Recently our family returned from a very extensive road trip — all the way to Florida!! It was a fun and memorable adventure! To help keep the kiddos happy during the long car ride, Melissa & Doug sent us some kids travel games to review, and they generously offered to sponsor a giveaway here on Frugal Family Fun Blog as well!
I’m not quite sure how we would have made it all the way to Florida without these Melissa & Doug Flip to Win Games. The girls were happily occupied with them for long stretches of time, and I love that the pieces are all attached to the wooden boards with strong elastic– keeping the car clutter-free!
Even though Clara is still too young to play Hangman, I would ask her to flip specific letters, and she enjoyed flipping the letter pieces on the board. When it was Mark’s turn to drive, Emily and I played Hangman using her spelling words from school. We had to make sure she stayed caught up with her lessons while we were away, and this was a fun way to do it!
Now the fun part — One very lucky reader will win a set of Melissa & Doug Travel Games — one Travel Bingo game, and one Travel Hangman Game!! Giveaway is open to all US residents, however you are not eligible to win this giveaway if you have won a Melissa & Doug giveaway in the past 12 months. To enter for your chance to win, leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite travel adventure, or your best travel tip! Winner will be chosen at random, and contacted via email. Giveaway ends Saturday, April 9th @ 6:30pm EST.
Good luck!!
Update: Giveaway is now closed, and the winner is…. Robin!! Congrats and a big thank you to everyone for entering!! Another FUN giveaway starts soon!!
Best travel tip – try to do most of your driving at night when the kiddos are asleep!
Would love to win this, we’re moving to Miami and have a long way to drive!! Could use some new things for the kids on the trip1 =)
The dollar store. It is an easy way to provide new entertainment for cheap. You can wrap them up and they can open one each hour.
My best travel tip is to ALWAYS pack extra clothes and snacks. You never know when someone will fall into a lake or some mud and you never know what kind of restaurants there will be on the road.
I am not sure if I have a favorite travel memory but, my youngest ( at the time 5)left his blanket (FLANNIE) in a hotel in Georgia on our way home from a wonderful trip to Disney.
It was a terrible terrible experience once we were in Tennessee and realized it was gone. He begged and pleaded for us to go back and rescue his Flannie.
That was the end of his thumb sucking an FLANNIE holding. So yeah, I guess that was memorable.
I keep all the happy meal type toys in the car for the kids to play with. I’ve got a couple different shoe box size plastic containers that I can swap out periodically to keep them new and exciting.
Our best travel tip – we love using the Roadside America app to find fabulously weird places to visit along the way. A great resource!
We also use the Letterboxing app and the Geocaching app to look for hidden boxes along the way. There are surprisingly lots of boxes hidden at rest stops and other fun places. Love it!
I have to say, our favorite travel story was not a long car trip, but a short train ride into Boston that we took with our 3-year-old. He was mesmerized and loved every minute of it. Memories I will never forget! And, I ALWAYS have snacks with me — hungrey parents and kids = cranky parents and kids.
Thanks!
A
We took a 10 hour road trip back in October and bought a portable DVD player just for that trip, and I’m so glad we did. Our preschooler was too young to really be into reading books for too long, or to stay busy with much of anything strapped to his seat, but he was happy to watch back-to-back episodes of Super Why, and learned lots of phonics in the process!
oh, we are traveling soon, that would be great to win!
We love to take a Frisbee or ball to play with at rest stops. It helps the kids burn energy quickly so they’re not going nuts when we get back in the car.
I would love to win, the games would be get a good use here….
Just hope it’s not an April Fools prank 🙂
lol — no April Fool’s prank here!
Travel Tip – we keep a bag in the van at all times that contains a change of clothes, couple diapers, small “sample” pack of wipes, first aid kit, extra sippy cup, bubbles (new bottle in a sealed ziplock bag) and a beach ball… kind of like an “in case of emergency” bag.
travel tip…bring lots of snacks. my girls also like the grow sponges. i use luke warm water so that it does not open to quickly and we guess what the sponge will be. hope we win!
Best Travel Tip from me? Give YOURSELF something to work on during the 14 hour trip to Disney World (aka attempting to sew Christmas ornaments and trying not to use profanity whenever they continue to fall apart) while the kiddos are watching a movie..hmmmm….that doesn’t sound like the best travel tip ever…
In all seriousness, give each kiddos a “Count Down Bag.” Every hour (or a certain number of miles) let the kiddos open a new little treat- such as a snack, Dollar Tree toy, or brand new paper to draw on. You will find the kiddos asking when it is time for their next surprise INSTEAD of hearing the proverbial “Are we there yet?” :0)
Travel tip–a friend of mine makes little travel entertainment kits and gives them to kids as birthday gifts. She uses a character lunch box and puts little play dough containers, a few play dough tools, small coloring book/crayons, etc, inside. They stay in the car and are perfect to take inside to a restaurant, doctor’s office waiting room, etc.
Travel tip – bring a ton of snacks and enough for the way back, too!! Also, we always bring those mini magna doodles to keep the kids busy!
I carry a lunchbox full of little odds and ends that my child can only play with when we are out of the house. It keeps him busy with toys that he doesn’t see all the time.
I’ve been eying the travel bingo for awhile now and would love to win. We went on lots of driving vacations as kids. I remember signing loudly, laughing a lot, and eating licorice in the car. Such good memories!
