Keep Your Sanity With These Road Trip Activities for Toddlers
Looking for road trip activities for toddlers for your upcoming long car ride together? Look no further!
This post shares the best road trip toys for toddlers as well as some great road trip activities for toddlers! Each one of these suggestions is aimed at that young toddler age from about 18 months old up to about 2.5 years old.
And if you’re interested in budget-friendly road trip toys for babies, or want to dust up on a few general tips for taking a road trip with toddlers or babies, check out these posts:
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1. Mix of Old and New Road Trip Toys for Toddlers
Young toddlers love familiarity as much as they love new and exciting things. So as far as road trip toys for toddlers, bring a few trusted favorites, along with a few new surprise car ride toys and activities.
For the oldies but goodies, tuck them away a week or two before your road trip so your toddler hasn’t played with them recently.
An inexpensive way to find a few new trinkets to have as road trip toys for toddlers is to walk through the Dollar Store or Target’s bins full of cheap stuff. Or do a temporary toy swap with a friend who has similar aged kids.
If you’re wanting higher quality road trip activities and toys, we’ve got a couple tried and true recommendations below.
Shape Sorter
Large Koosh Ball
Activity Cube
Magnetic Maze
Wrap up the new road trip toys and activities to add another level of excitement for your toddler during the long car ride. Having a wrapped surprise to hand your toddler as she’s forced back into the car seat after a pit stop can go a long way!
2. Arts and Crafts Road Trip Activities for Toddlers
Using arts and crafts as road trip activities for toddlers is easy to overlook, but is a goldmine in our experience! These few ideas have bought us hours of time:
Notepad or old magazines and stickers* - let your toddler go to town! Dot stickers* are cheaper and provide a good car ride activity.
An older toddler could “trace” a simple picture you’ve drawn with dot stickers.
Color on a cookie sheet with dry erase markers* (use it for magnetic activities too)
Add tiny sticky notes* to whatever is within reach
Free play with tape - washi tape*, painter’s tape*, whatever you have. Let him stick and unstick it wherever his heart desires.
Beginning level coloring book* with simple pictures
Crafting pipe cleaners* to bend with large buttons* to lace if able
Plus a few of our favorite store-bought arts and crafts road trip activities for toddlers:stickers*
Waterwow Pads
Dot Markers
Doodle Board
Wiki Stix
3. Magnetic Road Trip Toys for Toddlers:
Magnetic toys are great as road trip activities for toddlers! Pack up a cookie sheet* - double check that it is magnetic, as some are not. Gather magnetic sets, like the ones below:
Magnetic Tiles
Letters and Objects
Animal Set
Fruit and Veggies
You can also add magnetic craft dots* to any lightweight objects your toddler is interested in.
4. Containers and Sets as Road Trip Toys for Toddlers:
By far, the best travel and road trip activities we’ve come up with for younger toddlers have been random assortments of empty containers paired with random sets of objects.
Literally hours of entertainment over time in just playing with empty containers, exploring sets of objects, putting objects in a container, transferring objects between containers, sorting objects within containers, shaking them once closed up, etc.
The upside is that these are free road trip toys for toddlers, but the downside is that they do require adult supervision because of potential choking hazards, depending on what sets of objects you go with.
Examples of Containers for Toddler Road Trip Toys:
Anything that can hold objects! If it has a moving component like a lid or zipper, wonderful. If they can nest to save space, bonus!
Small Pail
Muffin Tin
Bead Box With Lid
Nesting Cups
Mini Solo Cups
Ice Cube Tray
Wipes Container
Travel Toiletry Containers
Small Purse or Bag
Egg Carton
Look through your recycling, kitchen, and craft storage. Get creative and use things you already have, even if it means dumping and leaving the current contents at home during your road trip.
Examples of Sets of Objects for Toddler Road Trip Toys:
Any random group of things that are fun to look through or easy to sort by any attribute (color, size, shape, texture) make great road trip toys for toddlers.
