Your best “packing for a road trip” tips

[Anonymous]

We like to stay overnight for long trips. We don’t have to rush to leave the house, and we time it so the long drive is the first day, but we stop for a proper dinner, maybe a swim in the hotel pool, and a good night’s sleep. Day 2 we usually finish off 4 hours or so. It’s perfect for us and we actually enjoy the travel days because we haven’t set our pace to Grueling and our rations to Meager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stopping for two hours at a time? Good lord, just get there!

I know right? And if they really are doing that 3 times over the course of a 12 hour drive, that means they are stopping, on average, every 3 hours to rest for two hours!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We like to stay overnight for long trips. We don’t have to rush to leave the house, and we time it so the long drive is the first day, but we stop for a proper dinner, maybe a swim in the hotel pool, and a good night’s sleep. Day 2 we usually finish off 4 hours or so. It’s perfect for us and we actually enjoy the travel days because we haven’t set our pace to Grueling and our rations to Meager.

We do this. Everyone shares a bag for that night so we dont have to unpack the car. Also, we have a large car so when in doubt, we pack it- basically to opposite of when we fly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We like to stay overnight for long trips. We don’t have to rush to leave the house, and we time it so the long drive is the first day, but we stop for a proper dinner, maybe a swim in the hotel pool, and a good night’s sleep. Day 2 we usually finish off 4 hours or so. It’s perfect for us and we actually enjoy the travel days because we haven’t set our pace to Grueling and our rations to Meager.

I don't think driving another 4 hours is grueling. YMMV

Driving past midnight does bother me though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stopping for two hours at a time? Good lord, just get there!

I know right? And if they really are doing that 3 times over the course of a 12 hour drive, that means they are stopping, on average, every 3 hours to rest for two hours!

Why is that crazy? We need the exercise and breaks for sure!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve done driving to Orlando before, we left around 4:30pm (after school kids back from home), stay at NC beach area overnight, then arrived the next evening at Orlando. We didn’t want to take risk driving midnight, usually those cars still on the road at that time all drive so fast, and the one drives would get so tired, it’s just not safe especially you have 3 kids with you.

To save time we pre ordered groceries (fruit, pastries/bread/croissants, yogurt, string cheese, boxed single packed snacks, waters, zip bags to pack bread/pastries for kids to snack in between meal, milk, disposable cups/utensils/plates) for curbside pick up using Instacart. It saved a lot of time as we were so tired but was able to pick up groceries and got dinner then went back to hotel to rest.

We packed snacks, chips, lollipops/chocolates, board games, clipboard with coloring paper and markers, craft pipe cleaner, small toys for kids. I also brought a lot of baby wipes, adult and kids Tylenol/advil (for adult headache and kids fever just in case), anti-diarrheal tablets in case, kids antiseptic cleansing foam spray, polysporin ointment, bandaid, cotton swab, liquid bandage spray, sanitizer, allergy medicine, eye drop, sunblock, care free pads, diapers for baby, couple more extra set of clothes for kids to change in case, disposable raincoat, waterproof/wind proof jacket, hats, sunglasses and extra pairs of shoes for everyone.

Have a good trip.

Where do you stay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stopping for two hours at a time? Good lord, just get there!

I know right? And if they really are doing that 3 times over the course of a 12 hour drive, that means they are stopping, on average, every 3 hours to rest for two hours!

Why is that crazy? We need the exercise and breaks for sure!

NP. Honestly you need to fly because I agree that that's crazy.

[Anonymous]

OP here.

I’m so confused by people suggesting that our breaks are too long…?

What do you suggest? No breaks? Shorter breaks? I’m genuinely curious because I thought 3 hours/2 hours to run/explore a new town along the way/drive 3/stop for 2 was a good plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

I’m so confused by people suggesting that our breaks are too long…?

What do you suggest? No breaks? Shorter breaks? I’m genuinely curious because I thought 3 hours/2 hours to run/explore a new town along the way/drive 3/stop for 2 was a good plan?

