Tag: ROAD TRIP

Categories
Favorites List Playlist Travel Tips

Ultimate Family Road Trip Playlist: 50 Best Road Trip Songs

Road Trip Playlist

There’s nothing quite like hitting the open road with the windows down, the cruise control set, and a jammin’ playlist pulsating through the speakers.  A good road trip playlist is essential for getting your vacation started on a high note.  And by high note, I mean it makes being trapped in a car with the whole family slightly more bearable.  😉

We’re heading out on a road trip soon, so I’m compiling The Ultimate Family Road Trip Playlist.  It’s a collection of bangers- both new and old.  Our family’s taste in music is all over the place: Fall Out Boy, Taylor Swift, Elton John, etc.  Our playlist includes a bit of everyone’s favorite all mixed up together.

Playing music in the car is a great way to expose your kiddos to some of your favorite songs.  Might as well start teaching them to love your favorite band from high school while they’re young.  

How to Create the Ultimate Family Road Trip Playlist:

A family road trip playlist should include a mix of songs that everyone in the family enjoys.   Our list has songs spanning 50 years of music!  Our kids have been exposed to music across all genres from the last several decades.  Try introducing your kids to Aerosmith, Elton John, or Queen.  Chances are, they’ll dig it.

Our Ultimate Family Road Trip Playlist also includes some of my favorite songs from when I was in high school.  Might as well introduce the babes to the heroes of the boyband era while they’re young, right?  Sprinkle in some BSB, *NSYNC, and Hanson and you’ll be amazed at how quickly the miles will pass by.

 There should be a combo of upbeat and slow songs to suit different moods. Oh…and they should also be songs that have high sing-along potential.

You can also include songs that are specific to the places you’re visiting.

Tips for creating the ultimate family playlist:
    • Pick a strong opener: Start the playlist with a strong song- one that everyone loves!  
    • Time the tempo: Consider the tempo of the songs. 
    • Mix it up: Include a variety of genres and songs. 
    • Avoid music that’s too chill or hyped up: Choose songs that help you stay alert and level-headed. Some good genres for driving include rock, pop, and hip-hop

On our next road trip, we’ll be driving from Florida all the way up to West Virginia.  So, I headed over to Spotify and typed “Florida” “Georgia” “South Carolina” “North Carolina” “Carolina” “Virginia” and “West Virginia” into the search bar.  You’ll be amazed at how many songs pop up!  I previewed a handful of them and added them to our Spotify playlist.  Many of these songs will be new to use, but it’ll be fun for the kids to hear the names of these states in the songs.

We’ll also be visiting Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware, so I ran a similar search.  I did the same for some of the cities we’ll be staying in.  Can you believe there’s actually a song about Hershey, Pennsylvania?  I would have never known!

50 Best Road Trip Songs

To help you get started, we’ve come up with a list of 50 of the Best Road Trip Songs to add to your playlist.  We only included 1 song by each artist- you could easily expand this list by adding more songs from these artists.  Can you ever have too much Taylor Swift on your playlist?  We don’t think so!

  1. Radioactive- Imagine Dragons
  2. Cruel Summer- Taylor Swift
  3. Shut Up and Dance- Walk The Moon
  4. Everybody Talks- Neon Trees
  5. I Want It That Way- Backstreet Boys
  6. Don’t Stop Believin’- Journey
  7. Tiny Dancer- Elton John
  8. Miles on It- Marshmello, Kane Brown
  9. Can’t Stop the Feeling- Justin Timberlake
  10. I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles )- The Proclaimers
  11. Old Town Road- Lil Nas X
  12. Since U Been Gone- Kelly Clarkson
  13. Bad Guy- Billie Eilish
  14. Bohemian Rhapsody- Queen
  15. Call Me- Blondie
  16. Livin’ On a Prayer- Bon Jovi
  17. Party in the USA- Miley Cyrus
  18. Who Let the Dogs Out- Baha Men
  19. Happy- Pharrell Williams
  20. Pumped Up Kicks- Foster the People
  21. We Didn’t Start the Fire- Fall Out Boy
  22. Beautiful Things- Benson Boone
  23. Roar- Katy Perry
  24. Thunderstruck- AC/DC
  25. It’s Gonna Be Me- *NSYNC
  26. Mr. Brightside- The Killers
  27. Sunflower- Post Malone
  28. MMMBop- Hanson
  29. Born to Run- Bruce Springsteen
  30. Beautiful People- Ed Sheeran
  31. Fast Car- Tracy Chapman
  32. Life is a Highway- Tom Cochrane
  33. We’re Not Going to Take It- Twisted Sister
  34. All Star- Smashmouth
  35. On The Open Road- A Goofy Movie Soundtrack
  36. I Gotta Feeling- The Black Eyed Peas
  37. Hotel California- Eagles
  38. Here I Go Again- Whitesnake
  39. Free Fallin’- Tom Petty
  40. Shut Up and Drive- Rihanna
  41. Wagon Wheel- Darius Rucker
  42. Take Me Out- Franz Ferdinand
  43. Sucker- Jonas Brothers
  44. Come on Eileen- Dexys Midnight Runners
  45. What Makes You Beautiful- One Direction
  46. Take Me Home, Country Roads- John Denver
  47. Friends in Low Places- Garth Brooks
  48. You’ve Got a Friend in Me- Randy Newman
  49. A Bar Song- Shaboozey
  50. Surface Pressure- Plain White T’s

