Q&A: Your best family road trip survival tips

In a little over two weeks we will be packing everything from baby blankets to windbreakers, handing the keys to the house-sitter, and heading to the airport to fly East.

There we have a minivan reserved for our ultimate family Maritime road trip around Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, including the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island.

This is basically half of my entire lifelong bucket list getting packed into one trip. I can’t believe I’ve never been east of Montreal, but have always longed to visit the lighthouses, sandy shores and rolling hills of Canada’s Eastern seaboard.

I am fully prepared to taste all the lobster, scallops, oysters (from Tatamagouche itself) and clam chowder. Did you know there is an official chowder trail? I know. Talk about my kind of road trip.

food truck

We’re incredibly excited. I’m impossibly unprepared. I’m hoping you can help.

I’m so busy with what I need to do before we leave, that I haven’t hardy thought about the actual trip. I know things will work out – that’s what GPS and Urban Spoon are for – but is there an app for backseat squabbling? What about calming an overtired baby in a seafood restaurant? Sand in the minivan?

Today I’m asking you: What are your best family road trip survival tips? Lay them on me! If you’ve written about this subject? Please leave a link. Do you have a favorite car game to keep the kids smiling? Maybe you’ve developed the perfect car snacks for toddlers? Please share.

I’ve made a big batch of our favorite chocolate cereal bars, as homemade snacks are a must. They should, however, be suitable for little hands, easy to eat, not messy, smelly, crumbly, or sticky. Road-trip foods should not require utensils, cutting, assembling or much preparation.

We’re traveling with small children, let’s keep it simple. Trail mix, raw vegetables, muffins, firm fruit, and wraps with chicken and cheese are all good options for us. If you have any more ideas, leave a comment!

cereal bars

And then there is the coffee dilemma.  I can handle sketchy bathrooms, getting lost, and questionable diners, but what really makes me nervous about a 2-week road trip? Sourcing really great coffee. It’s essential for kicking this mama into gear, and this mama is what gets the family up and on the road.

Amber recommends a Keurig Mini Plus Coffee Maker that is entirely portable. A follower on Twitter suggested an AeroPress Coffee Maker, which we actually have and love. But I am thinking that a small cooler of cold-brewed coffee may be my best option for staying caffeinated while road-tripping through the Maritimes backcountry. What would you do? I won’t resort to gas station coffee or fast food brew.

Clara's tent

I picked up this handy little pop-up tent for Clara’s naps while we are away. The idea is that she can have her own little shaded, bug free space for resting when we are on the beach or picnicking at a lookout. It was a great deal at a garage sale, but the original version can be found on Amazon. It folds down quite small and comes with a carry case.

A few snacks, a coffee plan, and a portable sleeping area for Clara. That’s about all I’ve got planned to help us make this the best road trip ever. Now let’s hear your ideas.

What are your best family road trip survival tips?

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71 Comments

  1. Thanks for a great article Aimee! Aeropress sounds like a great idea – easy to get a good cup of coffee and doesn’t take that much space! My best tip for family travel is to have some sort of thing to do while there are virtually nothing to do. It can be as simple as some sort of tabletop or maybe some sort of sport equipment that doesn’t require much stuff(me and my wife usually take our badminton kit that we’ve got from a local sports store https://gritroutdoors.com/ , usually after making camp we have a few hours of “nothing” and filling up this time is a pretty good idea).