Our favorite travel adventure was going to Yellowstone with very young ones (too young to play games). What we did is buy a few dollar store toys and revealed a new one every so often. It worked great.
I like to take colored pencils (crayons melt in a hot car) and coloring books for the kids to work on. Of course snacks are a must too. I also have neck pillows for them since they always fall asleep on long trips 🙂
I LOVE MELISSA AND DOUG TOYS!
Let’s see, I guess my best travel tip is to remember your 1st Aid Kit! The kids in my family, including my own child, are active and always getting into stuff. And if you’re traveling somewhere where there’s a chance for needing something you don’t usually need in your first aid kit, add that. Like if you’re traveling to an area where there’s lots of snakes, makes sure you have a snake bite kit.
One of my favorite vacation memories was the summer after 6th grade. My parents pulled us out of school a week early for summer vacation and we took off for a two week long roadtrip from Oregon to South Dakota and a lot of places in between, visiting family, seeing wonderful sites, and even hitting up Disneyland and Sea World on our way home. I talk about that trip all the time and can’t wait to take our own kiddos on a fun adventure like that one of these days!
Best travel tip – is to be flexible. We have to travel over 15 hours just to get to the grandparents house and that is about to change when we move farther away! This would be amazing! Thanks!
We travel a lot. My kids do really well with it. I find that it is nice to pack along our v-techs. They are educational and very addicting to my kids. They only get to play with them when we go on long trips (over 2 hours.) This makes it a novelty so they love getting the chance to do a video game of sorts.
I just saw these last night at Michael’s and decided to wait til they go on sale. They’d make a great addition to our travel box. I keep a small plastic tub of things tucked away for long car rides so the kids only see those things when they are in the car for hours.
Another travel tip that many of us probably don’t think of: If you are staying in a hotel check for bedbugs before you bring your things in and get comfortable. They have been spreading in hotels like crazy. Ick.
Travel Tip ~ Pack “travel bags” for the kiddos. Last summer we took our kiddos on their first airplane flight…across the country…to visit family on the west coast. We knew we would be spending almost an entire day in airports or on airplanes…so we needed to be prepared. For each kiddo we packed a backpack full of fun things to do. We also included a bunch of fun snacks. The kiddos loved their backpacks and we survived travelling cross country with three young kiddos 🙂
what fun! My girls would love these!
Best Travel Tip – not super frugal but my lifesaver is our DVD player and color wonder marker lap board. Also lots of snacks and water.
I love Melissa and Doug… hoping to win these
Oh these would be so handy for our big adventure coming up this summer! My best travel tip is painters tape. It can be used for making designs, letters, all sorts of stuff and it’s easy to clean up. That and classic colorforms are also great for the car or plane!
These are awesome! I would love to win these for an upcoming road trip to Grandma’s house.
My favorite travel item for the kids to play with are these “I spy bottles” from Pink and Green Mama’s blog:http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-spy-rainbow-bottle.html. We made them for all of our daughter’s friends’ birthdays last year.
I wrap small presents and my daughter is very excited to unwrap them!
I do love me some Melissa and Doug toys. These look awesome. I’m moving with my two little kids to UKRAINE this summer, so I’m definitely interesting in anything that will keep them occupied.
I remember flying with my daughter to Europe when she was really small. I was so prepared–snacks, toys to unwrap, etc. Then the flight attendant gave her a cup. She played with that thing for hours. A cup!
Love the M&D travel games. We have 2, but not these two. My best travel tip is to BRING SNACKS. And give yourself an extra 10-15 minutes for every hours of scheduled drive time. So, when we drive 5 hours we give ourselves an extra hour.
Super excited about this giveaway. My daughter and I love hangman. My fave travel tip is using a baking sheet and magnets to make words and pictures. The magnets cling to the baking sheet and there is no mess. We also use the baking sheet with playdoh… this is only done when I’m in the back with them. 🙂
Thanks for the giveaway.
My best travel tip for those with 1-3 year olds (possibly older..but thats my kids ages) is to never leave home without a cookie sheet. I packed one for each of the kids and then filled small bags (I have quite a few of the little subway kids meal bags..finally a use for them! (especially since the kids didnt appreciate them being their “toy”) anyways..I filled the small bags with different toys..one had magnetic letters, so they could play with magnets on the cookie sheets, one had cars so they could race the cars on the sheets like a race track etc…when they got bored with one bag I had another waiting 🙂
We have both of these and they are great! I can’t win since I am from Canada and already have them so I don’t need them but I wanted to pop in and say I love some of these comments. We are going on a 4 1/2 month road trip next summer and I am busy tring to find activities to but together. We are working on a bunch of ideas at the moment.
For us we need a variety of items…DVD player is one of them, but each child has a box of daily activities like books, travel games, small toys which I swap out along the way on long drives.
SNACKS…as soon as my girls sit in a seat belt they become ravenous!
I am making seatback toy organizers for the drive which I will post on http://www.siayla.blogspot.com when I am done as well as travel trays to use as lap desks, travel felt boards and more! We only have a few eeks left so I hope your reader comments keep flying in so I can get some other great ideas!
We have a Pixar Movie CD that we ALWAYS listen to on trips and it is a must have for every trip. It helps with the memory and we chat about what happens in the movie of the song playing.
