If you’ve got a road trip with a toddler coming up, chances are, you aren’t too thrilled about the actual road trip part. Being in the car for hours on end with a tiny human with an even tinier attention span can be mentally draining to say the least.
However, we’re here to share some tips on how to make your road trip with a toddler more bearable… and dare we say enjoyable? With a little bit of advanced planning, your time spent in the car will be a breeze.
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1) Plan your route in advance with your toddler in mind.
Rest stops and gas stations are probably the most boring and disgusting places to stop – especially when you’re with kids who like to touch everything. But your stops don’t necessarily have to be boring.
In the days leading up to your trip, take a look at the route on your GPS and see what larger cities you’ll be passing through. Then google the playgrounds in those cities to see if there are any for your toddlers to enjoy. Your kids will love getting to play on a new playground, and if you tell them in advance that you’ll be stopping, it’ll give them something to look forward to.
Kayla also checks Atlas Obscura before a road trip, which boasts as being “the definitive guide to the world’s hidden wonders.” It’s a fantastic resource to find out about some of the lesser known attractions around the world.
Through Atlas Obscura, Kayla found out about this awesome rock garden in Calhoun, Georgia and this headstone in TN that’s designed to look like an old Mountain Dew bottle – both places she visited on road trips.
2) Organize your car activities and toys in advance.
Don’t wait until the morning of your trip to get the toys together that’ll keep your kids entertained during your trip. Take the time to intentionally plan what activities and toys will keep your child the most entertained during your trip.
Check out our list of Must Have Road Trip Items for Children for inspiration on what to pack for entertainment and how to organize it. We recommend letting your kids pick out 2-3 small toys to take too so they feel involved in the planning process.
Some of our favorite items from our list are:
The Car Seat Lap Tray – This item gives kids a flat space to draw, read books, and play. It also helps keep items from falling in the floor!
Melissa and Doug Reusable Puffy Sticker Activity Books – These are detailed enough to keep kids entertained for a while, and we love that they are reusable.
Highlights Wipe On Wipe Off Hidden Pictures Books – This is one of Kayla’s daughter’s favorite quiet time activities. She loves looking for the hidden objects in these books and doing the other educational prompts provided.
Crocodile Dentist Game – A fantastic game to bring along on a road trip with a toddler, especially if someone will be in the backseat with them. It’s an easy game to pass back and forth and toddlers love the element of surprise of not knowing who will cause the crocodile to close its mouth.
Amazon Kids Tablet – An excellent way to keep kids entertained during a trip, which brings us to our next tip:
3) Load the tablet up with apps before the trip.
Kayla’s daughter is only allowed to use her tablet on trips, which makes it extra special to her. Kayla tries to wait to bring it out though until some of the other toys have been played with first, just so her daughter won’t want to be glued to the screen the entire trip.
There are so many apps though that are educational and fun for your toddler. Some of our favorite ones are:
Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Shapes and Colors
Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame
You can also download the PBS Kids Video app, though wifi is required to watch the shows or you can download your children’s favorite tv shows and movies to keep them happy.
If you plan on bringing a tablet along on the road trip with a toddler though, just make sure you charge it up the night before you leave!
4) Don’t forget the snacks and the drinks!
Pack some of your toddler’s favorite snacks and drinks for the car ride. You can never go wrong with Go Go SqueeZ applesauce pouches and Goldfish. Kayla likes to fill up an insulated water bottle with water for her daughter. This one is her favorite because it has a lid that closes securely and has a handle for easy carrying! The many fun patterns and colors are an added bonus.
5) Pack a toilet.
When you’re on a long stretch of road with no places in sight to stop and your toddler says “I need to potty!” you want to be prepared. When a toddler says they have to go, it’s already an emergency situation. So how do you prevent them from having an accident in their car seat? Enter the Summer Infant Potty Training Toilet.
This tiny toilet has saved Kayla’s daughter from having accidents on the road numerous times. It’s compact enough that it can easily fit in the trunk of her SUV, even when it’s loaded down with luggage. It also has a little compartment on the back to easily store wipes.
If your child has to go when you’re on the go, pop the trunk and let them go on the potty training toilet. We recommend putting a grocery sack or similar bag down for a super easy cleanup, and you can just toss it in the next trash can you come across.
