Family Car Travel

[SarahS]

We've shared our tips for family car travel -- but now we want to hear yours! What do you do to keep the kiddies entertained on a long car ride? How do you deal with motion sickness? What's the most important thing for your fellow parents to remember? Share your thoughts here.

[KimberlyB]

We've been taking our little one out on road trips since she was born -- she's nearly 6 now and tells us often how important these getaways are to her.

For entertainment, we always pack a special backpack for our smallest traveler -- filled with travel-friendly games and attention-keepers. We've road-tested a few of the eeboo products and have been super happy with the results. Their magnetic travel games (Chinese Checkers is our favorite), travel bingo and tray puzzles (we especially like the map of the USA puzzle) are just top notch and travel exceptionally well. Our daughter started a travel journal earlier this year so we're sure to pack that, a glue stick, some photo corners and (of course) glitter and crayons too. And she doesn't go anywhere without her Polaroid camera.

There's also good old-fashioned conversation! We'll talk about day-to-day stuff, but it's also really fun to point out certain sights as we drive by -- be it a sleepy town or a big city -- and take stock of what's different or the same with our town.

We take turns picking out the tunes so there's always music playing, but we stay away from the DVD player. It defeats the purpose of traveling together!

We also stay away from junk and fast food while traveling and opt for healthier, energy-boosting options. We'll usually pack breakfast bars, portable yogurt drinks/protein shakes, fresh fruit, crackers and cheeses. Our kid is used to this diet so it's actually helpful in keeping things calm and still homey. If we popped a box of Oreos on her, she'd probably think something weird was up! If we need to stop somewhere for grub, we try non-chain local places.

Things typically go well on our adventures and I give credit to the few simple rules that we follow.

We stay as flexible as possible and we don't rush -- road trips are just as much about the adventure as they are the destination. We take our time and stop when we want to stop. If we pass an incredible playground or a great field to fling the frisbee around in, then you can bet we're going to stop!

We do all we can to make it as fun as possible for our daughter. My absolute greatest childhood memories were made on road trips with my parents, and I am doing all I can to carry that tradition on in my family.

Now that our daughter is getting older, we let her in on the decision making process and she's a big contributor in planning our road trips. We have found that giving her choices and letting her weigh in on where we should go and what we should do has really given her confidence a boost...and she has all the more fun when we get there.

Family road tripping is obviously a favorite subject of mine; I'm always ready to talk about it and would love to hear from others out there who do this. What tips or road trip routes do you have to share?

--K

[Keiko5]

I'm not a parent but my own parents managed to keep my brother and me from fighting during long trips. We would play the cow game. Basically, counting cows and every time you passed a cemetary you could kill people's cows or save your own if the cemetary was on your side of the road. My parents also had travel bingo and yatzee. We'd talk and/or listen to music. This up-coming vacation, we're bringing CDs and singing to them. And if the song is bad, we change it.

[nomadchef]

My first-born though she's 12 is nauseous and pills for nausea isn't effective. Sweet candies though makes miracle in preventing it ( i don't know why). They enjoy sight-viewing so there's not much problem about the long journey. And if boredom does arise, books would solve it. Music too makes the trip great.

[flyer]

We recently took a roadtrip from Detroit to Myrtle Beach, with the following lessons:

1. Separate children if possible, vehicles with a 3rd row are very helpful here.
Rotate the kid's seat at every stop.
2. Bring a DVD player for each kid, or get one the mounts on the back of the front seats, this only works if the kids are close enough in age to enjoy the same movies, otherwise there are fights.
3. Most kids these days over the age of 7 don't care for traveling games (forget it if they're over 12), come to think of it, did you at that age? But you can try.
4. Motion sickness: give meds at least a half hour before you start to travel, limit fluid intake for the first hour of travel, and don't let them read or play hand held video games or DVD players at first. Having their heads down and not seeing out the window seems to make it worse.

Good luck.

[gordwick]

Well a family car travel sounds perfect to me, you can get the best of it, I usually travel in small groups, I have never traveled with my whole family...

[Renee2]

Personally I don't have children so can't share personal experiences still I happened to see many families coping with the need to drive for long hours with children and have seen that most of them are doing the mistake of trying to catch up on conversation between the grown ups and this is the perfect way to create tensions with the children.
Found some good advice on the issue of the inclusion of the children here.

[GetAway]

this is a little skeptical, but I really have to put in my three cents here...how about if you just leave them at home....

