While drafting up our potential driving route on Roadtrippers I did my best to keep our days between 4 and 6 hours in the car. I thought I was being so proactive in planning such “little day trips” in order to get to the areas we really wanted to spend time and explore. Adorable!!
LOL Surprise dolls are big in our house. I mean they are so big that we even have to watch videos of others playing with the toys when we aren’t playing them. Did you know the newer capsules have 15 separate surprises to open? I am just saying…that takes quite awhile and offers long term entertainment!
We quickly fell in to the nightly routine of checking into our hotel room, eating dinner, swimming, showering, and going to bed. Swimming was such an awesome way for these two little ones to burn off energy. (Bonus points if you can find a hotel with a water slide.)
Also a side note, completely worth stating: Not all hotels have elevators. I was quite shocked I would even have to ask about an elevator, but lesson learned. We found ourselves booked at a hotel without an elevator and the only room available was far from the first floor entrance. Levi, as always, was a trooper and lugged all of our luggage, Henry’s little potty, the cooler, toys, and blankets up the flights of stairs. We checked for that amenity from that day forward.
Yes, scenic landmarks are a great excuse to fit in a quick leg stretch and offer amazing once in a lifetime photo ops. But lets just say for instance you might be thinking “Hey, let’s take that scenic byway and drive the gorgeous mountain pass through Vail and Aspen. The kids will love it so it is totally worth the extra mileage and time in the car.” You would be wrong. Other than driving thru the tunnels in the mountains these two could have cared less what was out their window.
Being my planning self I had a spreadsheet with each day of the journey planned out meticulously. I fine tuned all the details and figured out down to the hour where exactly we needed to be and what we should be doing to make the most of our time. After day 2, I had to let it go. It was imperative to have those bare bones plan for getting where we needed to go, but sticking to it just wasn’t realistic.
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Thank You for the traveling tips! I have 5 kiddos and going on vacation can be hassle! But road trips make the best memories!
100% agree. Some of my best family memories growing up are from road trip vaca!! Have a blast with 5 kids, what a blessing.
Love this! So many helpful tips and it gets me excited to go on my next road trip!
I'm completely not a road trip person (I prefer trains and traffic in Japan is horrendous) but this sounds like such a fun trip!!! How long did it take you to plan it?
Kristen | kristenabroad.com
We were on a time table so it took us about a month to plan. Of course so many things changed when we got on the road and we were constantly making adjustments. I would love love to train trip though!! Sounds magical.
Great tips....and I must say, loooooove your spreadsheet 🙌
Thanks. I am an organizer, love a good spreadsheet!!
Really great tips. I did a cross country roadtrip with my friend (I wrote about it) and completely agree with #5. We broke our plan up with the wacky scenic stops. The kids might like that more than the byways.