Top Tips For Family Road Trips & How To Keep The Kids Entertained

As a family we've been on a few road trips, in fact, we actually have a UK based road trip coming up in just a few weeks time. Our biggest family road trip so far was a trip that we took to France, The Netherlands and Belgium via the Eurotunnel last year. Before we went on that trip I do remember worrying about the how boys would find it and how we'd survive the long car journeys, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. With a little planning, the boys actually loved it. I think moving around from place to place and exploring new places was actually perfect for my young boys. The car journeys were therefore so much easier than I'd anticipated them to be.

Below I am sharing my top tips for family road trips and what we do to keep our children entertained whilst we're travelling in the car.

1. Spend a few pounds on things that your children haven't seen before:
This is probably my best tip in terms of travelling with children. I like to visit inexpensive stores or even the market and pick up a few small items that I know my boys will like and that they haven't seen before.

We have a market stall in town that sells old issues of magazines in brand new condition for around 50p or so, which is a huge difference in price compared to going into a shop and picking up the latest edition of a kids magazine which can sometimes be 4/5 pound. I usually go for a Blaze and The Monster Machine magazine and a cat/pet related one for Ethan as I know my boys like those.

Shops like The Works also sell books for 3 for £5 usually and I've even picked up a kids activity book in there packed with tons of perfect travel activities inside for just a couple of pound too.

2. Load up the iPad/tablet with movies or episodes from TV programmes that your children love:
We have a Disney Life subscription so we always ensure that we download new movies for the boys before we go on a road trip. We'll also download episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as we know that they love that too. My boys don't really watch a lot of the iPad at home, but it acts as a bit of a TV for them in the car which helps pass the time for them. I recommend getting a decent tablet holder for your car, we have this one and it works perfectly.

3. Take plenty of snacks, have drinks to hand and even consider taking a packed lunch:
The most essential item for a road trip with kids is food! Make sure you have lots of snacks to hand as well as your little ones drinks cups and even consider putting together a lunch pack for them each if you're going to be travelling for a while. We make a packed lunch up for our boys everytime, as they get hungry very quickly and it means that we don't have to keep stopping at services if we already have lunch for them to hand.

4. Take an empty carrier bag with you in the car:
It will come in very handy for any rubbish from the car snacks and any drinks bottles. 

5. Pack a First Aid kit in the car:
We always ensure that we have a first aid kit in the car with us in case of any emergencies. Inside our first aid kit we always have Calpol sachets too for the boys. 

6. Give your children a checklist each either with words or pictures and ask them to try and spot everything out of the windows:
Either make or print out a checklist with either words or pictures on for things for your children to try and spot out of the window during the road trip. This will keep them entertained for ages and they'll love spotting things and ticking them off. 

7. Check car legal requirements and your insurance before you travel to any other country:
For example, in France there are legal requirements (For more information and advice about dealing with legal issues visit defencesolicitorslondon.co.uk.) for things that you need to have in your car if you are driving on their roads. So always, always check this before you travel to another country by car. Another thing you must do is ensure that you update your car insurance if you intend to drive your vehicle in another country, you may already be covered for this but always check your policy just in case. Aviva Car Insurance offer great foreign cover and it's simple and easy to put it in place for your trip.

I hope these tips have been useful and I hope that you have a really lovely road trip with your family if you have one coming up soon! 

If you are thinking of immigrating to UK, you can find more relevant information at immigrationsolicitorslondonuk.com. 

For more road trip with kids essentials, activities and entertainment check out this video I made for my YouTube channel:

Thank you for reading. 

Alex xo

*In collaboration with Aviva insurance. All words are my own.