My husband and I are busy planning our Road Trip! for later this summer and a fun part of that is considering what we need (“need”) to buy to make the Road Trip! as fun as possible. This is going to be a LONG road trip, taking place over the course of ten days. So it’s not your normal drive to Grandma’s house. Well, in our case, it IS a drive to Grandma’s house but Grandma’s house is on the other side of the country so it will take quite some time to get there and get home.
So far, here’s what we have bought:
A little backseat organizer for Carla. She can use it to set up her iPad, so she can watch without straining her neck (My current plan is to enforce the two-hours-of-screen-time-per-day restriction we have, even though she will be in the car. We’ll see how long this lasts. But I grew up with a father who continually asked me to look at the scenery while we were driving, and – despite the fact that I found it very irritating at the time – I seem to have absorbed that philosophy to a cellular level.) (Also, when I was a kid, I read books and played with a Gameboy on a teensy screen and never suffered from “neck strain,” so Carla doesn’t really NEED a specific organizer to address this non-problem.) Right. We are talking about the organizer, not about my inherited road trip ascetism. She can use it to store… things. Colored pencils? A stuffed animal? Masks? Snacks? I don’t really know WHAT things, but she does tend to accumulate a lot of stuff, and my husband cannot stand a messy car (I resigned myself to a messy car long ago), so the entire organizer is really for my husband’s sanity. My husband really wanted to get one of the organizers that had a little fold down tray, but ***MORBID THOUGHTS ALERT*** my mind instantly went to decapitation in case of a car accident because that is how my brain works, and I managed to persuade him to find something else.
A foldable, waterproof trash can that can hang off the back of one of the front seats. Again, this is mainly for my husband’s sanity. My whole life, I have been perfectly fine using a plastic bag from a gas station to collect snack wrappers and soda cans, and tossing it at the next gas station where you inevitably pick up a new one. But my husband enjoys having the exact right thing for every situation, and if it is helping him feel excited about the trip, and if it helps reduce his stress/irritation during the trip, then I am all for it.
Road trip journal. This is also for Carla. One thing that I do NOT have trouble spending money on is Fun Travel Treats. One thing I remember with such fond joy about trips with my parents is that my mom always made these little kits full of fun surprises that we could open during the trip. Usually they would include things like a fresh tablet of drawing paper and a brand-new package of colored pencils or markers, maybe a new Barbie, a new book, a workbook of some sort, or maybe a book of paper dolls. OMG – do paper dolls still exist? I don’t think Carla has ever encountered a paper doll, and I wonder if she would like them? Wow. I have gotten really off topic. Anyway: I LOVED these little treats, and they made the travel part of trips so much more fun, and so I like to get Carla little treats as well. My husband doesn’t really get this, though, so I have to wheedle a bit. Like, he would disapprove of a new pack of colored pencils because Carla already has a million colored pencils. He just doesn’t understand that part of the cache is that the pencils are NEW. ANYWAY I keep trying to redirect myself and it is like pulling a jumbo jet with a jump rope tied to its nose. We got this road trip journal for Carla as a Fun Travel Treat. She likes journals (at least, she likes the idea of journals; she is my daughter through and through) and I am hoping this will help her feel engaged with the trip.
A family card game for the car. Admittedly, I may be the only one of the three of us who has any interest in this Loaded Questions game. But it sounds fun, to me, and I like the idea of being able to play a game together that doesn’t involve a screen.
An audiobook. I think we have settled on A Wrinkle in Time or the fifth Harry Potter book.
A fun snack. I chanced upon a display of vegan peanut butter caramel coated popcorn the last time I was at Trader Joe’s and grabbed a bag. I may end up kicking myself for not grabbing multiple bags. But we will SAVE IT for our Road Trip! and I am anticipating that at the very least it will be fun to try.
Things we are still considering, but haven’t yet purchased:
A fresh tablet of drawing paper. Carla loves to draw, and I know how absolutely wonderful it is to have a FRESH tablet of drawing paper, ready to be filled with creations.
