We have five kids, from 5 to 15. And we’ve done a lot of travel with them over the years.

When we were dating and first married, Tim and I took a lot of day drives, just exploring all over Southern California. And we didn’t stop when we started having kids. Often we’d just hop into the car and pick a direction and start driving. It let us explore whatever area we were living in, and gave us a chance to chat.

Fast forward many years, and we’ve taken tons of day drives and road trips, including multiple cross-country road trips with our kids. It’s changed a bit over the years as the kids have gotten older, and we’ve gotten a great flow down. And as much as I don’t love using the word “pro” to describe my skill level on things (I know it gets thrown around a lot!), I can pretty confidently say that we’re pros at this by now.

We’ll chat about VRBO vs Hotel for family vacation in 2026, healthy car snacks for long trips, and all about screen-free road trip activities.

So, let’s go! Here are are some of my tips & tricks for travel with kids.

This post contains affiliate links. You can read my disclosure policy here.

Stay at a VRBO or AirBnB

In my experience, staying in a real house, where we can relax has helped make almost every trip of ours so much less stressful.

It gives a space for down time in between activities and travel that you just can’t get in a hotel room. I’m less stressed, by kids are less stressed, and it just makes the whole trip so much more enjoyable.

It’s also super important for us because my husband and kids have some food intolerances, which makes eating out a little more complicated. Having a place we can make easy meals relieves a lot of that pressure (and is way easier on the budget!).

We book ours through VRBO or AirBnB, and we’ve always had a positive experience. We’ve actually ended up making some amazing connections this way! We stayed at an amazing mini-farm when we traveled to my brother’s wedding. The kids got to feed the horses and donkeys, and we woke up to chickens and peacocks on the front porch. It was probably one of the most magical places we’ve stayed at.

When we traveled for the 2023 solar eclipse (combined with a trip to look for a new home as we prepped to move across the country!), we stayed at the most beautiful little place in Indiana. The host even provided treats and solar eclipse glasses for us.

My best tips:

• On VRBO, search for homes that say “kid-friendly” or “family friendly” or that have pictures of games or toys (We’ve found a lot of kid-friendly places have great board games and toys for kids – one even had a slide from one level to the next!)
• Go over expectations and rules with your kids ahead of time. Explain that this is someone else’s home, and that we need to treat it with respect
• Plan ahead where you’ll go grocery shopping or do a pick-up order. Even buying more convenience-like foods from the grocery store is cheaper than eating out.

Snack Prep

Not only are snacks you bring going to be way cheaper than what you can pick up along the way, but they are much better for you too!

This one is super important for us, because like I said, our kids have some food intolerances.

I start stocking up ahead of time, and then we have a nice stash of goodies going into our trip. Often it’s snacks we don’t get to have that often, so it makes the trip extra fun for the kids.

When they were little, we kept the snacks up in bags with us and divvied them up as needed. Now that the kids are older, we have a family prep time where we divide them up, and the kids pack them in their backpacks that they keep with them during the trip. (Plus, you know, plenty up front for Tim and I!)

Don’t forget to pack extra for the return trip home!

Our favorite snacks:

• Made Good snacks – These are allergen friendly, and they taste amazing (Seriously, I have to restrain myself from just snacking on them before the trip even gets started. Their chocolate chip bites are divine.) We love to get their variety packs for trips
• Lara bars – we pick out a couple big packs in different flavors. Our family is pretty evenly split between those who love the chocolate peanut butter ones and those who prefer their apple pie bars
• That’s It fruit bars – super healthy and great ingredients
• Beef jerky sticks or bars – we love the New Primal brand for trips (sometimes we can find them at our Costco). Epic is another brand we love  – super nice quality, and amazing taste.
• Homemade mini banana bread loaves (we have a few sets of these to bake them in these silicone pans here)

Activities

We know this isn’t for everyone, but we do screen-free road trips.

This will look a little different depending on the ages of your kids. We’ve gone through a lot of versions of what this looks like for us.

I’ve got a whole post on sanity-saving activities for road trips in the works, but here are some highlights and what’s worked for my kids:

• Small notebooks with pens – I buy a big bulk pack, and divide them up among the kids. These are perfect for doodling or even journaling for the older kids. If you have a child that loves robots, my robot notebook journal is a great choice, too!
• Reusable stickers
• Water Wow – we love these for the under-5 crowd! There’s no mess, and all of my kids have enjoyed these. I’d highly recommend the Melissa & Doug brand of these rather than off brands if you want them to last.
• Activity books – Sudoku, dot-to-dots (our favorite one is here), sticker-by-number, and all sorts of books like that
• Audio books – We purchase an Audible Membership for a few months when we’re planning to travel so we can stock up on audio books (I like that when we have an active Membership, we get crazy good deals on other audio books – so we usually don’t just use the credit for that month, but we’ll buy a few that we’re interested in). We’ll often pick out a few new special ones for a trip.
  We also super love Graphic Audio’s dramatized adaptations of books – they are so well produced and fun to listen to. Top favorite recommendation is the Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians series (fun for the kids and for us to listen to).

But my best tip? Let them be bored and imaginative!

We practiced this with our kids since they were little, and it’s brought so much to any of the trips we’ve taken.

We took our first cross-country trip when we had three – they were 6, 4, and 2. I was a little nervous, and prepped lots activities for them, but you want to know what entertained them the most on that drive? My 6 and 4 year olds each brought a special stuffed animal, and they had the best time just playing with those together, making up stories and doing funny antics (and it kept the two-year old entertained, too!).

They still do this in different ways (now we have 5, from 5 to 15) – on longer drives, they’ll either make up stories together or talk about projects they’re working on (they’ve currently got an animated comic they’ve been making using Google Slides, so they’ll plot and strategize). And we’ve often had some of the best family discussions on our drives together.

Looking for more screen-free activities for kids that you can print and use on your trips?