Our most recent road trip took us through Colorado. While we splurged on a few unique activities, our pockets aren’t bottomless. Thankfully, Denver came through as a great place to explore without breaking the bank. I hope you find some of these suggestions and reviews to be helpful!
We recently took an epic, 4500+ mile road trip in a loop around some of the western United States, attempting to hit a number of requested stops on our way to and from a family reunion in Wyoming. Since our time was limited, we often managed only one day (generally 4-6 hours, to accommodate travel to and from each location) at each of our stops along the way. Despite the fact that ‘Love’s idea of a vacation is a three-hour drive to the cottage followed by a week of sedentary relaxation, I think we managed pretty well on our whirlwind trip. In case you have a similar time crunch and are wondering how to spend your precious hours at some of these same stops, here was our experience.
**Read about our stop at the Grand Canyon here.**
Since we were trekking up through Utah, ‘Love and I were determined to stop at one of the lovely national parks there. After some research and agonization, we settled on Arches National Park (with a glimpse of nearby Canyonlands National Park).
We arrived in Moab, Utah in late afternoon, having driven from Flagstaff, Arizona with stops at Four Corners and Newspaper Rock–both of which were interesting, but rather brief and out-of-the-way. Since we were not ready to lounge around the hotel that early in the day, we thought we’d take a jaunt over to Canyonlands National Park, since we just had a few short hikes we planned to do there. Continue reading
We recently took an epic, 4500+ mile road trip in a loop around some of the western United States, attempting to hit a number of requested stops on our way to and from a family reunion in Wyoming. Since our time was limited, we often managed only one day at each of our stops along the way. Despite the fact that ‘Love’s idea of a vacation is a three-hour drive to the cottage followed by a week of sedentary relaxation, I think we managed pretty well on our whirlwind trip. In case you have a similar time crunch and are wondering how to spend your precious hours at some of these same stops, here was our experience.
We drove to the Grand Canyon from our hotel in Gallup. While this was a four-hour drive, we gained an hour en route because Gallup participates in Daylight Saving Time, while the Grand Canyon does not. And since our bodies were still used to CST, we were able to easily be up, breakfasted, and out of the hotel by 7 am, bringing us to the Grand Canyon by 11 am–or 10 local time. All this to say–if you can’t get a hotel close by, don’t despair! Continue reading
If you’re headed on vacation and need something to fill the hours spent traveling–or if you’re merely trying to find something to fill a rainy day–there’s a wealth of fun to be had just a printer away. Here are some of the options I found in a quick search. (As of my search, these sites were functional and safe.)
Sudoku
Logic Puzzles
Connect-the-Dots
Coloring Pages–for all ages!
Hidden Pictures, Crossword Puzzles, Color-by-Number, Mazes
Four years ago (!) I posted some of my road-trip tips for traveling with young kids. While some of those tips and tricks are ones I still use, I thought it was about time for an updated version including suggestions for older kids, especially since we’re anticipating a 20-hour drive back “home” to see ‘Love’s family again in a few weeks.
Goober has NEVER been a good car rider. As an infant, she couldn’t even make it the five minutes to Grandma’s without screaming. Last year we made it 30 minutes into our first day of driving when she announced, “I’m done sitting in the car. How much longer until we get to the hotel?” Knowing her personality, I always make extensive preparations for car entertainment.
Let me say right from the start that I have the world’s only children who do not sleep in the car. Since that’s the #1 road-trip tip I hear, I figured I’d best include that one up front. If your kids are car sleepers, consider yourself lucky and take full advantage. For anyone whose children are odd like mine, here are some alternative suggestions.
There are some items no child-carrying car should be without on long trips.
A good road-tripper is well-prepared.
Use rest stops to play, NOT to eat. I start feeding my kids about 45 min-1 hour before we plan to stop. (I bring sandwich fixings or crackers, fruit, veggies, cheese sticks, or even Lunchables for meals. Snacks consist of non-crumbly granola bars, Teddy Grahams, mini pretzel twists, Nilla Wafers, Goldfish–anything that can’t melt and either doesn’t crumble or can be eaten in one bite.) A small cooler crowded by my feet in the front comes in handy, or I’ve used the cooler as a footrest for someone sitting in the center of the row behind me.) Usually this is the point at which the kids are getting restless and food helps stretch their “sit” by a little. By the time we stop, liquids have made their way through the kids’ systems (or will before the stop is over).