Well, unless you're into wearing diapers like that astronaut who tried to kidnap her romantic rival, you're going to have to stop. 2 hours is wayyyy too long. Bathroom, stretch legs, 30 minutes max.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We like to stay overnight for long trips. We don’t have to rush to leave the house, and we time it so the long drive is the first day, but we stop for a proper dinner, maybe a swim in the hotel pool, and a good night’s sleep. Day 2 we usually finish off 4 hours or so. It’s perfect for us and we actually enjoy the travel days because we haven’t set our pace to Grueling and our rations to Meager.

I don't think driving another 4 hours is grueling. YMMV

Driving past midnight does bother me though.

OK? And for us it is. OP asked for advice and I gave it. You don’t need to reply to my comment, you can simply comment with your own thoughts. My mileage DOES vary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

I’m so confused by people suggesting that our breaks are too long…?

What do you suggest? No breaks? Shorter breaks? I’m genuinely curious because I thought 3 hours/2 hours to run/explore a new town along the way/drive 3/stop for 2 was a good plan?

That sounds needlessly long. And stupid. Divide it into an overnight with 8 hours then 4 or whatever, but stopping for *two hours* is so pointless. If you do one big drive day and stop twice to go to the bathroom/fill up on gas and once for lunch, you’ll be fine. The the next day you finish up. There’s so much wasted time with your plan. I’ve never heard of anyone do something like that unless the point was the road trip and the point wasn’t the destination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve done driving to Orlando before, we left around 4:30pm (after school kids back from home), stay at NC beach area overnight, then arrived the next evening at Orlando. We didn’t want to take risk driving midnight, usually those cars still on the road at that time all drive so fast, and the one drives would get so tired, it’s just not safe especially you have 3 kids with you.

To save time we pre ordered groceries (fruit, pastries/bread/croissants, yogurt, string cheese, boxed single packed snacks, waters, zip bags to pack bread/pastries for kids to snack in between meal, milk, disposable cups/utensils/plates) for curbside pick up using Instacart. It saved a lot of time as we were so tired but was able to pick up groceries and got dinner then went back to hotel to rest.

We packed snacks, chips, lollipops/chocolates, board games, clipboard with coloring paper and markers, craft pipe cleaner, small toys for kids. I also brought a lot of baby wipes, adult and kids Tylenol/advil (for adult headache and kids fever just in case), anti-diarrheal tablets in case, kids antiseptic cleansing foam spray, polysporin ointment, bandaid, cotton swab, liquid bandage spray, sanitizer, allergy medicine, eye drop, sunblock, care free pads, diapers for baby, couple more extra set of clothes for kids to change in case, disposable raincoat, waterproof/wind proof jacket, hats, sunglasses and extra pairs of shoes for everyone.

Have a good trip.

Where do you stay?

On the way to Orlando we stayed at Myrtle NC area hotel (several blocks away from beach, knew wouldn’t have time to enjoy the beach the next day). On the way home was at a beach front as we have bit more time to explore (we left Orlando in the morning and arrived NC in the evening). Another time we left Orlando around 6pm and stayed over night at Home2 Suites by Hilton Brunswick at GA, originally planned to stay at SpringHill Suites Savannah Downtown / Historic District but didn’t have time to explore the area next day. Another time was at Jekyll island GA ( near sea turtle center). We usually stayed at Cabana bay beach resort when we drive, sometimes at Disney resort but we enjoy the cabana bay beach resort more.

[Anonymous]

Obviously every kid and family is different, but how do you even fill a 2 hour break?

We use the bathroom, buy a treat (m&Ms from the gas station seem to taste way better than the ones I could have pre packed myself), maybe a playground or grassy area to run, and then back in the car. A longer stop for one meal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lollipops for when things get really desperate. And agree, do stops at a playground or park.

There’s no way I’d give a 2 year old a lollipop in the car. Too much of a choking hazard if the candy comes off the stick.

[Anonymous]

If you have laundry facilities, you are golden. Take 5 of everything, except much more underwear and socks. Take several pairs of shoes for each person. Shoes get wet. Take a light weight umbrella stroller. No reason to take a big, bulky one.