Family Road Trips :: Big Family Style {Plus a Travel Secret!}

Summer is fast approaching and that usually means vacation time.  Vacationing with a big family most often involves a road trip.  Airplane travel isn’t the most cost effective when it comes to a family size of 5 or more people.

We live in Michigan and over the course of the last several years we have driven out west to South Dakota and Nebraska, driven to North Carolina twice, and Florida once.  As well as several trips “up north” and in the surrounding states.

We also took two adoption trips to the Caribbean with 4-6 kids, 4 kids the first trip and 6 kids the second trip.  Adoption travel packing is a whole other blog post!

All this to say we have had some big successes AND some big failures!  Taking a road trip with any size family truly CAN  BE a rewarding and fun experience.

Here are some tips that have worked for us:

Organized Travel for Big Families

✔Travel Potty – I don’t care what size family you have, but if you have young children, one of the most indispensable items you can have in your car is a travel potty.  Yes, really.  It has saved us on more than one occasion.  It’s worth it’s weight in gold!  Even my not so little kids have used it in a pinch 😉

✔Slip on Shoes – It’s worth it for everyone to have slip on shoes for the days spent in the car.  Nothing worse than having to stop for the bathroom and having to wait for that last straggler to tie a shoe.  Also, give ample warning that a stop is coming up so each person can locate said shoes before the stop!

✔Bag of Stuff – I pack a smallish bag or backpack of items that may help keep a person busy.  Below is a photo of items I packed for my 9yo son.

✔Individual Suitcases – since our children are getting a bit older, we decided it would be fun for them to each have their own suitcase.  It also teaches a bit of responsibility of caring for ones things.  Last Christmas my parents gave suitcases to all the kids, they loved them!

Road Trip Meal Time Ideas

✔Pack Breakfast and Lunch – We usually leave very early in the morning.  We get up, finish last minute packing, wake the kids up and go.  We can then drive for a couple of hours before the kids are fully awake.  When they are ready for breakfast we don’t have to stop, but they can eat what I have packed for them.

I will do something easy like a granola bar, a piece of fruit and a drink.  I pack the breakfasts and lunches in individual bags and write their names on the bags.  That way if I pack something different for one or two children I don’t have to figure out which is which.

For lunch I will do the same.  Pack something simple like sandwiches, pretzels, another piece of fruit.  I also like to add in a little treat bag – kind of a take off on a happy meal of sorts.  In the treat bag I might include a couple pieces of chocolate, a cookie, and a little trinket.

Sometimes we will try and find a rest area with a park area, depending on the weather.  One time we found a Catholic Church/Catholic School that had a little gazebo picnic area and a little play area – we were even able to use the bathrooms in the church {with permission of course}.

✔Stop for Dinner – Unless we will reach our destination, we always stop for dinner.  This gives everyone a chance to get out of the car for an extended period of time, really stretch their legs and just have a change of scenery.  It seems like after dinner everyone is ready to go again for a few more hours.  It makes the evening so much more enjoyable.

Healthy Road Trip Snacks

It’s fun to have treats, but no one wants to spend a long day in the car with a bunch of kids hopped up on sugar!  I try to temper the treats with some more healthy choices.  In the summer avoid things that will melt.  Also try to avoid treats that are terribly salty.  Salty = thirsty, thirsty = drinks and drinks = extra bathroom trips.

Again, I pack up individual snacks and label them with their names.

Vacation Rental Home vs Hotel

For us it is a no brainer to rent a home rather than stay in a hotel.  We almost always eat breakfast and lunch at the house and then go out to eat or bring home take out for dinner.  This works extremely well if you are driving to one destination for a period of time.  We rented homes in both Florida and North Carolina.  However, for a trip that involves traveling from place to place as it did for our trip out west, then we had to make do in hotel rooms.

Rental homes are so helpful in the laundry department too.  I can keep up on a bit of laundry while we are away so I don’t come home and spend two full days just catching up on laundry.  It’s also helpful to sort laundry a bit before packing up to head home.  You can dump suitcases and throw a load in right away.

These are a couple sites we have used to find rental homes:

Vacation Rental By Owner
Home Away
Trip Advisor -I’m a big fan of Trip Advisor and always add travel reviews

Now for the big travel secret – use hotel lobby bathrooms.  Yes, hotel lobby bathrooms.  They are so much cleaner, usually have more than one stall, and no one is begging for french fries.  If it’s a smaller hotel, my husband will ask the front desk if they mind if we use the bathroom.  Most hotel staff are extremely friendly and always say yes.  Then as we all file in we get the stares and the questioning looks.  It adds to the fun of the day 😉

I have a Pinterest board that I created while we were planning our Florida trip

More Road Trip Tips

What is your favorite road trip tip?