Planning a Family Road Trip? Here’s What We Did First

Planning a family road trip this summer? Make sure you do these things first to make sure the vacation goes smoothly.

There’s nothing like a family road trip to create amazing lasting memories. But before you hit the open road, you might want to make sure you’re prepared. From packing snacks to planning your route, here are a few things that we did that may help make your next road trip a success. So pack up the car and get ready for some fun – but first you simply need to start the process of planning a family road trip! Let me share our process!

Our family just returned home from our very first summer road trip – and boy was it a doozy of a trip! We were gone for 12 days and drove from Georgia to Massachusetts with many, many stops along the way. I shared our adventures during this road trip on Instagram (click here to follow along with me over on IG) and to my surprise many people sent me messages asking for all the details of our trip! I am by no means a ‘travel planner’ – in fact, this was really our first major family road trip and I was a worried that it wasn’t going to go smoothly – but it did! In fact, we had the best time together as a family making the best memories – and so I thought I would share the details of our vacation here with you, starting with how I planned it.

Again, I must repeat, I am not a travel planner and up until this trip I had zero experience planning a family road trip like this. The idea of organizing a trip such as this has intimidated me in the past and I was really nervous to begin the planning process – but I am here to tell you that it is not that hard and you CAN DO IT! If I can do it … so can you.

Plan And Organize Your Trip:

PICK YOUR DESTINATION: The first thing we did was to organize our destination. This was a bit tricky for us because we were organizing our family adventure around our daughter’s college tours. But, we settled on three big cities: Washington DC, NYC, and Boston. In fact, the whole reason we took this trip is because my daughter has always been interested in applying for colleges that are in big cities – these are the cities that she chose to explore. We have never been to any big cities before – so this was the perfect push we needed to take a trip like this!

PICK YOUR DATES: Knowing that a main goal of ours was to visit colleges for our daughter, the first step we took was to sign up for college tours first (with confirmed dates and times) and then we organized the rest of our travels around those visits. We worked the rest of the trip around the dates that were open for the college tours! As I mentioned above, she decided to she wanted to visit Washington DC, NYC, and Boston. We were actually able to visit several colleges in each if those areas during this trip and we intentionally did NOT sign up for guided tours at each spot so that we could pack more into our days.

After we had the college tour locations and times/dates in place, we then decided the number of days that we needed in each city to both tour colleges and the actual see the city sights! We decided on a 12 day trip with about 3 days in each city!

PICK YOUR HOTELS: After we nailed down the locations and the dates that worked for us, the next step was to organize and book our hotel rooms. This task seemed a bit daunting at first because there are literally so many options in each of the cities that we were visiting, but after I began to use an online booking sites (I chose to only use one online site, Expedia, because it was too overwhelming to look at them all) it really wasn’t too bad. In addition, I have a great friend in the hospitality industry who was able to helped me a bit with this part. My only other main requirements for choosing a hotel is that it was clean, very clean!!! I’m a stickler on this so I did have to pay up a bit for some of the rooms, but I knew that going in! A big chunk of our budget involved our hotel expenses – but we planned for that. I should also note that Mark and I have three kids and I learned quickly that many hotel rooms are not built for a family of 5 – in most hotels (not all, but most) we needed two rooms….which means double the price!

PLAN YOUR DAYS: Once I knew where we were going and I knew how long we would be in each city, I then began mapping out our days. I identified the ‘driving days’ (we were driving over 2,000 miles “round trip” after all) but in addition to the college visits, I wanted to pack in as much sight seeing in these big cities as I could.

I researched things to do in Washington DC, NYC, and Boston and I also asked my friends and family for suggestions as well. I even polled my Instagram community! Since we were visiting large touristy areas and because so many people shared their suggestions with me, I was easily able to map out our days with many, many things to keep us busy – and tired. In fact, there were many, many things that we were not able to see/visit/do – it was impossible for us to pack it all in! But, we experienced so so much!

Here are a few things that I thought were helpful:

ORDER YOUR TICKETS FOR SPECIAL EVENTS: Once Mark and I prioritized what we wanted to do and see as a family then we made sure to order our tickets for those special events/museums ahead of time. For example, we wanted to see the 9/11 museum and so we made sure to order those tickets in advance from the comfort of our home. That way we got to skip the long line to buy tickets at the door and ensured a date and time that worked with our plans.

CREATE A TRIP ITINERARY: I was able to type out a loose plan for each days to help us organize all of the things that we were going to see and do while we were in each big city. I had things color coded (college tours were in Orange, driving days were in Blue, paid museums and events were in RED, etc…). This was so helpful as we worked to plan and fill our days because we could easily see where we needed to be and where our blocks of free time were! It was nice to have a hard copy of this itinerary on our trip!

