl, and this is a nice collection of exciting, very family-oriented stories for boys AND girls, and a pretty good age range. Upshot? No fights. They’d both listen to them all. Plus, they all teach a lesson, and the vocab was FANTASTIC. Very visual, no issues about no pictures, short enough tat I wasn’t stuck in the car for a half an hour waiting for a story to finish before I could get them out for a potty stop… And they didn’t drive me nuts. No crazy voices or obnoxious “kid” music. You can’t overlook that on a car trip. Whatever you start, you may be in for about a hundred times, so make sure it doesn’t make you crazy. (Ditto for things that the kids will fight over. You will have the same fight a hundred times.) These were awesome – they even prompted some great discussions and I was amazed at how focused they were. It was especially helpful when they were getting tired of being in the car but WOULD NOT SLEEP. Audiobooks (especially this one) were something that we could all enjoy together and made them really enjoy the trip. Instead of zoning out on the DVD player (ad yes, we did also have that just in case, but surprisingly this worked better), they were awake and active and having fun. Kind of what I’d hoped it would be like all along!!!
autumn says
why, thanks! My husband and I always say that the combination of the two of us turned out way better than either one of us alone 🙂
Elizabeth in Pipe Creek says
I recently took a roadtrip that involved driving 13 hours, each way, with my 4 and 5 year old son and daughter. The best trick I used was pinning clothespins on the visor number 13, 12 ,11 down to 1. As each hour passed, I took down a clothespin (so after the first hour I took down the “13” clothespin, etc etc) so the kids could see the numbers getting smaller and smaller. No one was allowed to ask “how much longer?” … and it really worked!
autumn says
great idea – thanks!
Matt Da Mon says
Really informative read, appreciate you taking the time to put it together, I’m also pleased to be able to share my own thoughts and am looking forward to returning to read what other readers have to say.
TAmi Charlton says
Lots of great ideas! Thank you!
Stephanie W says
Just a heads up, the Heaving Helper, while it looks like an awesome product, the seller no longer is doing business the right way. I paid for my product and never heard a work back. The number listed on the website is no longer in a valid number.
autumn says
Darn! I’ll remove it from the list right away.
margie says
Im going on a road trip on saturday at 5 am with my 9 yr old and 16 yr old the 16 yr old will probaly be listening to music but she gets bored of that sometimes so this was really helpful!
Sals Mexican Restaurant says
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KB says
Buyer beware for anyone reading this post – I tried to order the Heaving Helper after seeing it here. They took my money, but it’s been 20 days and no product, so I think I’ve been scammed 🙁 Trying to see if I can get my money back from PayPal. The company has not responded to my emails and the phone number on their website is invalid.
autumn says
KB – that’s terrible! Thanks for posting this – please come back and let us know if it gets resolved. I’ll put a note in the post so others see your comment.
margie says
Thats horrible you should call the police or something
KB says
Finally got resolution from PayPal and got my money back. I suppose I need to figure out some other car sickness solution for my kids! There were a ton of great ideas in this post, thank you for collecting them all 🙂
Rachael Clark says
What about a heavy duty leak free garbage bag, surely even a full sized bag will take up less space and cost less than pretty much every other solution you can find.
Katlynn Lane says
I LOVE THE IDEA OF THE CHEAP COOKIE SHEETS, BUT THE ONLY THING IS, IF YOU WERE IN AN ACCIDENT, THOSE ARE NOT SOFT OR PLIABLE AT ALL AND COULD SEVERELY INJURE A CHILD IF HE/SHE HAD ONE IN THEIR LAP DURING IMPACT AT A HIGH SPEED ON THE HIGHWAY. JUST SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT. A PIECE STURDY PIECE OF CARDBOARD OR FOAMBOARD MIGHT BE SAFER.
autumn says
I’d never thought of that, Katlynn! Thanks for mentioning it.
Kiely says
We go up north with the 9 youngest kids every year(family of twelve countin myself and honey ages 25 23 21 18 17 15 13 11 7 and 5) these are great ideas for them all
Sarah says
Love this Pin. There are a ton of great ideas. The first road trip I planned to WDW last year with my girls I had my box of things for them to go. One thing that was enjoyed by all was a DVD of family photos from past trips. I’m going to make another one for this trip too. Enjoy your travels.
pinke92 says
Wow-i like the laminated map idea and the listen to CDs best. I like least the focus on buying plastic toys and getting gifts every few minutes. That means the trip is about getting more stuff and less about family. http://www.theonion.com/articles/child-entertained-for-5-minutes-by-plastic-toy-tha,36249/
bug says
The best family friendly audio stories are at http://www.sparklestories.com. They also have a free podcast on iTunes — a best of 2013! Great for age 2 and up.
Kamiko says
I had the misfortune of having to take my daughter on a bus ride from Florida to Pennsylvania, it was interesting to say the least. i had to carry on a laundry basket, to keep some clothes and other items she would need for the trip.
– i brought crayons and a color book, which was great.
– then i read the color book to her, along with a story book she loved.
– i got lucky there was also another mother with a boy the same age. they took turns sitting with each other, and the color book got more use with sharing.
– both of us had finger snacks, and we shared with each other. the meal was great between the two of us.
– we sang songs
– we took naps together
– when we came to terminals in between, i let her run around like a crazy kid, to run out all pent up energy in the grass.
The article had many other items i wished i had back then when my girlie was little. i will share this list!
autumn says
Great ideas! You lucked out finding another mom and kid – it’s always more fun for kids when there’s someone else to play with. Singing songs is a great way to pass the time – thanks for sharing your ideas.