A travel atlas. I think this would be fun, but am not 100% sure Carla would read most of it. Plus, how many giant books do we need rattling around in the car with us?
A cooler. My husband is CONVINCED that we need a cooler. Again, I direct you to my childhood, during which we never needed a cooler. Now, maybe a cooler would be nice, but in that case, I petition for a VERY CHEAP cooler. My husband, on the other hand, wants a Yeti cooler that costs – I SHIT YOU NOT – $350. My very blunt response to that was, “I will never be okay with spending $350 on a cooler.” I told him that my upper range for cooler expenditure is $50. It does not matter if the Yeti cooler keeps ice from melting for three weeks. We do not need that kind of cooling duration. Now, I can fully imagine people for whom the $350 Yeti cooler is practical or a necessity. If you make your living as an ice fisherperson, perhaps; or if you live in the Australian Outback. And other situations, surely. But for me, it is a Startling Expense TM Swistle and I cannot do it. My husband has done extensive research – which involved us going to a sporting goods store and looking at physical coolers, so we could see which size would work best for our very limited needs – and I think we have landed on this one. It is within my $50 threshold, and I DO think having a cooler will be useful for other situations I have yet to consider.
Another family game. Carla and her friends love playing Would You Rather? and it might be a fun way for the three of us to interact while we drive… but then again, it’s fairly easy to come up with questions on your own. I don’t know. Still debating.
A travel pillow. I tend to fall asleep immediately in the car, but then my head continually sags forward onto my chest and then snaps up and then sags forward and then snaps up ad infinitum. I would LOVE to find a travel pillow that keeps my head from doing this, but I feel like I have tried ALL the travel pillows and I have yet to find one that works, so I am not terribly hopeful.
A set of paper dolls. They DO still make paper dolls! I am not sure if Carla would like them – but at least she would find them briefly diverting. Now, do I go for the Anne of Green Gables version? The Little Women version? The Nancy Drew version? Carla might like this “fashions of Edith Head” version best – she is very into fashion design lately. Ah, but it looks like it requires scissors (rather than the pieces being perforated), and Carla isn’t going to know who any of the subjects are (Audrey Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland). So maybe we won’t do paper dolls after all. At least not for this trip.
What are some of the Utmost Necessities you’ve found useful on a Road Trip!?
Goldfish pretzels and fun sized m&ms are the food treats that must come on our road trips. I usually scavenge some toys and markers from the back of the closet- something they haven’t used in a while. One toy the kids have fun with in the car is the Rubic cube snake – makes lots of fun shapes. We tend to take cartoon books like Calvin and Hobbes, and I load some favorite movies on the tablet.
A Rubic Cube snake?! ORDERED.
I AM HERE FOR THIS. God, I loved paper dolls. I still would love them, I think. Maybe I should buy myself some because I DID NOT KNOW THERE WERE LITTLE WOMEN PAPER DOLLS OMGGGGGGG
As someone whose childhood “vacations” were almost exclusively 10-hour drives from Calgary to SE Saskatchewan, I feel this very strongly. I loved having a little bag of things to do, although they weren’t always new and special treats. I remember having those little…clipboards? That you could draw on and it was plastic, and then you could just pull the plastic up and it would erase. Do you know what I mean? I think we also had car games, like little tiny board games. I would always have a stack of books as well and when I got older, mix tapes in my Walkman.
The scenery, frankly, sucked, but I recall my mom constantly saying “look kids, cows!” and honestly, what. I’m from Alberta, cows are pretty common.
Oooh Life Savers, my mom always had Life Savers. I am looking at that popcorn and wishing with all my might we had Trader Joe’s.
A $350 cooler? For one road trip? If you bought that you would need to drive across North America for three months at least, to make it worthwhile.
