Road trips are our favorite way to travel! Over the last few years, we’ve become experts at tossing our road trip essentials in the car, packing in the kids and dogs, and hitting the open road. With each road trip, we’ve perfected our list of road trip essentials and are ready to share with you everything that you’ll need for the perfect road trip!
In this article, I’ll share all of our favorite road trip essentials including items you’ll definitely want to have on hand when you’re traveling with the family.
Table of Contents
About Our Road Trips
Our road trips typically last anywhere from 2 to 8 hours. Whether were packing for the Florida Springs, a theme park, or our annual trip to Jellystone, how we pack a car for road trips is pretty much same. Our video (below) shows how we set up the car when we bring along our dogs, LB and Parker, as well.
When we take family road trips, we typically take our Ford Explorer. Every once in awhile, we’ll take our Jeep Gladiator. On longer trips, we use our cargo trailer, which you’ll see in the video.
Our Road Trip Essentials
1. Car Chargers
Phone chargers are #1 on our road trip essentials list for obvious reasons. We use our phones for navigation, photos, videos, Googling information, and sharing our adventures on our social media channels.
We’ve learned to pack a handful of car chargers, tombstones, and other chargers to ensure our electronics are fully charged.
2. Portable USB Battery
- Links: iWALK and Solar Power Bank
These bad boys are a total game changer for road trips! We pack them when we’re hiking, hitting up the theme parks, or spending the day popping in and out of museums. The portable USB batteries are a great way to keep your phone charged when you can’t be attached to an outlet. I usually use the iWALK if we’re going to be indoors and the Solar Power Bank if we’re spending a lot of time outdoors.
3. Snacks
If it was up to my kids, this would be #1 on our list! I swear, they like to travel just so they can experience eating snacks in different locations. As soon as we pull in somewhere, they’re all magically hungry and need a snack.
We recently started using these snack boxes on road trips and our kids love them! Some of the things we pack into them are: trail mix, peanut butter crackers, apple chips, dried fruit (bananas, coconut, strawberries, etc.), granola bars, Nutrigrain Bars, rice cakes, fruit snacks, etc. We used these snack boxes on our last road trip (which was about 8 hours each way) and we found that it was enough snacks for driving up and back! Only the Nutrigrain Bars needed to be replaced. If your kid is a big snacker, you may need to replenish it before your return trip.
4. Cooler
- Link: Collapsible Cooler
Packing a cooler helps open up even more options on the snack front. With a cooler, you’re able to enjoy cold drinks, fruit, cheeses, veggies, sandwich meats, hummus, and much more!
We prefer taking a collapsible soft cooler so that we can squish it down when it’s not in use. However, if we’re camping, we take a hard cooler because it keeps items colder longer.
5. Skin & Lip Protection
I don’t know if this comes from living in Florida most of my life, or if it’s a generational thing, but we’re really big on skin protection. Whenever we travel we pack sunscreen and Chapstick to protect our skin and lips.
6. First Aid
- Link: First Aid Kit
We keep a first aid kit in our car at all times. With 3 kids, someone is always in need of a Band-Aid! You can purchase a pre-packaged kit or throw together your own.
Road Trip Essentials for First Aid include:
- Bandaids
- Gauze
- Ace Bandage
- Antibiotic ointment
- Alcohol wipes
- Tourniquet
- Ibuprofen
- Acetaminophen
- Tweezers
- Scissors
7. Emergency Kit
- Link: Car Emergency Safety Kit
It’s always important to be prepared for roadside hazards, as well. We suggest keeping a Car Emergency Safety Kit in your vehicle at all times. You can purchase a prepackaged one, or throw your own together.
Road Trip Essentials for Road Side Emergencies include:
- Air compressor
- Tow Rope
- Tire Repair Kit
- Window breaker/seat belt cutter
- Tire pressure gauge
- Multi-tool
- Reflective triangle
- LED Headlamp flashlight
- Electrical tape
- Bungee cords
- Cable Ties
- Work Gloves
- Blanket
8. Water Bottle
Staying hydrated while traveling is super important. Whether you’re planning on just driving or making stops along the way to hike, you’ll need to stay hydrated.
9. Cash
Cash? I know what you’re thinking, “I’ll just use my card…” If you frequent parks like we do, many of them use the honor system where you place cash inside of an envelope and leave it in a cash box. We always keep a few dollars on hand in case we make a pit stop at an honor-system park.
10. Tissues, Napkins, and Wipes
These aren’t just necessities for moms! Chances are, if you’re on a road trip someone is going to sneeze, spill, or need to wipe the Cheetos off of their face.
Our Road Trip Essentials for Kids
We recently shared a blog post called, “How to Pack a Car for Road Trips- Our Set Up for a Family of 5” where we shared some of our favorite ways to keep the kids entertained on the road trip. Some of those items include:
- Lap Desks
- Tablet Holders
- Games
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