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Road Trip Tips for Traveling with Teens #MomHacks

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Road trip tips for traveling with teens at Food Fun Family

My Best Tips for Traveling with Teens

Now that my kids are a older, our road trip strategy has changed. No longer are my kids confined in car seats and drinking out of sippy cups. Now, they’re more concerned with wifi coverage and comfort than anything else.

  • Pack the wifi. When we’re at home, we wouldn’t necessarily encourage the kids to spend hours on end on their devices, but when devices mean the difference between whining and arguing or peace and quiet, then I’m all for the technology. This year, we’ll be traveling with a wifi hotspot so that everyone can connect when needed and we don’t have to worry about going over on our phone plan.
  • Pack for comfort. Pillows and blankets may take up a little bit of extra space in the car, but they sure do make the ride more comfortable!
  • Listen Together. Pick an audio book that the whole family will enjoy and listen to the audio together. When you take breaks from listening, you’ll have some fun discussion opportunities.
  • Be smart about road trip food. We used to pack a cooler full of food for our long road trips, but we found that no one wanted to eat a day old PB&J sandwich. But we also don’t want to spend a fortune stopping at fast food restaurants. Now, we stop at grocery stores and buy a loaf of bread and sandwich fixings (or whatever we’re in the mood for) and stop at a local park to eat. We have made some amazing memories doing that!
  • Pack some games and books. Yes, I love technology for keeping everyone quiet, but I also love having a few activities and road trip games that we can do together. Several of us like to crochet in the car, and everyone loves to read on road trips.
  • Don’t skimp on the pit stops. There’s value in getting to your destination quickly, but we’ve found that taking time to get out of the car and stretch our legs at regular intervals makes a huge difference in how we feel. So we do. It might take us a little longer to get where we’re going, but we’re happier when we get there. And that’s worth it to us.
  • Check the car before you go. No one wants to spend part of the road trip stuck on the side of the road or at a far-away auto shop waiting for the car to be fixed. Yes, things happen on the road, but we want to be as prepared as possible before we set off.

Road trip tips for traveling with teens at Food Fun Family

What are some of your road trip tips?

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Road trip tips for traveling with teens at Food Fun Family

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About Lolli

Lolli has written 3734 post in this blog.

I became a mom in 1996, and in 2005 I had my fifth. Yes, 5 kids. In 2007, this blog was born (my 6th baby that will never grow up) and I've been sharing recipes, photography tricks, parenting tips, and everything in between. (Formerly Better in Bulk)

Comments

  2. My tip is to bring a basket of food and drinks for the kids, and a basket of toys and coloring books! Games like i-spy are fun as well.

  5. My first tip is to have a few power bank chargers on hand. You may not always have access to an outlet to charger your devices so a portable power bank is nice to have, especially if your phone is about to die. My second tip is a package of scented trash bags so you can keep your car clean and easily throw out all garbage at a rest stop.

  6. We like to have good music, tons of snacks and juices and a mobile device to watch a movie or play games such as a tablet to make our road trips fun!

  9. I hate to say it, but electronics are probably the best ‘teen-sitters’ available, so make certain they have them for the trip!

  11. My only tip is to have lots of entertainment. If they have something to do it keeps them from asking so many questions and makes the time go by quicker. Thank you!

  16. When traveling, use a plastic cereal container with a lid for all of the garbage in the car. This works great for all of the snacks, napkins, etc.

  17. My best road trip tip is to make sure to take plenty of stops along the way. Just getting out of the car for a little while makes the trip so much nicer.

  19. Pack well: snacks, GPS, plans – know where everything is and designate a person as leader over finding anything needed. Oh, and lots of water.

  21. Pack a variety of new activities for the car! If you have a portable gaming device, let the kids get a new game, get new coloring or activity books, new road trip specific games, a new movie. Anything NEW will keep them occupied longer

  23. My mom hack is having a bag of snacks in the glove compartment for when they start getting whiney and we can’t stop.

  34. The two weeks before our junior year in college my roommate and I traveled up and down the state of California visiting friends and family. No plans, no notice to anyone, we’d just show up.
    We were kind of idiots, but it sure was fun!

  42. Bring lots of fun activities for your kids to do to keep them happy, Also, pack your own snacks. It’s healthier and saves you lots of money.

  46. If at all possible take a friend or other family member that you know travels well (no car sickness) Kids get board and a friend helps. Keep a pillow for them its hard to sleep with your neck all twisted they can lean on it. Snacks anything not sticky that can be easily swept up and out.

  48. For someone who always had car sick kids be sure to bring buckets, towels and wet washrags – you never know what mess you’re going to have to clean up.

  49. My best tip is to be sure to schedule time for unexpected stops, because you never know what wonderful place you may spot along the way.

  51. We like to have thigns ready by packing snacks, water, change of clothes, and our first aid kit. I never know what I might need with the kids in the car. We even have shoes! I can;t even begin to tell you how many times we have left home without shoes!

  53. I have a tote bag in the car with everything we might need. Plastic utensils, plastic cups, a roll of paper towels and a sample size towelettes. We don’t always like to go out to eat but sometimes we get thirsty or want a snack. We pick something up at Target and it doesn’t have to be the small 1 serving drink, we’ll get the big one and share.

  56. My best tip is to wear comfortable clothes! No one wants to be stuck in the car for a long period of time while uncomfortable.

    Thanks for the chance to win!

    wildorchid985 AT gmail DOT com

  63. My my tip for car trips is play the eye spy game! It keeps everyone engaged on trip, you’ll see things you wouldn’t otherwise see and if your kid is car sick it helps because they focus outside the car rather than the motion of the car!

  64. we bring dvds and lots of road games such as count how many 18 wheeler’ s you see or count the blue cars only etc we have loads of fun on road trips

  76. take a cooler for drinks, and healthy snacks, so you wont have to stop for junk food. make sure everyone has enough room and their own space. take an emergency kit, make sure the spare tire is good, have a cell phone charger or battery pack.

  77. Our best road trip was a trip that we took from NJ to SC. We took our time with the trip and made a number of stops. It was fun and relaxing.

  88. My best road trip tip is to use a grocery bag as a trash bag! That will help keep down the clutter and trash while on a road trip when every one is eating snacks, etc.

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