Top Ten Tips for a Toddler Road Trip

Recently, I drove with my son all by myself from Louisville down to upstate South Carolina. Google Maps says it’s an 8 hours and 4 minute drive. 492 miles. Well, obviously Google Maps didn’t estimate their trip with a toddler. It took us a little over 10 hours.

So here’s my tips for traveling with a toddler:

1. Bring a map. I know this is an obvious one, but maps are useful even if you have directions from Google Maps or MapQuest. Sometimes it helped me to see what towns were between the larger cities so I could gauge how much farther I had to go.

2. Read your directions beforehand. I did on the way there…the way back, however, I thought I knew where I was going but the directions were saying to go a different way. So I went what I thought was the correct way. A few phone calls and about an hour later, I was back on track. I wasted an hour of precious sleeping time (for the little one) backtracking.

3. Snacks. Lots and lots of snacks. Joey ate soooooooo much on the way to South Carolina. So much. It was crazy. It kept him entertained. We had mostly healthy snacks. Homemade granola, carrot sticks, cucumber slices, raisins, animal crackers, and peanut butter/honey sandwiches.

4. Bring books and toys to keep the little ones entertained. I had a basket of books and toys packed that was within arms reach with different toys in separate little canvas bags (like animals were all in one bag, knights/dragons in another). I would hand him a bag and he’d dump out the toys and play. It was easier than handing him one toy at a time, when I knew there was a good chance that toy would be on the floor in less than a minute.

5. Music. I didn’t get to listen to as much music as I’d like (mostly because of #6), but bring kid-AND-momma friendly music. Veggie Tale’s works for us and Joey had fun “dancing” to some of my music too.

6. DVD Player. This was a lifesaver on the way home. Joey had been having a teething-related fever for a few days and all he wanted to do was watch movies. We rarely let him watch TV at home, so this was a special treat. He’s favorite was “monkey” aka Curious George. Just make sure the movies you bring are at least slightly entertaining to you as well. There’d be nothing worse than driving to the annoying sound of Dora the Explorer or whoever peeves you.

7. Plan your trip. Know when you’re going to leave, about where you plan to stop, when you’ll stop for meals, etc. This helps to break up the trip and you gives you something to look forward to when the drive is boring. Also, make the most out of sleeping times.  I planned to leave at 5am and have Joey sleep in the car ( we got out of the driveway around 5:30) and he slept for 2.5 more hours, we stopped for breakfast around 8am, stopped for a play and potty break around 10:30, and then stopped for a gas/lunch break around 12pm before naptime. After that I just drove until we got to my parents.

8. Plan to stop. Part of me just wanted to keep driving and get it over with. Just stop though. It’s better. We played at McDonald’s and rest areas. (They even had WiFi at one rest stop!) It gave me a sanity break and Joey a chance to get some energy out. I think each time we stopped to play we hung out for at least 30 minutes…or until Joey made his last break for the tractor trailer trucks.

9. Don’t buy a RockStar. I was tired. I thought it might help. Apparently, I am not like my sister (who loves these things, well, technically Red Bull). I only drank half, because it was starting to make me feel sick and it didn’t even feel like it gave me energy.

10. Enjoy the view. I loved driving through the mountains between Knoxville and Asheville. After spending so long in Southern California where everything is either brown or houses stacked on top of each other as far as the eye can see, it’s nice to get a little farmland and greenery. The tracker-trailer trucks on the curvy roads…I could do without those.

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Tagged as: road trip, tips for toddler road trips, Top Ten Tuesday