Nicole, he tried so hard in so many ways to make me okay with the $350 cooler and I am just BAFFLED. Like… no???? And I am very familiar with the “look, cows!” except that my dad liked to QUIZ ME about what breed of cows they were. Also… no????
I want to recommend crayola twistable colored pencils to go with the new drawing pad. Draw like colored pencils, do not require a sharpener.
Ooooh!!!! Genius!
I feel an overwhelming urge to tell you that there is an audiobook out there with Madeleine L’Engle reading A Wrinkle in Time herself and you should definitely look for those (she also did A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet.)
!!!!! This is amazing!
I have them on CD in my closet but hopefully they are still out there for easy public access.
We regularly went to family, 4-5 hour trips, for weekends when I was a kid. I thought that eating dinner in the car was a real treat! And wanted to open it up as soon as the car was out of the driveway, which my mother discouraged. I remember playing some word games, like Mad Libs.
No super-helpful memories, I’m afraid. But I am in awe that you could buy the treat now and not try it before the trip! My willpower doesn’t work that way. Plus I would be afraid that I would try it and not like it, and then I’d be in the car with no treat. I’d rather spoil the surprise, but that’s just me. (I also don’t suggest books for book club unless I’ve read them first, because I don’t finish all the books I start, so I don’t want to box myself in, but the others don’t seem to have that mindset at all.)
Yes, it is a gamble with the snack! But for me, a good portion of the fun is in the trying of a new thing, so even if it’s gross I will enjoy it!
I think you have some great ideas there. The cooler cost is staggering. We DO bring coolers on road trips. On our drives to Yellowstone we bring multiple coolers. We eat meals on the drive which helps us stop to eat at times. We also bring meals to eat once we arrive. Even so, I could not justify the cost of that cooler. I suggest the dollar store – get those little handheld games with water in them where you try to get the rings to land on a hook, etc. Also etch a sketch? My kids used to bring little ‘guys’ like action figures and play with them as we drove. I love the family games that can be played in the car.
Your husband would not survive a 5 minute drive with m messy crew. 😉
His car is pristine, Ernie. I don’t know how he does it… oh yes, I do, he drives my child in it twice a month at most!
I love the behind-the-seat organizer for Carla! I bet she will love it and will easily fill it with all the things she “needs.” (I love letting young kids pack their own backpack or suitcase for a trip – it’s hilarious to see what they think they must have!)
Books on tape were our go-to when I was a kid, and I do think Mad Libs would be fun at this age. Definitely some candy and salty snacks, too. And I think you’ll be glad to have the cooler to keep drinks in.
I am such a control freak – I have never let my kiddo pack her own bag! Maybe now’s the time to start. 🙂
I mean, you definitely should still pack her clothes/necessities. I mean like a “fun” bag. A “carry-on,” if you will. 😉
We received a Yeti cooler from my husband’s employer as a holiday gift years ago. And it’s fine?? I mean not worth $350 IMO. We’ve used it but I don’t see how it’s superior to the other very basic and cheap coolers we have? And we used it when our fridge went out in the spring of 2020. Maybe it kept things colder longer than the other basic coolers we have? So it’s something that was nice to get but I would never spend money on one!
We are not at the ‘fun’ road trip stage yet. I will be driving with the toddler today and I am DREADING it. But for me, snacks are THE MOST important part of a road trip! But I have never been on a multi-day road trip, besides when I drove from Charlotte to Minneapolis with my mom when I moved back after being relocated there for a year. But it was 2 adults. We got an audio books and snacks and I made a playlist of music that we would both enjoy. But that was the extent of our planning!
I was always team ‘plastic bag in the car.’ For years, I had one that hung on the consol shifter and thought it was great. My husband hated it and didn’t see the need for a plastic bag to collect garbage. So after we married, I stopped having one in the car but boy are there times when I think it would make life easier to have a receptacle for trash… but it’s not a hill I will die on!
Oh and another necessity for me is wet wipes and kleenexes. I’m on a never-ending stretch of having a runny nose, though!
