The Best Road Trip Travel Hacks for Kids

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As summer quickly approaches, the weather is getting nicer, and things are hopefully opening up after a long COVID-winter, I am so looking forward to taking more road trips. My husband and I have a love for traveling and we, like a lot of people, love to experience new places, new foods, and new things. We love to fly and get places quickly but there’s something about a road trip every once in a while. Since we’re speaking of road trips, I need to share that one of my favorite short road trips to take (if you’re in the Oklahoma area) is to Tallgrass Prairie Preserve to see the bison and the prairie flowers! I’ve got a whole post on it here so you can plan to visit.

We’ve always traveled with our son (I can only remember one weekend trip we’ve taken without him). I love showing him new places and getting him more exposed to the big world around him! He’s two and a half now and we’ve taken two road trips in the past month. When he was a baby, I always felt like I had to overpack. I never wanted to run out of activities for him to do while he was stuck in a carseat. But a road trip is already a lot of work and so I want to help you make it as easy as possible! Today I’m sharing my top road trip travel hacks for kids!

Road Trip Travel Hacks for Kids

Our family on my husband’s side is mostly located in Albuquerque, which is about a 10 hour drive from us in Tulsa. There aren’t any direct flights from Tulsa to Albuquerque yet. We’ve found that taking a road trip usually takes about the same time as flying, but it allows us the freedom to take it at our own pace. That way we can let Dean get out and run if we need to. And we’ve taken that road trip SEVERAL times over the past couple of years. Here are my best tips and tricks for taking a road trip with toddlers.

Don’t Forget to Pack Road Trip Essentials

Obviously, we pack the diaper bag with all the essentials, but we make sure we have extra wipes and hand sanitizer for the car too. A roll of paper towels is a good addition as well for any spills or messes that might happen (mostly by the grownups in the car). I also like to pack puppy pads in case we need to change him on a public changing table (ew). That way I can lay out the puppy pad, change him, and throw it away instead of putting that germ-infested thing back in our diaper bag.

Pack Lots of Road Trip Snacks

This one almost goes without saying. We always pack lots of food, especially on road trips. Sometimes you just need food “now”. No time to look for a drive through or wait an hour (or longer) until you get to the next town. We pack a cooler with yogurt pouches, fruit, and peanut butter sandwiches. I also always have a snack bag under his feet with goldfish, fruit snacks, and any of his other current favorites (and ours).

Mess-Free Coloring with Water-Wow Coloring Pads

Dean loves to color with the Melissa & Doug “Water Wow!” coloring pads. The don’t make a mess because they use water in a little pen to reveal colors on the page. As the water dries the color disappears, so they’re reusable and he sometimes colors the same page 2-3 times before flipping to the next one. They are fabulous and we pretty much leave one in the car all the time. There are also the Crayola color wonder markers that only color on the special paper. Those are great too, as they won’t get marker color all over, but Dean hasn’t mastered putting the lids back on yet. Right now for road trips, “Water Wow!” pads are a better option for us.

Melissa & Doug Restickable Sticker Books

I recently found a Melissa & Doug restickable sticker book that Dean now loves SO much (also a Melissa & Doug toy). His book has cars, trains and planes…all the things he loves, and the stickers are plastic and reusable. They’re kind of like the window clings that you can reuse on the several pages of “scenes” this book has. He has such an imagination and he makes-believe that they are racing and talking and creates his own little world with his stickers.

Make a Planned Stop to Play

I used to hate making stops on road trips because it just makes a long trip longer. BUT since Dean has been a toddler we’ve scheduled a stop where there is a playground. We usually time it halfway because that’s a good time for us to stop and eat lunch. And now I feel like it’s a great way to break up the drive, and helps the day to go by faster. We usually pick up Chick-fil-A and head to this park for about 30 minutes to an hour. Dean even recognizes this park now and gets excited to play on the playground when we get there!

Before cell phones were smart phones, my dad used to use map out routes and find every McDonald’s that had a playground between home and our road trip destination. He would print out our itinerary and we would eat McDonald’s at every stop just so my brother, sister and I could get out and play. Now we don’t print out an itinerary and we prefer Chic-Fil-A, but we do make sure to stop and play. This is seriously one of the best tips when traveling with kids, and it really helps with the afternoon nap!

Download Movies + Favorite Shows

I think the key to having a good trip is making sure that there is plenty of entertainment. We always download a few of Dean’s favorite movies onto his iPad before we leave. I bought this kids iPad case for under $14 that makes it easy for him to hold, and it also clips on to the headrest in front of him. That being said, we don’t just watch movies during the whole trip. On our last trip, he only watched a movie on the last hour and a half of our drive. This is basically our back-up plan when he’s already tired of the other activities and we are too tired from driving all day to entertain. It definitely comes in clutch!

Other Tips for a Road Trip with a Toddler:

I asked my followers on Instagram to help by sharing their favorite travel tips and here are some of the suggestions I got combined with a few more of mine:

Pack several little (inexpensive) new toys for them to open every hour to keep them entertained – You could totally do stickers, Water Wow coloring, etc. for this!

Bring a potty seat if your child is potty training – put a diaper inside the potty so that when they go pee, the diaper soaks up all of the fluid and there’s no cleaning required!

Create a favorite playlist for sing-alongs or find read-aloud stories on your favorite streaming app.

Talk about what you’re seeing out the window! Get those little eyes exploring the world around them.

Enjoy your Family Road Trip!

I hope you’ll consider these tips when taking your little ones on your next road trip! I used to get so anxious about traveling with Dean but I’ve learned what works for us! I actually look forward to taking him on road trips now! Make sure to save this on Pinterest for later. And subscribe to my emails so you don’t miss out on blog posts where I’ll continue sharing how to travel with kids!