Easy Travel Activities for Kids
On the road again….Today I will share some of our favorite easy travel activities for kids to help pass the time by. They are cheap, low preparation, and will help keep your sanity as you reach your destination.
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Easy Travel Activities for Kids
These activities work for air, car, boat, or train travel! We have completed our fair share of road trips with ages ranging from newborn to preschool aged kids. Our most recent road trip from Missouri to Texas was about a 9 hour drive (11 hours with stops). I should mention I was also in my second trimester of pregnancy during this particular road trip, so it truly did require stops every 2-3 hours.
We departed the day after Christmas so my preparation was definitely less than I have done in the past, but thankfully the kids did well and had enough to engage them in to make the drive as smooth as possible. Do not get me wrong, we did utilize screens and electronics during part of the drive. But, check out these screen free activities we used on the rest of the road trip.
Top 5 screen free travel activities
Travel Lego kit: Place lego pieces inside a large pencil box holder. My 4 year old played with this most often. You can use tape to secure the lego base down at the bottom. We did not, and it fit well and my son was still able to build on it.
Water Wow Pads are easy and mess free for on the go. My 2 and 4 old loved them. Some of them are just coloring and others have activities such as connect the dots.
Busy Boards purchased on amazon. These are soft and have multiple “pages in the book. It also has a built in pouch for storage of the smaller shapes.
Wax Craft Sticks! Throw back to my childhood. You can build people, glasses, or “Spider webs” as my son likes to connect them all over the back seat and his car seat. Provide a surface and they can build creations on a coloring book or paper plate.
Podcasts for kids. Our kids have a few favorite podcasts they enjoy listening to and can help pass the time and be another option in addition to music. Thomas and Friends Storytime, Veggie Tales Silly Stories, and Bedtime Stories- Superheroes are some of my kids current favorites.
More screen free travel activities for kids
Our 4 year old received a Yoto Mini player for his 4th birthday. He listens to it daily during his “quiet time”. It was perfect for the long car ride as well. We purchased the Yoto Mini travel case so it held the Yoto player, headphones and his card options. He was able to listen to this to help stay quiet while little sister napped in the car.
If you want more information on the Yoto Mini player, Check out my article titled, “Is the Yoto Mini Worth It?”
Stickers! So simple and keeps their little hands busy. Especially for the toddler age
Activity Maze Books: There are so many different activity book options out there. Maze books have been some of our favorites recently. These are great for preschool aged and up
Snacks, Snacks, and more snacks!
Do snacks count as an activity? On road trips they do! You can easily fill Ziplock’s for each kid and purchase some unique and fun snacks maybe you wouldn’t typically buy at home.
My friend at the educatedhomemaker.com has great suggestions for affordable road trip snacks!
Plan to stop a lot
If you have the right mindset and expectations going into the trip it does help a lot. We planned to stop about every 2-3 hours. This was needed to use the restroom, gas, and just stretch our legs and get out of the car for a minute.
Plan your departure time wisely
We prefer to leave very early in the morning or around nap time in the afternoon. If you load them up at 5 am, your kids may fall back asleep so you can get a good stretch of driving in while they snooze. We left around lunch time and we were able to get a good stretch during nap time and then again in the evening when the kids fell asleep at bedtime.
If all of these fail…
Just tell them to look out the window and enjoy the scenery! Or its time to pass out electronics for a bit : )
I hope these help on your next adventure!
As an Amazon Associate, Our Slice of Home earns from qualifying purchases made through affiliate links. This is at no extra cost to you and helps me continue to fund this blog!
My son (2.5 yrs) just got a Water Wow pad for a gift and LOVES it. They are going to be my go-to present to give to toddlers from now on!
I am so glad he likes it! I never thought to gift them to others, I love that idea!