Screen-Free Road Trip Ideas for Kids and How to Pack

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You guys, we just got back from a long trip! And if you’ve ever been on long road trips with young children, you know you need several activities to keep the car ride going smoothly! I want to share some tips and screen-free road trip ideas for kids! If you’re like us, we try to limit screen time. I’m not saying we’re perfect okay, but we are very intentional about the screens our kids use, how much screen time they have, and what they’re viewing on those screens. Bonus points, when your family isn’t staring at screens they’re more likely to jump into conversations making for quality family time! So if that’s important to you and you’re planning your next road trip this is for you!

Screen-Free Road Trip Ideas for Kids

Do not let these lists for screen-free road trip ideas for kids overwhelm you. You don’t need everything that is listed. These lists are to keep you from wasting a lot of time researching and planning what to pack.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Get my full disclosure here.

Infants

1. Books – Board books, Indestructible books, and crinkle books are all great options for babies.
2. Silicone Teething Toys – Teething toys are a must-have for babies to play with especially if they are teething.
3. Wooden Toys – We have had a large selection of wooden toys for our babies and work wonderfully for play in the car.

Toddlers

1. Coloring Books with Crayons or Markers – Pack coloring books you already have or grab a few new ones from the Dollar store.
2. Magnetic Puzzles – There is nothing worse than driving on the interstate and the toddler drops something in the floorboard you can’t reach. These magnetic puzzles are perfect for keeping everything within reach and less likely to drop pieces.
3. Lacing Boards – This will keep those little hands busy and they will be working on their fine motor skills!
4. Wiki Sticks – These are so fun for any age! Create something without the mess! Undo and make something new!
5. Color Wonder Books – If your kids get markers all over everything including themselves, this is the way to go! They will enjoy coloring, but it won’t show up on them or your vehicle!
6. Water Wow Books – This is another great option to keep your kids from being covered in marker. These only need some water in the pens!
7. Magna Doodle – Did you have one of these when you were a kid? I did and my kids love them too!
8. Reusable Sticker Books – I’m a big fan of these! You could just buy regular stickers too, but I love that they can create scenes and we get the joy of using the stickers over and over again.
9. Spice Container and Pipe Cleaners – This is a DIY and cheap option but it’s another great way for toddlers to work on those fine motor skills. Clean an old spice container for them to poke the pipe cleaners through the holes.

Kids

1. Notebook – This is easy and simple, but I have a couple of kids who love to just have paper to draw or write on during long car rides.
2. Magnetic Toys and Games – Highly recommend using magnetic toys and games to keep everything in one place and hopefully out of the floor.
3. Sticker by Number – These should keep them busy for a while and it’s a fun activity!
4. License Plate Game – This is one of my kids’ favorite games! They love trying to find as many different license plates as they can! It’s included in my free printable at the end of this blog post!
5. Window Crayons and Clings – One year I bought fun fall-themed window clings from the Dollar Store for a trip and they loved it! Hours of fun again, because you can reuse them!
6. Travel Lego – If your kids like to build things, there are several options for travel Lego sets.
7. Road Trip Bingo – Bingo is a family favorite game and a great one to take on the go!

Older Kids and Teens

All of the above options are great for older kids and teens, but here are some additional ideas.

1. Travel Journal – Have them create a travel journal or purchase one. They can later have something to look back on after the trip.
2. Old-Fashioned Paper Map – Do they even make these anymore? I’m kidding! But this would be fun for them to map out their trip and they’re learning!
3. Rubik’s Cube – Give them a challenge that will keep them busy with one of these!

For Entire Family

1. Local Library – Before your trip take the kids to visit your local library to pick out some new books! Who doesn’t love a new book to take on a trip?
2. Games – Mad Libs, Twenty Questions, Alphabet Game, I Spy, Would You Rather,
3. Music – That’s right! Crank up those favorite tunes and sing your hearts out! It’s the perfect opportunity for everyone to pretend they’re a rock star! We don’t have to be driving a long way to do this! You can catch us jamming to 90’s country on the way to the grocery store!
4. Audiobooks – Audiobooks make a great road trip activity and it’s a great time to listen to a new book on audio! So after you’ve played a few games and everyone has got their giggles and screaming out, turn on an audiobook!  We love Hoopla!  It’s an app through our library for free audiobooks, movies, and more!  There’s no waiting to get the book you want, however, they don’t always have the books we want.  But overall, it’s been great! Eat a meal or eat snacks during this time.  If they’re eating, they’re not talking! This is also how we do read-aloud time at home. Here are a few of our favorite audiobooks, “Because of Winn Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo, The Ramona Collection by Beverly Cleary, and “Sarah, Plain and Tall” by Patricia MacLachlan.

Snacks

I would venture to say this is the most crucial part of packing for a road trip with kids. If you’ve ever had a hangry child then you would agree. I recommend purchasing individually wrapped snacks for trips!