Barbara Mattson says
We drove from Minnesota to Florida (and home again) last November with four adults and two children (6 and 8) in a minivan. We were crowded, but the best thing we had with us was something our daughter made to track miles. She had beads strung from one side of the car to the other. Beads marked every 25 miles. Larger beads marked 100 miles. The destination for the day was shown by yet a different kind of bead. Once the boys got the hang of how to track the miles, we never heard any “Are we almost there?”
Lisa says
Thanks for all the great ideas! Another game that is fun for kids old enough to recognize letters is one we play every road trip at least once. You look at signs to find a word that starts with the letter of the alphabet. We do the alphabet in order A,B,C,D, ect. It’s fun to see what the kids pick up on! Q & Z can be the hardest to find, until they learn about zone signs! 😉 My kids range from teen to baby so we have ages of all stages. It works well for all ages that can recognize letters. The little ones are a bit slower at seeing letters but they pick up quickly on a long trip.
Linda says
What activities do you bring for 10/11 yr old boy to keep them busy in the car?
We are traveling with 4 yr and 10 yr old boys 7 hrs ea way. I have lots of ideas for 4 yr but not 10 yr. Do not want him to play video games whole time.
Tiffany says
Thanks for including us in your roundup. This is a great post. I love that pulley system idea…. we’re doing a ton of traveling again this summer…I think I need to work on making this happen :).
Erica says
My girls love to watch DVDs on the laptop during road trips, so I get entire seasons of shows, like “Saved by the Bell”, “Brady Bunch” etc. shows they may not watch at home, but will happily watch on the road.
I also bring along an individual binder ring/key ring and a hole punch for maps, brochures, souvenirs, paper menus from fun restaurants to collect during the trip. Once we get home, they’ll add trip pictures to their binder ring. Instant scrapbook!
rebekah says
I love your instant scrapbook idea. How cool! Thanks for sharing.
GracE hill says
Nice thinking
grace says
Love, love, love this post! Thank you for obviously putting so much effort and time into posting! I will definitely utilize so much of these ideas! Thank you!!
grace
Kira says
This is such a fun article! Thanks for all the tips! We will definitely try some of these out on our next road trip! Some sound so fun, I might even want sit in the back and try them myself!!
Joy rikli says
Fantastic post! We are driving from St. Louis to Orlando this summer with an extended family that includes 4 boys under age 5. I especially love the idea of the cookie sheet/lap desk! Thanks for the ideas!
Leanne says
We drive 1000 miles (one way) every summer to see my family. These are great ideas! We have used books on tapes, my kids (and my husband) like Hank the Cowdog, The Great Brain (a really good one for boys!), and Little House on the Prairie.
autumn says
We LOVE the Great Brain! I read them all as a kid and my older boys have been through the whole series. Little House is great too – I can’t believe kids don’t read it much anymore. Our city library only has one copy of the actual series – they have a whole bunch of shorter books based on the series instead. So lame! I’ve never seen Hank the Cowdog – I’ll have to check it out!
Rachel says
I second the suggestion to try Hank the Cowdog books (or audio books)! The Great Brain series is definitely one of our favorites as well. Most of the Beverly Cleary books (Ramona, Henry) are also available on audio book. A funny set for the younger kids is Mercy Watson. If you like the Little House on the Prairie books, you’d love the Ralph Moody series. It begins with the book Little Britches and there’s about 8 books in the series. They’re based on the life of the author and are a bit more action-packed than the Laura Ingalls series. They’re geared more toward boys but definitely keep the attention of girls and adults as well. Amazon has most of the audio books in that set, although they seem pricey. Our library does not have them. We’ve been reading the actual books together as a family in the evenings. Highly recommend!
Jessica says
I’m driving fifteen hrs with my 4 kiddos (9,8,6&3) for spring break, while my hubby stays behind to work. I already raided dollar tree for flashcards, coloring books & crayons, snack containers, school work sheets (the fun ones), drink containers,puzzle/activity books, mechanical pencils (no sharpening needed) and so on and so forth! 🙂 I’m glad I found this post! Gives me a ton more ideas to keep them happy and me sane!
autumn says
Good luck on your drive – you’re brave!
Taunya Butler says
These ideas are all so cool!! I sure wish this info had been around when my kids were little. But now I can share them with my grandchildren for when they travel to come see us!! Great Ideas shared – Thank you so much!!
Emily says
Thanks for this compilation, which I found via pinterest! I’m planning another cross-country trip to visit our grandparents, and these are some good new ideas. I’ve blogged about what has worked for us in the past here: http://www.everythingtosomeone.com/2013/07/10/road-trip-survival-tips/
kathy says
Wish you were planning a certain road trip for Spring break. Great ideas.
Lara says
We drove from Michigan to Florida last year with my then 7 yr old and 3 yr old. We borrowed the book traveling I-75 from the library, it gives you places to look that you normally wouldn’t see on the freeway. It also gave us adults go arounds and tips for where the police hide to where you might find backups. It was wonderful. We left at 3am so the kids slept at least until Kentucky, they got dressed we ate breakfast in the car. I had packed sandwiches for lunch and we ate them in Georgia at a roadside park, so the kids could get out and run.
As kid my parents to long week to two week long road trips in the summer, so I had ideas to keep my kids busy that didn’t involve movies the entire trip. My kids were wonderful, leading us to want to do it again.
Julie @ Creekside LEarning says
What a great round-up! And, as I am about to drive 1200 miles in my mini van with my 3 kids, I TRULY, TRULY appreciate this post. Thank you for including our travel maps.