I have been traveling with my kids since the oldest was only a few months old. I would place her in her car seat, add a ridiculous amount of gear and clothing and hit the road. Being a young and inexperienced mom, our first few trips could be qualified as disasters. I had either over or under packed, forgotten a few key essentials and not realized my children automatically saw a long road trip as the perfect excuse to get sick. Over the years I’ve learned a few several tips that have made our road trips much smoother. I hope these will help you avoid the mistakes I made and have a stress free, fun filled vacation.
1. Pack a first aid kit with basic medications, including allergy, stomachache and headache medication, cream for insect bites, sunburn relief cream and band-aids. This is the first item I include for any trip. I’ve dealt with third degree sunburns, jellyfish stings, food poisoning, fire ant stings and accident prone kids who have managed to fall, bruise and scrap themselves in every major city we have ever visited.
2. Pack a “surprise box” to keep the kids entertained. Before each trip when the kids were younger, I stopped by the dollar store and picked up coloring books, crayons, low cost toys and snacks. I also stopped by the bookstore and purchased a book or two by their favorite authors. I packed all of these in a backpack and kept them in the front seat with me. I would carefully dole out one treat an hour to give them time to play until they got bored and needed something new. I also learned never to hand the backpack to the kids at the beginning of the trip. They would have a good time exploring for an hour and then spend the rest of the trip complaining, “I’m bored! We don’t have anything to do!”
3. Take frequent breaks. Nothing makes a kid (or an adult) crankier than a long trip with no stops. It was worth the extra time to take a play or bathroom break at least once every two hours to allow the kids to run around and burn off some energy. One way to avoid having to take frequent breaks, if you are in a hurry, is to travel at night. This works well if there are two adults and you can take turns driving and sleeping. Otherwise you will be exhausted the next morning when you arrive and the kids will be full of energy and ready to play.
One place I plan to take the kids in the future is Washington, D.C. It’s been years since I have visited and think it would be an educational vacation. Now that my kids are older, I involve them in the process of planning our vacations. I plan to use the Washington, DC, trip creator provided by Marriott International, a leading hospitality company with over 3,800 properties in over 74 countries and territories around the world.
What tips do you have to make family vacations easier?
We also take long car trips with our kids, they are teenagers now, but when they were little was also used the surprise box idea, we filled it with books, small games , toys and movies.
Thanks for the travel tips. When military we made some long distance drives with the kids and found stopping at a zoo always provided the family with exercise and a fun experience. N ot something you needed to schedule tickets in advance for.
Great tips! We do them all!
Leave around 11 or midnight…the kiddos will sleep till the sun comes up.
Great tips! Our kids are getting to the ages where we are traveling more but it can still be a challenge.
Wow, these are some good tips! I grew up in a family of 8 children, so traveling was always chaotic.
My sister is a brand new mom to my 11 week old niece. I told them that they have free babysitting for life so vacations should be quite stress free..but these area one great recommendations especially the suprise box particularly if traveling by car.
Awesome tips, especially for our family who loves tp take trips too. I think it’s best to plan ahead, like calling the hotel or resort before going there as there are times when everything is fully booked and you can’t go anywhere else.
We like using a surprise box too! We used that for our trip across country!
We usually go to hotels that are 3 stars and up and not the very expensive ones when going out of town. But wish to experience Marriott hotel someday.
I have 4 kids and we travel a lot. These are all great tips! Another tip is to arm them all with cameras (the single use ones work fine if you don’t trust them with a good camera). It keeps them occupied and engaged and you end up with a ton more pictures, including shots of you (something that probably wouldn’t happen otherwise).
These are some great tips. I think making sure that kids have all of the snacks that they like along with their favorite electronic devices keeps them from getting cranky on trips.
I love this! Surprise box good idea! these photos are beautiful too!
thanks for the great stress free tips for traveling with kids. my tip would likely be to hire a sitter after the day i have had
The new treat box and taking breaks if VITAL. I think also accepting that your with your kids and not trying to do activities beyond them will help as well.
I love the idea of the surprise box! We will be making an 18 hour trip home next summer and will for sure include this in our packing the car… Its going to be dreadful, but so important that we go!
These are great tips. I need to keep these in mind!
What great tips! We love to travel with our kids and we do road trips quite a bit. One tip that I’ve learned is to get the kids excited about the trip the day before by letting them research where they are going. Also, show them on a map how you will be traveling and how long it will take to get there. It helps them to anticipate the trip and not give you a hard time due to the long travel.
Great trip advice. Love the planner also.
Never thought of a surprise box. That’s something that I’ll have to think of next time we go traveling. Thanks for the tips.
I traveled a lot with my kids when they were growing up and it is all about being prepared. Toys, food, medicine, change of clothes are the main ones. Always be prepared for a flight being delayed or canceled and never depend on the airline to fill your child’s needs and you will be ok.
