Summer is THE time for road-tripping! Having two kids with a third on the way, we have done our fair share of travel. Our typical road trips range anywhere from 3 hours-8 hours of driving, and believe me, we have had some terrible car trips. The ones that make you want to swear off getting into car for more than 15 minutes with your kids ever again. Thankfully we have learned from them and had some very enjoyable road trips too!

So, from one mama to another, here are some best practices we have learned (the hard way!), to help make road-tripping with kids more enjoyable for everyone.

10 Travel Hacks for Road-Tripping with Little Ones

1. Leave early in the morning. We typically leave our house around 4-5am when we go on a road-trip. We do this because 1) we hope to beat some of the summer traffic, and 2) our kids will typically go back to sleep for another 2-3 hours. If we can get 2-3 hours of driving under our belt early while the kids are sleeping, that is a huge travel win for us! We leave them in their jammies, but give them a fresh diaper/have the older ones use the potty before we go, and are typically guaranteed a good 3 hour stretch of driving for the first leg of the trip.
2. Pack a small bag with extra clothes and diapers. Since we begin the trip with our kids in jammies, we need some clean day-time clothes easily accessible. We pack one diaper bag with clean outfits for each kid, socks and shoes, as well as diaper supplies. This keep us from rummaging through suitcases in the trunk mid-way through our trip (and also keeps us prepared in case someone has a potty accident, spit up or diaper blowout).
3. Keep snacks on hand. We pack some special snacks for the trip in car-friendly travel-form, so that when someone starts to get fussy (but it’s not yet time to pull over) we can easily hand them a fruit pouch and a travel-friendly container with cheerios and goldfish that will keep them happily munching for another 30 minutes.
4. Pack a small cooler of essential cold items. When my kids wake up, they expect milk. With breakfast, they typically have fruit. So we often pack small containers of milk, fruit, sometimes lunch meat, and also pre-prepped sippy cups with milk ready so that when they wake up from that first stretch of sleeping in the car, I can hand them their milk and keep them happy campers.
5. Keep a Toy bag easily accessible to kids and parents. It’s ideal to bring a bag full of toys and books that you can hand to your kids throughout the trip, or that they can easily grab themselves. Often, my 1 year old will throw toys in the car when he is done with them so it’s nice to be able to just reach into the bag and hand him another.
6. Bring a couple of blankets in the car. When I first wake the kids up for the early morning leave time, they are typically chilly (even in the summer) so I bring a blanket for each to keep them comfortable in the car. Sometimes mama even needs one too if dad is cranking up the A/c. 🙂
7. Have some kid-friendly playlists on hand. After a while on the road, we often find it helpful to use Spotify playlists in the car to keep the kids entertained. Daniel Tiger, Cocomelon, Disney and Seeds Family Worship are some of our go-tos.
8. Bring something to keep your phones charged, whether you can charge your phone through your car or need one of those portable chargers, these have been a lifesaver for us as we continue on our road-trip and need extra phone battery to keep our GPSes and playlists going.
9. Keep a small bag for trash & napkins/clorox wipes on hand. Inevitably, we always collect trash throughout our drive, so we keep a small bag for throwing things away in the car and empty it when we make stops for food or gas. We also typically have spills happen in the car while road-tripping. Napkins are good but Clorox wipes are even better to help keep the car clean!
10. Stop every 2-3 hrs while traveling. We find that everyone is much happier and more agreeable when we stop every 3ish hours for food, potty breaks and some time to walk outside. Inevitably this adds 30 mins-1 hr each time we stop, but it’s worth it to avoid potty accidents and hangry attitudes. Traveling with little ones just takes more time, so its okay to give yourselves and your kids grace that the trips may be longer but they can be fun too!

So that’s it. 10 Track Hacks for Road-tripping with little ones! I hope that these ideas bless you and your future trips as they have us! Here’s to summer, road-trips, and more fun in the car for everyone!