My favorite place to buy healthy-ish snacks is Thrive Market. I’ve been a Thrive Market member for several years! I usually always get free shipping, which comes straight to my door, the membership breaks down to about $5 a month, every membership gifts a membership to someone in need, and the best part is the access I have to better choice foods I can’t find locally. If you haven’t tried Thrive Market yet, you can get 40% off your first order! Perfect time to save some money on your road trip essentials! I also love to shop at Aldi for great snack options too! Some of the favorites we purchase for road trips are:

• Beef Sticks
• Fruit Circles
• Applesauce Pouches
• The Good Crisp Company Chips
• Quinn Peanut Butter-Filled Pretzels
• Lesser Evil Popcorn
• That’s It Bars
• Bare Apple Chips
• Soley Gummies
• Lesser Evil Lil’ Puffs
• Skout Bars
• Yum Earth Pops

Containers

• Fabric bins 
• Seat-Back Organizer – Fabric bins may take up too much area and not fit between seats or on the floorboard, if that’s the case consider using a seat-back organizer.
• Plastic Containers
• Canvas Bags

How to Pack for a Screen-Free Road Trip with Kids

Following the three steps below has been the best way I have been able to pack for a long drive with the whole family and tackle the daunting task.

1. Choose Your Containers – Shop your house first for containers is a great way to save! I like to use 11″ size fabric bins from around my house. They fit perfectly between car seats and hold just enough games, toys, and snacks for long car rides. Each of the bench rows gets one fabric bin to pack and share. Most of the time the 2 older, middle kids sit in the third row together. The 2 youngest children and the oldest sit in the second row. With this arrangement, it helps with so many things. First, I never put kids in the third row who can not buckle and unbuckle themselves. Second, this helps to pass items from front to back and vice versa since the two little ones can’t reach to pass to the back. Third, the 2 older, middle kids have more in common and can better share what we back in their container.
2. Gather Your Items – This will vary based on the ages of your children. I recommend packing 3 to 4 activities and toys per child’s age. But as I mentioned before, if you have kids closer in age and have common interests this will help to reduce how much you pack. Refer to the list of items above for ideas. Don’t forget to include snacks! Check the list above for ideas.
3. Pack – Lastly, pack your items in your containers and place them in your vehicle where it’s most convenient for your children to reach. 

Road Trip Tips

New Things

Buy a few new items, a new toy, coloring books with favorite cartoon characters, stickers, sticky hands, activity books, etc. Keep items upfront with you, when the going gets tough, grab a new item to hand to your child. To make this even more fun you could wrap a couple of items in a paper bag. Once you hit a milestone point, for example, 2 hours into the trip. Let your child open a bag, then again at 4 hours into the trip, etc., or whatever you choose. 

Rewards

So listen, it’s a fact that, as humans, we all perform better with an incentive.  Set a timer for 30 minutes (or whatever time frame is manageable for your children) and reward them if they’ve had good behavior when the timer goes off. You can use anything for a reward…suckers, stickers, snacks, etc. I usually grab a few small toys from the dollar store for this! Don’t use the incentives until the trip is almost over or if you notice everyone is starting to fall apart. Using it too soon will set everyone up for failure.

Screens

Although we are committed to limited screen time, we pack the screens.  We save these for when everyone is falling apart, parents included. Most of the time we can make it to the last hour or so of the trip before we need to reach for a screen. Before we head out I make sure everything is fully charged.  I upload a few audiobooks from Hoopla and a few movies.  We also have a leapfrog with a few educational games. So they don’t get free range on screens, I have the Kindle ready with some educational games, audiobooks, and a couple of age-appropriate movies.  That’s all they have access to, everything else is password-protected. We also have an old travel DVD player and I pack a couple of DVDs for that too.

Essentials: These are the not-so-fun items, but all of these are essential to making your next trip run smoothly. Every single one of these is a good idea and I wouldn’t skip any!

• Emesis bags
• Boiron Motion Calm Melts
• Motion Sickness Wristbands
• Oxo Go Potty and Bags
• Paper Towels
• Baby Wipes
• Tissues
• Sound Machine
• Thrive Market gum or Pur gum for when the kids’ ears may pop

Screen-Free Road Trip Activities

If you have younger kids, they will love my free printable travel busy bundle! This bundle is full of screen-free activities to keep them entertained whether you’re going on a 1-hour drive or a 13-hour drive!

The bundle is loaded with pages of fun! You’ll find road trip-themed word search, license plate game, scavenger hunt, word scramble, maze, shadow matching, counting, tic-tac-toe, design your car, how many words you can make, letter tracing, road trip mapping, and more! Use the download button below and the PDF files will appear in a new window! Print only the ones you want or the entire bundle! Browse my other free printables.

How to Use Screen-Free Road Trip Printables

1. Print as many copies as you need.
2. Place inside of folders.
3. Be sure to include pencils, markers, or any favorite writing utensils.
4. Hop in the car and enjoy!

I hope this gave you plenty of ideas for screen-free road trip ideas for kids as you plan your next car trip with your family!  And if you have more tips and tricks for traveling screen-free with kids send them my way, I’d love some fresh, new ideas! Happy traveling, friends!