8 tips to go on a roadtrip vacation with 2 toddlers




It's been a while now that we are back from our roadtrip through Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia in the US.  Very often I get the question whether we took the children along or not.  For me it's obvious that we travel with the children.

Yet it's me who has written an entire post why it's quite feasible to travel longdistance on airtravel with young children   (and similar in 2015) because I claimed it to be easier than travelling long-distance with them in a car.  So it seems a contradition that I took them on a road trip (for the 2nd year in a row in fact).  Well it isn't a contradition if you know we approach our roadtrip in such a way that the car travel is limited and hence different from driving more than 1000 kms to your destination as quickly as possible.

This is our approach.
  1. Add extra days to your trip in order to limit the number of hours you need to drive (and add if possible some days without driving)

    We took more or less an itinerary that is advertised in self-drive tourist trips for 10 days...and we spread it out over 17 days.  If you don't have the possibility (time-wise or financially ) to organise a longer vacation, I'd recommend to cut the distance you want to cover. Life is about making choices.

    I've become convinced that I'd rather have a slow paced, not fully packed itinerary without any stress that allows to do things at a child's rhythm or to make adjustments when needed  rather than to push the agenda to its limits.  The latter seems a recipe for overly tired, whining children that would kill a good vacation atmosphere.

    So we consciously tried to limit the number of driving hours per day to 2-3h as much as possible and have added now and then a location where we stayed multiple nights to add some driving-free days in the agenda.
  2. Cut up long stretches into smaller rides with visits or excursions

    The advice from number 1 isn't always feasible. Sometimes there are areas with no real  accomodation nearby that forces you to have a longer driving day anyhow. Then I really try to cut it up in a few drives of 2-3 hours with an excursion or activity in between.

    On our current trip we had a day of 7 hours of driving over a peninsula with few obvious attractions. Yet I've spent a long time zooming in and out of google maps to search for some potential stops eg a local nature reserve where we could do a small hike, a town for lunch, some village at the beach with a pittoresque lighthouse or a small playground for the children.  You don't need much special to have a stop.
  3. Don't underestimate "visiting" time and time for meals etc

    I've made this fault while focussing too much on point 1: Calculating the time to get from point A to point B on day 1 and from point B to point C on day 2  ...but forgetting that point B is worth a day of visiting or so.

    I find this harder than drawing the itinerary as it's hard to predict weather, fatigue, motivation etc on the day itself to spend more or less time on guided tours or musea or boat trips or ... I learn to accept a bit that I sometimes find myself in a city where we can't visit all that I'd think off.  Once again, it's about making choices and then I prefer to be stress free and relax on vacation even if I have a good list of things to do the next time I come back to this location one day.

    Bigger cities or beach locations are good stops for me to spend multiple nights as there's usually more to discover or to hang around.
  4. Cookies in the car and small reclosable bottles

    As soon as we arrive on destination and we start the roadtrip, we go and shop in a big supermarket and stock the car with drinks and cookies...Nobody wants to be hangry in the car.

    Our children are toddlers now big enough to be able to open some times of bottles themselves (or to use a reusable drink bottle). Empowering them to self-service gives a lot of peace of mind to the co-driver that doesn't need to take care of catering all the time.

    We always have different types of cookies in the car (not self-service...that wouldn't end well) but also often grab a cup of cheerios or other breakfast cereal along. These can be handed out when times get tough in the car :).
  5. Time rides with nap time

    If you can predict when your toddlers' energy will wind down and they'll be ready for a nap, that's an excellent time to be on the road.  The drive is so blessfull with sleeping children in the back!!

    So we always try to do some visiting or excursions already in the morning or at noon, to try to drive with more tired children somewhere in the afternoon...if that is feasible of course.
  6. Music playlists

    Playing music that the children love is essential for a peaceful drive in our family. As soon as we turn the ignition on, Kabouter will ask for "his songs". We have a few playlists with child-friendly music and then the drive is a long sing-along.  Both children are active music listeners so this keeps them entertained for quite a while.

  7. Sufficient small toys, cars, ... to alternate

    I distribute small cars or trains or planes now and then...not all at once and not always the same ones. 
  8. Involve the landscape

    WE often discuss the landscape . This trip we challenged Kabouter each time we approach the hotel to find it and tell us where to go , since he now can recognise logo's.   He can also help search a gas station or something else. 


And when I'm done writing this post, I realise I've written a similar post a year ago: Roadtripping with a baby and a toddler. Some tips I repeated, some were quite different :). 

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