Family road trips may be stressful if you don’t plan ahead and anticipate potential mishaps. While a lot of things could go wrong, being prepared for anything helps to avoid problems. These 10 tips will help your next family adventure go as smoothly as possible.
Get Your Car Checked
Before backing out of the driveway, make sure your car is . Take it to the mechanic or do it yourself if you’re knowledgeable. Be sure to check fluids including the oil, brake fluid, windshield solution, clutch and power steering levels. Also check the tire air pressure, air filter, wiper blades and lights in the signals and brakes. Double check that any car or booster seats are securely installed.
Clean and Organize Your Car
Wash the windows and side mirrors for good visibility. Clean and remove clutter from the car’s interior. Check your first aid kit and emergency supplies. Make sure your vehicle registration and proof of insurance are easy to find. Take advantage of the space you have, such as using your cup holders for tissues and hanging a plastic shower organizer on the seat backs to hold kids’ supplies. Zip pouches can hold toiletries, crayons and paper to keep the little ones entertained.
Plan Your Route
Plan the best route to your destination before leaving home. A GPS navigation system can help you save time, energy and money on wasted gas so you don’t get lost. These devices allow you to enter the address of your destination and will show you the route and your estimated arrival time. It will even show you good locations for pit stops and gasoline fill-ups. In case of a GPS malfunction, take a paper map or printed directions with you. Consider driving overnight to avoid heavy traffic.
Stock Up on Travel-friendly Food
Planning pit stops is a great idea, but chances are good that at least one person will be hungry or thirsty at an inconvenient time. Stock up on healthy travel size foods and drinks that don’t make a mess. Consider water bottles, juice bags, fruit strips, beef jerky and sandwich crackers. Keep things in a cooler for summer travel. Bring along a plastic bag to collect trash.
Family Travel Clean-up Kit
While on the road, things can get messy. Someone might spill their drink or get carsick. Pack plenty of plastic bags, air freshener, cleansing wipes, hand sanitizer and fabric cleaning wipes. These can be packed into a travel kit and put under one of the seats.
Try to Pack Light
The weather, your driving style and your car’s features all affect your fuel economy. Another factor is how much stuff is packed inside your car. Only bring what you need, as this helps save time, space and gasoline. Consider what type of travel bags or suitcases to use and involve everybody in the packing process. Try to keep kids limited to just a couple of small toys. Keep large pieces of luggage in the back or trunk and have smaller, frequently used items under the seats or near the feet of the passengers. Kids can hold a toy or two in their laps.
Plan Fun Activities for Kids
Little kids get bored quickly when just sitting in their car seats. Plan some fun activities to keep them entertained, such as no-mess markers and pencils, handheld puzzles, books and travel games. Use the on-board DVD player or play your favorite music and sing along. Keep everything at hand so you don’t have to search for things to keep your kids occupied.
Keep Track of the Weather Forecast
Keep updated on the weather forecast for your entire travel route and your destination. This helps you know what to pack and how to prepare your vehicle, such as whether you’ll need deicer for your locks. Consider postponing your trip if unfavorable weather conditions are forecast. If the weather changes unexpectedly while you’re on the road, you might need to change your route or stop overnight until conditions improve.
Strategically Planned Pit Stops
While deciding your route, you can also plan your pit stops. Consider the amount of time each family member can handle before a break is needed. You can try to plan around places you’d like to see and make a park or interesting restaurant into your planned stop. Use one of the many travel sites to find useful information and reviews such as whether there are fully featured bathrooms on site. Stopping every couple of hours lets everybody stretch, use the restroom and get some fresh air.
Set Off Rested
Your trip will be more enjoyable if you and your passengers are well rested when you set off. If you’re leaving early in the morning, go to bed early the night before. If you plant to leave later in the day, try to do as much as possible the day before to avoid last minute stressors. Being well rested helps you stay focused and limits the frustration people may feel with one another so that you can have a better time together. No matter whether you’re traveling across the state or the country, taking these precautionary measures can help to make sure your trip is as fun and enjoyable as you hope. After doing everything in your power to prevent problems, you can sit back, relax and enjoy the trip.
Photo Credit: Flickr via Creative Commons
About the Author
Patricia Dimick is a Denver based freelance writer and a fun stay-at-home mom. This passionate coffee drinker loves to write about parenting topics and enjoys DIY projects. Patricia spends her free time playing table tennis or enjoying trips to nature with her precious daughter and loving husband. You can reach her @patriciadimick.
37 comments
For us, it’s ALL about the snacks. We pack lots of different snacks and drinks to go with us.