We also have specific toys/activities that are just for trips and aren’t played with any other time.
Between these two, snacks and naps, time is filled up 🙂
Favorite travel adventure was a drive from Florida to Wisconsin with my 2 year old. Although, after 2 days it became not so fun when every time she saw the car she’d scream NO CAR, NO CAR!
A couple years ago we went on a 3,000 mile car trip over 3 weeks with 3 kids under the age of 3 (2 year-old twins and a 3 month-old). AND we not only survived it, but had a ball! While between destinations, we stopped once in the morning for a playground and then stopped at a hotel by 4pm so we had time to swim before bed. Like other readers, we had a new matchbox car or other small toy to give them each day – which gave them a reason to want to get in the car. They were glad when we got home, but started asking about our next trip within a couple weeks – the sign of a good vacation!
During a long plane ride we brought small treats and toys individually wrapped in giftwrap. Every hour we’d bring something new out and pass them around. It gave them something to look forward to, even if it was a pack of gum or a matchbox car.
My kids would love these games! If we don’t win I might have to find some.
Anything from Mellisa and Doug is GREAT! My favorite toy company!
We love to stop at the dinosaurs of Cabazon on the way to California. It’s a great way to take pictures of the kids and document as they grow.
For our 5 hour trip each summer, we go to the special store that has candy by the pound and pick some fun candy for treats along the way!
Recently I drove 6.5 hours (and back)on my own with my 4 yo. He amazed me! We weren’t able to drive at night so I had to keep him occupied during the daylight hrs. Audiobooks were good until the iPod acted up. From that point on we enjoyed the scenery of northern Maine and conversation. We chatted about logging, ice jams, ice fishing, and told silly stories. Best road trip EVER (and I never predicted I’d say that).
What a fun thing for the car! Our favorite travel tip.. we leave at o’dark:thirty (i.e. as early as we can peal our eyes open) and drive for several hours before Sammy even wakes up! Then when he does we stop for breakfast, stretch our legs and start the games!
Raisins in a box!!! They help a lot, esp for my 2 year old! Both kids love them though.
Starting travel during nap times and bringing lots of snacks helps when travelling with our 5 kiddos (all 7 and under)… I can’t say enough how much I love our potty we take with…hide it under the seat of the van, pull over when needed and there is no need to make stops at rest areas which can easily take a half hour with all of us! We don’t have a DVD player to entertain so we have music with to sing to and play alot of “I spy” or “Find something that is the color —” or “Who can find the most things that start with the letter —“. I remember playing games like this and singing in the car and it made for some of the most memorable trips!
oooh, we would love these! We travel a lot and usually I buy a new book for the trip, the kids love it, but this would be way more fun. 🙂
Train makes travel fun and easy for a toddler!
We do travel a lot (by plane), and I am sure daughter would enjoy these games. We let Anna pack her own backpack with small toys and bring lots of books and an iPod with games.
Our big adventure hasn’t happened yet, but is going to be happening this year. we are making a drive 1/2 way across the country with kids to go to law school. We are looking for all the help we can to keep them occupied without movies the whole time!
We love to play the good old-fashioned license plate game… once we actually got them all! When we found Hawaii we were all so excited! :o)
My favorite travel game is 20 guestions. I love to have everyone involved and everyone taking turns. The best part is the only supplies you need is your imagination!
Great ideas! We always pack a “bag of surprises” for my younger kids when traveling by plane — small toys, new coloring books, CANDY, books, etc. Plus, we bring a LONG movie which I play on my laptop; “Finding Nemo” is the best! In the car, I take out lots of stories on CD from the library — even the 11-year-old listens, though he says he isn’t interested. 😉
Best vacation tip I have is that if driving with small children, first make sure that the little one will sleep in the car seat when driving at night! My littlest will happily nap in a car seat as long as the sun is up, but when the sun sets it is a different story. She is a stomach sleeper at night and will NOT sleep in the car seat. Of course we discovered this during a very long drive home.
We love the alphabet I spy game. Work together as a tem to find each letter of the alphabet printed somewhere.
My best tips for traveling with kids are to stop often and plan for the trip to take much longer than you expect!
All i can say is thank goodness for work issued laptops with CD players inside. We borrow DVD’s from the library and the wedge the laptop between the front seats so the kids can watch from the back seat. Free and a good 2 hours at a time of entertainment.
I just flew cross country with my two toddlers and the things that kept them most entertained was a blank notebook and $1booklet of stickers..Oh and a ton of snacks 🙂
we would love these for trips to grandma’s house!
We always leave when its time for naptime
Make a list of everything we need so we dont forget anything
And always make sure everything is within arms reach, toys, snacks, blankets, and directions for the driver!
My fav travel adventure? Istanbul, Turkey to Krakow, Poland by land with my hubs and our 18 months old!
We always try to travel in the late evening. Works best for our kiddos. We also try to take plenty of activities for them to do. This time we are taking papa’s portable dvd player, too!
We have WOW water doodle books I got for this past flight that the kids LOVE. You fill the pen with water, they paint the picture and colors appear, then it dries and they start all over. Fabulous entertainment!
We road trip from MN to NJ once a year – when my son was just under a year old, I used a ribbon to hang a toy from the handle above him on the door. He could play with it and swat at it, but couldn’t drop it. It was so great!
