Tips for Road Tripping With Your Family

There are two kinds of families: those who love road trips and those who hate them. Usually, families separate into these two categories because the families who dislike road trips are also the ones who don’t plan ahead, have no way to entertain their kids, and generally don’t like traveling by car. Those are all the wrong things to do when you’re road tripping. To have a successful road trip, you need to plan ahead, follow the “rules of road tripping,” and expect to have a good time. These 5 tips will make even the most resentful family love going on road trips.

1. Plan for Pit Stops

The first thing that you should do when you’re planning the trip is plan for pit stops. If you’ve been planning to drive straight for 32 hours until you get to the destination, you’re going to have an awful time. Part of the fun is stopping since, when it comes to road trips, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.

As you’re looking over the route with your family, talk about the areas you’ll be driving through. Are you driving through Moab, UT? Then make a plan to stop and visit Arches National Park for a day. Try and stop at destinations everyone will find interesting and fun. Let each child pick out a place they want to see and along the way so everyone feels included.

2. Take the Right Car

One of the worst things you can do as you’re planning a road trip is to take the wrong car. Most families have more than one car so take a minute to choose the best one. If you own a Nissan Sentra and a Nissan Rogue, you’ll need to do a few things to decide which is best. First of all, the Rogue is a bigger car so that automatically wins it a few points on the scale. Then, go over Nissan Rogue review to make sure that it can withstand the journey you’ll be making. The general rule of the trade is to always take the bigger car because it will give you more room. However, if you only have two kids and the small car is more reliable, then head out with that one.

If you have a large family (with 4 or more kids), you may need to look into renting a van instead of taking a car you own. The last thing that you want is cramped space where everyone feels claustrophobic.

3. Distract with Snacks

A great general rule to keep is to always have a variety of snacks on hand. It can be one of the best ways to distract your kids from contention, irritation, worry, or grumpiness. If you notice your kids are starting to squirm, bring out the snacks.

Have a variety of snacks on hand to make sure that the kids are getting bored of one thing over and over again. Also, make sure that you have some healthy options like carrots, apple slices, oranges, celery and peanut butter, and other healthy snacks that will keep their appetites up for when you finally stop for dinner.

4. Keep the Kids Entertained

Kids need to be entertained; it’s part of being a kid. To make sure that they’re entertained the entire way, here are some ways you can entertain them without too much effort. First, you can play a game called “A-Z” where the kids look for words on the road that start with a letter of the alphabet starting with A and then moving down the list. The first person to get through everything in order wins. You can also play other games like “I Spy” or a game that you make up. If your car has an entertainment system, put on a movie when they get bored and let them listen to it with headphones. You can also jam out to music when all else fails.

Roll down the windows, eat some yummy snacks, and have a great time.