Road Trip Planning

Want to plan a killer road trip but you’re not quite sure where to start?  We’ve mapped out our tried and true way of planning a road trip the whole family will enjoy!

In this post, we outline:

  • How to pick a destination
  • Our research tips
  • Budgeting
  • Lodging tips
  • Our road trip essentials

Save a Pin & Start Planning Your Adventure!

For future reference, be sure to save our post “Ultimate Family Road Trip Playlist: 50 Best Road Trip Songs”!   Pin one of the images below to Pinterest.  Go ahead and follow 5 Suitcases on Pinterest while you’re at it!

Be sure to give us a like on Facebook or follow us on Instagram for more travel tips and tricks. See you next time!

Categories
Travel Tips United States

How to Plan a Road Trip the Whole Family Will Love

Are you at a loss of where to begin when it comes to planning a road trip?   Don’t worry, you’re not alone.  Tons of people struggle with where to begin when it comes to planning a road trip.  In this post, we’ll show you how to plan a road trip.

Road trips are one of our favorite ways to travel.  There’s nothing better than throwing your suitcases in the back of the car and hitting the open road.  Our 3 kiddos (and even our pups!) are expert road trippers.  They’ve been on countless road trips throughout Florida and all over the eastern US to places like Kentucky, Virginia, Washington DC, Alabama, and more!

Pick a Destination

Our next road trip will take us from Florida to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and DC.  

For this trip, we put the names of all of the states the kids have yet to visit into a hat.  Each of the kids drew the name of a state.  Once we narrowed it down to 3 states, we selected one of the states at random and centered our trip around that state.

Download your state cards here!

As you can see in the reel, we selected West Virginia, which became the starting point for our Christmas trip.

While this is a super fun idea, the spontaneity of it might not be for everyone.  Consider what kind of activities your family likes to do.  Do you enjoy hiking or outdoor activities?  Consider looking into the mountains.  Are you more of a beach person or a lake person?  Do you want bustling cities or quaint towns?  Would you prefer museum hopping or shopping? Are you aiming to visit all of the National Parks?  

Time to Do Some Research

Once you pick out a destination, it’s time to do a bit of research.  For this step, I head over to my favorite blogs and the socials to see what others recommend.  Some of my favorite Facebook groups to scour are:  Visit All 50 States, US National Park Travel, Families Who Love to Travel, and Girls LOVE Travel.  I posted a question asking for suggestions of things to do for this trip and had nearly 400 responses on the post.  It was a great jumping off point for my planning!

I take each of our family members interests into consideration when I’m mapping out our trip.  For instance, when I planned our 4 day trip to Washington DC, our kids were into art, dinosaurs, and space so we went to the the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, a STEM museum called the National Children’s Museum.

Pro-Tip:  When you see a place of interest on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or the blogs save it on Google Maps!

To do so, search for a place in Google Maps, such as the Statue of Liberty.  Next to the Directions icon is a “Save” button.  Click the button and all of your saved locations will appear on a map as pictured above. 

I’ve found this incredibly helpful for trip planning.  

We established that our first stop would be the Canaan Valley Ski Resort in West Virginia.  We wanted to include winter activities in our Christmas Trip and the resort offers snow tubing, ice skating, etc.  If there isn’t real snow on the ground, the state park has fake snow, so it offers the perfect backup plan.

Pro-Tip: Always have a backup plan in case of weather, closures, or temper tantrums.

On this particular trip, we knew we wanted to tackle a few different states, in our quest to visit all 50 states.  So, it was time to look at neighboring states. West Virginia is bordered by Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky.  The kids have already been to Virginia and Kentucky, so we focused our attention on Pennsylvania and Maryland, since they can easily be paired together.  Plus, our kids favorite city is DC, so this gave us an excuse for a return visit.