We travel to my parents lots in the summer – it is a 5 hour drive – but the pool & beach are worth it!! As others mentioned we try to drive as much as possible during sleeping times. We also loves stories on DVD which we rent from the library. My 5 yr old twins and 3 yr old love them…lets see if they entertain the baby this summer!
We took a big road trip with my daughter when she was 2.5, and I posted about all the things we did/made/bought for her here. Thanks for the chance!
my favorite travel adventure was taking 2 kids (3 and <1 year) on a trip to hawaii. though it had its rough points, it really was a good time! i've become less frugal than i once was about plane tix (sigh) in order to not disrupt sleep, b/c i find that it just doesn't pay off if i don't. we also love the colorform type books which have reusable stickers–quiet, not easy to lose, and entertaining. yes!
When you take a lunch break, find a nearby park and let the kids get their extra energy out. Once they’re tired, they’re so much better behaved…
Hello.
My first tip is KNOW YOUR CHILD(REN). Your trip will only be as successful as you know your child. Keep expectation in check, plan down time along side fun adventures and remember to drink water.
I have one these M&D travel games; it’s awesome. It was a gift to my son, for trips.
Have lots of cheap new toys hidden in moms bag of tricks.
perfect! we are taking our very first road trip this summer with our 5yo, 3yo, and 15 month old!
one tip is to take along a small potty for the little ones, that way if they gotta go between breaks you can just stop anywhere and you don’t have to take them into dirty rest stops/gas stations/public bathrooms. we use one around town and just dump it in the bushes or gutter and keep a cloth diaper in it between uses. if it’s a #2 emergency with no toilet in sight then i line the potty with a coffee filter for easy clean up/disposal into a trash can. maybe not for everyone but i hate, hate, hate public bathrooms and avoid them at all costs with the little ones.
My best tip is to plan frequent stops (it will give everyone a chance to stretch their legs, get a snack, potty, etc.) and to manage your expectations, and remember, the joy is in the journey.
What a fabulous giveaway. I would love to win this for my girls.
Best Travel Tip:
Pack a complete outfits, including socks and undies in large ziploc bags.
1. It’s easy to get dressed in the morning.
2. They fit easily in diaper bags/backpacks if you need to carry a change of clothes with you.
3. If you need to change an outfit, you have a bag for soiled clothes.
My best travel tip is audio books. Most public libraries have wonderful selections for kids of all ages. We have especially enjoyed the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
We couldn’t make it through a trip without audio books. There are so many Magic Tree House and Fairy stories they can get us through a whole trip and back (and don’t forget the audios for grownups to listen to while kiddos are asleep!)
I definitely have to agree with the dollar store tip. This is a great way to get several toys for cheap, and its not a huge deal if they get broken or lost during the journey. My other tip is to find playgrounds as you go. Even a 10 minute stop lets the kids expel some energy, and can mean less cranky children!
When going on a road trip, always remember to pack a simple survival kit that includes plenty of extra water, some snacks, and a few blankets & hand warmers if in the winter). If anything should go wrong (ie. car breaks down, an accident, the car gets stuck, etc) it’ll help prevent boredom and provides a little extra security.
I love reading everyone’s answers.
My best travel tip with kids is take everything you think you might need. & if you are flying with an infant- buy them a seat & take their car seat.
Hmm. We are on a trip right now, so my brain is kind of fried. Right now all I can think of is bring plenty of snacks and water and try to stick to the kids’ regular bedtime. Staying up late on vacation never is worth it for us.
We haven’t traveled with the 3 kids before, but we’re headed to Florida in May. I need tips!!
These games look like fun. I hope they help 🙂
When we go to road trips, I pack my kids’ backpacks with snacks, and stickers w/ a small notebook and a small dry erase board w/ markers were very handy. I got a few dry erase boards at Target’s one dollar spot. The dollar spot always have cool toys! I usually grab a few toys in there too to include in their backpack. Those pretty much keeps them occupied throughout the trip.
Travel tips….portable DVD player and toys the kids have not played with for a long time. Also, if we can, we travel when the kids are likely to fall asleep. With four boys, it is not always possible, but we try. 😉
These look like so much fun! I’d live them for the car and practicing so skills!
Two years ago we drove from PA to Wyoming with 2 boys ages 2 and 8. One of the best things we did was have dry erase books and plain boards for drawing or playing games. We also had an activity box under the front seat, that at each restroom break, we also played games, from Hyper dash to drawing pictures with sidewalk chalk. We had a great time and only had the DVD player out 1 day due to rain.
My best travel tip is not for a road trip but for flying. Don’t get on the plane first – get on very last. The less time in the seat for the little ones the better!
Forbidden snacks. When we travel I pack snacks that my kids don’t usually eat…chips, twizzlers, things like that. When things get unruly I bust some out and it totally distracts them.
travel tip- when we travel (usually a 20+ hour drive) i load up my ipod with music and free downloadable audiobooks from out library website. this way we don’t just watch movies and my husband stays awake while driving. many a time i fall sleep to listening to a book while he drives, only to wake with him talking to the book. my kids have listened to classics like sherlock holmes to hardy boy and magic tree house books. this helps us keep doing school (we homeschool) while we travel.
