• About
  • Blog
  • Working together
  • Testimonials
  • Contact

Girl Gone Travel

Girl Gone Travel

North America, Travel
/
August 20, 2015

Travel Tips: Summer road trips with small children

Enjoyed this post? Give it some love and share!
Share

I’ve written about road tripping often on my site because it is one of the most fun and money-saving ways for our family to travel. (You can read my post on Planning a Summer Road Trip for more on the logistics involved).

To some people who see the happy faces of my kids when we travel, it would seem like we’ve got this road tripping with kids thing down packed. And for the most part we do, but it wasn’t always easy. More than half of Americans are planning a road trip before Labor Day, and a third of those are headed to a new destination this summer.

We took our very first family road trip, which came about only after a nightmarish flight with a crying baby and hostile fellow passengers – something we didn’t want to repeat. Plus, limited funds when our little ones were still in diapers and drinking out of bottles and sippy cups made it impossible for us to afford plane tickets.

Our destination? Missoula, MT from NYC. The first day on the road was awful. The kids cried almost the entire way there and the rainy weather didn’t help much.

We kept going, of course, and made it to Wisconsin, a 15 hour drive, in day 1. In Wisconsin, we took a break with family and rested. When we hit the road again for day 2, we braced ourselves for the worst. But it never came. The kids didn’t lose it like they did that first day – they found their groove and sleeping schedules.

They made great little explorers and were funny and endearing and, well, just awesome to travel with. It was that very first road trip – what it did for our family and what we learned from our children and each other – that convinced us that road tripping is the way to go. Especially with how hectic plane travel has gotten lately. In fact, if we can drive to a destination, we will plan out an awesome road trip around it instead of driving straight there. The freedoms, flexibility, and lower costs (i.e., no baggage fees, no extra leg room fees, no meals-during-flight fees, etc.) involved make it all worthwhile.

travel with kids_girlgonetravel

If you have a family with small children, I’d encourage that you make turn your travel plans into a road trip. Here are some of my tips to help get you started:

Breathe

It’s difficult for little kids who aren’t used to being in a car seat for longer periods of time to sit still and not get impatient. Plan the first day or two with small stops along the way to stretch your legs, grab a snack out of the car, or sightsee. In time, they will get used to it and find a routine.

In the meantime, breathe, find a way to keep calm, and try to remember that this too shall pass. How your vacation starts isn’t necessarily indicative of how the entire trip will be. This fear is what keeps a lot of families off the road and away from travel when their kids are little, but it gets better a lot faster than you would think. It’s important to keep a positive outlook, even when it all feels like it’s falling apart.

Preparation beyond the packing

It’s super important to take the car in for checkup before you hit the road. You just want to be extra cautious and want to avoid any car mishaps. On occasion, we’ve had to rent a car and leave ours at home, just because after bringing it in for service, it was clear our vehicle probably wouldn’t make it.

Let someone you trust know that you will be away so that they can keep an eye on your house…and your plants. We have a home security system in our house which we activate when we are gone, but we also let our neighbors know so that we have extra eyes on our place. You will need all your focus on the road and kids, worrying about your house is not something you want to also take on.

Disconnect to connect

Some parents might challenge me on this one, but I have tested this theory out for years now and it has proven to work: Disconnect your kids from electronics and you will find that they will connect more with their surroundings and with you.

Now, I have a teen and getting him to unplug from his phone has been hard. But, when we travel internationally, I limit texting privileges to whatever WiFi the hotel or restaurants might offer. We purposefully did not purchase a car with a video entertainment system in it so that our children would have to find other ways to entertain themselves (hopefully by talking to us or to each other), and we don’t bring video games systems with us on road trips. Though that’s not to say that we don’t let them play on our phones sometimes.

I will confess that the first couple of days of being disconnected can be really, really hard. But I also promise that once the withdrawal subsides, what you will find are happier, more engaged, more excited kids.

It’s been a rule of ours for years and we have survived it, but best of all, we have loved seeing our children grow up road tripping, already acclimated to what it all means, and just as excited and eager to discover what the journey will bring.

Related

Enjoyed this post? Give it some love and share!
Share
Pin this Post
Share this Post
Carol Cain

Brooklyn native Carol is happiest when on an adventure, whether close to home or farther away. She is a small business owner and travel writer. In addition to creating Girl Gone Travel, she is the Founder and Principal of Brave World Media, a social media marketing, communications, and branding agency. She's mom to three wonderful sons and wife to a handsome Irish/Scot. She lives, works, and plays in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of NY.

You May Also Like...

