15 Best Tips for Road Trips With Kids (Screen Free!)
Almost four weeks ago the six of us completed a 2,000 mile road trip, and I still feel a bit amazed when I think about it. We’ve taken many road trips with our children before (a result of having grandparents that live out of state) but this one was by far the longest: Seattle to Wisconsin in five days! Surprisingly, amazingly, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. We survived, and actually had a lot of fun along the way. It turns out the west is gorgeous, even on freezing cold snowy days in March. Based on our frequent travel experiences, I will share our favorite, tried-and-true tips for road trips with kids (or babies, or toddlers – we’ve travelled with all of them!).
One complicating factor to our car trips is that we don’t let our kids play with screens. They do watch shows or movies on the computer at home, and I don’t have a problem with them playing a game or seeing a movie on someone else’s device – but we personally do not own any tablets and we don’t let our kids play with our phones. So, there were no screens to while away the 30+ hours we spent on the road! I’ve compiled here a list of tips & tricks for screen-free car trips, both for anyone else who might need some ideas, but also for future reference for myself as I definitely do NOT trust my mom-brain to remember them all the next time we pack up for a trip.
I will just preface this by saying that a minimalist approach to screen time is easiest if you’ve done it all along. Our kids don’t beg me for screen time because they are young and don’t know what it is. They don’t ask to turn on the tv because we don’t have one. Also let me dispel any idealistic visions of a perfectly technology-free house by explaining what our children DO do: they average 30 minutes a day of a movie or show on the computer during the week – less on the weekend. They see me on my phone (more than I would like – one of my goals is to minimize that time) and sometimes I will let them take pictures with it or send a text message to Daddy. They take turns “typing” on the computer – as in, I open Google docs and let them type letters and numbers to their hearts’ content, and they think it’s SO FUN. But no games on the computer or phone, no tablets in the house, and no tv. Maybe this will change in the future but for now we really REALLY enjoy this lifestyle.
On to the…
Top Tips For Road Trips With Kids, Babies, or Toddlers (and No Screens)
– Snacks, snacks, and more snacks. We are not usually big snackers in this house but all rules about food fly out the window of our minivan once we hit the road. Snacks keep little hands busy and little stomachs happy and little mouths (temporarily) quiet.
– If someone has to go potty, EVERYONE goes potty. We’ve had too many instances where five minutes after one bathroom break, someone else desperately needs to pee. (Exceptions are made for emergency-side-of-the-road-pee-in-the-grass stops. Mom is definitely not joining in on that one. But it’s a great perk to raising boys – no bathrooms needed!)
– Think about what you can listen to! We’ve done audio books, lots of different musical styles, and story tapes like Patch the Pirate from Majesty Music. I’ve also sometimes brought along our current read-aloud book and read chapter after chapter as the kids beg me to keep reading.
– For little kids especially, it helps us to keep a similar routine to our day at home. We will do snack time in the van, quiet time, nap time, reading time, etc. Familiar landmarks during the day are comforting.
– Take a break and run or jump or climb something! It’s so good (and even essential) to get in some exercise every so often. We’ve stopped at playgrounds, indoor malls, fast food restaurants with play places, rest stops with wide open fields, and giant snow banks that were begging to be climbed.
– Bring books and something creative to do! I don’t bring a ton of toys along because they all end up on the floor covered in ketchup and their entertainment value is usually pretty low. We usually bring a pile of books that the boys will rotate through, as well as some empty notebooks and crayons or pencils. Activity books that have puzzles, games, and coloring have been a big hit also!
– Pillows or a favorite small blanket can help, if we want them to actually sleep either at nap time or while driving in the evening. Some car seats – especially the older kid booster seats – are not comfortable for sleeping.
– Let them be bored. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sitting and staring out the window for an hour or three.
– Play a game together! Our oldest two are just on the verge of being able to really play the classic alphabet game and we’ve had fun teaching them. We will also do simple “I Spy” type games with younger ones, or ask them to find something red, or something that can fly, or something that looks like a circle… the possibilities are endless.
– A friend told me how she bought some new small & cheap toys for her kids, then wrapped them in multiple layers of wrapping paper. She said she threw them back for the kids when they started to get bored and they LOVED working on unwrapping the little toys – and the younger the kid is, the longer it will keep him busy! I haven’t tried this one yet but I think it sounds fabulous. Of course you’ll end up with a pile of wrapping paper in the car, but it’s probably worth it.
– Time your trip strategically. Sometimes we’ll leave right after breakfast, when everyone is well-fed and well-rested; other times we will leave in the late afternoon, put the kids “to bed” after dinner on the road (including teeth brushed and pjs on), and then drive into the night while they sleep. The downside is Mom and Dad start out the trip tired and arrive late at night; but the upside is we get hours of uninterrupted quiet time to talk. That, my friends, is a rare treat! It’s often well worth the late night.
– If the baby will take a bottle, bring one and give it while you drive! It has (many times) saved us an extra nursing stop; it’s easy enough to climb back or lean over and hold the bottle for baby while Daddy is driving – not quite so feasible (or safe!) to try to nurse while driving.
– Give your older kids a map to hold. Big Brother (seven years old) has recently been fascinated with geography, and he spent a lot of the trip looking at maps and finding the cities we were driving through and stopping in. Sometimes I will map out our entire route on Google, print off a copy for each kid, and let them enjoy watching our progress and tracking each town we drive through.
– Don’t be afraid to be flexible and spontaneous. I personally tend to be a planner and like to have everything laid out ahead of time, but this trip in particular was a last minute affair that we basically planned as we drove. There is definitely a bit of magic to unplanned trips, knowing that you can drive as far as you like and stop when you are tired and hop out of the car in a random field to stretch your legs and admire the sky (all of which we did). Often, if the baby or toddler is sleeping, we will skip our planned stop and eat somewhere later, because when baby sleeps, we keep driving! I should have put this as the first rule. DON’T STOP WHEN BABY’S SLEEPING. LET THE BABY SLEEP.
– If you have the time + mental energy to plan ahead, consider packing a meal in a cooler bag like this one (we have used and loved it for almost four years now; it fits a surprising amount of food!). The perk to have a meal packed is both that you will save money and eat healthier (as opposed to buying fast food), AND you have much more flexibility in your stops. Want to stop in a beautiful grassy field in the middle of Nowhere, Montana? No problem – lunch is in the car and ready to go.
There you have it! 15 tips for road trips with kids, none of which involve screens, to get you on your way! It actually feels rather empowering to complete a road trip of this length and realize that we can drive literally anywhere in the US from our house in less time than we spent on this trip. ANYWHERE IN THE US, FOLKS. Don’t be surprised if you see us on the road again sometime soon. And seriously, who needs screens when you’ve got skies like this?
First published April 15 2020
Updated May 25 2024