[Renee2]

You are a little skeptical, traveling with children can be fun, it just requires a different state of mind, going slower, thinking about their needs but sure not all trip are suitable for children. It sounds like you don't have any children.

[helloworldbea]

There's a blog post in a group I'm part of about traveling with kids. Check it out on this link: http://traveltips101.ning.com/profil...BlogPost%3A182

A mom compiled it after traveling for about 5 mos, with 2 toddlers. I think its helpful and practical because she based it on their own experience!

[melyant]

Well we usually take a trip to Mexico when we can and it is a 31 hour drive we have lots of tricks.I have a now 5 and 8 yr old.We have done this since the youngest was 3 months and the oldest 3 yrs old.

First this trip we do all in like 2 full days and ill tell you how.We leave early morning like around 3 or 4 in the morning we travel with plenty of sleep.Here is how.We fully clean the house like the days before we go and tie up any loose ends with anything.I go to the store that everything is like $1 and buy little things about 10 things each, that they will get throughout the trip.I put them in a brown paper sack for like lunch size and here and there a little package of crackers like maybe bags in between meals,then I put names on them,and the name of the town they get them.I keep these with me and not let them know what they are.Then we pack the truck and get it all ready.We always have a suit case for each kid packed in the back of the truck with ours and also a backpack each in the back seat with change of clothes or any little toys they want to take along.We also pack a disposible camera for each and any little games like bingo.I also keep a baking sheet with magnets for them to play with you can make magnet out of any picture or anything small you can stick on the stickon magnet strips.I go to alot of free printable sites and make a folder for each with a small box of crayons and the printables, if I can I find printables about where we are going and a little journal.We also pack a small backpack with a few changes of clothes and deoderant things that we will need before our destination for us adults too.
Then when we eat early dinner.After dinner around like 5 pm we get a snack and a juice or milk and put it in the fridge should the little ones get hungry after we go to sleep and to insure they are not fixing their own and making messes.We tell the kids to stay in their rooms play watch a movie and pretty much stay up as late as they want.Just not wake us up and fight or anything like that.They actually love it and it has worked great.

Then we pack a breakfast snack to take along in the morning.Granola or like a type of breakfast food that can be eaten cold I know my kids always like banana bread muffins or something like that.We also pack a cup with a top for each kid they are older but there are like sippy cups with straws they like just fine.The last thing you need to do is to clean up spills in the middle of a trip.We do pack a cooler the night before full of ice it will stay cold for a day or so if you put ice in every now and then.We keep the cooler close to the tail gate of our truck for easy access.We stock it up for the whole trip because we go to mexico there aren't always things my kids really want.We usually stop rarely to eat out like only 1 meal a day sometimes 2 we usually always stop to eat for dinner.

To start our trip we wake up fresh by that time the kids are out but exhausted from staying up.I usually get them up brush their teeth and go to the bathroom and give them a little benadryl for car sickness.Then a few peanut butter crackers and a drink in their cup with the top.Never give anyone Orange Juice when you will be traveling in a car this causes car sickness.We always leave them in their pjs and take a comfy comforter or blanket that is soft from their bed and put on their car seats to make it extra soft.Then a small pillow and they always fall back asleep they stay really comfy with their blankets and they are happy to start out on this big adventure, We always talk about things for weeks in advance this gets them excited and prepared.

Then we drive from Missouri all through to texas in the first day.THen we stop and stay the night there.While traveling we of course stop and use the bathroom and we have a DVD player I limit the usage however.They even play video games on ours the plug-n-play games work great.We stop to eat lunch like a picnic and we also go to like a roadside park if possible.(This is a good time to get trash out of the car that may be collected).They get a chance to play this way.We do not push them to eat if we are at a place of course to play because they need the excercise.We take their food to go if they want then they eat it when ready.We eat light and do not let the kids have alot of sugar or sweets.I do also reward behavior that is good with quarters or a dollar here or there (if they have been good) to spend.Once I made like 10 coupons for them to choose out of a bag when they were good they liked that.It would be like your choice of snack at next stop, or choose next movie to watch you know things like that.It would be something really special.

We always budget and I also budget money for my kids to spend and put it in a kids wallet and show them what they can spend.When we stop for the night at a hotel also we do research ahead and usually make a reservation and try to find one with a indoor pool if possible or any pool at all and hope the weather is permitting.They swim that night and they get a good nights sleep if they are tired if not they watch tv or play in the hotel room with their new little thing they got in their goodie bags.If they aren't sleeping when you are just keep an eye out for sneaky ones that may escape.This is basically how we do it and it is pretty much just things we always repeat.Maybe this may help with ideas.

