44 Ways To Survive a Road Trip With Your Baby or Toddler

If you’re kinda dreading an upcoming family road trip with your baby or toddler, we hear ya. Before taking road trips with our kiddo became the norm, it sounded like a torturous ordeal. But, like anything else, road trips with babies and toddlers get easier the more you take them - and we’ve taken A LOT.

This is a compilation of all of the best road trip tips and tricks we’ve learned to help you survive your next road trip with your toddler or baby.

Timing a Road Trip With Toddlers or a Baby

Knowing whether you’re doing day time driving, night time driving, or some combination before packing up to go can be helpful (although, once on the road, your plans may change and that’s ok!) because you’ll have a better idea on the amount of travel toys needed, how much and what types of food to pack, or if you need overnight bags packed separately.

sunset on highway during family road trip with toddler

Some families are against night driving for safety reasons, and for some families it works great. This is where you have to know yourselves.

If you do plan to drive at night, we recommend that instead of setting big goals on how far you’ll get, just pay attention to your body and pull over when needed. And know that if you do pull an all-nighter - the driver will be worthless for much of the next day while your baby or toddler is ready to go as normal, so don’t forget to take that into consideration.

An alternative to night driving is to start driving very early in the morning, transferring sleepy little ones into the car to (hopefully!) fall back asleep.

Packing Tips for a Family Road Trip with a Baby or Toddler

If you will have to stop for the night before arriving at your destination, pack an overnight bag separate from all of your other bulky luggage. What works best for you will depend on your family size and the type of overnight accommodation you’ll have.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

All toiletries together. We recently started using these overnight toiletry bags* for our family, and they come in several colors so it’s easy to tell whose is whose.
One small overnight bag per person (pajamas, next day’s clothes)
Or one larger duffel with everyone’s things included, but separated into large Ziplocs, mesh bags, or grocery bags.
For larger families, a bag per type of item (all swimsuits together since you’d likely use a hotel pool at the same time; all jammies together if you plan to conk out about the same time; all bulky hiking shoes together if you’re stopping along the way at a trail; one dirty clothes bag to share, etc).

Special Gear For a Road Trip With a Baby or Toddler

clean up travel kit for potty or car sick baby or toddler

There are a few things we never start a road trip without!

Travel Toys - we’ve got an entire post about low-cost road trip travel toys for babies, as well as one about low-cost travel toys for toddlers
Basic first aid kit. For off-the-beaten-path camping and extended road trips* we use this one.
A plan for easily getting your baby or toddler back into the car seat after a stop, like a new snack, an exciting travel toy, or a movie.
Clean up kit- plastic tote with a snapping lid full of Clorox wipes, baby wipes, paper towels, toilet paper, a change of clothes per kid (especially bottoms if newly potty trained), bottle of water for clean-up purposes, empty Walmart sacks, extra car sick bags, hand sanitizer.

Car Organization for a Road Trip With A Toddler or Baby

Knowing where most things are in your car and having the most important things within reach will help you keep your sanity while on the road with a baby or toddler!

Remember to clean out your vehicle of all unnecessary things before loading up!

Travel toys within an adult’s reach (but out of any younger child’s sight - in order to extend focus and play time with whatever they’re currently occupied by)
Food and cooler/cooler bag
Car sick bags within reach. These bags* have been easy for our daughter to use.
Keep a seat open next to the car seat/s when possible for some face-to-face play time with whoever isn’t driving
Have a designated spot for a potty chair or diaper changing space
Remove your kids’ shoes and winter or summer gear (sun hat, jacket, etc) and put them in a designated spot so you won’t have to search out where they’ve been tossed at each stop.
Trash bags
Keep wipes handy for faces and fingers

Food Tips For a Road Trip With Toddlers or Babies

We like to pack all of our snacks to avoid pricey and junkie gas station food, as well as the food for many of the meals we’ll need for the trip to avoid the allure of multiple fast-food stops.