HAVE A TRAVEL BINDER: One thing that I did that turned out to be super helpful was to create a Travel Binder that I used to store all of the many details of our trip. I had a tab for each city that we went to and I printed off all of the confirmation emails for the hotels and special events that we were going to visit and filed them under each city. I also had our trip itinerary right at the front of the binder. I had notes of additional things we might want to go see or do that I researched during our long days of driving. Finally I had some spare notebook paper in back of our binder that I used at the end of each day of our travels to jot down my memories from that day – so that I would never forget any memory from our trip!

Pack Wisely:

I knew that we were going to be gone for a long time (12 days to be exact) and I knew that we probably weren’t going to have time to do laundry. I did bring a travel size container of tide – but I wasn’t really expecting that we were going to be able to use it. With that in mind, I made sure to pack accordingly. One of the best things that I did was to pack each outfit for my two boys in their very own zip-lock bag. Each zip-lock bag contained a shirt, shorts, underwear, and socks. They were able to put their previous dirty clothes back into the empty zip-lock bag! They were sharing a suitcase and I was a little worried that by the end their bag would be a disaster. This was a great way for my boys to keep their clean clothes and dirty clothes apart!

Prep The Car:

CLEAN AND INSPECT: We knew that we were going to be in the car for a very long time so we decided to prep the car a bit. Not only did we scrub the car inside and out really well but we also took the car in for an oil change and to have it checked over. That turned out to be a good thing to do because we discovered that the engine needed a new serpentine belt! I was relived to have that issue fixed and it was good to know that we avoided any potential air conditioning issues – since we were driving in the middle of July, during a heatwave.

PACK THE CAR WITH SNACKS AND PATIENCE My kids are older so I didn’t really have to worry about packing things to keep them busy during the long car ride – but I did need to pack a ton of snacks. We chose to bring easy ‘grab-n-go’ type snacks as well as lots of fruits and waters. We stopped at several grocery stores and Targets along the way so that we could load up when we needed to. I also kept a trash bag up front with me at all times while driving so that I could contain all of the wrappers and trash that the kids created!

But remember, no matter how much we prepared – Mark and I (and the kids too) needed to pack their patience because long car rides can be hard – no matter how much you prepare!

PREP A PLAYLIST OR TWO FOR THE CAR: My daughter took care of this for us and she created some super fun playlists for our family to help pass the time. You can listen to my favorite playlist that she made here – on spotify.

We also checked out several books from the local library to help pass the time in the car – including books on tape. Our family favorites were the Harry Potter Series on tape – that way we could all experience the books together as a family!

Let’s Review:

Planning a family road trip can be a fun and rewarding experience. By taking the time to plan ahead, you can ensure that your trip is safe, enjoyable, and budget-friendly. Again, here are some of my tips to get you started planning your next family vacation:

1. Choose your destination. To make the most of your trip, it’s important to choose a destination that everyone in the family will enjoy. Consider your budget, as well as the ages and interests of your children, when making your decision.
   
2. Map out your route. Once you’ve chosen your destination, it’s time to start planning your route. Map out the major stops along the way and decide how long you’ll spend at each one. Remember to factor in rest stops, gas stations, and overnight accommodations.
   
3. Pack wisely. When packing for your trip, keep in mind that less is more. pack clothes and toys that can be easily stored in the car, and don’t forget essential items like snacks, sunscreen, and first-aid supplies.
   
4. Prep your car. Take a moment to clean your car well and to make sure that it is running well so that you don’t have any issues when you are driving. Pack food and things for the your kids to do and make sure you have a little trash bag available to gather any trash.

Wrap Up:

A road trip is the perfect way to spend time with your family and hopefully this info gives you a little more confidence if you are in the process of planning a family road trip. It gives you a chance to bond with your parents, siblings, and cousins while exploring new places. And best of all, it’s a great way to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Of course, road trips can also be a bit of a hassle. From packing the car to dealing with road construction, there are plenty of potential pitfalls. But with a little planning, you can make sure that your road trip is a success. Things like mapping out your route in advance and packing snacks can help to ensure that everyone has a good time. So if you’re looking for an adventure, consider taking a road trip with your family. It’s sure to be an experience that you’ll never forget.

This was our first big family adventure! Sure, we have been to my parents beach house and my in-laws mountain house a million times … but this was our first big get away all by ourselves! AND – we had a great time – WHY DID WE WAIT SO LONG TO DO IT? I will be sharing more about each of the stops that we made in detail here on the blog – so stay tuned! And, I would definitely recommend doing a long road trip like this to anyone who looking for a fun summer getaway. If you are a pro at planning a family road trip then share any tips YOU have below! And, if you took a road trip this summer (or if you’re thinking about taking one), be sure to let me know – I’d love to hear about your experiences and where you went! Cheers to the open road!