Road trip activities for kids [babies, toddlers, preschoolers]

Every year we take a long road trip to the beach with our young kids.

In this post, you’ll find a list of 10+ ideas that worked really well to keep everyone entertained and happy on the road this year.

Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you choose to click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

For our baby

Andrew, our 10 month old, was the hardest one to keep entertained during the long car ride, so I’ll start with him. Here were the most effective things for him:

Music

This was the #1 thing that kept Andrew happy in the car. He was positioned so that he could see both of his sisters, and was very entertained when we played music that they could sing along with.

Sometimes we listen to CDs, or play a Pandora station, but our favorites are movie soundtracks. We especially love Frozen 2, The Greatest Showman, and Moana.

A pouch full of baby toys

I grabbed a bunch of Andrew’s favorite teethers and small toys, and packed them up in a clear pouch. When he got fussy, I would hand him another toy, one by one, until he threw each one out of his carseat.

Preview	Product	Price
	Nuby Nananubs Banana Massaging…	$4.98	Buy on Amazon
	Pangda 5 Pcs Clear Cosmetic Bags Clear…	$15.99	Buy on Amazon

A container of pom poms and pipecleaners

I used an old Kool-Aid container, and filled it with colorful pom poms and pipecleaners. Andrew liked trying to get them out, and it was a little tricky for him, so it kept him busy for a really long time!

Snacks

I packed some puffs as a last resort. When Andrew started getting really fussy toward the end of the trip, I sat next to him and hand-fed him puffs. It was the only thing that was keeping him from crying at this point in the trip.

Naps

The best car activity for babies, of course, is a couple of nice, long naps!

One thing that we found really helpful was to recreate his nap time routine as closely as possible in the car. We did this by bringing along his lovey (a special stuffed animals usually reserved for his crib) and by playing the same playlist that I usually play for him as he is falling asleep at home.

For toddlers and preschoolers

Here are the things that kept my older kids (3 and 5) occupied during the long trip:

Audio books

The girls are used to listening to stories, because that’s one of their favorite things to do at home during quiet time. We made sure to visit the library and stock up on some new stories ahead of time. Here are a few different types of audiobooks they enjoy:

Picture books with read-along CDs: We packed a portable CD player and a pair of headphones, and checked out some picture books with CDs from the library. As long as your child can turn the page when they hear a ding, then they are old enough to enjoy this type of book.

Preview	Product	Price
	Disney Princess Magical Tales ReadAlong…	$2.29	Buy on Amazon
	Disney’s Movie Night Read-Along…	$9.29	Buy on Amazon

Playaway views: We get these from our library. They look like tiny TV screens, and they play stories or short movies.

Books on CD: We checked out a few books on CD (there is no book that goes along with them- you just listen) and played them over the car’s sound system for everyone to hear together.

Audiobook app: We enjoy checking out digital books using Libby. (I have an account through my library.) We can listen to audiobooks digitally, or select a read-along book, which the girls can watch and listen to on my phone.

Clipboards and art supplies

Emma and Kate both have a travel clipboard. I loaded them up with coloring pages, stickers, and sticky notes ahead of time.

In addition, I packed a bag full of pencils and markers. (I never bring crayons in the car, after the melted purple crayon incident of 2017….but that’s another story for another day!)

I also got each girl a special new sketch pad so we wouldn’t have loose papers flying all over the place.

One thing that our girls really like is stencils, so I brought along a few of those as well. My 3 year old spent quite some time using them on this trip.

Activity books

I got 2 brand new activity books for the girls, since I thought they would be more excited to sit and color if they had something new. My 5 year old loves to draw, so I got her this I Can Draw book. And for my 3 year old, I got this Jumbo Activity Book for Kids. (Although I do think she was a little bit young for it.)

Preview	Product	Price
	My First I Can Draw	$6.01	Buy on Amazon
	Jumbo Activity Book for Kids: Jumbo…	$8.12	Buy on Amazon

Scavenger hunt

One thing that we really enjoyed doing as a family was a scavenger hunt game. (We have one similar to this one.) Each card has a picture and a word on it, for something that you might see outside of the car window.

For older kids, you could hold a competition to see who can find the most objects first. For our young kids, it worked well for me to hold up a card (or sometimes two at once), and then all of us would look for that object together.

I also brought along a new High Five magazine, and a word find book.

Stickers

My kids LOVE these Melissa and Doug sticker books! They never seem to get tired of them.

Product	Price
Melissa & Doug Puffy Sticker Activity…	$10.99	Buy on Amazon
Melissa & Doug Puffy Sticker Activity…		Buy on Amazon
Melissa & Doug Puffy Sticker Play Set:…		Buy on Amazon

Each one comes with 2 pages of reusable, puffy stickers, which can be used in the scenes in the book. Because there are so many stickers, and they are reusable, there is no limit to how much time the kids will play with these.

Snacks

We stock up on snacks before a big trip, including a few “special” snacks that the kids don’t normally get to have. This year we brought fruit snacks and lollipops. (Lollipops were a double win because they took a really long time to eat!)

You can see the full list of my favorite “car friendly” toddler snacks here.

Taking pictures

Both of our girls love to take pictures and videos, and they spend hours looking at all of the pictures that they’ve taken. They spent quite a bit of time during this trip taking pictures on their iPad of each other, of Andrew, of whatever we were passing outside of the windows… sounds crazy, but this was an excellent activity!

Active stops

The last piece of advice I have is to make the most of any stops that you have to take. We try our best to have the kids be active every time we get out of the car.

For example, we packed a picnic lunch, and allowed the girls to eat standing up near a picnic table. We also let them run around and practice their gymnastics in the grass near where we picnicked for a few minutes, to stretch their legs a little bit.

If you are able to stop to take a break by a playground, that would be even better.

Download the road trip planning sheet

You can download my road trip planing sheet here- it’s a blank list with categories designed to help you organize your thoughts as you plan for your next big road trip.

Download now!

What are your favorite car trip activities for kids? Let me know in the comments! And I hope you have a wonderful raod trip. Good luck!

-Laura

Beach packing list [baby & toddler]

Travel packing lists for mom, baby, & toddler