Make a list of the foods you packed so you remember your options.
For night driving, pack healthy snacks for the adults that can be picked away at for extended periods of time. Think carrot sticks over that entire family sized bag of peanut m&m’s you know you’ll power through at 2am. Plan for success!
For night driving or early morning driving, remove snacks from loud crinkly packaging before packing up. I like these reusable bags*. You don’t want to wake your toddler and start getting demands for food at 4am.
Filling a thermos of coffee can be a time and money saver.
Have a bowl and necessary utensils for each person in order to portion out snacks.
This bib is fantastic* - it keeps the car seat clean, and our daughter likes getting to eat her dropped “bonus bites”.
If we stop for a meal, we eat while our daughter plays. After expending some energy and getting nice and hungry, she’s typically happy to climb back in that car seat in order to eat her lunch as we drive farther down the road.
Activities using food for toddlers! Examples could be: cheerio necklaces, or trail mix poured into a divided container (like ice cube tray or bead box) to be sorted while getting snacked on. Pass that time!
Don’t pack sugary snacks. The poor kid is stuck in a car seat. Adding a bunch of sugar to that will create a whiny toddler who is really difficult to be around!
If you’re breastfeeding, consider how and when you’ll be taking care of baby before leaving so you and your spouse or travel partner are on the same page.

If you’ll have access to a kitchen during your road trip or vacation, check out this post about ways to save money and time on meals.

How to Help Your Baby or Toddler Sleep on a Road Trip

Getting your baby or toddler comfortable enough to take a nice long nap on a road trip is a serious sanity keeper. Here are some tips for making this happen:

Always make sure everyone has empty bladders, full stomachs, and that you have a full tank of gas before settling in for nap.
If leaving early in the morning before the sun is up, turn off your vehicle’s dome light so it doesn’t shine as you transfer your sleepy little one to the car seat.
Depending on the age, weight, and height of your toddler, you may have her forward facing in a convertible car seat but still be able to safely turn her rear facing and slightly reclined for sleep. Check your car seat owner’s manual. Rear facing can be more comfortable and can help the toddler disengage from any activity up front, resulting in more sleep!
Be sure the required blankets or stuffed animals are not packed in luggage!
Loose and comfy clothes!
Block the sun! Magic shades*, baby blanket rolled up in the window (less than an inch outside otherwise it’ll flap like crazy), extra piece of reflectix - block that sun!
We usually try to line up nap to land after a longer stop full of activity.
Running through a version of the regular bedtime routine even while in the vehicle (books, songs, etc) can help trigger your little one to settle down.

Tips for taking Road Trips With Toddlers New to Potty Training

Taking road trips with toddlers who are recently potty trained isn’t easy.

Some families are comfortable putting their toddler back in diapers or pull-ups and then just working for a few days afterwards to get them back on track.

If this isn’t for you, here’s what we’d recommend:

Line the car seat with a potty pad in case an accident does happen. And pack extra.
Have plenty of extra undies and pants, and do not pack them in the suitcase buried in the back.
Limit fluid intake. Yeah, keep them hydrated, but limit it.
Have a potty station in the vehicle. Those newly trained toddlers don’t always give much warning. Quickly pulling over anywhere to use the always available, convenient, and as-clean-as-you-keep-it potty chair is much easier than always finding a gas station to trudge into.
For number 1, you can have a wide mouthed container with a secure lid in your vehicle for times you can’t dump the potty elsewhere.
If your kid has to go number 2 and you can’t get to an actual toilet, line the potty chair with a small trash bag, securing it in place by wrapping it around the removable bowl. Much easier to clean up!

Have Realistic Expectations

Having realistic expectations of yourself, your spouse, your kids, and the amount of time everything takes can make for a much more relaxed and enjoyable road trip with your baby or toddler.

Even with all your preparedness for your road trip with a baby or toddler, there will probably still be some inconsolable crying. Persevere, it’ll be okay!
Plan extra time and stops with the babies and toddlers along. You will not arrive at the time your GPS predicts!
Check in with your spouse to be sure your expectations are similar as far as who’s responsible for what between driving, entertaining kids, etc.

A lot of people say that it’s better to wait for road trips and other experiences until kids are old enough to remember things, but we disagree.

Even though they won’t likely remember anything from their earliest experiences, those experiences are what shape and grow and mold them! Their rapidly expanding little minds take it all in and they can get a lot from any adventure, at any age.