As our family road trip approached, I was obsessed with making sure I packed everything — everything — we could possibly need for our six-day adventure on the road. I was determined not to miss anything. And I am happy to report that I did a fantastic job. (Yes, a pat on my back.) I was ready for every scenario, and the best part is that we used almost everything I brought too. So I packed for every occasion without crazy over packing.
Road Trip Entertainment
The name of the game is to keep my kids entertained. I wasn’t too worried about my seven-year-old bookworm. I knew she would be happy with a stack of books and her Kindle. But baby sister would be a challenge. To make activities accessible, I loaded up a tote to place between their car seats filled with easy car activities. I also packed a small bag near me with surprises to be doled out as needed. Other than wanting to change activities every five minutes Sissy did great, and my well-planned bag of goodies was just the right entertainment for the road.
- Movies
- Books
- Crayola Wonder
- Journal
- Printable License Plate game
- Printable Road Signs game
- Small dolls
- Workbooks
- Flash cards
- Stickers
- Stuffed animal
- Mad Libs on the Road
- Music
- Handheld electronics
- Plastic bags for collecting treasures
- Wiki Stix
- Crayons/colored pencils
- Coloring books
- Window markers
Road Trip Snacks
In addition to keeping them entertained, it is important to keep everyone feed. I packed a lot of snacks. While we didn’t finish everything, we did sample everything. Individual portions are important on the road. So I brought plastic zip-top bags. Each night, I filled the plastic bags from large bags of snacks. The large bags stayed in the back of the car, while the small packs sat up front where I could pass them out as needed.
- Individual portions of snacks in plastic bags
- Best insulated bottles for kids <- my favorite brand
- Best insulated bottles for parents <- my favorite brand
- Bottled water (for refilling insulated bottles)
- Baby wipes (for sticky fingers)
- Wet Wipes (for germy fingers)
- Go Picnic (for lunch on the go)
- Plastic cups (not for drinking, for passing snacks)
- Plastic grocery bags for trash
- Picnic blanket
Road Trip Comfort
Keep everyone comfortable and happy with these must-have supplies.
- Small blankets
- First Aid Kit – bandages, pain relievers, tummy meds, etc.
- Towels
- Sharpie
- Sunglasses for everyone
- Change of clothes in a go bag for emergencies
- Plastic grocery bags for wet/dirty clothes
- Roll of paper towels
- Hand soap sheets
- Lip balm
- Sunscreen
- Foldable Potty Seat
- Flip flops (easy to slip on and off at pit stops)
- Kleenex
- Extra plastic bags (snack and gallon)
- Scissors (you never know!)
- Paper Maps (for when GPS doesn’t work, trust me)
Box Tops for Education is one of America’s largest school earnings loyalty programs, and those $.10 labels add up. Yesterday I shared how my family collects Box Tops for Education and more about the program that earned my daughter’s school more than $1,500 last year to spend anyway it needed.
Bonus Box Tops at Walmart
For the back-to-school season, you can find Bonus Box Tops at Walmart. Specially-marked packages of General Mills products at Walmart include a certificate for four bonus Box Tops, making those packages worth $.50 for your school. I picked up one of those bonus packages at Walmart — a giant box of Honey Nut Cheerios with 5 Box Tops.
Happy road trippin’!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of General Mills®. The opinions and text are all mine.
More family travel tips
5 Road Trip Survival Rules For Traveling With Kids + Free Printable License Plate Game
10 Trips for Traveling with a Preschooler
Only 40? I swear it seems like my girls pack their entire wardrobe, everything in their bathroom and half of the toys in their play room!
That license plate game is one of my all time favorite road trip games! Of course “when I was that age, we had to make our own license plate list” haha 🙂
Each of the kids has a basket (homemade, crocheted from plastic bags), they fill it up with toys they want to play with. Usually I make sure there’s nothing that’s going to be too annoying in the bags before I allow them in the car lol. Depending on the road trip, I’ll pack a color book or two from dollar tree and crayons in a soap container-which they only get if they get bored… Other than that, they find ways to entertain themselves and each other and sing along with the songs on the radio.
Those bags sound neat! And I totally agree about no annoying toys in the car! LOL.
Thanks for this post! Could you tell me where your basket for in between the girls is from?
Hi Audrey – The basket is a 31 Gifts Square Utility tote. I am not 100% sure if they still make this size/shape as I don’t see them on the website. But I did see some on eBay. It is the PERFECT size for between the seats.
I seriously thought I was the only person left on the planet who still carried a paper map in case the GPS failed:) Glad to know I’m not!
Oh my we learned our lesson in the mountains. We got seriously lost for about an hour with no signal. NEVER again, a paper map is a must!!! 🙂
Great list! I would also add that a small travel pillow is a must for us on road trips. My son uses it when he decides to take a nap, but also when he wants to relax while watching a movie. It also works great to provide some extra lumbar support for a stiff adult back.