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Kids’ Road Trip Essentials Checklist

Kids’ road trip

• Activities

• Books, magazines, and comics

• Games, such as the license plate game or travel bingo

• Sketchbook, washable markers, and colored pencils

• Pre-stamped blank postcards (find them at the post office), which your kids can decorate, or postcards bought on the road; have your children write to friends, relatives, even pets

• Doodling doodads: a small dry-erase board, Etch A Sketch, Magna Doodle

• Pipe cleaners, easy origami, and other scissor-less craft supplies

• Portable DVD player and DVDs; don’t forget headphones!

• Tape recorder: Let the kids produce a vacation broadcast

• Books on tape for the whole family, such as the Harry Potter series or “The Chronicles of Narnia”

• Scrapbook envelope—entrust your children with the responsibility of collecting postcards, ticket stubs, and brochures for a scrapbook

• Food

• Individually packaged, crumb-free snacks such as bite-sized goldfish crackers

• Hard-to-bruise fruits such as apples and berries; or try fruit roll-ups or fruit leathers

• Trail mix, which will leave kids feeling full longer (and keep fingers greaseless)

• Reusable bottles filled with water

• Miscellaneous

• An emergency kit. In a click-shut plastic bin, stock jumper cables, a first-aid kit, a flashlight with extra batteries, road flares or reflective triangles, a fleece blanket, bottled water, and a few protein bars. 

• Garbage bags to collect trash

• Extra diapers and wipes, if necessary

• Change of clothes, in case of accidental spills

• A blanket for spur-of-the-moment picnics at rest areas—and naps

• Jump ropes and balls, so energetic little travelers can tire themselves out at rest stops!