Road Trip Activities For Kids
Going on a road trip with your kids to the Bach can be a great way to create some wonderful family memories, where you get to spend hours together enjoying one another’s company, playing fun games and seeing new sights.
But when it comes to travelling with young kids it can seem like a daunting task to many, and trying to keep them entertained and happy on the journey can be a big challenge.
To help make your next road trip go as smoothly as possible, we’ve crowd sourced some of the best tips for travelling with kids below.
Plan Your Journey – Find Attractions Along the Way
It’s always worth doing a bit of research on any attractions in nearby places along the way. By stopping for a longer amount of time to do a fun activity with the kids, you’re making the travel day just as eventful as the days to come.
If you’ve got time to spare, it could even be worth doing a detour from the main route to pass through a place with an exciting attraction. See if there’s anything on along the way with EventFinda.
If it’s a popular activity such as the luge in Rotorua, make sure you’re prepared to get up early to avoid the queues.
Having a plan in place such as popular local attractions can also be used to encourage your kids to look forward to the holiday while you’re driving down there, and focus less on asking for the 10th time ‘are we there yet?’
Isobel Walster at Castles and Turrets suggests:
When travelling with young kids, you need to plan your journey out so that there are plenty of stops for food and toilet breaks.
If you know that one bit of road is going to be long, then make sure to have plenty of pre-made snacks in the car that are easy to grab and keep an eye on how much liquid they are drinking.
You obviously don’t want them to get dehydrated, but you don’t want them to overdo it either.
Additionally, Tamar Marder from World by Weekend says:
Managing shorter stops, such as scenic viewpoints or quick walks, can be difficult if your kids are sleeping and you don’t want to disturb them, or it’s not worth taking them in and out of their car seats.
In these situations (assuming safe weather temperatures), one parent stays with the kids in the car while the other takes in the view, then swap.
For newly potty-trained children, bathroom breaks on the road can be daunting. We make sure to stop anytime our toddler indicates a need to use the bathroom. This entails pulling over on the side of the road (as soon as possible, once safe to do so).
In case of accidents in the car seat, we travel with extra plastic bags to place over the car seat in order to keep kids dry until we arrive at our final destination of the day and can dry out the fabric.
Surprise The Kids With New Toys Or A Travel Advent Calendar
Gennifer Rose suggests:
Whenever we have a big upcoming trip, I put together a special collection of small toys, books and activities. The key to making these toys super appealing during the road trip, is the fact that they are brand new and never before seen by the kids.
I don’t give them to the kids all at once, rather a new toy every hour, so there’s a continuous flow of new and exciting things to play with.
Alternatively you could make a Travel Advent Calendar, and fill mystery packages with little surprises (treats, toys, games, jokes) and write on the front “open when reached xxxxx”.
Once you reach that town or landmark, let the kids open the surprise package! This will keep them focused on smaller lengths until a reward rather than the bigger goal of waiting for the final destination.
Places like Kmart or dollar stores always have some fun kids activities that often cost less than $3. I also have favourite snacks that are only reserved for long car rides, so they are fun and novel each time.
Play Games In The Car
Printable Games
Amar Hussain at Only Wanderlust suggests:
Keeping kids entertained on long journeys can be quite the challenge, particularly if you don’t want them spending hours on tech.
Travel versions of board games are also an option, but a game might not last that long, and buying a few of these can get expensive. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to keep young kids entertained on a road trip is to use printable games.
There are many free resources for parents to simply print off games, and with a simple pen and paper, these printables can keep kids entertained for hours. Printables can be anything from children’s Sudoku and word scrambles to Tic Tac Toe and mazes.
You can even laminate the sheets so that they can be reused on another trip or swapped with friends.
Jeannie Assimos from way.com recommends:
Once Upon a Time
Harness their amazing imaginations with a round of Once Upon a Time. Say “Once upon a time…” and add your dream.
For example, “Once upon a time, I went to Elsa’s castle.” Now the next player has to continue the story. One player can add one sentence to the story when it’s their turn.
The game continues until you reach a conclusion (or your destination).
Bingo to go!
So you’ll need to put a bit of effort into this before you get into the car. Road Trip Bingo printables are available online, but you can make it interesting with a personalised touch.
Make it as tough as your kids can handle. For the little ones, keep it simple – things they can recognize immediately. Like signboards, a school bus, an animal, a motorcycle, traffic cones, etc.
For older kids, this is an opportunity to learn something new – try different kinds of street signs or brand logos. It can even be not-so-popular car models or licence plates from different states.
‘Busy Books’
We found the BEST road trip activity for our 3 year old on our recent road trip: Busy books.
They are these brilliant activity books with Velcro pieces. Each page has a different thing for him to do- matching, counting, etc.
Some of the books are even themed- like our space one! They pack so well and kept our dude engaged for a long plane ride and the entire road trip between national parks! Plus, they’re educational!
Be Prepared
If your kids are susceptible to travel sickness, make sure you leave the house with motion sickness tablets, plenty of baby wipes and spew bags to hold the unmentionable. Usually you can purchase these at your local doctors or online.
Or you can get inventive and bring anything around the house that’s watertight.
Make Sure your Electronic Entertainment is Prepared & Charged
Laura Lee Elm fromThe Traveling Elmssays:
We live in a Motorhome full time as a family, with 2 kids. As full-time travellers, we move about every 2-3 weeks and are often on the road for 5+ hours at a time.
My kids have always been difficult car riders, even on short distances, so I have a few tricks to share.
Electronic devices are always super helpful in the car – we like to make sure tablets, DVD players and headphones are charged and ready to go.
Katie Restrepo from Family Travel Folio recommends an LCD drawing tablet:
An LCD drawing tablet is a great item to take with you on car rides for little kids. We bring these tablets with us on every road trip.
No marker mess, melted crayons, or scraps of paper that stay in the car forever. They can draw as much as they want and then simply press a button to clear the screen and start over.
Listen to Educational Podcasts
Delilah Hart from Our Travel Mix suggests:
My number one mission when road tripping is to keep the little ones occupied. Video games and movies are both tried and true methods but my favourite option is to put on a good podcast.
Perhaps for somewhat selfish reasons, podcasts are something everyone in the car can enjoy and listen to regardless of whether they’re in the front, back or behind the wheel.
Wow in the World is one of the most popular children’s podcasts in the world – and for a good reason. It tackles intriguing scientific concepts and ideas in educational, and most importantly, engaging ways.
Thanks to Mindy and Guy’s hilarious and entertaining personalities, it’s an enjoyable podcast for both young and old road trippers alike.
Pausing regularly to discuss what is happening in the podcast is also a great way to keep your children interested. With this hack it’s actually quite unbelievable how long a good podcast can keep the little ones distracted on a long road trip.
Over to you…
Have any other words of wisdom or secret weapons up your sleeve when it comes to car trips with little ones? Share them with us in the comments below!
