I grew up in a town three and a half hours from the nearest airport, so long road trips were pretty standard for my family growing up. Now that I have my own kids, we alternate flying across the country to visit my in-laws and driving to Mexico to visit my family.

We recently made the long drive back from Mexico where we had been visiting for a few weeks. While we were there, I was visiting with a friend who mentioned that she was about to take her kids (ages 2 and 9 months) on a 13-hour road trip, and she was feeling nervous about it.

Since summer is the season of travel, I thought I would share some things that have worked well for our family! All of these have served us well on both our long flights and our long drives with babies and little kids.

  1. All the snacks. If I’m being totally honest, snacks kind of drive me crazy because there’s nothing worse for me than taking the time to prepare a meal for my kids and then having them not eat it because they’ve been snacking all day. BUT. On trips? Snacks forever! We pack a huge bag and strategically roll out food throughout the trip. Bonus points for small things I can give out one by one, like raisins or cheerios (these are also great for hiding in one fist and having your kid guess which one it’s in—anything to draw out the eating process and keep them entertained!).
  2. Libros (of course). I will admit right now that I hoard some of the Sol Book Box books so I can break them out just before a trip when I know we’re going to be heading out of town! I also love the idea of stopping by the library for a stack of new-to-us books right before we leave (I think that’s happened like once—we normally just bring books from home—but it’s a great idea in theory).
  3. Save electronics for last. This is probably my best tip and the one I shared with my friend—save the screens for last! It seems like you could just break out the iPad and kids would zone out and stay quiet, but in my experience the opposite is true—screens more often wind them up, or they lose interest and get cranky. So we do stories, snacks, singing and well, pretty much everything else first, and try to save electronics for the last part of our trip (when everybody’s tired and/or screaming).
  4. No-mess coloring. If you haven’t yet been introduced to Water Wow! books, they are the best thing ever! My kids will happily entertain themselves with them for much longer than I would have thought possible, and if they happen to spill nobody freaks out because it’s only water. We also recently tried this invisible ink marker coloring book, and liked it a lot too (not as much as Water Wow! if I’m being honest because the marker has a strong-ish smell, but it did entertain my three-year-old for a good 45 minutes on our trip).
  5. RUN during stops. When our oldest was a baby, I remember going on vacation with some friends who, at every stop, would have their kids run races with each other for 5 minutes. I adopted that one immediately, and now have my preschooler hop like a bunny, gallop like a horse, or chase me around the car 10 times at all of our stops, too.

I’d love to hear your best travel tips! Tell me and I’ll add to the list!