Many popular museums require you to reserve a timeslot for your visit.  While you’re researching things to do in your location of choice, be sure to make note of this. For instance, in DC many of the Smithsonian’s require you to have a timed ticket that you can reserve 30 days out.  I set a reminder on my phone or Alexa to look into tickets.

Pro-Tip:  Purchase tickets in advance whenever possible.  You’ll often have shorter lines and save money.  

Take Drive Times Into Consideration/Make Necessary Cuts

Come up with a list of things that you want to do each day.  I like to include opening and closing times in my plans, just so I have that information handy.

I also add driving and walking maps in my itinerary, whenever necessary.  For instance, when we are in DC, we typically walk or take the Metro.  So, I included a map of where I plan on parking and the walking directions for the sites we’ll slated to hit up that day.  We’ll most likely take the Metro from the Lincoln Memorial to the National Archives Museum, so I screenshotted the route info for that, as well.

Once you have a list of everything you want to do each day, it’s time to plug everything into Google Maps and assess drive times.  

Pro-Tip: Check Google Maps for drive times more than once!  Jot down the travel times and take an average to come up with a rough idea of how long it will take you to get from place to place.  You’ll be amazed at how much the drive time changes if there was an accident impacting travel time on your original search.

Be sure you factor in travel time for each day to help determine whether you need to cut things from your list of things to do.  As you can see in the image below, even though I’m obsessed with Abraham Lincoln, I decided to skip visiting the memorial site of his mother’s birthplace, and I nixed Harpers Ferry.  Despite our goal of visiting all of the National Parks with the kids, we won’t be able to dedicate much time to Harpers Ferry, so instead of rushing through it, we’ll save it for another trip.

Our plan for this particular day is to make it to Hershey, Pennsylvania by at least 6 PM.  We have tickets to Hersheypark and with our tickets, we’ll be able to access the park at 7 PM the night before and get a 2-hour preview of the park.   Since our kids are really into theme parks, we decided this was a no-brainer- sorry Harpers Ferry!

As you can see, instead of removing these sites completely from the itinerary, I simply crossed them out.  That way, if something comes up and we have extra time, these places can be a contingency plan.

Take a Look at Your Budget

Create a budget based on the length of your trip and the sights you want to see.

To do this, I jot down the name of the attraction, where it’s located, and how much it would cost for our family of 5.  At this point, I begin making cuts.  

For instance, our family only counts states that we have done something in when we add up the list of places we’ve been.  So, if we simply drive through a state, it doesn’t count (for us).  This meant we needed to do something in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey, for them to count for us.

My outline went a little something like this:

West Virginia: Ski lodge
Pennsylvania: Hersheypark, Gettysburg, Eisenhower National Historic Site, Amish Country
Maryland: Fort McHenry National Monument, Star Spangled Banner House, National Aquarium 
Delaware: New Castle Court House National Park, Old Swedes National Historic Site
New Jersey: Fort Mott, Adventure Aquarium, Diggerland USA

From a budgetary standpoint, some of these things needed to go.  Hersheypark and Diggerland are both amusement parks.  While our sons would love Diggerland USA, everyone would enjoy Hersheypark.  Financially, it didn’t make sense for us to do both, so we nixed Diggerland USA.

We plan on hitting up New Jersey, Delaware, and part of Maryland on the same day, so we needed to get crafty with our budget and time.

It would cost us $220 to do the National Aquarium in Baltimore. While that is doable, it would eat up a large chunk of our time and we wouldn’t have much time to do some of the other things we wanted to do.  So, we cut the National Aquarium.

We had another aquarium on our list, the Adventure Aquarium, in New Jersey, which would only cost us $170 to visit, as a family of 5.  Though it’s $50 cheaper than the National Aquarium, it would still take up a considerable amount of time for that day.  There’s no way we’d be able to fit in things in Maryland and Delaware if we did the aquarium, so we crossed it off our list.  That left us with visiting Fort Mott State Park, as our Jersey activity.

Decide Where You'll Stay

There are two ways to decide where you’ll stay: 1) Determine how far you’re willing to drive each day and figure out what destinations are within that parameter, or 2) Select your locations based on places you want to visit on your trip.

I tend to go with the second option.  This trip is over our Christmas Break.  Most places will be closed on Christmas Day, which limits our options.  Instead of going from Hershey, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia (where we would run into lots of things being closed), I got a little crafty and booked us a visit the the Great Wolf Lodge in Perryville, Maryland.  

