Road tripping with toddlers is a lot. But with the right system it is so much more manageable than you think.

We’ve been road tripping with our girls for three years now, everything from quick 4-hour drives to full 13-hour hauls. Along the way we built a system that works, through a lot of trial and error.

I’ve tried so many products, packing systems, and ways to keep kids entertained without a screen. Here is everything we now pack and the strategies that have made our trips as smooth as they can be with toddlers and no iPads.

Plan Your Route With Stops Every 2-3 Hours

Before you start packing, map out your route with stops every 2-3 hours. I do a little research ahead of time to see if there’s a park, a fun attraction, or even just a big candy store along the way. Anything that makes the stop feel like part of the adventure instead of just a bathroom break.

I try for at least one 30 minute stop and depending on how long the drive is, a couple of 10-15 minute stops along the way. Kids need to get their wiggles out, and if they’re potty trained, they need a bathroom. A 10 minute stop at a cute park can completely reset everyone’s mood for the next leg of the drive.

Picnic Stops

Instead of always doing a drive-thru, we try to plan our day around a picnic stop. If you can find a spot with a playground or open space, even better. If we are doing just a 4 hour road trip this is usually our only long stop.

I keep a tote bag in the trunk packed and ready with:

• picnic blanket
• travel kid utensils
• Travel milk packets
• Wipes
• Sanitizer wipes
• Toilet seat covers
• A dry bag or plastic bag for trash
• sunscreen– I have found the best sheer mineral sunscreen, that does not make them look like a ghost!
• sunhats
• Water bottles
• Cold weather clothing essentials (seasonal)

When we stop, I just add the packed bento boxes in our cooler to this tote and we’re ready to walk away from the car with everything we need.

Potty Training on the Road

First, get a potty training car seat cover. Accidents happen, and there is nothing worse than your toddler sitting in a wet car seat for hours. I recommend getting two, especially for longer trips, so if one gets soiled you have a backup ready to go.

Next, set up something for them to actually use the bathroom in the car or on the side of the road. We keep a portable potty already set up with a bag inside, in the trunk.

Right next to that in your road trip box (will talk more about that below), keep wipes, sanitizer wipes, and either a reusable dry bag or plastic bags for soiled underwear, diapers, and used wipes.

One more thing I never leave home without is a pack of disposable toilet seat covers in my purse. When we stop for gas we can go straight into the bathroom and use one immediately. Some gas station bathrooms don’t have covers at all, and sometimes the cover slips into the toilet before I can get her on the toilet. These covers also wrap around the base of the toilet so her feet and legs aren’t touching anything. If you’ve ever watched your toddler swing their legs against a gas station toilet, you know exactly why this matters.

Making the Car Comfortable

A few small setup details make a huge difference in how the ride actually goes.

1. Install uv window shades on the windows near your kids’ car seats. This keeps direct sun off them and helps them settle in and nap.
2. Make sure you have mirrors set up so you can see your kids from the driver’s seat. I like being able to check if they’re eating a snack, sleeping, or in the middle of a meltdown without having to twist around while driving. It sounds small but it’s one of those things you don’t know you need until you have it.
3. Last, get them cozy from the start. When packing the car, put one blanket on each car seat, one stuffed animal, and one book. When you buckle them in they already have everything they need to hopefully settle in and get cozy.

Entertainment Without Screens

Here’s what’s in our rotation. I keep a basket from the dollar store right behind the middle console so I can turn around and hand something over when the fussing starts.

Books

We keep three or however many fit in the seat pocket, plus one music book each. They’re genuinely one of the things the girls reach for most.

The Toy Basket

• Mini magna tiles
• Ditty Bird music books, these are an absolute lifesaver and entertain them for so long! Get one for each kid.
• Fidget spinners
• Stacking silicone cups
• Plastic animals
• Sticker books and art supplies
• Water wow activity pad – doubles as a toy and storage for paper and crayons. It comes with scenes to draw and search, stamps, and stencils, and the pen toggles onto the pad so you don’t lose it.
  

Audio entertainment

Our screen-free MVP is the yoto player with headphones bundle. I recommend the starter pack bundle, the player, sleeve, case, headphones, and starter cards. Keep the cards organized and within reach. For younger toddlers you may need to control the player yourself because they can’t put the cards in yourself, but it does have an app you can control the volume max, volume in general and can rewind and face forward.

Stuffed animals

Bring 2-3 per kid for comfort and play. My kids always nap better with one.

The reality

Toys will end up everywhere, including falling out the door every time you open it. At each stop do a quick tidy, toys back in the basket, books in the seat pocket, stuffed animals gathered up. And sometimes, despite all of it, you’ll hit a stretch where you hand over every toy you have and they just throw it all on the floor. That’s when we pull out the Yoto or play Ms. Rachel songs on bluetooth from our phones. Having Ms. Rachel songs videos ready on your phone, has been a life saver. We’ve tried all of the playlists on spotify and sometimes they work but Ms. Rachel ALWAYS works!