We went on a five hour car ride six months ago with our 3 and 15 year old. I sat in the back with the 3rd old (being in the front and his iPod kept the 15 year old happy). We brought a magnetic dry erase board, magnets, small cars, dolls, etc. She used the (Melissa and doug) board to draw streets on and drove her cars, used it as a ‘table’ to have a tea party, play surface. We love it still she is only allowed to use it on trips or appointments etc that I need to keep her quiet and busy. Toddler music that we all sang along to, forbidden snacks, and read along books on my iPod! I had a back pack full of things to keep her busy, some new, some her favorites.
Our favorite thing to do on the road is sing! We love listening to our girls singing songs from Bible school.
These look so fun!! We always make sure we have tons of snacks in the car to keep the kids happy 🙂
We bought a tent trailer last spring and spent most of the summer camping~ so lots of adventure there with two boys. My favorite travel tip is to have a tote bag of activities for the boys to pull out when things get a little restless during the drive.
Hi,
This is such a nice post. I truly believe that it is utterly important to have such toys with you when you go out on some trip as it keeps the kids busy and so they don’t feel restless. Mellisa and Doug do have such great toys..
🙂
Best Travel Tip – Travel with friends/cousins so kids have company they like 🙂
Carrying your kid’s favourite snacks and toys help.
Best travel tip – pack some snacks, new small toys, coloring books & crayons!
Having little gifts and new toys (from happy meals, the dollar store, thrift store, etc) to give every hour or so really helps keep the kiddo distracted!
we love camping – natural bridge VA has been a favorite!
my sister and I used to bide our travel time by fighting. I bet we drove our parents nuts! These games would have kept us occupied! Now that I’m a parent, I always try to have something for the kids to do when we’ll be in the car for long stretches of time. If I win, I’ll share these games with my best friend, my sister…we grew out of it!
I got this idea from Family Fun Magazine and my boys love it–Put a piece of painter’s tape on the ceiling of your vehicle from side to side. Mark it in increments of your trip….then use a Hot Wheels car that has the “sticky” velcro side hot glued on to the underneath. The sticky velcro will attatch to the fabric on your vehicle ceiling. Move the car along the tape to correspond to your travel. This is a great visual for the kiddos to see how far we have gone and how far we have to go. Then when it’s time to go home, turn the car around and they can mark the trip again.
My best travel tip is to make sure you have plenty of food. I like to make up snack baggies with different treats. Also, I give each child a container to put all of their food in while they are eating. It keeps crumbs down to a minimum. Also, be sure to have a lot of wipes on hand for sticky hands or messes. Make sure you play lots of games. We like to take the letters in people license plates and make up silly phrases. Another thing we like to do is try to spot different birds or animals in the sky.
My favorite traveling tip with kids is to get off at an exit an find a spot to picnic and stretch those little legs! No salty greasy fast foods either. They make tummies upset while driving.
We love Valerie’s Kid travel game for the car. With wipe off markers, the kids can play seek and find with all the things we see on the road.
We love to play the license plate game. We still have our list from our honeymoon!
Like so many others, we are sure to bring plenty of snacks. But we also mix up our our fun a little. We play some old fashioned games and if the kids are behaving well they get to pick out a new fun app for the IPhone. We download it and they get to play for an hour. Then it’s back to something traditional, like drawing. It has worked for us!
We do love all of our Meliss and Doug Toys though! Great, quality stuff!
If you have older kids and are going to be using the DVD player, determine the order of the playlist the night before to avoid arguments during the drive.
I always print travel bingo games from the internet. We travel a lot to see family and will be making our first trip to Disney (13 hour ride). We love Melissa and Doug toys. What a great giveaway!
Our family’s favorite travel adventure is our camping trip to Rangeley Maine every year. We meet our extended family there and enjoy scavenger hunts, swimming (brrrr), fishing, hiking, bbq, and just being together. The car ride is super long and with 4 kids these travel games would sure be handy! We enjoy the car ride, stopping at scenic vistas to take pictures along the way. It will be fun to compare the pitures as the years go by!
When traveling with toddlers…bring a potty seat! LOL! I have 2 potty trainers and this worked out perfect for our 14 hour trips to Texas!
Before kids, my husband and I got in our Jeep in Florida and started to drive. We meandered our way to Copper Harbor, Michigan and wound our way back home. It was so much fun and when we got home, we found out we were expecting! 🙂 (wink, wink)
Lots of good tips! We sometimes use our DVD player (or you could use a laptop) to play a slide show of family pictures. We also play car games (like I’m going on a trip… or I spy) and pack waaaay more snacks than we think we’ll need. The older two each have their own maps that they use to follow along and help navigate sometimes if we run into traffic.
love your blog! thanks for the giveaway…..our favorite road trip tips are to have a basket of books in between the boys car seats, audio books, singing, and we have even been known to turn on the DVD player (only on the highway though!!!) 🙂
My best travel tip with kids is to pack something new for the long trip: a new book or a new small toy will keep their attention far longer than their favorites, which are also a must for the trip!
Best tip x 2 – package a few sets of small toys in little zippered pouches so toucan pull out a new set of playthings quick (and stash the old ones for later!). And – keep a small ball handy by the door or in the edge of the trunk to grab and have a little running/ball chase time at each stop.
my travel tip would be to have some favorite books / games handy. A dvd player, lots of snacks and traveling while the kids are napping also helps!