We try to find rest stations with lots of open space or a playground or a fast food joint with a play area (and the adults have a snack). I even research rest stops along the route to find out which ones are closed for renovations, which have a reputation for cleanliness, which have space for kids to roam. I often list several top choices so we can shorten or lengthen our time between stops as needed. We spend 15-20 minutes playing hard (with adults chasing kids if necessary to make sure kids use maximum energy) and using the bathroom.
On a related note…non-melting candies (especially things that go slowly, like DumDums) are good distractions between snack and meal times. I’m not usually one to load my kids up on junk food and candy, but road trips are my once-a-year exception.
Stop as few times as possible. We fill up on gas each time we stop–whether we need it or not–so we don’t have to make an extra stop for gas later. Even a quick gas stop or potty break will likely add at least 15 minutes to your trip, and on a long trip, no one wants extra time in the car. Remind those with suspiciously wimpy bladders that every stop will take away from evening pool time (see below) or at the very least add to the length of the drive time. If nothing else, maybe the groans of their siblings will help to delay their demands to stop RIGHT NOW. If you do stop, require everyone to try using the bathroom lest you get back on the road and have someone else claim a bathroom emergency twenty minutes later.
Make sure each day ends with a pool. I reserve a hotel with an indoor pool because I remember as a kid being heartbroken when we drove all day and then it was too cold or stormy to swim. Swimming even for an hour uses tons of energy and helps everyone sleep better, as well as giving everyone something to look forward to all day long. On the plus side, most hotels with indoor pools also include a hot breakfast, so while you may be paying more for the night, considering that extra $25 bought everyone some pool time and as much breakfast food as they can fit (not to mention something to look forward to all day and enough exercise to sleep well), it’s not a bad deal.
Long car trips are a time to make exceptions about tech use. We have a tablet that we let everyone have a 20-minute turn on–sometimes once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Last year I also played a DVD on my laptop toward the end of each afternoon when everyone was getting really restless. (Sadly, my DVD-ROM drive seems to have died.) Those prolonged distractions were lifesavers!
Contain your paper clutter while providing ample activity options. I make each kid a binder (built-in hard writing surface) with coloring pages (cool geometric designs for older kids), mazes, blank paper, logic puzzles, sudoku, crosswords, dot-to-dots (everything from simple to extreme)–anything I can find that they might like–and include colored pencils plus a little sharpener (with a securely-attached case to catch shavings) in a zipper pencil pouch at the front. (Why colored pencils? Crayons melt in a hot car and markers tend to accidentally bleed or have their caps left off or get dropped and leave marks or “accidentally” form designs on children’s skin.) Though I looked at various books available for purchase, I ultimately searched online for free sample pages and was able to print off and put together a book with more variety than I could have purchased. I put together a list of activities and where I found them, if you want me to save you some legwork.
Magnetic trays work well for lots of activities. We have jelly roll pans (cookie sheets with a lip around) that are magnetic (not all are–test before buying!).
Ponder favorite game options that would work well for travel. Many games offer specific travel versions, but games like Guess Who?, Rush Hour, Rory’s Story Cubes, Mad Libs, and others can easily be enjoyed on the go. And don’t forget the classic Road-Trip Bingo cards! I picked up a few in Target’s dollar section recently.
Use your ever-changing location to spark interest!
Use your stereo system to the fullest.
Books hold a multitude of possibilities.
Sometimes they just need to fidget.
Splattered across the internet this summer are the remnants of everyone’s family vacations. Having just returned from one myself, I’m here to give you a dose of reality.
What people share about their family vacations:
What people don’t share about their family vacations:
Sounds like I had a terrible time, doesn’t it? (To be honest, it WAS worse than last year—but it did also follow eight straight weeks of visiting relatives coming and going.) And yet, despite all that work, there are all those pictures of smiling children… And somehow, we did manage to have a decent enough time that we will repeat the whole procedure next year—and hope that each year will be better than the last, as our children grow older.
What’s your experience vacationing with little ones?
