Road Trip with Children - need tips, ideas...

amother

Hotpink

Wed, Feb 22 2017, 6:21 pm

We want to do a road trip with children ages 1 till 8. I don't want to give any details as I'm talking about this IRL with lots of family and friends.

I want to hear from people who have done this before:

How long did you travel at once? Is it easier to travel 10-12 hours in a stretch (with pit stops) and get there faster or rather break up the traveling over more days?
If you broke up your traveling over a few days, where did you sleep? Is it worthwhile to invest in a tent large enough for our family or rather motels?
What time of day/night was the best to travel?
Did you try to find kosher food or minyanim on the way? How did you find out? If you did not rely on kosher food on the way, how did you pack food? What kind of food?
What kind of activities can we take along for the children?
Is there anything else I should know about or any do's or don'ts you'd advise based on your experience?

As we continue talking and planning, I will probably have more questions...

amother

Linen

Wed, Feb 22 2017, 6:58 pm

I've done plenty of road-tripping, but with a smaller family.

I know people who have traveled by car with larger families, and they find campgrounds more economical than hotels if the family will not all fit in one hotel room. No need for a tent if you book a cabin.

We usually break up the trip differently in each direction. It's about 12 hours to our relatives. We like to do a six-hour trip the first day - if we need to work we can leave in the evening and do "bedtime" in the car. Or, if we have the day off we can leave after breakfast and do leisurely sight-seeing along the way. The second day we should be able to get to our destination in plenty of time for candle-lighting, even if there is bad weather or traffic, and maybe squeeze in another family activity. Theoretically, we could do the trip straight through at night, but for us it would be too exhausting and less safe. With the deadline of candlelighting time hanging over us, I wouldn't want to try it by day.

After Shabbat/yom tov it is too late for us to hit the road. We typically do the 12-hour trip home starting as early as is practical in the morning. We stop to stretch every few hours and get home for a late bedtime.

We do not count on finding kosher food along the way. I would say a large cooler and lots of ice packs are a better use of car space than a tent. We pack anything that can be eaten easily and neatly. String cheese is our road-trip tradition! Sandwiches, juice boxes, cut up fruit and vegetables, yogurt and cereal bars for breakfast...ETA, don't forget the wipes!

We do try to find overnight accommodations near a reliable minyan. The internet plus word-of-mouth are useful tools for this. When you are ready to let us know where/when you are going, I'm sure the "Imamother" crowd can help. We always book hotels with refrigerators as standard room equipment. You can't count on one being available otherwise, even if you reserve one in advance.

If you approve of videos, or are willing to make an exception under the circumstances, stock up. There is no better way to keep kids calm on the road (and this from a very hands-on, all-natural no-TV family). Other options include all sorts of word games, looking for license plates from different states, singing songs, and things like that. String games (cat's cradle) and clapping games are good for the car, too. Reading and activity books might be a good idea, unless you have a child prone to carsickness.

Nuff for now! Please post again when you have more questions.

amother

Tangerine

Wed, Feb 22 2017, 8:13 pm

ooh I'm getting the traveling bug! We went to visit family about 10 hrs away. We went to visit two different sets of relatives who are under an hr away from each other.

What we did is take it nice and slooooow. We went to visit children museums, a petting zoo... we stopped at various playgrounds, basically we made the trip in to a vacation as well. I think we did two days of fun stuff on the way there, getting at our destination for dinner. We made stops in frum communities on the way in terms of some of the meals.

We personally didn't work around minyanim

In terms of entertainment, thankfully my kids don't get car sick. They like making jewelry with beads, coloring, using magnadoodle, stickers... we put on music but we didn't do any videos, tablets etc- we had a preschooler and toddler. The toddler had a much harder time, the preschooler was really a pleasure to travel with.

My SIL tried driving through the night to us but she found that she was so tired the next day that on the way back she decided to brake it up.

I know a lot of people like doing it straight but the way they do it from what they've said is by telling all their kids to drink the absolute minimum, driving through the night, tablets... one person actually said she takes her kids out of their car seat if they get cvetchy- which personally is not an option for me unless we are in a stopped car which happened. There was an accident and we were completely stopped so I took the toddler out and put her back in before we started again.

My husband does most of the driving, I think driving through the night is safer when you have two equal drivers. I would be ok with tablets etc. if need be for us the slow way works much better and was actually really enjoyable.

The accident was actually at night so you never know but in general at night you will move faster. If possible it's also good to plan your driving time around nap time.

We also took a cooler and refilled it at the motel/hotels. and yes string cheese are great for road trips!

amother

Khaki

Wed, Feb 22 2017, 8:31 pm

I drove to florida to NY a bunch of times growing up. I did it this year with my 3 kids for the first time. It took us 24 !!!!!!!! Hours. My kids are 5 4 and a 2 month old at that point (who was yellow and had his bris 4days before)
We drove straight...took long cuz one state Highway was closed and used streets. Made gas and bathroom stops plus one breakfast stop.
Brought easy foods. Turkey and bread. Strong cheese. Cereal. Nosh. Fruit. Veggies. Bars.
For kids: videos. Cds. Whiteboard and markers. Magna doodle. Travel connect four. Arts and crafts .

DVOM

Wed, Feb 22 2017, 8:36 pm

My husband and I love road tripping, and we did some really great trips before our kids came along. With our kids though the most we've done is 4-5 hours. We did, however, go camping with our kids this past summer. It was really fun and very economical. We had alot of the gear from my husbands backpacking days (he's israeli, he and his friends were big backpackers) but we needed to buy another tent so that we could have our own "room" to sleep in. Let me know if you need any more camping info. I'll post it if you think it will be helpful.

amother

Hotpink

Wed, Feb 22 2017, 10:46 pm

amother wrote:

What time did you leave?
How did you know where to stop for breakfast? Did you eat your own food you brought along or you bought?
Did you switch off driving or was it one driver for the whole 24 hours?

amother

Hotpink

Wed, Feb 22 2017, 10:48 pm

DVOM wrote:

We've gone camping ourselves and would love to one day take the kids, but I'm not sure how smart it is to combine road tripping with camping especially that we've never done either of them with kids.

