Ultimate Family Road Trip Playlist: 50 Best Road Trip Songs

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!

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

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