Let me just start by saying that I love my family. I like and respect my parents, and I get along well with my siblings and their spouses. There’s only one problem: I was the only child who managed to remain near our parents (a glorious benefit). My nearest sibling lives 10 hours away by car. The others are 19 and 23 hours away in different directions. We’re all in the country, just very spread out.
Combine the two elements, and you have a family that gets along well but has a nearly-impossible time getting together. Since my siblings all stop in to see my parents periodically, I got lucky and saw everyone once a year or so, but the rest of my siblings were going years between sightings. My parents decided to intervene to try to improve things: enter the family vacation, all grown up.
Last year’s sweaty group photo in the aptly-named HOT Springs, Arkansas. We spent most of our time indoors. (Faces obscured to protect privacy. My family obscured just because we don’t look so great.)
The first time we got together as a family, there was only one grandchild, a portable two-month-old. Originally we were thinking of gathering every three years. That seemed too long, so we suggested every-other year…but we just couldn’t stay away that long. This will be our fourth summer get-together in a row, and we have added more children each year; now we’re up to eight-and-a-half. Obviously, we all look forward to these get-togethers all year long…but at the same time, we dread them.
When we get together, it’s pretty intense. Because we have lots of small kids (the oldest is six), in order to spend any time together, we have to share housing—that way, the adults can hang out even when little ones are napping or asleep for the evening. In the past, we have rented large vacation homes, and each family gets one bedroom. Thus, the entire week of togetherness is spent with no alone time (rough for a family of mostly introverted folks) and some pretty poor sleep as overwhelmed kids wake often at night.
This year, two of the three families were planning on spending some time at my parents’ house, so we’re meeting here, allowing us to divide ourselves between two homes. This is both lovely and horrible, all at the same time. Lovely: My family will remain in our own home, in our own beds. Horrible: The get-together will be happening at my parents’ house, but I will be at my house. In addition, one or the other of my siblings will be here for almost the entire summer. That’s a lot of disruption for little ones—and their parents—who like routine and predictability.
Our Summer of Insanity began with the first weeklong drive-through by my brother, his wife, and their kids last week. Tonight my sister and her girls arrive in town for three weeks; her husband will follow this weekend. My brother and his family will return two weeks from now and stay for three weeks (and then leave for a week and then be back for one more), and my other brother and his wife will fly in for a long weekend.
How is it that we can so look forward to an event—and also eagerly anticipate its conclusion? I dearly wish my family lived closer so we could enjoy more day-to-day moments instead of trying to cram a year’s worth of togetherness into one week (or one summer). I suppose I should just count myself fortunate that I have a family that I like and am able to see annually, since some do not even get that.
In honor of the arrival of summer vacation, I thought I’d do a post on a summer staple: the road trip. (Some of this applies to plane travel, too.)
Whether you’re traveling to visit relatives or headed for a vacation hotspot, the drive is often the most dreaded portion of the trip. While I haven’t done nearly as many road trips as I’m sure some of you have (both sets of grandparents, at least, live nearby), we have taken several trips with little ones.
I’ll break my observations into two parts: Things to Consider and Activities for Travel.
Things to Consider:
My snazzy, soft, slightly-sloppily-made lap tray, created from a thick sheet of craft foam and the leg of an old pair of jeans.
have to plan your meals very carefully.
Activities for Travel (with a focus on keeping costs low)
Little Peatie dozes in the car.
Every parent of young children hopes desperately that their child spends a good portion of a long trip sleeping peacefully. If you want that to happen, providing the proper accessories (a favorite blankie or stuffed animal, a little pillow, comfy clothes or jammies) certainly can’t hurt. Since your child isn’t likely to sleep for the entire trip unless you’re extraordinarily lucky (ours hardly slept even when we left at 2 am), you’ll need to consider other activities for passing the time.
Goobie tests out a free scribbling app on Grandpa’s iPad.
decide that coloring the car is a good idea. Then you may want to look into Crayola’s Color Wonder paper or stick to a MagnaDoodle.
I made this slot sorter from an empty icing container and some milk lids.
I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting, but this post is plenty long already, and this should be plenty to get you started. Happy traveling!
What are your time-tested travel tips?
butmostlymommy 