Ultimate Road Trip Essentials Shopping Guide: Keep Your Family Entertained, Prepared, and Refreshed
Buckle up, fellow wanderers! As our family gets ready for an exciting holiday weekend road trip, we're taking a moment to share our hard-earned wisdom on making road trips smoother, safer, and more enjoyable. With decades and thousands of miles of road trips under our belt, we've gathered a treasure trove of road trip tips and tricks to enhance your journeys.
A gorgeous view from our roadtrip to Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Through countless adventures, we've learned (sometimes the hard way) what truly matters when you're out on the road with your loved ones. We're excited to share our comprehensive list of essential items that will ensure your next road trip is safe, comfortable, and filled with fun. To make it easy for you, we've included images and shopping links to all the essential entertainment items you'll need. From travel games and audiobooks to interactive apps and personal gadgets, we've got you covered.
The best part? Once you've collected these essentials, you'll be able to use them time and time again, making every trip easier and more delightful.
Entertained: Keeping the Journey Fun and Engaging
One of the biggest challenges of a long road trip is keeping everyone entertained. Boredom can set in quickly, especially for younger travelers, leading to restless passengers and a less enjoyable journey. That's why having a well-stocked arsenal of entertainment options is crucial.
One of our biggest learnings and road-trip wins has been figuring out the balance between back-seat kid entertainment vs. front-seat serenity. There’s nothing worse than hearing ipads and games blaring in your ears while you’re trying to drive. By using things like headphones or Bluetooth speakers that sit in the back seat, kids can watch a movie together while the front seat passengers enjoy their own music, podcasts or an audiobook.
We’ve also kept the car-sick prone kids in mind with ways to mount screens or keep busy without looking down.
Kids Headphones - While cordless is more comfortable, we prefer corded headsets to minimize the amount of repeated tech-support needed from the front seat. These are comfy AND foldable!
Car Bingo - Fun for the whole family and a nice switch up from another round of 20-questions or Eye-Spy.
License Plate Game - Call us old school but we still love tracking all the states we see. This is a definite upgrade from the DIY spreadsheet version our Dad made us as kids.
Sketch Pads - Our kids love to draw. These sketch pads are the perfect size for traveling.
Twistable Crayons - Less breakable than regular crayons but without the mess or cap-losing stress of markers.
Legos - We love that this set comes in it’s own little travel suitcase. Make sure you have a tray with a good sized lip to allow for play without pieces sliding everywhere. (Our recommended tray below)
Sussed - What parent hasn’t had to ask their kids or another parent what “suss” is? This game is another good family or back-seat friendly time-passer.
Travel Guess Who - Now you’re talking our language! Travel-friendly version of this game lets you have all the fun of figuring it out if its Frans, Alfred or Anita without dragging the big flip-trays.
Tablet Mount - We love this mount. It helps car-sick prone kids make sure they keep their eyes up. We also love that it can be flexed to sit directly in front of them or moved to the middle if they want to watch something together. The flexibility helps with front-seat tech-support reaches as well.
Magnetic Drawing Board - We love an old-school magnadoodle but this drawing board got great reviews!
Activity & Dining Lap Tray - We bought 2 of these 5+ years ago and swear by them. The lip is great for preventing snacks, toys or crayons from sliding to the floor. They’re comfy, include a strap so they don’t slide off laps and are super easy to wash down after a long trip.
Extra-long multi-chargers - No more worrying about using and charging at the same time. Keep everyone powered up & happy, no matter where the port in your car is.
Nintendo Switch Carrying Case - A great case for bringing your Nintendo Switch along for on-the-road fun or family game night once you reach your destination.
Bluetooth Speaker - Don’t underestimate what a game changing move this is. Sometimes kids want to watch something together or don’t want to wear headsets. That doesn’t mean YOU need to listen to it. Connect your device to a small bluetooth speaker and stick it closer to them in the backseat.
Prepared: Ready for Anything the Road Throws at You
Being prepared is key to handling any unexpected bumps in the road. Whether that’s sticky messes, gross rest-stops, under-the-weather passengers or real emergencies, having the essentials helps give you peace of mind before setting out on a long journey.
We've gathered a list of must-have safety and emergency supplies, navigation tools, and comfort items, complete with images and links to make your shopping quick and easy. Whether it's a first aid kit, a portable phone charger, or healthy snacks, you can find everything you need to stay prepared.
Travel Medicine Organizer - We travel with a mini-treasure chest of “I don’t feel good” fix its. This has 10 compartments giving you more then enough space for everything from headaches to bellyaches and everything in-between.
Rechargeable Spotlight Flashlight & Lantern - You never know when a mega-flashlight will save the day searching for that toy that slipped under a seat or fell out of the car. We love that this is super versatile making it a great thing to throw the trunk and use at home after.
Gerber Multi-Tool - Easy to keep in a console for all the unexpected fix-it moments that could pop up.
Splinter Drawing Salve - We’ve had multiple trips where someone has gotten a splinter. We always carry salve with us now. You’d be surprised at how often you may need this and how smart you’ll feel when you have it on hand.