Christmas Tree Hunting in Long Island, NY

December 12, 2008

Fort Tryon Park, Washington Heights, NY

December 10, 2008

Winter afternoon in the Bronx Zoo, NY

December 16, 2008
1 Comment
  • Mark
    December 3, 2016

    Road trips are the real deal when it comes to vacationing. Kids can have a great time too but you do have to plan accordingly. You got some great tips and info here. Thanks for the share!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Previous Post
Electric Bike Tour through the TerraVentoux Winery
Next Post
Guatemala behind the scenes with CoEd

Categories

  • Asia5 Post(s)
  • Caribbean17 Post(s)
  • Central America4 Post(s)
  • Europe54 Post(s)
  • North America318 Post(s)
  • Oceana1 Post(s)

About me

Hi! I'm Carol! I am an award-winning travel blogger, a keynote speaker, and the Principal and owner of Brave World Media, a social media marketing, communications, and branding agency. I a wife to a handsome Irish/Scot and a mom to 3 sons. Welcome to my blog where I share stories of my travels and professional public relations insights and advice. Thank you for reading and for your support!

Carol Cain

Contact

  • caincarol@gmail.com

Follow @girlgonetravel

MARK YOUR CALENDAR! @travisjcain will be painting MARK YOUR CALENDAR! @travisjcain will be painting a beautiful new mural at Elmira’s Mural Fest this year (weather permitting on Saturday, if not on a less rainy day)! Last year he painted this board which was recently on display still at @communityartselmira. 

Hopefully we have a sunny day and you can come out to support Travis and all the muralists that day! See you there!

#elmirany #painter #artist #communityarts
Sometimes it’s like I never left. #newyork Sometimes it’s like I never left. 

#newyork
SHOUT OUT to our oldest, @davidacain_, who carries SHOUT OUT to our oldest, @davidacain_, who carries with him the entrepreneurial spirit he’s inherited from his parents. 

While successfully working in supply chain management for a global corporation based in NYC, he continues to manage and operate his own product, @getcalma, a comforting heated eye mask that is currently on the Amazon top seller list for two years in a row and has a growing consumer following! 

We are so incredibly proud of David and his growing success as an entrepreneur and in his career, and know the future will continue to be bright for him!

To learn more about Calma and make a purchase, visit his website at GetCalma.com. 

#proudmomma #getcalma #entreprenuer #smallbusiness
The time has come to move on from my role as a bar The time has come to move on from my role as a barista at @the_garage_at_rye and towards my next adventure. 

I started this journey with a curiosity for a craft I admired and wanted to learn more about. It turned into a job. Then a serious passion. And now here I am, launching Café Cómodo (KOH-moh-doh), which means “Comfortable/cozy” in Spanish, a pop-up café serving espresso and seasonal drinks at local farmers markets and private events! (@cafecomodony)

Starting yet another business was never my intent…and yet, I fell further in love with the craft, the industry, and the culture.

I owe so much of what I have learned to @seschieber, who took me under her wings and taught me so much (and still does) and who embraced my nerdiness and eagerness with patience and kindness….and in the process became one of my dearest friends. Working alongside her has felt like winning the golden ticket. She further instilled in me a respect for the craft, the industry, and a commitment to always strive for a quality product, even in a world of Dunkins and Starbucks. 

Grateful for @abbdawes, @hannahmariee93, and Amanda who tolerated my clumsiness at the start while I fumbled my way through the register and the various drink recipes!

I wasn’t sure where this journey would lead, and as I look back at these clips I realize how much I have changed in the process. It’s not always a place that impacts you, but rather the people in it.

I will miss the regulars I’ve gotten to know whose names and drink orders I memorized and who I looked forward to serving. 

I’m so grateful for everything I learned, beyond just making coffee, because I know it will help me to further grow as a leader, an entrepreneur, and a team member wherever I go and in everything I do next.

I won’t miss the dark morning wake ups and long drives before sunrise though! 

I’m proudest of myself for wanting to develop a new skill and ✨DOING IT✨ even when it felt awkward, nerving, and impossible. I hope you will follow me on this next chapter and come say hi at the market (and hire me for your next event)!

Thank you to Charlie Hunter, owner of The Garage for this opportunity.

#coffee #cafe #popupcafe
Recently took a moment to slow down and enjoy the Recently took a moment to slow down and enjoy the sounds of this beautiful place I call home. 

#fingerlakes #newyork #upstateny
Barista training = Trial by fire. 🔥 This is the Barista training = Trial by fire. 🔥 This is the way. 

@shellyk_025

#baristalife #barista #coffeeislife

Copyright © 2025 Girl Gone Travel | Privacy Policy | Copyright Notice