Wet wipes! Yes!!!
Have you looked at Mad-Libs? Great roadtrip game, also we have a cooler that plugs into the cigarette lighter and doesn’t require ice. You can also get an adapter and plug it into your hotel room. Saves on buying snacks everytime you stop. You can find paper doll cut outs on pinterest. Don’t forget Dramamine in case of car sickness and always pack extra plastic bags, paper towels, toilet paper and baby wipes. Great for easy cleanup and if you happen to have to stop for an emergency pee. As far as snacks, lunchables are easy and quick, payday bars or protein bars are great fillers. Headphones are a must for Carla, Do you have a portable DVD player or a laptop that plays dvd’s? You’ll thank me later. Also, please leave your route with someone, in the event you have problems and make sure you sign up for AAA. Towing is very expensive and you never, never know if something will happen. Best to be prepared! Safe travels!!!
Such great, practical tips! Thanks!
Hospital-grade barf bags. Related: we don’t do a lot of long road trips.
Seriously though, a little set of magnet tangrams is great for when you’re enforcing screen breaks. Also, rolls of washi tape that seem to have endless appeal for my 8yo to stick everywhere.
Finally, I fell for the Yeti pleas and I hate the cooler. Hate. It. Hold firm.
I feel so vindicated by this comment!
Oh! Oh! Oh! I want the Edith Head book like nothing else. This is the first time that I’ve wanted to play with paper dolls since childhood.
I second the recommendation for the Rubix snake and all things Rubix in general.
Our greatest road trip listens were old time radio serials. Hours upon hours of 10-15 minute episodes and each one ends with a cliffhanger. Speed Gibson and The Magic Island were our two all time favorites.
Hard pass on the $350 cooler. Until I read this post I had no idea that such a thing existed or that I would have such a strong negative reaction to it.
Old time radio serials?! That sounds so fun!
We always have cooler of some sort – it’s hard to imagine why you would not want one? I mean, keeping drinks cool in the hot summer car, plus you can bring snacks like cheese sticks or grapes or carrots to cancel out the other junk food.
My kids each have a clipboard with storage, and it works great. When I was a kid, I used to make friendship bracelets on road trips, and a clipboard is perfect to hold the end. Maybe you could get a kit for that? My daughter loves to make things like that as presents for grandparents and cousins.
I guess I never had a cooler on road trips as a kid, and never missed having one? I can see how it would come in handy. And the clipboard idea is a good one!
First hand experience take a bucket and cleaning supplies as you never know if someone will get carsick! I second a cooler for drinks and snacks because road side station food is expensive!
😬
That backseat organizer is the bomb. [Does anyone say that anymore?] Unless you plan on hauling a heart for emergency transplant, no way on the $350 cooler. I’d like to listen to a Wrinkle in Time, now that you mention it.
HA! Yes, organ transport seems worth $350, otherwise it’s a no from me.
I’m gathering ideas here for two long road trips in my future! Mad Libs are good fun. Our family, who is very picky about audiobooks, liked a Wrinkle in Time. This audiobook was a suspenseful non-fiction that my kids, husband and I all liked – Into the Planet, My Life as a Cave Diver (Heinerth). Its a biography of a National Geographic scuba diver. Pretty sure the kids were 12 and 9 when we listened to it. So fascinating! (Sensitive little ones might have a hard time with life threatening situations related to scuba diving and probably some mentions of divers who did dangerous things and didn’t make it. )
So, I *loved* this as a kid and lo, it still exists all these years later! It would sort of combine coloring, and paper dolls, and creativity all in one. You can create different fashion people, then color them using colored pencils. Super fun!
A game we had fun with in the car is called Rubber Neckers:
Have fun on the road trip!
