10 Road Trip Tips

Is anyone else taking summer road trips this year?

We have been on a couple road trips (5 hours and 16 hours) and have a few tips to share with you.  I do a lot less for the 5 hour trips than the 16 hour trips.  Five hour trips means one fun surprise and some good snacks.  A lot more work goes into planning 16 hour road trips especially when it's 16 hours to AND 16 hours from your destination.  

1. Figure out your favorite food stops and try to find them along the way.

I love Dunkin iced coffee and Kevin loves a Starbucks run.  We're always excited to see Jimmy Johns, Chick-Fil-A or Culvers.  Make sure to use your rewards apps for all your favorite restaurants.  I cashed in some CFA points for free items, earned points for coffees and used Culvers rewards for kids meals.

2. Search Amazon for some fun new toys surprises for the drive.  

The kids loved these Gokeey Transformable fidget spinners.  They were very sturdy, the kids played with them a ton and they really were albe to transform into the coolest robots/creatures/inventions.  We have played with them for a couple of weeks and they area lls till in perfect condition.  The kids and adults had fun making different creatures and playing with these fidget spinners.  10/10 recommend them for summer travel or for birthday party gifts.

GoKeey Transformable Fidget Spinners 4 Pack - with a coupon to clip!

3. Post-It Note count down.

My kids (ages 4-11) all appreciate this visual count down.  I set a timer on my phone and for every hour we do of driving, we take down a post it note.  I prepped these ahead of time and wrote out 1-16 twice.  That way I was ready for the trip down and the trip back.

4. Make a fun Spotify playlist or two.  Olive made one for the kids.  I always have a current playlist ready and Kevin wished we'd made him a playlist of his favorite songs to put in the rotation.  We listen through the car bluetooth and it was really helpful when we hit dead spots of not great radio reception.

5. Car crafts!  My kids enjoy these wax wiki sticks, busy books, marker crafts, sticker books and more.  I don't usually like things like slime in the car because it is so messy.

6. Fun Pit Stops!

If you have time, fun pit stops are an instant mood boost!  Bucees is something else.  We've skipped them before when they are too crowded, but this trip we visited twice.  It's quite a spectacle and the food is oustanding.

7. Dine in.

Another instant mood boost is getting everyone out of the car and dining inside.  We all needed a break when we got to Macon, GA.  This Chick-Fil-A dine in gave us the energy to drive a few more hours.  We never dine in for long, but the change of scenery is good for everyone.

8. Reserve your hotels in advance.  We have made the mistake of not doing this and had to sleep for a few hours in a van at a rest stop or drive way far out of the way for a hotel room.  Kevin handles all of this.  He'll map our the hours he'd like to drive and then pick a hotel in that city.  We split up the drives where we did 9 or 10 hours on day 1 and then had a shorter day of about 6 hours for day 2.

9. Gas station snack grab.

Nothing perks the kids up more than telling them to grab any snack of their choice at a bathroom break.  It's so fun to see them strolling through the giant aisles of salty and sweet snacks to pick out something that sounds good to them.

10. Collect trash as you eat and snack and then throw away a bag of trash every time you stop for restroom/gas breaks.  That way your car will stay clean and clutter free!

11. If you have a long drive and are spending the night in a hotel half way, pack a small bag with pjs/outfits for everyone for that night.  That way you just have to take that small bag into the hotel room for night and not have everyone drag in all of their suitcases and bags.  It makes it a really quick sleep and go night if you have everything you need for everyone in one bag. 

12. Find things to get excited about - landmarks, fun stops along the way, a new movie to watch, make a vacation to do list as you travel or anything happy and positive to pass the time.  The silliest thing we got excited about on this drive was our stops at Bucees.  I think we passed 3 of them each drive and it was fun to monitor the billboards.  And after we stopped for the first time we came up with a list of things to try on our next visit.

The Banana Pudding is amazing.

Skip all the hot food options and go straigth for the BBQ.  Kevin and I will be dreaming of these pulled pork sandwiches for a while.  Skip the BLT and the chicken strips/fries.  They take forever to prepare and aren't very good.

And then grab a snack to enjoy later.  Kevin loves fudge so this sampler pack caught his eye.  The kids of course picked out Bucees stuffed animals or key chains.  We all have wish list items for our next visit to Bucees.

Good luck planning and enjoying your summer road trips!!