Survival Tips for a Road Trip with Toddlers
Are you planning a road trip with small kids soon? Taking a road trip with toddlers can be really fun and really exhausting all at the same time.
Little ones have a lot of energy, so finding ways to give that energy an outlet on the road takes some planning.
I’ve come up with my top tips on how to survive a road trip with toddlers after driving across Texas and New Mexico with my young son. I hope this helps all you mamas, dads, grandparents, or even aunts and uncles out there!
Read on for my 5 tried and true road trip tips, and all of the Amazon links to the items we used to help make planning easy for you! (Clickable links are in gold)
#5 - Plan to stop frequently
Their little bodies are just not able to sit in a car for longer than a 3-4 hour stretch.
Honestly, the ideal time frame to stop for us was between 2-3 hours. I know – that can be a lot of stops on a long road trip.
I did a little research to figure out places along the way to make the stops fun for either him, or us, or both. We stopped at playgrounds, wineries, mega gas stations with souvenirs, and more. We even planned to ONLY drive 3 hours total somedays between overnight stops.
Our trip was 11 hours in total, and we took 3 days to complete it!
Pro Tip: Adding more stops to your trip can be a definite bonus! You’ll get to see locations that you may have never stopped at if you just power through hours and hours on the road. Plan your stops to purposely take you to some cool places and you won’t regret it!
#4 - Bring road trip activities
What keeps your road trip with toddlers sane? Activities!
I purchased an activity tray for our son’s car seat so he could have a “play space” in the car. The one I selected had pockets on the side, a dry erase surface, and a pocket for an iPad. Click here to check it out on Amazon!
Items that we brought along: (Click on any of items below to check them out on Amazon!)
- Mini playdoh set – I like the travel sets that have a container to keep it all in.
- Stickers – lots of random stickers!
- Crayons – we brought the twistable ones to make it interesting.
- Blank notebook to color in, and so you don’t have paper flying everywhere.
- Water pen coloring books. Have you seen these? So cool!
- Toy cars (could also bring dolls, dinosaurs, stuffed animals, etc)
- Skinny dry erase markers with an eraser tip – for that activity tray
- Sticker activity book – this particular one was a hit with my kiddo!
- And….an iPad with headphones. We like these headphones that come in lots of colors and are really comfortable.
#3 - Make their space comfortable
No one wants a cranky and uncomfortable toddler.
We started by taking his car seat out of the car before our trip and cleaned the entire thing. He had a fresh seat for the start of our trip.
Next, we made sure we had a way to shade the window. A lightweight and foldable window shade cling works well and can be put in the seatback pocket when not in use. We also brought an extra light blanket to hang if we needed extra shade.
Last, we had him pick his favorite comfort item to keep nearby or in his seat, and I even found a little mini-pillow so we could prop up his feet or he could rest his head.
Pro Tip: You can even bring and hang up a portable sound machine from the hanger hook in the car to help give a calm environment. This one has come with us on every single trip since our son was born and it’s well worth it! Makes me want a nap in the backseat!
#2 - Toddler portable potty
If your little one is in the throws of potty training – first of all – cheers to you because this can be one of the most challenging moments in parenting life!
For a road trip with toddlers who are potty training, some type of mini potty is essential. It allowed him to tell us when he needed to go and we could pull over somewhere safely so he could use it, all without having to find a public restroom. When you are traveling through West Texas, let me tell you, rest stops and public restrooms are few and far between!
Even while we were at our destination we hauled that mini toddler potty around with us in the car and to different spaces. The familiarity even though he was in a different environment helped keep him on track!
Pro Tip: Give your child some grace if potty training regresses. They may have some stress from traveling, need time to adjust to a different time zone, etc. Make sure to take the time to show them where the potty is and how to alert you they need help, and even get them excited to use a new bathroom space.
We like a potty that has a removable insert for easy dumping and cleaning like this one!
#1 - Toddler friendly snacks. All the snacks.
If you are a parent, this pretty much goes without saying!
For a long trip, variety in your toddler friendly snacks is key. Here are some of my road trip with toddlers snack ideas (assuming you will have a cooler for some of these):
- Bars like Larabar or Kind bars
- Pre-washed fruit or veggies ready to go
- String cheese or other snack cheese
- Yogurt pouches or tubes
- Dried fruits and nuts, or trail mix. We love dried mango, cashews, and cherries!
- Salty/crunchy snack favorites like pretzels, goldfish, triscuits, nut crackers, etc.
- We kept all of our road trip items cold in this amazing Yeti Cooler.
Did these road trip with toddlers survival tips help you?
I don’t know about you, but I think the more ideas for entertaining a toddler the better!
Do you have any helpful tips that I missed? Comment below, I would love extra ideas!
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