
Do you remember Clark Griswald, the hardworking, fun-loving father from National Lampoon’s Vacation who wanted to spend more time with his wife and kids? My husband and I wanted the same for our small family — though a bit more long-term. So in 2017, we quit our jobs, sold our belongings, bought a super-sized truck & pop-up camper, and then traveled North America with our kids (ages 2 and 4 at the time). It wasn’t quite the hilarity filled expedition that the Griswold’s had, though it was darn close and the absolute best “crazy” decision of our lives.
Not only did we get to spend 24/7 with our little ones when they were still teeny tiny tots, we also experienced places none of us have ever seen before with wonder and delight. We had so much fun traveling without the constraints of vacation hours and we also learned what to do — and what not to do. After traveling to over 50 cities in three months we have tons of advice we can share on how to road trip with kids. Below we condensed them to seven tried and true traveling tips for road tripping with kids that any family can use for driving across the country.
7 Tried and True Tips on Road Tripping With the Kids
Tip #1: FOOD, FOOD, AND MORE FOOD
Do your kids get “hangry”? It’s that fierce hunger-induced anger that causes epic emotional outbursts and tantrums. Well, ours do. Our absolute number one tip for traveling with kids is to have plenty of food for them (and yourselves) to eat to avoid food-related meltdowns. We knew we would be traveling for a long time, so when looking for our camper, one of the big requirements for us was for it to have a fridge. It didn’t have to be a big fridge, and it wasn’t, we just needed to have something for perishable items.
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