Organizing the car for a road trip

[jena]

We are leaving next week for a little road trip. 16 hours of drive time, but with stops I know it will be much longer! We are driving to Disney World with 2 adults, 17yo, 5yo, and 2yo. Yes, we are probably insane. We have a minivan, so room won't be too tight and we have a roof bag if we absolutely have to have more room but prefer to not use it as it cuts down dramatically on gas mileage.

Right now I have 3 packing lists - one for stuff for the car trip, one for stuff for the hotel room, and a short one for the stuff we'll carry in the park each day.

We do plan to have small overnight bags to take into the hotel on the road without carrying in everything. We'll have a cooler for food.

I'm just looking for any tips or tricks that you've found make long road trips a little easier! Or any brilliant ideas for not so typical stuff that you take on trips like this that makes life easier. So what ideas do you have?

[IIOY]

We are actually halfway through a 2-day road trip with two young kids that we've taken many times to visit family. I don't have any magic tips aside from having a master packing list, and overnight bag list for the kids, and a list of items for the car, including the various snacks, giant Ziplock bags to fill with ice each night to keep appropriate items cold, the DVD player (ours is portable), the pouch with the DVDs, all chargers and plugs for our various iCrap items, etc..

I also have regular wipes and toilet wipes for the car, along with our stash of spare napkins, plasticware, and straws acquired at various restaurants over the years. I also have a couple towels and one large blanket for spontaneous picnics or big messes.

HTH!

[lemondrop]

A DVD player! I just drove a twenty hour round trip with DD in the span of 48 hours. It might be bad parenting, but the DVD player and stops every two hours worked really well. I heard very little crying.

In general, I have the basics organized in my car. I use a pencil bag with small travel-sized medicine containers filled with the medicines we use regularly and a few wet wipes in my center console.

[whattheheck]

I put a red piece of yarn on the handle of any bag I want to stay in the car during a stopover and a green piece of yarn on any bag that I want to come in during a stopover. Then I count how many bags have green yarn and make sure I have that number when we get to the stopover.

[DorkFish]

We're traveling with DS in 2 weeks. It'll be a 19 hour trip each way. I've started making lists in google docs. One for DS, One for us, One for the car, and I guess now I need one for the hotel b/c that's a really good idea!

[tcsbride]

Not exactly and organizing tip per se, but we do 16 HR road trips at least once a year and my kiddos will be 5, 3, and 20 mo for our trip in august. I keep a "bag o surprises" in the front seat with me. We do the typical DVDs, books, travel games, etc. But when they get to the point of not working, wham, out comes a surprise. Sometimes they are at random too if they are being really good for over an hour or something. I pick up stuff through the year.....like those little games where you can make a beard on the guy with the magnetic pen, a little snack, a new DVD, funny pictures. It works great for us. There is a blog with really great ideas too...something about a mom and a mini van...let me see if I can find...

[tcsbride]

Momsminivan.com

[MrsAxilla]

We always leave super early, before the sun comes up. Usually that way the kiddo sleeps for the first four hours or so. Then we give him DVDs, iPad, Nintendo DS, Leapster, etc. We always get a new game or season of some tv show. We found that a whole season of Scooby Doo or whatever holds his attention way longer than just a movie.