If your child is not potty trained yet, we recommend bringing along some Boogie Diaper Rash Spray, as sitting for prolonged amounts of time in the car seat can cause painful irritation for little ones in diapers or pull-ups.
The potty training toilet and Boogie Diaper Rash Spray also made our list of 15 Must Have Travel Items for Children Under 3.
6) Consider leaving for your trip as early in the day as possible.
If you leave before the sun has risen, it’s likely your child will fall back asleep once you hit the road. That means at least a couple of hours of uninterrupted driving time!
Not only will this let you start your trip making good progress, it will also give you some time to yourself to listen to music or one of our recommended audiobooks for road trips.
7) Pack a blanket.
Packing a snuggly blanket will help your child feel cozy in the car and make it more likely for them to sleep good during their nap time in the car. But the blanket also serves another purpose: It will make a great backseat fort!
Kids of all ages love forts, and making one in the car is something super simple that you can do to make your child’s time in the backseat more exciting. All you have to do is put one end of the blanket behind the carseat and the other end over the seat in front of them and voila – you have a fort.
8) Avoid the “Are We There Yet?” question.
Chances are, your child will start asking if you’ve reached your destination before you’ve even made it out of your neighborhood. Try turning it into a game for them by having them look out the window for key landmarks along the way.
If you’ll be driving to Florida to visit Disney World or Peppa Pig Theme Park, tell them when they start seeing palm trees out the window, they will know you are close to being there. Kayla’s daughter LOVES looking for the palm trees when they drive to Florida.
Another fun way to help them make sense of how much further you have to go is to take a piece of construction paper and write out the milestones or landmarks along the way, and let your child put a sticker next to each item as you see or complete them.
If traveling across multiple states, you can also print out coloring sheets for each state for them to color when you get to it (after doing a celebratory song and dance of course when you pass under the sign welcoming you to the state).
9) Play interactive games along the way.
A classic road trip game with kids is “the alphabet game” where you look for letters on billboards and signs as you drive. Toddlers are probably a little young for this game, but you can have them look for objects that are certain colors, shapes, or sizes.
Another game that Kayla’s daughter really likes is “the question game”, where you ask your child random questions about things they enjoy or how they would act in certain situations. Some examples of questions to ask are, “What is your favorite color? What is your favorite thing to eat? If you had wings like a bird, where would you fly? What is one way we can be kind to someone?”. Not only is this a fun way to learn more about your child’s ever-developing personality, it’s a subtle way to talk about topics like kindness, bravery, good manners, and other life lessons.
When Kayla asked her daughter where she would fly if she had wings like a bird, she replied “to my nest”.
10) Make a road trip playlist.
Keep the vibes fun and upbeat in the car with a playlist your toddler and you will enjoy. If your child starts getting fussy because they’re sick of being in the car seat, put on the tunes and have a dance party!
You can also have a sleepy time playlist for when they start winding down for their naps with softer music or even kid-friendly audiobooks from Audible.
11) Dress Comfy.
Make sure your kids are dressed in outfits that will be comfortable for them in their carseats. Kayla tries to avoid sleeveless shirts and dresses or shorts for her daughter on road trips, so that the car seat straps do not irritate her skin.
If you’ll be taking our advice and leaving super early in the morning, just keep them in their pajamas for maximum comfort and to keep them in sleepy mode. You can always change them into an outfit at your first stop.
12) Prepare for cleanup.
If at least one person doesn’t spill their drink in the car, did you even go on a road trip? When you’re spending hours on end in the car, at least one accident is bound to happen. Make sure your car is stocked up with napkins, wipes, and lysol in case you need to clean up any spills. With this in mind, have a couple of changes of clothes that are easily accessible just in case!
Having a trash can in the car is also a game changer for helping keep your car clean throughout the journey!
13) Pack your patience.
If you sense a tantrum is on the horizon, try to switch things up or introduce something new to keep your toddler happy. You can have a little reserve of special treats or new toys to break out to make the vibes happy again.
Remember that your kids feed off your energy though, and try to stay positive – You got this!
Do you have tips for surviving a road trip with a toddler? Let us know in the comments below!
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