(Check out TPG‘s list of healthy snacks to pack on trips.) The more snacks you bring, the more self-sufficient your road trip can be, which means fewer stops. This way, you have the “snack master” in the front passing out snacks all the way to the back. We bring cups to pass out “messier” snacks (like Goldfish, pretzels, Cheez-Its or oyster crackers). Making sure you have enough snacks for the trip is another of our road-trip tips. (Photo by Dan Miller) Don’t skimp on snacks On our most recent road trip, each kid had their own Nintendo 2DS system (pictured below), which worked great. Older kids usually play on their phones, and we have tablets and other devices for the younger kids.
We found that there isn’t a movie in this world that a 14-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl can both agree on.Īs the kids got older and technology advanced, we moved more toward individual screens. The only problem with that came as the kids got a little older.
When our kids were younger, our go-to move was a portable DVD player attached on a platform hooked into the headrest posts of the driver and passenger seats. Our road-trip screen time game has evolved over time. We do try to mix things up with other forms of entertainment (see below), but it’s true that most of a long road trip consists of kids on various screens. Our family is fairly strict on limiting kids’ screen time, but a road trip is one time where those rules go (mostly) out the window. When I asked my 12-year-old daughter what her best road-trip tips were, she thought for a second and then came up with “screens, snacks and space.” Over the years, we’ve come up with several family road trip tips and I’d like to share a few with you.įor more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. (Here’s a list of the best credit cards for road trips, best credit cards for gas purchases and advice for maximizing points and miles on road trips.)Ī family road trip can be a great idea any time of year if you want to go somewhere close or don’t want the expense of airline tickets. That’s still the case when gas prices are high. The economics of being able to transport eight people in one vehicle make family road trips a staple of our travel plans. Consider the relatively small $5.60 tax on your “free” award ticket: For our group on a round-trip itinerary, that’s nearly $100 - and then there are the often astronomical fuel charges, also known as “carrier-imposed surcharges.”īecause of that, our family often skews more toward “drive” in the classic “drive versus fly” debate. A lot of that difference comes from the fact that even a small cost multiplied by eight turns into a large cost quickly. Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.ĭuring the coronavirus pandemic, many families discovered for the first time how road trips are a fantastic way to travel.Īs a family of eight, our household has always traveled in ways that are somewhat different from other families.