My travel tip is: travel at night. That way the kiddos sleep!
Thank you for the giveaway. We are going to St Lois and to Flordia this Summer. So they would get lots of use.
Those games look like a lot of fun! The first long trip we went on with our daughter went really well, we didn’t have to stop that many times and we had fun in the backseat with games/snacks/etc that I packed. I think the most important part is to have a lot of variety of toys/games and to make up some of your own. Our favorite requires no supplies – I spy! We all love that game 🙂
4.5 year old twins and I went to the zoo. Feeding the giraffes was awesome!
One of our best traveling adventures was when we took our son camping for the very first time when he was 18months old. We went to a campground near a lake. I will never forget the look on his face when he saw we were going to sleep in a tent. Great memories! 🙂
We like to start driving at 6am in PJs and then stop at 8 for breakfast and getting dressed. Makes our arrival time earlier!
A travel tip: keep a “surprise” bag of new small toys, coloring books, etc. in the front seat. Dole them out to the kids little by little. Novelty goes a long way!
I pack individual baggies of cereal for snacks along the way. It keeps car sickness at bay and packs vitamins and minerals that most snacks from gas stations probably don’t have.
My kiddos are still pretty little so my tip is to take your time going places. One longs pit stop is so worth it. On our trip last summer we had a 2 hour pit stop – played on the playground, had a nice, long lunch and got all the wiggles out. Then we didn’t have a single problem the rest of the way.
I think my best tip is to remember when you were a kid. When you were young, a short drive seemed long depending on the general atmosphere in the vehicle. If things are exciting, or at least calm and sweet, the kids are much more cooperative. So, to set the atmosphere, prepare the day before you leave. Last minute equals rush equals bad attitudes. Next, consider what is playing in the car, choose more classical or neutral music or something not wordy, or let it be quiet for a while. When driving there is so much your brain is trying to take in that you don’t even realize it, so adding a lot of music or whatever is irritating -at least right away- whether you connect it right away or not. Then be sure to allow for stops to let the energy out.
thanks for the chance to win these. we had similar games as kids growing up. slide the window as you were riding. such a great memory!! neeleymartin(at)yahoo(dot)com
Thank you for this awesome giveaway. We are planning a super vacation this summer! One travel tip we always use is to load up the Kindle with great books for the kids to read. Before we had this little gem, we would use adio tapes from the library. The kids loved them!
We are about to embark on a roadtrip to South Carolina from Buffalo, New York. These would come in SO handy! Our last roadtrip was in november; we went to New Hampshire. I made each of my two boys their own “survival kits”. I gave them each a road map and a highlighter, so I could call out towns or points of interest and they could highlight our progress on the map. I had pre-marked, with foil stars, the stops we would make – to eat or sightsee, and our final destination was marked with a big gold star. They loved tracking our progress and alerting us what was coming up down the road.
My best travel tip is to always keep plastic bags or a bucket in the car. You never know if one of the kids will end up car sick. Wipes too. 🙂
I totally agree with doing most of the driving while they are asleep. We used to do it during nap time (when they still took naps), but we are in the middle of a TX to WI road trip and driving overnight and taking shifts was totally the way to go. We’re even going to head back that way although we’re no longer in a hurry to travel. Next, loads of snacks and some planned activities and park/rest stops.
Best travel tip – PILLOWS! I always fight with my husband about bringing them (they take up so much dang room), but I always end up being SO grateful that we have them when you’re trying to get in a comfy position to take a nap.
We like to pack a backpack with small toys for them to play with and snacks. I try to rotate the contents at most stops to give some thing different.
Road Trip Tip: A few times a month, we have to drive 2 hours to get to the nearest city, i bring 2 I Spy jars along. My 3 yr old and 23 month old like to find the little things that are hidden in the colored rice. Its keeps them occupied and I love hearing them say “I spy lego, or i spy bead, etc… 🙂
When we plan long trips, we try to some traveling at night while they are asleep and then try to plan around cool places to stop and see in the day. And we stop at parks or places where they can run. I usually pack a frisbee or ball for the boys for these stops. And of course each one has a backpack of toys, books, etc, including travel size doodle boards since crayons and pens can fall or accidentally write on the seat. The never fail game for us is “I spy” and you don’t even have to pack for that one.
By the way, great new pic!
before long trips i always stock up on books from the library, and i get each child a present – a small, new (but inexpensive) toy to occupy their time. it might be something they’ve been pining for, or just something i think will distract them for a bit.
My lovely boys are 6 and 8. We travel a fair bit and the BEST things I have packed are two very cheap whiteboards (about 6″ x 4″ size). These are brilliant and are so versatile and very frugal!
The things my sons do include:
1) free drawing,
2) play ‘Noughts and Crosses’,
3) play ‘Hangman’,
4) play ‘Boxes’ (where you make a grid of boxes one side at a time. The player who makes the 4th side puts their initial inside the box and has another go. This keeps going until the whiteboard is full. Rule is: sides all need to be the same size/length)
5)play home-rules ‘Pictionary’…
The possibilities are endless – plus can be used individually or together.
Love it!!
We love to sing different types of songs and change up lyrics to keep us entertained on long drives. I spy is always a hit in our family too.