Plastic Bugs
Small Bag Clips
Colored Paper Clips
Empty Spools
Lego Pieces
Popsicle Sticks
Smooth Stones
Mini Erasers
Googly Eyeballs
Large Buttons
Short Twigs
Game Board Pieces
Nuts and Bolts
Large Beads
Markers
Dice
Hair Ties
Crayons
Washers
Pom Poms
Shells
These example lists are exhaustive; get creative with what you have easy access to and think would work well as car ride toys for your toddler!
Tips for Using Empty Containers and Sets of Objects:
You’ll likely get more mileage out of these road trip activities if you don’t guide your toddler’s play, but instead let her explore freely.
Initially give your toddler each new set of objects on a tray so she can play with just the collection.
When the new begins to wear off, give an interesting container that will pair well with the objects, renewing her attention.
The next time you get out that same set of objects, consider adding some structure to the play by helping your older toddler find a way to sort them.
5. Quiet Time Road Trip Activities for Toddlers
You’ll appreciate having a few road trip activities designed for some quiet time for your toddler during the journey. Just to give everyone in the vehicle some down time, including your little one.
A mix of familiar activities and some new road trip toys meant to be quietly entertaining is a good idea. If you’re watching your budget, you could do a temporary toy swap with a friend who has similar aged kids, or gather a few things from these ideas:
Printed photos of your toddler and familiar people to handle and look through
Cheap calculator* with easy-to-push buttons
Baby magazines with non rippable pages (check your local library)
Favorite familiar books from home
Check your library for “Look & Find” toddler I Spy books
And here’s a couple other road trip activities and toys that’ll give everyone some quiet time during your travels:
Lacing Toys
Busy Book
Toddler I Spy
Zipper and Buckle Board
6. Food as a Road Trip Activity for Toddlers
Turning snack time into an entire road trip activity for your toddler can buy you a few more precious moments of staring out the window.
Although most 18 month olds won’t be capable, older toddlers could lace cheerios or pretzels onto pipe cleaners to make a necklace or bracelet before eating. Another car ride activity for toddlers could be sorting some chex mix or trail mix into a bead box before eating.
And although not really a road trip activity, just bringing a few favorite snacks or new snacks can help pass the time or be used to coax your toddler back into the car seat after a pit stop.
7. Technology As Road Trip Activities for Toddlers
Even if you don’t routinely use technology as entertainment at home, know that using technology as a road trip activity for your toddler can be a very good idea!
Although I can’t recommend the very best of any of these, here are some ideas for your long car ride:
Listen to podcasts
Play favorite (tolerable) songs on repeat
Look through old photos on your phone
Download high quality apps designed for toddlers
Download a few audiobooks (we found most success with this if its a reading of a very familiar book)
Let her watch a favorite show or movie
Read ebooks
I will say, doing all of these things in a row is bound to create a monster by the end. Break up the screen time with other more active or interactive road trip activities.
8. After Dark Road Trip Toys for Toddlers
Bringing a few road trip toys that dimly glow or light up could be a novelty in a dark vehicle after the sun goes down.
Light Up Balls
Projecting Flashlight
Glowing Animal
Light Switch
9. Pit Stop Road Trip Activities for Toddlers
When the road trip activities you packed for your toddler just aren’t cutting it, getting out of the vehicle might help hit his or her reset button. You don’t necessarily have to find a playground, as any open area will make a toddler happy! Especially if you bring a few outdoor travel activities!
Inflatable Ball
Koosh Ball
Balloons
Bubbles
If weather doesn’t permit a few minutes outdoors, an indoor play place, a larger gas station like Love’s or Pilot’s (toy isles!), or the indoor area of a welcome center or rest area are all good options for happy toddlers - and ones that won’t take you too far off your road trip path.
Now Take that Family Road Trip!
Remember that sometimes, no matter your level of preparation, your toddler might not be smiles and giggles the whole time. It’ll be okay. You’ll make it through, and so will your little guy or gal!
We do hope that some of these road trip activities for toddlers and road trip toys for toddlers help you happily get from point A to point B!
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