Snacks & Food on the Road

For the cooler, we keep this road trip cooler behind the driver’s seat. It fits perfectly, is easy to grab from throughout the drive, and keeps everything cold without taking up too much space. Inside I pack our stainless steel bento boxes for our picnic stop, string cheese or cheese cut from a block, cut up fruit, pouches, and hard boiled eggs.

For non-refrigerated snacks, I keep a separate bag within easy reach stocked with things like tractor wheel bars, cheese its, crackers, and other grab-and-go snacks. That bag is also where I keep our stainless steel snack cups so I can fill them up easily throughout the drive. My tip is to bring two sets of those snack cups, one for dry snacks and one for cold snacks like fruit and veggies.

The Trunk

Below I have how we organize our trunk for the roadtrip but make sure you leave a space between everything below and your luggage for a place to lay a changing pad. You’ll need it for diaper changes but also if your potty training toddler has an accident, it’s nice to have that space clear to change them. When we don’t have that space, it feels very chaotic.

The Trunk Organizer Basket

A trunk organizer basket keeps everything contained and easy to grab. Keep this towards the opening of the trunk and next to your changing pad station. Here’s what we pack:

• 1-2 towels (for cleanup, wet kids, or surprise splash pad stops)
• A roll of paper towels
• 2 trash bags
• Plastic bags
• A dry bag for soiled or dirty clothes
• Wipes
• Diapers, changing pad, diaper cream, and lotion
• Sanitizer Wipes
• Car jumper kit
• First aid kit
• Stain pen
• Full backup outfits, 3 per kid
• Car Sickness Kit (details below)

*A quick note if you cloth diaper at home

Use disposables for road trips. Leaving a soiled cloth diaper sealed up in a hot car for hours is rough on the diaper and will make your whole car smell. We love {pura diapers}, they’re a budget friendly option without sacrificing quality and we’ve never had a leak issue. Our tip: if your kid is in between sizes, size up. It helps prevent leaks even more.

Hydration Station

We keep an insulated water cooler dispenser in the trunk, wedged in-between some heavier things so it doesn’t topple over. Every stop we can just refill our water bottles. This saves so much room in our cooler and keeps our water cool. 

Mom Tip: If you like to stay hydrated but don’t want to have to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes use a hydration pack or celtic sea salt in your water.

The Car Sickness Kit

1 out of 5 times one of our girls gets carsick, sometimes severely. We never know if it’s going to happen so we keep a small basket ready just in case. It includes:

• A peri bottle filled with filtered water and a couple drops of castile soap– to clean them up a little more then wipes
• Reusable cloth wipes– we like these over paper towels because it is softer to clean them up with and they are sturdier
• Plastic bags or a small dry bag for soiled clothes and wipes
• A small spray bottle with castile soap and 3-5 rags for cleaning the car seat (this is nice to have for any type of clean up on the trip

Our system is one parent takes the child to get cleaned up and changed in the trunk area, while the other handles the car seat clean up. Having this ready to grab and having fresh outfits in the trunk organizer basket, means carsick moment doesn’t turn into a 45 minute roadside ordeal.

A Trash Solution for the Back Seat

Keep a small hanging trash can behind your seat hanging from the headrest. This catches wrappers and used wipes between stops so they’re not piling up on the floor or under car seats.

With babies and toddlers there are so many extra things in the car that makes everything feel chaotic, so I feel that keeping it as clean as you can really helps.

The Middle Console

I stock our middle console with things just for my husband and I. Here is what I have ready to make our lives more organized and convenient.

• Wipes- we always need these after eating road snacks
• Sunscreen
• Sunglasses
• Hand sanitizer
• Cash and quarters
• Flashlight
• Ibuprofen
• Gum
• Hydration packs
• A small zipper pouch with hand lotion, lip balm, hair ties, and other quick toiletries

In the Front Seat

My osprey tote is the bag I bring on every single road trip. It doubles as our diaper bag and my everyday bag, works as both a tote and a backpack.

For road trips I pack:

• Wallet
• Keys (I always bring mine even if I’m not driving, just in case we lose my husband’s on the trip)
• Book
• Journal and pen
• Camera
• Portable phone charger
• A couple of snack bars for the girls just in case
• To-go wipe holder
• Sunscreen
• Sanitizer wipes
• Toilet seat covers
• One pocket holds a few diapers, wipes, changing mat, and dry bag
• One spare outfit per child
• Two pairs of extra underwear for my three year old

When we arrive at our destination I add:

• Water bottles
• Toiletry bag from the middle console

Final Thoughts

My biggest tip before any road trip is to work on your mindset before you even leave the driveway. Lower your expectations, not because the trip won’t be fun, but because going in with realistic expectations makes everything easier when it gets hard. There will be meltdowns. There will be stretches where nothing helps and everyone is unhappy and you’re just white-knuckling it to the next stop. That’s part of it.

But it does get easier with time. The more you do it, the more your kids get used to it, and the more your system gets dialed in. Everything in this post has genuinely made our road trips smoother than I ever thought they could be with kids this young. It’s not perfect, but it’s so much better than it used to be. Go with the flow, give yourself grace, and just keep going.