Summer is the perfect time to take a family road trip. Over the years we have taken many road trips from short 2-3 hour trips to long cross country trips of 30+ hours.
It seems like we frequently take short road trips (2-5 hours) and every few months we take a longer road trip usually between 10-14 hours of driving. Our longest road trip to date was about 36 hours of driving time. Road trips that are that long don’t happen very often for us.
Since our family has taken countless road trips in the years since our first child was born, I want to share with you some tips for making family road trips fun and less stressful. Especially when you have young kids along for the ride.
How Do You Make a Family Road Trip Fun
There are a lot of different ways to make a road trip fun, these ideas I’m sharing are just a few of our favorite ways to make the trip fun for the whole family.
Stop Frequently
When road tripping with kids plan on stopping at least twice as often as you would with adults. Potty stops are more frequent and the kids just need time to wiggle so they stay happy.
Some of our favorite places to stop when we don’t have a planned stop are playgrounds, restaurants with play areas, and large stores (Costco and Sam’s Club) that the kids can run around in. Rest areas can also be good areas for kids to run around and get some wiggles out.
Talk and Play Games
Ask your kids questions, talk about what you are seeing, have done or are going to do. Playing games like I-spy, the ABC Game or other games is also a great way to enjoy your time in the car while on a road trip.
Read Aloud or Audio Books
Reading a chapter book aloud can be a fun way to spend some of the time driving. On our road trip, we read the same small chapter book twice because the kids loved it so much.
Audio Books are a great way to enjoy reading together while on a road trip. Get a 30-day Audible Free Trial Plus 2 audible originals before your road trip.
Have Activities
When road tripping with kids the goal is to stay ahead of the meltdown. By having a variety of activities that you are able to change up. It can help keep your kids entertained.
Some of our kid’s favorite activities are building with LEGO Duplo blocks, playing with matchbox cars, looking at books, and watching movies. For a full list of Road Trip Activities for young kids check out this post.
Get the Kids Input
Asking your kids what they want to do both in the car and on the trip is a good way to keep them happy and help them enjoy the trip. Our kids wanted to find a playground so we made sure to find a playground for a few of our stops.
Don’t Rush
Don’t expect to do a road trip quickly when you have kids with you. You will have more stops than you anticipate and they will generally take longer and that’s ok. You want to keep the trip fun so that your kids will want to do it again!
Drive while they sleep
Driving while the kids sleep is how you can quickly put some miles behind you. Leaving early in the morning and driving while the kids sleep or driving late at night and letting them sleep is a great idea. If our kids take a nap while we are driving we try not to make any stops while they sleep!
Have fun!
Even though taking kids on long road trips can be a challenge it’s also a lot of fun. If you focus on the fun and let the little things go, everyone is going to enjoy your road trip a lot more.
More Posts You Might Enjoy:
Free Printable Travel Journal
10 Places to Stop Between Provo and St. George Utah
Top 10 Places We Visited in 2019
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