Hip tips for road trips with kids in 2020

Road trips are back in vogue, although I’d contend that they were never out of style. If you’re getting out of town this summer, whether you’re taking a cross-country journey or simply roaming close to home, here are a few key tips for making your road trip with kids a safe and fun experience for your family during this time of social distancing.

Road trip with kids tip 1: Plan for pit stops

I’m the mom of two boys and a husband with a bladder the size of Rhode Island. Nine times out of ten, I’m the one who needs a pit stop while on a road trip with kids. No matter your family’s urgency needs (let me tell you about the time my younger son was in the middle of potty training on a 12-hour road trip – I think we made six stops in two hours. I don’t recommend this at all.), when you gotta go, you gotta go. The challenge for this summer is that all of our favorite clean places we normally stop are closed due to COVID-19. My experience is just for the Midwest (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Ohio), but I have heard similar stories in other areas as well. McDonald’s, Culver’s, Chik-fil-A, and other fast food stops and gas station restrooms are closed.

So where to go? My workaround for one urgent stop was a Target (I justified using it as a public restroom based on the amount of money I spend there each month). I shared this advice with a friend who vouched for Target on a trip to Tennessee. State-run rest stops are also good options, but in many areas they are few and far between. I’d recommend trying to plan your stops as best you can. Map out your route and determine some spots to stop every two to three hours (see iExit info below to locate some spots). And remind your kiddos to tell you as soon as they realize they need to go instead of when they are about to burst.

Road trip with kids tip 2: Know your exits

iExit is one of the very first apps I ever downloaded, and we still use it when we’re on road trips. If you’re traveling by interstate highway, it alerts you to what accommodations are at exits – restaurants, rest stops, hotels, gas stations (and even tells you prices per gallon!); how many miles off the exit they are; and which direction you’ll go to get there. It also gives you distances to those exits from your current location. Even better, it’s paired with Yelp so reviews for lodging, restaurants, and “other” (groceries, pharmacies, even veterinary clinics) are listed. It is a must-have when you’re driving in unknown territory and one of your kids has an urgent need to use the bathroom or when you’ve exhausted all the snacks in your car and your family is hangry. 

Road trip with kids tip 3: Stop for the world’s largest rocking chair

Stopping at a fun or unique outdoor attraction is one of my favorite tips for road trips with kids, especially when you will be in the car for more than six or seven hours. We usually try to make it about two-thirds of the way to our trip before we employ this tactic, but sometimes a really cool spot causes us to throw timing out the window, such as the largest waterfall in Indiana or a town that bears your last name (true story: LeRoy, Illinois).

We also like to commemorate new states that the boys visit by stopping at the first rest stop or visitor’s center along the highway and snapping a photo at the “Welcome to” signs.

Stopping at fun outdoor attractions breaks up the trip, lets you practice social distancing, allows the kiddos to expend some energy and is something to look forward to along the way.

Road trip with kids tip 4: Go for the whoopie pie or roadside apple stand

Checking out an area’s local food specialties or farm harvests gives you a break from eating too many Goldfish crackers, Combos and Twizzlers (three of our go-to car snacks). Finding whoopie pies in Maine was a great treat (although I don’t recommend sugaring up your kids for car rides — a brutal combination); pulling over for boiled peanuts in Georgia and North Carolina, fresh blueberries and cherries in Michigan, pasties in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and other regional delights are great ways to get a taste of the local culture and fill up your stomach so that you can charge on to your destination.

Road trip with kids tip 5: Busy kids are happy kids

Keeping kids busy while road tripping is critical for everyone’s santity and limiting the “are we there yets?” There are always car games like 20 questions, the license plate game, the category game (like Scattegories) and auto bingo which pass the time and endear some fond family memories. And, I honestly do not know how my parents survived road trips without minivans with DVD players, podcasts and ipads with games and movies. Actually, I do: during one favorite family road trips, my best friend and I wrote out the beginning of a novel based on our trip to the Newport, RI mansions – nerd alert!

And, I use one of the same tips for road trips as I do for plane travel, have your kids bring their own backpack with stuff to do. When my kids were younger, I’d bring extra “surprise” stuff to pull out at near meltdown moments – its amazing what some M&Ms or a new small toy (Thank you, Target $1 bins) or book can do. Even now, I can buy some time by whipping out some Sour Patch Kids and my boys are 10 and 12 (heck, it makes my husband and me happy, too).

In any case, these tips for road trips with kids will help you pass the time until you reach your destination. And you’ll likely find, as we have, that they will help create some fun memories of their own.