Family Road Trip Hacks
Going on a road trip with your immediate family requires some planning and a good few simple hacks to make it go smoother. Otherwise, you’ll soon know it when things start to unravel quickly.
The longer the road trip, and the fewer available stops to course correct due to a lack of even basic planning, the more you’ll suffer. To prevent this utter travesty, please find below some trip hacks that are designed to get families through their road trips in one piece.
Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail!
It should go without saying that when you don’t plan, life happens!
The more you can do ahead of time to plan, the better outcomes you’ll likely have. This includes making a detailed road trip checklist to avoid forgetting anything important.
With a road trip checklist, it can include what to bring, things to get for the trip if there’s enough time, planning for stops for washroom breaks for the kids (and adults too), what to do about food and the pets too, and much more.
It’s often only when we make the list and are about halfway down the page that you realize why it was so important.
Charge the Power Banks
Charge up all the power banks for vehicles where there are no power outlets or direct USB ports in the vehicle’s interior. It also never hurts to ensure all smartphones, tablets and portable games consoles are fully charged by the morning of the trip too.
Also, bring extra USB power leads that will connect to the iOS or Android devices. Cables always get lost down the side or under seats, leaving a child one short.
Space Out the Fun
Like any good movie, it’s not a great idea to tell everyone everything right at the start; reveal it over time. For the kids, they have limited attention spans and need new things to keep them entertained. When boredom sets in for them and they don’t know what to do with themselves, this is when the trouble really starts.
By spacing out the treats, the games and other items to keep them occupied, they can be teased with this knowledge and you can release them strategically over the trip duration. So, for a 4-hour road trip, plan incrementally based on how many things you have for each child.
Take Regular Breaks
Both the driver and their passengers need to take regular brakes from the road. Every three hours is usually the right amount of time when planning some quiet activities for the children.
Seeing a new break area or just using a pull off allows for washroom breaks, a short walk or to run around for a few minutes to get blood pumping in the legs again. It’s not only the kids that need this release either – you’ll want it as well.
Road trips with the family are manageable when you prepare for them. The kids usually sleep a good part of the way back if it’s near their bedtime anyway, so it’s mostly the outbound journey that’s the toughest.
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