Snacks, snacks, snacks, and more snacks!!! 🙂
A DVD player and snacks. You can never go wrong with those 2 things!
My closest family members are elderly and on the other side of the country, so we’ve been doing a bit of flying with a little one. I start collecting tiny entertaining things in a large ziplock as soon as we book our flight. Pocket size paperback books, stickers, finger puppets, fingerplays written on index cards, etc.
We bring lots of books, games, DVDs and wipes. A bag of snacks and nap times are always a lifesaver too.
Best travel memory is hanging out on the Oregon Coast with my then 18 month old son, he was talking a little but not more than a word or two at a time. He walked on the beach, saw a seagull eating a dead crab and started running around shouting, “SEAGULLS EAT CRABS! SEAGULLS EAT CRABS!” over and over.
Maybe you had to be there, but trust me, it was funny and my mom and I still say that to each other every time we go to the beach.
We always have a couple of extended roadtrips each year. These would be wonderful for the kids.
Last summer we traveled to Sesame Place, we drove from MA. It was my hubby, myself, and our 3 1/2 year old daughter. We were worried about the car ride, but she did so well. Our most fun on the road was silly rhyming games, and singing and dancing in the car! Hubby did some great air guitars and drums, and us girls were pretty good at vocals and dancing! We had lots of laughs on the way to PA. On our way home, I made sure at the hotel room to upload all of our photos and send them to be printed from CVS. We stopped before we headed home and my daughter spent a long stretch of time looking at all of our silly memories, and putting them into a photo album we had from home. Great entertainment for a long car ride!
My daughter really likes looking at maps so before we take a trip, we pull out a map and show her the travel route. We talk about what we’ll see during our trip and what awaits us at our destination. She enjoys talking about where we live (minneapolis) and where we are going. It definitely builds excitement for the journey!
We have only done major road trip with my son, who is two. It was 5 hours and we relied on new books the he had never seen before… and Aquadoodle! As he gets older, I’m sure he would LOVE these travel games.
Best travel tip – start the day early! It’s nice to get to wherever you are stopping for the day early in the afternoon so the kids can run around and burn off some energy before bedtime.
Getting ready for a 22 hour road trip – these would be awesome for it!
Would love to win these! Best travel tip – we keep an “emergency bucket” in the car – It’s a gallon ice cream bucket with plastic bags,a roll of toilet paper, wet wipes, and hand sanitizer. It’s come in handy many times for those “in between rest stop” emergencies (when the empty soda bottle doesn’t work) or when someone has gotten sick to their stomach from being too excited or motion sick. Mind you – we’ve not used the same bucket all these years! 🙂
We are about to go from DC to Dallas and then Dallas to LA with three kids ages 5, 3, and 1. I would LOVE to have some travel games to take with us. At least it may quell some of the, “he/she is touching me,” argument.
When traveling by plane, take sets of the reusable “window stickers” that you can purchase at the Dollar Store. Kids can sit in the window seat and create away!!
THAT is so COOL! Stealing that idea for our summer travel plans.
The best travel adventure was on my honeymoon in Ireland. My husband and I were driving our rental car and decided to stop for the night in Carlow City. So we found a B&B (The Red Setter, highly reccomend) and they had a room. The proprietor was terrific, but talked so fast and with such a heavy brogue that we only understood every 3rd or 4th word. He assumed, correctly, that we’d want to find a place with music, so he directed us to a pub, Teach Dolmain, where we were directed upstairs. We were the only ones there besides the Australian bartender. Bit by bit, locals traipsed in with their instruments, then all sat around a huge table, just jamming & singing Irish trad music. It was awesome, total happenstance. And the band members were buying OUR drinks!
My husband, daughters and I travel often as both of our families are 3 hours away in opposite directions. With girls now ages 2 and 5 we bring the necesities: ice cream pail (and lid!) for the very unexpected bathroom break or sick little one :(, snacks, wipes, change of clothes, towel to drape over them if they’re eating something messy, their favorite blanket, Crayola Color Wonder markers and paper, books, and LOTS and LOTS of kid music, we don’t have a DVD player and like the time it gives us with the kids. These are the only thngs we ever take on our trips and the girls do very well with all our travels.
one of our most memorable trips was from Ft Knox, KY to Ft Bliss, TX (El Paso) with a 18 month old, 7 yr old, a chihuahua and a cat in a chevy Malibu. We were packed into the little car but we had fun. We sang songs, played the liscense plate game, the kids watched movies (back then the portable DVD players were a new thing) and we did alot of sight seeing because that was the farthest we had ever been west!! We are getting ready to make a move from Ft Knox to Ft Benning with a 7 yr old, 13 yr old, 2 cats, 2 dogs and a fish. While it is not as long a trip and our vehicle has gotten bigger, our family has grown so it should be quite interesting!!
We love road trips, especially to National Parks!
We took a 24 hr plane ride out of country recently. Lots of sticker books, portable DVD player, coloring and story books helped my 4 year old pass the time.
Thank you for the wonderful offer and website. We’d be thrilled play with M&D travel toys on our trip to Maine this summer! FUN! FUN! FUN!
amp@sta2ned.com
Would love to win these! Although we haven’t taken many trips, we’ve found that a portable DVD player can be a big help. We ONLY use it for long trips and mainly at nap time when the kids need to zone out and fall asleep!