I know exactly what you mean. Often it’s not even about being hungry, but snacks just make the road trip more fun 🙂
The planned pit stops and the cleaning kit are ones that I makes sure we do/have. Without those I am pretty sure I would loose my sanity LOL. I will have to try a few of these other tips you give too!
Pit stops give everyone a kind of short-term goal to look forward to and it breaks the long trip into shorter laps that the kids (and adults!) can handle. The cleaning kit comes in handy after all the snacking and other on-road activities 😀
When we road trip, there are two things we need – snacks and entertainment. We go heavy on the snacks!
These two also tend to belong in the same category – travely-friendly snacks are so much fun! 🙂
These are all great tips. We always make sure we have movies and snacks and comfy clothes. The food is a necessity for all of our road trips!
Oh yes, I completely agree about the comfy clothes! Helps us all handle the long hours on the road. After all, it is our temporary home, we should be comfortable.
Starting off with a full night’s sleep makes a world of difference. For some reason, road trips are so much worse when you’re tired. even as a passenger.
That’s true – when we’re not well rested, we get easily irritated by every little thing instead of enjoying the fun and excitement of the journey.
Great tips! We always bring snacks and games with us. Bring extra books and music will also help
Whatever it takes to break the monotony of the road. I always compile a road trip playlist – something fun and upbeat – helps the hubby stay awake and me and my little one have our sing-along routines 😀
These are awesome tips! It’s quite impossible for me to pack light, though. With the twins who want to change their clothes all the time and bring lots and lots of toys, that is not going to happen.
Well, I guess, packing light can be challenging sometimes 🙂 That’s why I wrote “Try to Pack Light” – TRY being the cruical word 😀
These are GREAT tips! I know traveling with family can be so stressful but these tips do help!
You cannot avoid being stressed. After all, traveling with family is a huge responsibility. But being well prepared can reduce stress significantly.
Pitstops is unavoidable when traveling especially if you have kids with you so uiit is important to plan for that. We always pack lots of snacks to munch on on the road.
Pitstops rule! 🙂 And they’re one of the things that make the trip much more fun! Short-term destinations to look forward to.
These are some
Great travel tips!!! I swear by snacks when we are on the road! I feel when everyone is full, the ride just goes that much smoother!
True… It’s kind of a travel comfort food 🙂
Packing light and getting a good amount of rest are the most key points to me. We always try to pack light and get the right amount of rest but seem to fail miserably lol.
The more members of the family, the slimmer the chances you’ll be able to pack light. But still, if you weren’t at least trying to reduce the weight and pack mindfully, you’d end up taking tons of stuff you don’t really need.
These are all great tips for any road trip! Great post!
Thanks Ricci! These are the essential tips for any road trip. But the point is, wherever you go, just plan ahead and be prepared.
Totally agree with your tips. That’s what we do too whenever we travel except for ‘Strategically Planned Pit Stops’. We’ve never thought of that. Thanks.
It does take a little extra effort to really sit down, consider your route and decide when and where you’ll stop. But there are tons of sites and apps that you can consider while planning. Thank you, technology 🙂 But in the end, spontaneous pit stops work just fine.
We always play a bunch of games in the car on trips. These are great tips. I will have to try a few on our next trip.
Road trip games can be so much fun! And they help everyone forget about the time and just enjoy the ride. I’m a fan of good old-fashioned games that everyone participates in. Technology is kind of killing it for us because kids tend to just dive into their tablet screens and get lost.
Road trips can definitely be stressful. These are some great tips to help keep things smoother!
Each family is different, so it’s up to the members to work together and listen to one another for the road trip to be a success. As long as everybody is happy, there shouldn’t be any major crises.
These are such great tips. I’ll definitely use these for our next road trip this Fall.
Great Carin! I’m glad you find them useful. And what’s most important, these aren’t difficult to apply. But we tend to forget to pay attention to certain things in the midst of the packing craziness.
My son does well in car rides if he has a book or a tablet. Though – our longest road trip was three hours.
He would probably do well in a longer car ride – some children are simply more patient and can easily adjust to the situation. Lucky you! 🙂 If they do become restless, I guess it’s time for a short break.
Playing games while traveling on the road like card games will keep you from being bored. Now, I got plenty of ideas which we can do while we are traveling. Thanks to your post. Got a tweet from me!
Thanks, Jim! I’m glad you’ve found this post useful! 🙂
No matter how long or short the trip going to be, kids get bored in the car quickly. Travel games, books, movies or books to read must be kept that helps pass time in the car.