What do you think?

DVOM

Thu, Feb 23 2017, 1:41 pm

Hi OP!

I dont know! My kids really loved the camping, but we've never tried a long road trip. It did take alot of forethought and planning. We cooked all our meals outdoors over the campfire, so we needed to pack alot of food and papergoods and cooking utencils, and we knew we were going to be in the water alot (campsite was on a river, and there were tubes to borrow from the campgrounds, plus there was a pool and kiddie spalsh area) so there were also bathing suits, towels, floaties... It was alot of coordination. Our youngest was a year old. We had no trouble camping with him. Pack and play went in the tent. Maybe you could do a camping cabin. That would mean not having to take along the tents and matresses, though you usually do need to bring your own bedding.

Pickle1

Thu, Feb 23 2017, 1:58 pm

Good Luck - get ready for an exhausting trip. We did 3 times a 16 hr rd trip with 4-5 kids under 9. what worked best was when we left abt 6 pm - with e/o suppered and in pjs. then we drove straight throught the night. gave them dramamin - to help for nausea and sleep! my husb did the driving till abt 4-5am stopping in starbucks to keep him going (while I sort of slept). then I took over the wheel. we stopped at a rest area for brkfst at abt 7.30 am unloaded e/o for bthrms and cereal. did jumping jacks with the kids played ball and ran around for 1/2 hr. loaded everyone back in took out games nosh story tapes videos etc and they were fine till we arrived.
Since we were traveling for yom tov - it didn't always work out that we could leave in evening but I always tried to get the longest stretch done while they were sleeping.

amother

Cerise

Thu, Feb 23 2017, 4:24 pm

Woohoo! We road trip every summer for the past few years! Tri state are to Florida. We LOVE it. Kids beg to do it instead of camp. We take it slow, tour tons of places along the way. Our focus isn't so much to get to Florida as much as enjoying the actual road trip. So each day is its own excitement. We bring along loads of activities for the car. Videos are only for at night when it's dark- we don't want them glued to the screen- we want to all enjoy the actual trip and surroundings! We bring along food and we always plan with minyanim. its amazing!!
Bye we did it with 5 kids. Last summer aged 1-13.

amother

Hotpink

Thu, Feb 23 2017, 8:46 pm

amother wrote:

this sounds more along the lines of our planned trip.

Can you tell me a bit more about the planning you do?
How do you figure out minyanim along your route?
How do you figure out where to stop and where to visit/tour along the way?
How do you figure out where to sleep? How long do you end up traveling each day? I'm afraid if we do this method we won't cover as much distance on the ground (and we do have a destination we need to get to by a certain day)

amother

Linen

Thu, Feb 23 2017, 10:00 pm

amother wrote:

Not directed to me, but I'll answer...

As I mentioned above, about six hours of driving per day total works for us if we are not driving straight through. We might stop at two interesting places along the way plus rest stops for meals and necessities, and not feel rushed or overwhelmed by long stretches in the car.

If you are en route to a particular destination, look at a map. You will see the names of places along the way. Google them and see what's there. Or, use search terms such as "things to do in ______." If you see parks or other landmarks on the map, those might be good options. Websites such as TripAdvisor are also very helpful. There are apps and trip-planning websites that can help you find interesting stops. Before the web, AAA guidebooks were the gold standard for planning family trips, and AAA still has lots of good information. Ask around - you never know who else has a good idea.

Once you know where you are going - destination, potential stops, how many hours you feel comfortable traveling - look at your map again and see approximately where you need to spend the night. Travel websites can help you find a hotel or campground in your price range with the features you want.

Before booking accommodations, use Godaven.com to help you find a minyan. Also you can do an internet search such as "Jewish _____" with the name of the city or region. Or post a query on Imamother! Do not overlook college campuses as places potentially with minyanim and kosher food.

I hope this helps!

amother

Cerise

Fri, Feb 24 2017, 12:23 am

amother wrote:

This.

All great tips. We use all these sites. Aaa.com has a great road trip planner that's helpful. You can put in all your stops and it figures out the timing, mileage, gas usage...

We use godaven to figure out minyan along the way (can't say we always make it to the next place for mincha but we try!)
We always stay in hotels. Sign up for a reward program- we get free night for the way home from our accrued stays along the way! We get a one bedroom suite. Kids sleep on pull out couch, or sleeping bags.

We usually travel around 5-7 hours a day, and stop somewhere exciting for a few hours. We usually look for something in between the 2 places that's fun. Sometimes we'll spend half a day on a trip and then drive a few hours in the eve, eat supper in the car...

We usually take 3-4 days to get there. (The trip should be about 20 hours)
We plan activities for a year! Kids are constantly busy.

How far are you going? And how many days travel time do you have?

amother

Hotpink

Fri, Feb 24 2017, 9:30 am

amother wrote:

Can you tell me more about the reward program in hotels? How'd that work?

Did you travel 5-7 hours a day in one shot or did you divide that up too?

We're going far, about 12 hours of constant driving. We need to be there 2 days and return, so it's really like one long road trip. We have 12 days (including two shabbasim).

Ideally, we'd like to camp out one or two nights just for the fun of it. Still deciding if it's worth to invest in a large tent if we won't be using it every night. I need to be able to sleep in a bed if we're spending a large part of the time in the car.