Do you plan on traveling on a road trip this summer? Try some of our favorite hacks that make traveling as a family easier.
Hotels
Have you ever shut the curtains to your hotel room, and a crack of light is still coming in? Early in the morning, the gap seems to shine right in your eye, or even worst, in your child’s eye, and the next thing you know, the kids are up at 5:45 AM. Next time take the hanger from the hotel closet and use the clips to keep it closed.
We have three kids. We often traveled with our older, large dog when they were younger. We couldn’t leave our dog in the hotel room alone while we all went to the dining room to eat. Typically we would bring food up for the kids to eat in the room. When going to the hotel dining area isn’t feasible, a hotel room ironing board can be used as a makeshift table.
Need to charge lots of devices? Use the USB on the back of the TV to help charge your electronics.
Travel Food and Snacks
We usually prefer to travel on our road trips with a medium-sized cooler. It allows us flexibility while we are going down the road. I have some picky eaters, and homemade Bento boxes are always a win. To save room in the cooler, I take my foods out of their packages and store them in gallon ziplock bags. I often take the ziplock bags out of the freezer and assemble these bento boxes on my lap when we are approaching lunchtime. On our last trip, I forgot the bento boxes and made them in individual quart-sized ziplock bags. (Easy clean-up) With this option, if some foods are not eaten fast enough, they will make other items soggy. Our favorite travel foods are lunch meat, crackers, pre-sliced cheeses, fresh pre-cleaned and cut-up fruit, dried fruits, pretzels, nuts, baby carrots, or other easy-to-eat veggies.
Regardless of what we choose to eat while going down the road, there is bound to be a mess. A package of disinfectant wipes is helpful when we need an extra cleaner or after visiting a gas station. We always also keep a roll of paper towels handy.
Activities for kids
The number one travel hack is ensuring that snack foods and activities are close by and within reach when going down the road. The less you have to do for them, the easier it will be on you.
Electronics
Ensure all electronics are charged, and you have packed the correct charging wires. We put one of our kids in charge of making sure the kid electronics are charged prior to leaving and throughout our time on the road. He sits closest to a USB in our car. He can charge his tablet while using it. When their hour is up, he checks all their battery levels, and whoever is the lowest gets charged first.
Analog Activities
My kids LOVE maps! If we go anywhere and they hand out a map, my kids all argue about who can use it to get us to our location. If you give your kids a map and show them where you are starting from and where you are heading, they can follow along with your progress. It helps eliminate the questions, “Are we there yet?” or the “How much longer?” Allowing them to use a map also helps them learn a general sense of direction and map reading skills.
When our kids were younger, I made a box of activities. In our activities box, we included things like – Color Wonder, Doodle Board, Melissa & Doug – Water Wow, Watercolor book, Usborne Sticker Books, Magna Doodle, and Highlights Hidden Pictures. We also collected items from Chick-fil-A Kids Meals, kids binoculars, books, plain paper, crayons, and pencils. Our kids can choose things to do as we go down the road. They never have access to the items in the box unless we are on a car trip. I constantly change things out and take out used items and replace them. We originally started with just a few items, and over the years, we added more items to our box. I regularly look through the kid’s toys to see if anything would work for car-friendly trips. Play cameras, or V-Tech-type games, also work great.
Podcasts and Books on CD/Audible
We LOVE Podcasts and Audible! Our kids beg for another episode of a podcast that they are enjoying. Or JUST ONE more chapter of a book we are listening to. As a family, we enjoy these so much that we are writing an article entirely dedicated to podcasts and books we recommend and love. Please check it out soon. In the meantime, we highly recommend Wow In the World as a podcast. If you don’t have Audible, check out your local library for some free books on CD.
Conclusion
Road trips are often thought of as getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible. The journey to and from can be just as enjoyable. We hope some of these travel hacks to try while on the road were helpful. Let us know what hacks you use!
Also check out our article on How to Road Trip with Kids!