My son can get bored or carsick traveling 15 minutes to daycare, so the thought of traveling hours in a car can seem daunting! However, with the appropriate preparation, we had a successful and (dare I say) enjoyable 11 hour round trip recently. Here are some tips on what worked for us:
- Travel times:
- If at all possible, travel during non busy (commute, holiday, weekend) times. Waze is a great tool for planning ahead to understand if there may be traffic. Nothing is worse than adding even more time in the car.
- If your child naps, plan to be traveling during their nap time.
- Research your route – are there any fun stops along the way you want to stop at and explore? If so, consider what time you would like to arrive and plan accordingly.
- Some articles I read suggest traveling at night, taking advantage of a sleeping child. I’ve never done this as my husband and I really appreciate our sleep as parents, and wouldn’t feel safe driving if we were tired (which can be often).
- Travel length:
- We’ve done 2 strategies that have worked both with an infant, and now toddler aged child. We either do one long travel day (breaking up the trip into stops every 3 or so hours. OR, we’ve broken the drive up, mainly focusing on driving during this nap (so 2-3 hour length). We choose the strategy based on what there is to do on the trip. If there are great things to do every few hours, than we choose the later strategy.
- Stops:
- We try to avoid multiple stops, coordinating gas, food and bathroom breaks together.
- We look for parks to visit every few hours, giving our little guy a chance to run around. In order to maximize time, I’ll have my husband drop us off while he picks up food or gets gas.
- Restaurants with outdoor areas are great for a food and exercise break: Yelp is a great tool to find restaurants with outdoor seating. I will also look at pictures or search reviews to see if any have bonus playsets or lawns littles can stretch their legs on.
- Entertainment:
- I’ll update this section as my son progresses, but here is what has worked at which ages:
- Infant:
- Music
- Soft playbook with activities
- Musical book
- Toddler:
- Podcasts to listen to of his favorite toys (example: Thomas the Tank Engine).
- Sticker books
- Looking out the window for favorite things (in my son’s case – large trucks, trains, and trees)
- Singing favorite songs
- Coloring – I love the small sized magic ink ones
- Magnetic blocks
- Infant:
- I will travel with either an open, easy to organize bag to hold these items, or have a behind the seat organizer for these items
- I’ll update this section as my son progresses, but here is what has worked at which ages:
- Snacks:
- I keep a small cooler in the car, bringing healthy, easy to eat, and low mess items, such as:
- Fruit: prewashed berries or apples, or easy to peel mandarins.
- Veggies: prewashed baby carrots and cocktail cucumbers.
- Presliced cheese and crackers.
- Hawaiian rolls with sliced deli meat and presliced cheese
- Nuts & dried fruit
- Shelled hard boiled eggs
- I keep a small cooler in the car, bringing healthy, easy to eat, and low mess items, such as:
- Avoiding carsickness:
- Hoping your child isn’t prone to this. But if they are, here are some tips that have worked for us:
- Avoid traveling on an item stomach. Ideally, often them bland food like toast, a muffin or crackers before traveling. I actually keep a box of Ritz crackers in my car at all times to offer my son if he starts to feel unwell.
- Avoid foods during the journey with dairy. Cheese has been okay with our son, but milk and yogurt have been huge culpits of carsickness.
- Avoid screen time. This can be so tempting for entertainment, but can lead to carsickness. Offer a podcast instead.
- Research your route and avoid windy roads.
- If there are signs your child is starting to feel ill:
- Roll down the windows
- Offer a cracker or lollipop (and a lollipop is great to keep on hand for driving in and out of high altitude, which can make ears hurt).
- Pull over and stop in a safe location if you need to (but avoid stopping suddenly)
- Hoping your child isn’t prone to this. But if they are, here are some tips that have worked for us:
Have safe and enjoyable travels!