I was like, “Well, I think YOU should have those paper dolls, for YOU.” And then I thought, “Now I want paper dolls for ME.” And now I have what might be a fun get-together idea for friends: I am trying to think if I have any friends who might want to come over and do paper dolls. I am thinking how thrilled and charmed I would be if a friend suggested it. But…would my friends feel the same? WE SHALL FIND OUT!
When I was a kid, we would drive from Texas to Kentucky to Alabama and, on the rare occasion, to North Carolina or West Virginia every year. And this was back in the day when we had absolutely no electronics. Funny enough, my mom always pointed out the cows. Being from Texas, they were everywhere, and not the exotic animal she seemed to make them out to be. But I must have absorbed that somehow because when I became a mom, I began to point out cows.
I always had a book or five with me on those trips – these days I also pack several crosswords to keep me occupied. We played the ABC game (where the competition is to try find all the letters of the alphabet first via signs, license plates, etc.). And bickered with my brother. Ahh, memories.
We always had a cooler filled with sandwiches, snacks and drinks. And even today we always have a small cooler with, at the very least, drinks. And like you, it would be a firm HELL NO from me on a $350 dollar cooler – that’s absurd.
I’m trying to remember how old Carla is – 8, I think? A travel Scrabble board might come in handy and would be a good game to pass the time. I think I introduced my son to the game about that age (before Junior Scrabble was a thing). I just kept my words simple so that it was fair. I liked it because in addition to helping his spelling and vocabulary it also strengthened his mental math (not mine though) since it required him to figure out his points.
Travel snacks are always a must on a road trip for me. It could be anything from candy, chips, sunflower seeds, pistachios, string cheese – it doesn’t matter. There must be snacks.
Pillows. We always (back then and today) always pack some pillows and a blanket or two (ONE of us likes the car too be super cold – glares at husband). I don’t use a travel pillow but will usually put the pillow between the window and my head and can usually fall asleep.
These are wonderful items to bring on a trip! We did our road trips before internet so we had some Mad Libs and looked for license plates from every state. On one trip we saw all but Hawaii and Alaska. That popcorn sounds delicious!
We have a big road trip coming up and need a cooler. My husband really wants to find one that plugs into the cigarette lighter (do people actually light cigarettes with those things? I have not once in my entire life ever seen a cigarette lighter used to light a cigarette, yet they come in all cars)…
I’m a lame road-trip mother. The kids watch some screens, we talk, listen to podcasts, and they like to snack constantly. The snacking constantly is basically the secret for us. Sigh. I try to bring veggies and fruit, but they get bored and also genuinely seem ravenous. It fills a shocking amount of the day when we’re driving.
My husband LOVES road trips, but I feel very meh about it all, maybe because I think the driving bit (which he does) seems a lot more relaxing than the child-tending bit (which I do).
This post, and the comments, makes me so nostalgic for a good old road trip! We took them all the time in the 60s and 70s to go from IL to TN (to visit my mom’s mom) and then down to Florida. My mother was not at all into doing things for us – her main (awesome) contribution was the music. I can never listen to Sly & The Family Stone without feeling like I’m in the backseat as we drove to Florida, nudging my brother to stay on his side of the seat.
My own kids loved to have lap desks to do their various activities. We were a boring sort, just books, drawing, coloring, etc. (electronics were still very new when they were little).
Have the very best time!!
This post was a lot of fun! I bought a bag of that popcorn for a friend of ours the other day without knowing how it tasted. Now I may have to go back and get more…
I have a daughter about the same age. She loves the “Fashion Angels” sticker by number sets which are fairly small and easy to pack. Have a great trip!
OMG, paper dolls. I loved them as a kid. I didn’t know they still existed! Awesome.
Oh, a road trip! Have a wonderful time! We didn’t do much road-tripping with when my son was young because he had ants in his pants!! We flew often — even from TX to MO (an 8hr drive) because of his ants….it was torture for him (and for us) to sit that so long! But we did drive halfway cross-country when we moved in 2007 (son was probably your daughter’s age) and your post brought back memories of it.