Taking a First Aid Kit is really important. You never know what can happen and they can be super expensive on the road – if you can find one.
Great tips for sure! I have to keep those in mind later on when I have kiddos.
my tip? do ALL of these tips. EVERY Time. just 1 wont work.
Great tips. I especially like the idea of packing a surprise box. Great idea for the kids!
These are great tips. My daughter is now a teen so it is real easy now to travel with her!
Looks like castle. We love the Marriott – it suits our family’s needs. Looks like a wonderful place to stay!
We make sure to plan down time too. Too many activities crammed in a day is a recipe for a meltdown at some point during the trip.
I would love to visit Washington DC too! I have only driven through it three times!!
Great tips!! My kids are grown, but I remember how hard it was to travel with them when they were young!!
I really like the surprise bag tip, especially the fact of doling things out every so often so the kids keep the anticipation but aren’t TOO bored! That’s a fantastic idea, as are the other tips you shared 🙂
I’ll have to remember this when I’m a traveling mom!
Those sound like excellent suggestions. I love the idea of a surprise box. How fun!!
I am stressed just traveling by myself 🙂 Great tips!
Love #2! We are definitely doing this for our trips from now on.
These are great tips, especially since I am a first time mom and have a 3 year old. We have a first aid kit, but the surprise box is a new one to me and he would love it!
Wow beautiful pictures – I don’t have kids and I was the worst traveller as a child my parents could barely make it 10 minutes up the road without me being ill (and anti sickness meds just seemed to make it worse) in the end they took to travelling at night so I would be asleep when we were going away. x
I need some for traveling with kids and dogs though I am sure a lot of these will work. We love the Marriot, wish they had a pet friendly section though! I know I want it all.
What great tips. We have had too many stressful traveling times with kids
Back when one of my friends kids was young we used to go on vacations occasionally–pack up kid, my dog (who was a marvelous babysitter) us and just take off–If she started getting really bored (I was the only driver) I could generally entertain her by singing along to the radio–she seemed to like my voice–or we would play verbal word games–if all else failed-we asked my dog to PLEASE keep her occupied which he was definitely good at doing!!
Thanks for sharing these useful tips! I haven’t been travelling with my daughter yet, so I will save these tips for later.
Those are some great tips. I know my daughter can seriously stress me out on long trips. lol
I agree breaks are important! When we went to DC a few years ago my husband and I were determined to see everything, and we dragged the kids to every museum. I wish we had been more relaxed, it would have been more fun.
The Smokies are gorgeous and great tips!
We just took a trip to California in November. Our longest trip every so far.
We packed snacks, a surprise bag and lots of stuff to do.
Great tips!
Frequent breaks are a must for my gang. I also want to do a family trip to D.C. in the near future.
We haven’t taken a trip with the kids yet. One is only 5 months. But we are going to brave trying a trip next summer. These are great tips I will have to remember.
These are all wonderful tips! We travel each year with the kids and I am always looking for new ideas to make things easier.
I love taking the kids on road trips. Our last trip wasn’t the greatest though. We took the kids to Tahoe and had to stop four times before we got there. It was either a blow-out diaper, door not shut, or a spill. But I have to admit, it was totally worth it. I would love to visit the Smokey Mountains, they are just beautiful!
I like the idea of packing a “surprise box” when traveling with kids. But I think that’s a great idea even when it’s just adults traveling.
We used to do road trips ONLY at night when my daughter was younger because it was so rough traveling with her. We would take turns driving and someone would nap in the morning while the other watched her. Made life a lot easier!
New Orleans – my favorite city Smoky Mt’s – Favorite National Park and Washington DC our capital! Great locations!!! Marriott is always a name we trust when we travel!
surprises are KEY. my daughter has been to India (and back) 3.5 times. My son 2.5 times (as in we’re here now). Plus to Michigan to vist my family. Travel with me for work and a few times to mexico… and yes, surprises and wrapped up= fun!
love the tips you provided in this post. I always find packing snacks and activities for the kids to be so helpful
We’ve traveled a lot with little kids, including the long trip to Germany from Idaho. It took over 24 hrs. That was a LONG trip. So I can honestly say YES to all of your tips. You have to do all three, or else you will all go mental! lol
If you are with kids – it’s definitely a must to have first aid kids – nothing is wrong by preparing for certain things as a precaution. We also always buy some snacks for them especially when we are in the car – for them to settle down, lol!
Great tips. I especially like the idea of a surprise box.
I never leave home without a first aid kit – even if it’s just a trip to the store. I swear that whenever I needed a bandaid, I never had one, so I made sure to always keep some with me.
I absolutely love your pictures and love traveling! I would like to do more and share my passion for foreign countries with my son! Your post inspired me!