Road Trip Tips: How to Actually Enjoy Your Car Ride with Kids!

We are headed up this week to Telluride, Colorado with my entire extended family which means one thing: ROAD TRIP! I’m so excited to share my favorite road trip tips with you!

Did you know I come from a family of 6 kids? We are all so close and get together as often as we can. This trip is something I’ve looked forward to for so long and I’m glad that it’s finally here (and that we can actually go!)

From Phoenix to Telluride is about an 7.5-8 hour drive. With four kids in the car, this is something I used to dread. My kids are a little bit older now and I’ve gotten a little wiser about how to make the trip easier on everyone.

Before we dive in, trust me when I say you need these packing cubes for any upcoming trips! I can organize my all of my kids’ outfits per day and it makes packing and unpacking a breeze!

Packing Cubes

Clean out the car!

The MOST important thing is to clean the entire car from top to bottom. Get it detailed or vacuum it yourself but starting with a clean car will make everyone happier!

I LOVE my WeatherTech car mats (not sponsored, but I REALLY wish it was!! haha)

You can get them on Amazon but make sure specify your make and model! They are made to fit your car exactly!

The car vacuum is a must have – just trust me!

CAR MATS | VACUUM

Get organized!

Car organization isn’t something you would normally think about – but this is going to change your life and it is SO EASY.

As always, first, we get rid of the junk and give the car a good cleaning! If you’re overdue, we recommend getting your car detailed to make this process easier. It is SO much easier to start if your car is totally clean. 

In your middle console you should keep:

  • Pen
  • Tissue/Napkins
  • Disinfecting Wipes
  • Hand Sanitizer
  • Floss/Toothpick
  • Zip lock bag to keep important receipts/coupons
  • This amazing sunglass organizer
  • Phone charger

Back Seat Organizer

In the backseat:

Hanging on the back of the passenger seat, we keep a small garbage can! This helps immensely with keeping our car clean! We only put paper products in here so we don’t panic about emptying it daily. When we get gas, we throw out the trash.

In the trunk:

In addition the necessary items for your car (fuses, etc.), here are the things that will come in VERY handy at one point or another. Grab a basket or bins and keep the following:

  • For kids
    • Extra pair of clothes and shoes
    • Mobile changing station with diapers and wipes (if necessary)
  • Water bottles
  • Cloth/Rag for spills
  • First Aid Kit (including nausea medicine for occasional carsickness)
  • Sunscreen

TIP: If you have limited space in your trunk, use a collapsable crate that you can flatten if needed.

ONE | TWO | THREE

Visor

If you have a cd or DVD player, use your visor to store 8-10 cd/dvds. We keep a couple of kids movies here. I found a visor organizer on Amazon that holds discs, loyalty cards and a pair of sunglasses. Score!

Glove Box

Try to keep glove box items to a minimum. We store our car’s operating manual, registration and insurance information and a flashlight in here. Nothing else. Try to keep items to a minimum for easy access to necessary items in an emergency or traffic stop.

Keep them entertained

We all know what makes the car so hard with kids – bickering and boredom. To combat both of these things, I did something I thought I would NEVER do.

I got wifi in my car and I got each of my kids a tablet.

The tablet is the Amazon Fire 7 Tablet and it’s $50! I LOVE that they have them during car rides. Before they go, the load up everything they want to watch or play and then for seven hours I don’t hear a peep from them….hahaha I’m just kidding. But it definitely does get us more peace and quiet than we are typically used to.

Download Living Scriptures

Here’s the thing: It makes me very, very nervous to hand my kids a tablet and not be able to monitor what they are watching. For this reason, they download everything beforehand so I can check it. The only streaming app they have unlimited access to is Living Scriptures. And they love it! You can see our full review of Living Scriptures here!

The tablets connect to the wifi in my car. I pay a monthly fee through ONSTAR, but there is another tool from Amazon that can give you portable wifi. WORTH IT. Trust me.

WIFI | TABLET

Games

My kids LOVE these games as well!

Scavenger Hunt

Silly Face Magnets

I SPY Travel

Wikki Sitcks

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