In this audio version of one of our most popular posts, Saren shares her best tips for making your next family road trip into a wonderful experience. She offers ideas about what (and how) to pack, how to keep kids happily entertained, and food and hotel ideas.
Show Notes:
Tried and True Road Trip Tips (the post Saren reads in this episode)
Road Trip Packing and Prep List (a checklist Saren uses that will give you ideas as you create a list tailored to your family)
Points System (a blog post from Saren’s personal blog explaining how her kids earn points they can use towards treats and screen time – this post was written by Saren’s son Ashton during a road trip)
Road Tripping with Kids: Episode 55 (Saren and April recorded this episode together DURING Saren’s big road trip across the country with her children)
Road Trip Tips for Families with Little Kids (a great post from our Power of Moms Archives)
Thanks for the great podcast/post! We are going on a road trip this next week and while I think I’m quite experienced (we did at least two LONG {24+ hour} road trips a year for about three years), I still learned some great things! (Why do I always make a new list for every trip? Do things really change that much? Nope!) As kids get older, things change, so I loved these ideas.
If others have suggestions for fun things to do with little kids (three under 4) and how to entertain the when I’m the only adult I’d love that! In the past we have just done lots of movies (we don’t watch any TV for the week or so leading up to the trip so that they are okay and then try to take an hour or so break between each movie), and some drawing, but I’d love new ideas. Especially if anyone has good suggestions for kid-friendly podcasts or audiobooks.
My only addition to these great tips is this: We got an audiobook on CD from our library called “Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School.” It kept both my husband and I and our kids down to about age 6 totally entertained. We didn’t want to stop driving! The kids would cheerfully jump into the car after each stop or overnight stay, eager to listen more! We didn’t use our DVDs or road-trip games at all. When the book ended, about an hour before we were back home, and we realized it was a SERIES, not a single book, we groaned! Cliff-hanger! We couldn’t wait for the next road trip! I think it is a 5-book series. We got the rest of the books and listened for over 30 hours for our next trip and absolutely loved the story. Hope this helps someone! Enjoy!