The Best Tips to Survive a Road Trip With Toddlers

I included all the tips you will need to survive a road trip with toddlers. The boys and I went on a road trip to Utah this summer and I reached out to my Coco’s Caravan community for all the tips and tricks. I listed seven that will help your trip go smoother!

If you are going on a trip where you are flying with toddlers check out my blog post HERE. I’ll give you all the tips to make it as easy as possible!

7 Road Trip Tips

1. Snacks

The first road trip tip is to bring a lot of snacks. Honestly giving my kids snacks solved a lot of their fussiness. Try and get fun new snacks that they have never had before. The best snack item I bought were the dum dum suckers! This helped with their car sickness and whenever they started to feel restless.

They each had their own ziploc bag full of snacks for the whole day. I made two for the road trip to our destination and two for the road trip back. This way I would have snacks for our trip home and I wouldn’t need to worry about it during our vacation.

Don’t forget to add in some snacks for you as well! I always have to bring some candy to help me get through the last half of the trip! Anything to keep me motivated and awake!

2. Toys and Activities

The second road trip tip is to have toys and some activities for the kids. I try to keep my boys off the tablets as long as possible because they get car sickness easily. I like to go buy some new toys and activities because it can be helpful to have new things for them to get excited about.

I love to look for coloring books, books, hot wheels cars, sticker books, etc.

My followers suggested buying a cookie sheet at the dollar store so they could play with magnets on it and use it mostly as a tray. My boys loved to drive their cars on top. This was such a great idea and so cheap!

You can buy these square magnets HERE.

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I was originally looking at this travel tray, but realized my kids might be a little young to use this. This is another great option if you want a tray or a way to organize all the toys and activities. Might be worth the money for a long road trip.

Best Places to Buy Toys/Activities

The Dollar Store has so many amazing toys and activities for kids. I bought my boys cheap toy cars, the water wow books, coloring books, crayons, puzzles, etc.

Its a good idea to buy some new toys because that will get your kids excited and occupy them for awhile. Its also smart to buy stuff at the dollar store because you don’t care as much if you end up losing something or a toy breaks during the trip.

The Dollar Section at Target is another great option to look for toys. They actually had so many great children’s books for a dollar. I found some great sticker books and water wow books here as well!

How to keep things organized in the car

I’m all about organization during a trip. I found these awesome zipper bags on amazon and used them to keep everything in one place. I could fit everything inside and each kid had their own bag.

I then use these fabric bins to store their snacks, activities, tablets, and headphones. It helps keep everything in one place and prevents loose items all over the car! I love doing this for road trips!

This bin is from Ikea but you can get similar fabric bins on amazon.

I also love using these see through zipper bags for smaller items. Such a great idea when traveling.

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3. Tablets/Movies

Tablets save me during road trips or on planes. For the first half of the road trip I try and make the kids play with their toys and use the tablet as a last resort. My boys do get car sick so I try and avoid it as much as possible. I do have to say when they are using the tablet they love it and they do so much better! I highly recommend having a tablet or movies on hand!

We use ipad mini’s and I make sure to download their shows and apps before we go. I love this ipad case because I’m able to clip it around the back of the head rest so they can watch a movie.

If you don’t know how to download movies off of Netflix check out my blog post HERE.

The best toddler apps

Best toddler shows on Netflix

Best toddler shows on Disney plus

Movies

If you have a DVD player in your car you should transfer your movies to these DVD sleeves. Once you have all the DVD’s in these sleeves it’s easier to take them in the car and you can bring more! Check out my blog post where I share how to organize your DVD’s.

4. Breaks

Another road trip tip is to take breaks. It may seem hard because it might take you longer, but it’s so good for the kids to run around. It also helps break up the trip.

5. Leave at nap time

This was a great tip and we ended up leaving around nap time so the boys slept for the first part of the trip. Try and avoid stopping while they are sleeping. Some people suggested driving during the night, but I don’t trust myself to do that.

6. Blankets

My boys get a lot of comfort from their blankets. At home they are only allowed to have their blankets when they sleep, so they associate their blanket with sleepy time. This helps a lot when I’m traveling and need them to sleep on the go. It’s also a long stressful day of traveling so I’m okay with them getting some extra comfort from their blanket. So bring that blanket or stuffed animal that brings your child comfort.

7. Diapers/Potty Training Toilet

Make sure you bring extra diapers with easy access. You don’t want to pack them in the back where you can’t get to them. My boys are not potty trained yet, but a lot of my followers said to bring a potty training toilet. If you have a toddler who is still learning bring a toilet so you can set it out on the side of the road if it’s an emergency.

Hope these road trip tips helped and if you have any other tips to add please comment below!

If you are interested in the car seats I use check out my blog post about that HERE!

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