Our kids had a 2 week summer break this July. We did a road trip to Florida. We went to Pensacola beach, Daytona beach, Lego land, Clear water beach and Atlanta. The trip was around 3500 miles. My husband loves driving and I drove for a few hours in between to give him a break. Some tips that made our road trip a success are :
1) Once you plan your itenary book Hotel rooms accordingly.
Things to eat :
2) Next will be the things to buy , a Cooler is absolutely essential .
3) Get juices, water chocolate milk from Costco. All these will go into the cooler.
4)Take snacks like gold fish mini bags , Oreo mini packs , gummy bears mini packs for kids so it is easier for them to handle.
5) For adults take trail mix and nuts, breakfast bar , something that fills you well.
6) Fruits : My daughter just loves fruits so we took some fruits.
7)Flavored yogurt was a great hit among my kids. It fills them and also helped to cool their body. We bought a flavored yogurt pack and put it in our cooler.
Things you should not forget to take:
7) If your kids are young around 2-3 years old take a small potty and enough pull ups.
8) Stroller: Stroller is something we tend to forget.
9) Put small plastic bags as trash in front of your kids seat and ask them to throw all the trash in there.
10) Have paper towels handy as you can clean any mess easily with it.
11) Take enough trash bags to put the old clothes.
12) Reusable spoons for kids to eat something.
13) Take sunscreen and hat if travelling during summer.
14) Phone/laptop chargers
15) GPS
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| Pensacola beach , loved the white sand beach |
Things to pack
16) Plan and pack : Travel light ,take only required clothes.Take shoes and flip flops as you might need both of them. Since we were travelling to beaches I had a seperate bag with beach stuff which we wont take out from the car unless we go to a beach.
17) Every night pack things you need for the next day in the backpack.
18)Pack all the medications for kids like especially probiotics Florastor for kids . It helps to keep their tummy happy. Their tylenol, band-aid, allergy medicine etc.
For entertainment in the car :
19) We took latest collection of songs on a CD and also got Curious George DVD, which my kids watched on repeat mode. One of my friend suggested that you can also rent from RED BOX as you go and return it next day at some other RED BOX location which I thought was pretty cool.
Please add if I have missed something. We really enjoyed the experience. Advantages of a road trip are , it is cheaper, very flexible and you can change plans based on how things go, you get to see mother nature and changing weather patterns, spend a lot of family time in the car . Do try one trip and you will think twice about flying to a place next time.
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