As much as I’d love to see all of the historical sites in Philly, spending Christmas Day at an indoor waterpark is totally a kid’s dream come true.  We could have booked the GWL in The Poconos, but visiting Maryland would add another list of states to our kid’s list.  Heading to Maryland is a win-win.

On this particular trip, we’ll be staying at 1 ski lodge, 1 Great Wolf Lodge, and 2 hotels.  For the hotels, I narrowed our options down to hotels that we accrue points for.  When I search for hotels, I always ensure they include breakfast and try to find one that includes on-site parking (which is often a challenge/next to impossible in some cities).  You should also consider what eateries are nearby and the proximity to things you want to do.

Pro-Tip:  Include your hotel confirmation plans in your itinerary, just in case.

Wrap Everything Up in a Nice Neat Package

Now that you have everything all mapped out and ready to go, it’s time to wrap everything up in a nice little package.  Your itinerary doesn’t have to be fancy, but you should have all of your notes organized and your trip outlined so that it is easy to follow.

I have a generic template that I created in Canva that I use for all of our trips.  The detailed version on the left is for me and the more simple version on the right is for the kids to follow along with.

You might notice I have a Flex Day built into our schedule.  This is just me being extra (hell the whole itinerary presentation is me being extra), but there are 3 separate plans ready for that day.  We’ll probably go with plan #2 (as seen in the picture above left).  We’ll play that day by ear but it could take us into Philly, or it could have us spending a little more time in Baltimore.  Only time will tell!

Pro-Tip:  Leave a copy of your itinerary with a loved one.

Our Road Trip Essentials

You’ll find items like these every time we pack a car for road trips.  They help keep our items tidy, organized, and most importantly- accessible.  Some things that we have found that work for us include lap desks, hooks, storage totes, tablet holders, and snack boxes.

  • Cargo Trailer
  • Bungee Cords
  • Lap Desks- these were in the video but we love this one!
  • Backpack Hooks
  •  Tablet Holder- we use these so we can adjust them to see from the third row.  If you don’t need that flexibility, these are great too!
  • Snack Boxes–  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.
  • Collapsible Cooler

Other Things to Think About...

Vehicle: Get your vehicle inspected before you hit the road.  Have your tires balanced and rotated, get an oil change, and make sure everything is good to go.

Weather/Driving Conditions: Monitor weather conditions, take breaks, and get enough sleep. You can also use cruise control to reduce fatigue

Distance: Nobody wants to spend their entire road trip in the car.  Make sure you have plenty of stops planned along the way and that these stops aren’t super far from each other.  Our longest driving day, aside from the day we drive up to West Virginia and the day we drive back to Florida, is about 4 hours.

Save a Pin & Start Planning Your Adventure

For future reference, be sure to save our post “How to Plan a Road Trip!”!   While you’re at it, take a look at our printable children’s travel journals, they are the perfect way to keep your kiddos entertained in the car.  Pin one of the images below to Pinterest.  Go ahead and follow 5 Suitcases on Pinterest while you’re at it!

Be sure to give us a like on Facebook or follow us on Instagram for more travel tips and tricks. See you next time!

**Please note that this post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. All opinions are my own. Pinkie swear**

Categories
Travel Tips

10 Road Trip Essentials- Things We Never Leave at Home

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 everything 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 want to have on hand when you’re traveling with the family.

About Our Road Trips

Our road trips typically last anywhere from 2 to 8 hours.  Whether we’re 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 the 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

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

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

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

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:

Be sure to check out the article for a full list of our favorite road trip essentials for the kids!  

It wouldn’t be a proper road trip without a bangin’ playlist. Head on over to Spotify to listen to our Road Trip playlist!  The playlist is full of some of our favorite jams and road trip classics.

You’ll hear everything from Jellyroll and Fall Out Boy to Taylor Swift and Queen.  There’s a little something for everybody. 

When we go on trips, we sprinkle in songs that mention the places on our itinerary.  

Road Trip Planning

Want to plan a killer road trip but you’re not quite sure where to start?  We’ve mapped out our tried and true way of planning a road trip the whole family will enjoy!

In this post, we outline:

  • How to pick a destination
  • Our research tips
  • Budgeting
  • Lodging tips
  • Our road trip essentials

Save a Pin & Start Planning Your Adventure!

Be sure to give us a like on Facebook or follow us on Instagram and Twitter for more travel tips and tricks. See you next time!

 

**Please note that this post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. All opinions are my own. Pinkie swear**

Exit mobile version