My travel lifesaver is a lunchbox filled with art supplies: markers, crayons, scraps of construction paper, scissors, glue stick, stickers. It stays in the car so my little girl always has something to do on short or long car rides.
I would love to win the Melissa & Doug travel toys because we are taking a 14 hour trip (which we do in one day) soon and I love the wooden M&D toys.
My favorite travel tip: take fairly frequent rest stops for the kids and let them run around or eat something so they don’t feel like they’re constantly in the car. When they get back in, give them something new (we keep a box of books and a bag of toys in our car) so that they don’t feel like they’re returning to the same old, same old.
Oooo…this is SO perfect! The hubs is graduating next month from grad school and got a job across country, so we’ll be moving! Would love this (and also, I’m loving all the tips!) for my kiddos!
Let’s see though…everyone else has already said it, but we try to have plenty of snacks and lots of Dollar Store toys and things for them to play with that are new to them. Oh, and colored pencils – not crayons which could get lost and melt or markers which could get lost and bleed on your seats! Yes, I say both of those from experience!
I wrap up ‘road trip prizes’ with wrapping paper before the trip. The kids get to open one every hour. The extra excitement of unwrapping a present seems to help, and the anticipation of the next prize is fun.
I always pack a ton of pre-made activity kits. For example – an open and close kit (a small baggie full of items my 2 1/2 year old can zip, snap, button up and close). My little one also love those ispy games, so I make my own using an empty spice jar filled with dyed rice. I place little objects in the bottle along with the rice. She loves looking for the hidden treasures!
My favorite travel trip was when we went to Kazakhstan to adopt our daughter. We had never been outside of the USA (and had rarely traveled within the USA). What an adventure!!! Experiencing a new culture, new language, new foods, etc. was great but, of course, meeting our daughter was the best moment. Thanks for the giveaway!
We travel about 4 and a half hours (one way) every other month or so with our 3 year old and 2 dogs. We always have a snack bag and my son’s backpack full of toys and books he hasn’t seen in a while. He’s so used to the trip now, he actually doesn’t fuss too much! When times get tough though, music and audio books help a lot 🙂
I think my best traveling tip is to have A LOT of snacks (packaged/portioned and within arms reach) readily available because kids are ALWAYS hungry! It’s helped me a ton when I travel alone with the little one. =)
we used to travel all the time when I was a kid and we had a variety of travel games, good times. Since grandparents live 6, 8, and 30 hrs away my kids will have plenty of opportunity to build some travel game memories themselves, these are great! sometimes if we are traveling in the winter when it gets dark at around 4:30 I pack tiny flash lights for them to play with.
Each kid gets their own small suitcase (i.e., rolling backpack) with their own selected activities, plus we have a backpack filled with snacks and new toys/activities including playing cards, etc. We’ve done long flights like this and it’s worked well.
Saw these on sale at Kohls.com and would love to win them.
Oops, didn’t add travle tip! My best travel tip (I seen someone with the same tip) is to always keep a backpack with a set of clothes for each child just in case. I put some wipes and hand sanitizer and during the summer leave an extra suit for each just in case we make an unplanned beach/pool stop.
I always make sure we have plenty of activities… snacks…. and juice. We also like to plan couple stops as well. to stretch our legs.
Thanks
For our Disney World trip last november and our spring break trip to So California, I bought my 7 year old son and adult size hip pack and my 9 year old daughter a smallish back pack. Both were big enough to pack a paperback book. They are responsible every night to pack their bags with 2 healthy snacks and 1 treat. My other requirement is that they pack a book so they have something to read while waiting in line, etc. Then they can put as much or as little in their bags. My daughter packs her lipgloss, ipod, wallet, mad libs book and sunglasses. While my son usually packs his sunglasses, wallet and a couple small toys to play with. And a small pen light — just in case we go somewhere dark 😉 — so cute.
They’re at the stage where they are responsible for their things and I don’t end up having to carry around a large bag.
My favorite family trip was when I brought my little girl home from the hospital. I am due May 12 for my second and I’m sure that trip will be a few minutes I’ll never forget. Just the relief of piling into car and heading home. Best travel tip: SNACKS! Always bring finger foods like cereal and crackers. I couldn’t live without them! I’d love to win the puzzles, the kids would love them. Thanks! really cool blog!
Pack light. You truly do not need everything you think you need.
For the plane or car – everyone has their own backpack with the stuff they want to take for entertainment. Just a backpack – if it doesn’t fit, you can’t take it.
One tip is to have water bottles for each person, and lots of snacks. Just make sure that they are not too sugary. Sugar make my kids crazy, and then to have them cooped up in the car is not too fun.
We love to travel, so we are often in the car for long trips. We pack items in a bag that get brought out at different points along the trip. Items include binoculars (for searching for items at rest stops), car games (license plate hunt, bingo, etc), and snacks. If we have a specific destination, there are often themed items tucked in as well, coloring books, stickers, bubbles, etc. Which are great for rest stops, airports, etc.
When we traveled to Disney, we packed gifts from home to beat the desire to buy the expensive in park gifts. This limited the need to tote items through the park and the hotel often used the toys in a neat display on the bed, making it an adventure for the kids when we returned!