Clorox Disinfecting Wipes - You’ll feel relieved next time you have an emergency stop at a gross rest stop and have these on hand.
Reusable Gear Ties - We’ve used these to fix the most random problems from falling ipads to securing sliding cargo
First Aid Trauma Kit - Small enough to tuck away but packed with everything you need from minor cuts to bigger emergencies.
Toilet Seat Covers - So many bathrooms have disposable covers and so many don’t. We carry a small pack to make sure we always have them on hand.
Car Battery Jump Starter - A (major) step up from just carrying jumper cables. Having this in the car means you can jump yourself vs. waiting for someone else to help.
Wet Ones Hand Wipes - Sometimes the mess doesn’t require heavy duty disinfecting or antibacterial. These are good for the littler messes or pre-snack wipe downs.
Handheld Vacuum - The snacks fell, somebody stepped on them and now there are crumbs everywhere. Its harder to sit in a car that’s gross. Freshening up throughout the journey makes a big difference.
Car Cleaning Gel - We always have this in our car. Great for quickly grabbing the tiniest crumbs and bits out of air vents, console panels, storage bins, cup holders, door handless, dashboards and other hard to reach places.
Multi-Purpose Garbage Bags - We love that these have a no-mess adhesive strip that let’s you stick them someplace convenient for all the random bits of garbage that accumulate throughout a journey. They are also leakproof also can seal, making it a good option to have on-hand & within reach for car sick prone.
Roadside Strobe-Lite Flares - Let’s hope you never have a big emergency but even if you need to pull over for something simple, it’s good to have something on hand that ensures other drivers can keep a safe distance. These include stands but are also magnetic making it easy to stick to the side of your car. They can also been seen from a mile away.
Window breaking tool - We have one and hope we never ever need this. But in the case of a real emergency where you need to break a window to escape, this tool will help knock out the glass quickly.
Rested & Refreshed: Staying Comfortable and Energized
Long hours on the road can take a toll on everyone, so it's important to stay rested and refreshed. Over the years we’ve collected and invested in essentials that help keep everyone comfortable and rejuvenated throughout the journey.
From travel pillows and blankets to portable coolers and hydration solutions, we've got all the comforts of home taken care of. Our kids LOVE their set-up and we get a good chuckle out of welcoming them to the “first class cabin” at the start of every trip. Some of these items are an investment but well worth it for repeat road-trip and everyday use after.
Airpod AirPod Pro Noise Canceling Earphones - If you don’t already have these (or something similar) make this roadtrip your excuse to splurge. A good undisturbed rest is important for our second driver between shifts. These help the back-up driver slip into their own quiet world until its their turn to take the wheel. The slim profile makes them easy to wear while using a travel pillow.
Sony Noise Canceling Headphones - If AirPods don’t fit your comfort or budget, these are a great, comfortable, lower-cost option. Our daughter likes to swipe ours for great back-seat noise-canceling nap sessions.
Insulated Cup-Holder Friendly Tumblers - We know the world is a-buzz with Stanleys but we still love our Yeti’s. We’ve had cups like these for years and think they do a better job and fit better in the car than the Stanleys.
Yeti Portable Soft Cooler - We splurged on one of these as a fathers day gift a few years ago and swear by it now. These coolers keep food & drinks COLD - not just cool - for DAYS. We once had ice and a gallon of milk that stayed frozen / ice cold for 2 days.
2-in-1 Travel Blanket - Use it as a pillow or a blanket. Great for air-travel as well.
Simple Modern Leak Proof Water Bottles - Can you tell we’re not onboard with the Stanley craze? Especially not for the kids who tend to lose or drop things. These work GREAT, come in tons of colors / patterns and fit in cup holders much better. This 18 oz size is good for most kids but may be too big for toddlers.
Simple Modern 14oz - Same as above only smaller with cuter patterns for the littler kids.
Zero-Pressure Light-Blocking Sleep Mask - On really long haul drives, solid rests are important for the off-duty driver. An eye mask (with the noise canceling headphones) really help block out the rest of the car and get some real sleep. Also great for everyday use or air-travel.
Neck Pillow - Provides Double Support to the head, neck, and chin in any sleeping position in cars or airplanes.
Leakproof Snack Container - Great for dry snacks or fruits, dips, etc.
Bentgo Snack Cup - We love these leakproof containers. Our kids use them for school lunch. This style is great for packing snacks with a topping or dip.
Stackable Snack Container - Keep a selection of snacks within easy to grab reach.
Toddler/Kid Head Support - Comfy & effective. We bought these and they helped keep our kids heads from flopping down during naps.
Adjustable Head Support - We bought these for the kids once they graduated into booster seats. They missed the comfort of leaning in the seat. They love that these can be pulled down whey want to rest or flipped back up when they don’t need them.
Car Foot Rest - For those little legs that are too short to reach the floor but too long to be comfortably supported by the car or booster seat.
Backseat Organizer - Our kids call this “the library.” We keep it stocked with books, packed with snacks and all the things they need within easy reach.
Disclosure: We only recommend products we own & use or would buy ourselves. All opinions expressed here are our own. Our blog is self and reader supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission which helps to support our blog.
