How to Survive Road Trips With Kids

Thanks to Subaru for allowing us to try out the 2018 Forester this fall!

We love, love, love our adopted state. One of the only drawbacks to hanging out in view of the Rocky Mountains is that both Chris and I actually grew up about 1100 miles west of here…and that’s where most of our family still lives. So in the last several years, we’ve perfected the art of the seriously long road trip.

Honestly, I love them. I find two and a half hour plane rides way more stressful than a two-day, twenty-hour van ride. At least my husband and I are the only ones who hear the bickering and fussing. And when I finally crack and holler my Clark Griswald speech about how we’re all going to have fun if it kills us, I’m not in danger of anyone taking me seriously.

That being said, here are a few ways to make your next road trip a little smoother…

Make goody bags

Kids love getting something new when starting a trip. I have a bag by my seat and each morning of our trip, I pull out a little something for each person. Nothing expensive. Things like new crayons (seriously — there’s nothing like the feel of new crayons!), or individual boxes of animal crackers, Mad Libs, word searches, and maps. I scour the dollar bins at Target and the dollar store for small goodies that I’ve squirreled away to pull out on our trip. If you have an AAA membership, their plain ol’ maps are also great — my son tracks our progress on them with a highlighter. And remember, it doesn’t have to be totally new — just new to you. I’ve gotten some great books and DVDs to take on road trips from the thrift store.

Prebag your snacks

Snacks like fishy crackers and pretzels are much easier to distribute when they’re already in baggies or snack containers. Especially if you have a van and must chuck snacks at the kids in the very back and pray they don’t land on the floor. Other healthy car snacks include applesauce packets, cheese sticks and Go-Gurts. But throw in a treat or two also — ya’ll are on vacation!

Run off energy

If you’re stopping at a fast-food place for lunch, stop at one with a playground. If you packed a lunch, stop at a park or trail or rest stop with room to run. And plan it into your trip. People with little kids no longer get to take five minutes to gas up and go. They just don’t.

Have a shoe spot

Because at some point you’re going to have a potty-training kid who needs to go right now and you can’t be fooling around looking for shoes.

Relax. Have fun.

Your vacation starts when you leave your house, not when you get there. Enjoy the ride. Make unplanned stops to see things that look cool. They might actually be cool. They might not. Don’t despair — the ones that aren’t good actually make the best stories afterward! Trust me.

We had a chance to try out the 2018 Subaru Forester for a week, and took a few short road trips in it! I love that it’s fuel-efficient, and the all-wheel drive is important here in Colorado. But our favorite features are way more frivolous – a sun roof that opens up completely on nice days, and has glass for bad days…it looks really cool when you can watch the snow fall through it. Heated seats (again, it snowed one of the days we had it and heated seats are heavenly) and a heated steering wheel!! Yes! As someone who’s actually driven cars with mittens on because my hands were freezing, this is one of those features I never knew I wanted until I had it.

Happy trails to you!

 As part of the Subaru Influencer Program, I was invited to try the 2018 Subaru Forester and was compensated for gas. All opinions are truthful and completely my own.