Travel Tips for Road Tripping with a Baby
Traveling with a baby can be tough, give yourself some grace and try to be flexible. We’ve traveled a lot with our babies so here are some of the tips and car friendly play ideas we’ve learned along the way. We hope they help you!
Coming soon - Travel tips for flying with a baby.
Planning tips
Feed and change baby before you go
Try to leave around a nap time and drive through a nap
Pack a backup set of clothes IN the car near baby, not buried in the luggage in the back
Packing Prep
Head to the Dollar Store, Party City, Target's Dollar Spot, and stash stuff away for later.
Dig deep in the playroom to recycle or repurpose some toys you already have. I spent $10 at Party City and had 5+ trips worth of activities (see highlights in our Instagram profile)
Wrap your little finds. I used tissue paper and curling ribbon and wrapped each toy like a piece of candy. It took about 45 min to wrap 5 trips worth of stuff but keeps their hands busy for 3x longer than just giving them the toy! Once they’re wrapped, I throw them into a box in the playroom for use on a future trip.
Novelty is key. The toy just has to have been tucked away for a few weeks, wrap it, and poof! It's a new and exciting experience!
Favorite little finds: slinky, wedding bubbles, rolls of stickers, kazoo, poms/plastic nubby balls, screw containers, pipe cleaners, poker chips, barrel of monkeys, plastic Easter eggs, clothes pins, post-its, Water Wow, Matchbox cars, little figurines, soap crayons. Check the blog for more info and the play ideas behind them!
Car Friendly Play ideas
My go-tos! Wrap simple toys, screw container, slinky, Easter egg filled with something fun!
Get a screw container from the hardware store (or here) they are clear in the center tube and have silicone lids with a slit in the top, ~$3. Grab small items (I used balls from Party City’s party favor bag bins. You can use cotton balls or craft balls, even Cheerios if your child likes to put stuff in their mouth.) Have your child shake or turn the container, talk about the colors, counting, matching, make music. Or empty the container and have them put the balls in through the slit - lots of great fine motor and visual motor skill practice here and kids love putting items in/out of containers!
Slinky - I grabbed a tiny, cheap, slinky from the party favor bag section at Party City for less than a dollar but here’s another option. I wrapped it with curly ribbon and popped it in the diaper bag for a moment TBD. About 3 hours into our cross country trip I pulled it out and the new novel toy bought us another 40 minutes of an interested toddler.
Put your fingers inside it and pull the ends apart, hang it from the handle on the carseat with links, hold one end and let your child pull it and rebound it to your finger, make it a fire hose, an earring, pretend it’s your hair, make it an elephant trunk (I have no shame entertaining tiny humans on trips). Good luck!
Plastic Easter Eggs - I love to stuff baby’s favorite snack, poms, or even small cars inside of Easter Eggs to increase the excitement and add the fine motor piece of working their little hands so hard to get to what’s inside.
Bubbles - pack them - don't second guess it, just pack them. I grabbed a big pack of wedding bubbles at the Dollar Store (pre-Corona Virus) and I keep the little bottles stashed in the diaper bag, car door, stroller, all over the place!
Busy Books - I got a new/novel busy book for our recent 11 hour flight. I made sure to hide it until the time was right, YOU WILL KNOW! The greatest part about the book is that it had flaps, strings, doors to open/shut...I got our busy book here
Matchbox Cars - I grabbed cheap cars, again - Dollar Store - when I see them. I usually wrap two or three in tissue before a trip and whala, 30 minutes of excitement! Drive them up and down your child’s arms and legs and name their body parts. Then they can drive it to you, good luck!
Keep clear food containers with slits or flip lids (see highlights) and fill with a favorite snack or toys to keep little hands busy.
Squiggs - little suction cup toys that are great for mirrors and windows.
Stickers and crayons are always good ones to bring. I pack a clipboard or a sturdier paper plate to color on.
Magnetic “scene” - Think sticker book but reusable with magnets. I found a similar one to ours here.
I’m also a big fan of Mess Free coloring pads and markers, found here.
Use toys you already have in new ways! I taped two toilet paper rolls together and they became binoculars to look for all sorts of things on our road trip!
I hope these ideas help give you a little leg up on road tripping with a baby. Stay tuned for more info on flying with a baby and toddler activities in the future. What other great road trip ideas do YOU have that I can file away for our next trip? Be sure to tag us as you try some of these and let us know how it goes!
-Bree
We’re Jaclyn & Bree
Pediatric therapists and moms with a mission to empower you with knowledge to encourage your baby’s development and continue confidently into your parenthood journey.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below and we will get back to you. As always, the information we share is meant to provide general education and tips and is not intended as medical advice. If you have a specific question or concern about your child’s development, please speak directly to your child’s doctor or therapist.