Tips and toys for traveling far with an active toddler

amother

Sun, Dec 31 2023, 9:09 am

I'll be traveling by car with my 17 month old daughter, the way is 6-7 hours each way.
Looking for any tips and ideas how to come home with some sanity intact.
She's very active, hates the car. We'll go by naptime, so that'll take car of a few hours hopefully. And we'll make stops and let her run around.

Any ideas or links for toys that work while in the carseat? She loves toys with pieces to put in and out of containers but obviously that won't work,...

amother

Heather

Sun, Dec 31 2023, 9:31 am

amother OP wrote:

Why not?
I'm not clear if you're traveling alone with your toddler or if someone else is with you (DH? Older child?). If someone else is in the car they can sit next to her and retrieve anything that falls so she should be able to play with pretty much anything.

amother

Strawberry

Sun, Dec 31 2023, 9:36 am

The only way this would ever work for us is leaving by her bedtime and driving through the night. Would have been h*ll during the day.

We did 8 hours overnight. It was amazing! She slept the entire time and went to playgroup the next day so we could sleep.

amother

Cobalt

Sun, Dec 31 2023, 9:38 am

I just did this, though my toddler is older (2.5)
What worked really well-
Etch a sketch mini
Crayola Mess-free markers

We left at 3, she slept till 430ish, and then by 530 it was too dark for toys. We did a lot of talking about what we were seeing (look at the stars! Ooh, a truck carrying cars!) and uncle moishy

amother

Burntblack

Sun, Dec 31 2023, 11:14 am

I recently did a 12 hour drive
On the way there left at 5:30 had doll in car for half hour then stopped for gas got her in pjs and gave a bottle she fell asleep at 6:30 stayed sleeping rest of way we stopped a little more than halfway at hotel for night.
Next morning left at 10ish she looked at some books and had a snack. Stopped to change her diaper. She fell asleep at 11:45 and slept for 2 hours. When she woke up stopped for gas and lunch and let her run around. For the rest of way we had music playing and she had books and dolls.

The way back drove through the day.
Left at 11:30 and she slept for the first 2hours
Then we stopped to change diaper eat lunch and run around
2:00 back in the car gave her a big tissue box to empty one at a time kept her busy for a good 20-30 minutes. Then we stopped and I sat in back with her while my husband drove read books had a few of her other toys showed her some pictures on my phone. At 4:30 we stopped for her to run around and eat supper (deli sandwich)
Also changed her into pjs and got a bottle ready. At 5:00 continued driving she played with her toys for about an hour then got cranky gave her her bottle and she went to sleep. We stopped for gas at 8:00 she woke up so took her out for a few minutes then continued and she slept the rest of the wat

amother

Sun, Dec 31 2023, 5:49 pm

amother Burntblack wrote:

Lol, I love the tissue box idea and so will my baby 😄

Rutabaga

Sun, Dec 31 2023, 6:15 pm

Water Wow and Magna doodles are fantastic for traveling with toddlers. Crayola Wonder can be good too.

Snacks can be a great distraction and so can pointing out things you can see out the windows.

Books on tape to go along with a book your child can look at are good too.

OP, is this your oldest or youngest? It's best if someone can sit with her in the back to keep her occupied and pick up what she invariably drops.

scruffy

Sun, Dec 31 2023, 6:23 pm

I have done this length drive with a toddler and honestly it's very trying. My best tip is as others are saying to try and do as much of the drive as you can at night.

What has worked well for us when we didn't want to drive through the whole night, we left at about 3/4, drove for a couple of hours and then took a break for supper and getting out energy.

Then they fell asleep pretty quickly after that and we were able to do the rest of the trip straight.

For when they're awake: lots of books and a parent sitting next to them in the backseat to read, stickers, dolls, slinky, poppit, magnadoodle. Children's music helps too.