[soliteyah]

Oh my gosh, melyant, 31 hours in the car with two kids?? Power to you! I don't know that I could do it, but you've got some great tips there.

[melyant]

Originally Posted by soliteyah

Oh my gosh, melyant, 31 hours in the car with two kids?? Power to you! I don't know that I could do it, but you've got some great tips there.

Anyone can do it just be sure to think and plan ahead getting there is half the fun.

[ceruleanjet123]

you should first think of kids that what they want to have,and what ever they like to do while trip.....Then do planing as per your comfort...

[reiselaender]

Whenever we travel with our son, we always bring our gadgets with us and make sure we load it with tons of applications which he can enjoy. That way, he won't get bored during the trip. And we always have some candies and mints, those will also somehow "tame" him.

[devilsrule2004]

yea ipods and nintendo DS are great. just get inverters to keep them charged

[shubhranshu]

Touring a continent with car has its own charm. It gives us privacy, freedom to do and enjoy anything according to the mood and also freedom to change the trip route at last minute. also, we can carry more gadget with us that saves considerably.

[sanjidm]

We take turns picking out the tunes so there's always music playing, but we stay away from the DVD player. It defeats the purpose of traveling together!

We also stay away from junk and fast food while traveling and opt for healthier, energy-boosting options. We'll usually pack breakfast bars, portable yogurt drinks/protein shakes, fresh fruit, crackers and cheeses. Our kid is used to this diet so it's actually helpful in keeping things calm and still homey. If we popped a box of Oreos on her, she'd probably think something weird was up! If we need to stop somewhere for grub, we try non-chain local places.

Things typically go well on our adventures and I give credit to the few simple rules that we follow.

We stay as flexible as possible and we don't rush -- road trips are just as much about the adventure as they are the destination. We take our time and stop when we want to stop. If we pass an incredible playground or a great field to fling the frisbee around in, then you can bet we're going to stop!

[Ferries]

Travel with kids is really amazing feelings with family car travel. Last year it was my wonderful feeling and enjoyed lots.

[travel123]

I suggest for parents to get some medicines for kids because sometime kids peaks while traveling and take diapers, some games and snacks while car travel.

[mamaroo]

To keep our kids occupied on car trips, short or long, we've been playing games from the Family car Games iPhone/iPod touch app It's got rules and how-tos for 100 different games families can play without needing any equipment...great for the car. There are singing games, guessing games, story-telling games. It's great for families of all ages, and keeps us involved with each other, instead of having the kids staring at a DVD. We laugh A LOT, and the time just flies by! It's great for drs office waits and restaurants too.

Here's a link to the page at the iTunes store. It's only $1.99.

http://*******/12YcfR

[mamamiller]

We travel extensively by car throughout north america. with 3 kids 5-10yrs we use these tips to keep them happy and busy:
i prepare food in advance of our trip so we don't have to stop often for junk food. if it's a long trip we stop in local towns and buy healthy food which we can make into sandwiches and rough salads ( prewashed veggies ). I always keep unsweetened koolaid on tap so i can add my own sugar and so we don't need to stop for soft drinks.

i download plenty of madlibs to keep them busy http://madlibs.org/

we bring mini board games to play in the car

we bring allersac's for everyone http://allersac.com so we can stop whenever we like and not worry about the beds.

we always plan our sightseeing with the kids so they know where they are going and are happy to have a say in the decision.

[tampabayonline.us]

I always find that in the car it is fun to choose certain landmarks or items that may be seen along the way. I.E. a white horse, or a silo, windmill, red barn, etc. You can obviously modify this to whatever area that you are driving through. IF you add points to each item it will keep them busy for hours and collecting points. The winner gets a prize! I also like the alphabet game where everyone starts with A and finds the letters on signs till someone gets to z. also a fun thing... hope that helps

-Katie
Tampabayonline.us

[pscheer]

I have a suggestion that I don't see very often. It was really just dumb luck that we discovered it. If you live in a city that has a zoo or science museum, buy a membership! You can make back the investment in just a few trips each year and they can create some special family moments. But, the really great thing is that most of these places have reciprocal agreements with zoos and science museums in other cities - you get in free there, too ! Admission to these places can be really expensive and if your little one is tired from time on the road, they may want to head home after an hour. But, if you got in for free - who cares?

Check the fine print on your local organization as these things vary but we found ours to be a fantastic investment.