5 Road Trip Hacks

With 5 children, we are no strangers to long road trips.

It’s expensive to travel in general, but with a handful of kids it becomes nearly impossible to fly anywhere — so we road-trip. A lot!

I’m excited to share some of my best road trip hacks with you ahead of Spring Break. Whether you’re traveling an hour or 12, these tips are helpful for getting your kids off the screens and enjoying the open road.

5 Road Trip Hacks

1. COUNTING DOWN THE HOURS: Create a paper chain countdown for the little kids. Remember making these in elementary school as a countdown to Christmas? The same idea can be used to countdown the hours and to hopefully minimize the “are we there yet?” questions. Another idea is taping masking tape on the kids windows with landmarks you’ll see on the way. You can use velcro on the bottom of a matchbox car to move the car along the making tape.
2. HOURLY BAGS: I’ve been guilty of handing the kids all of their activities at the start of the trip only to find them bored as can be by the second hour. By putting a few snacks and activities in hourly brown paper bags they will get a new surprise each hour. The brown bags can also serve as trash bags as you go down the road.
3. ACTIVITY HACKS: If you have a child who loves legos, I like using a binder and lego board glued inside of it. You can then use plastic pencil holders to store the legos. Portable, hanging toiletry bags are great to hang on the back of the driver and passenger seats filled with crayons, colored pencils and other activity books. You could even get a small suction cup for the window for the kids in the back row.
4. MEAL HACKS: You can purchase small shower caddies at the dollar store for meals on the go. Cups and fries fit perfectly in the small sections and the larger one can be used for burgers, chicken nuggets and condiments. Easy cleanup too!
5. CLEANING SURVIVAL KIT: Speaking of clean up, we’ve had one too many spills, messes and sickness in the car while traveling. I no longer leave the house without my small Tupperware container with disposable gloves, paper towels, baby wipes, lysol wipes and fabreeze. You just never know!
   
   I hope some of these hacks were helpful! Did I miss something? Let me know your best road trip hack below!