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Travel Tips Needed

mommy2boyz

mommy2boyz

This closet isn't big enough for my boots
Joined
Sep 27, 2010
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We're getting ready to make the 7 hour drive to San Antonio to visit my in-laws one last time before we move. Our other attempts at this with the boys have not gone well. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of crying and some missing hair (mine, not theirs :giggle). Any tips on traveling with little ones? They're 4 and 2 and the snacks only go so far. We have an entertainment system, but after 7 hours, even that is old.

And...anyone have an recommendations on things to do in SA? We're hitting up Sea World this time, but other than that, I've got nothing.
 
I guess it depends how messy you're willing to get the car. Although, IMO a great deal of mess is better than crying. LOL

Some of our favorite trip activities:
-wikki stix - you can find them at michaels, HL and some toy stores. MAJOR kit with my kids. They are always a must-have for trips.
-coloring and sticker books (new ones are usually a hit)
- Listening Lotto it's like bingo but you use a CD of sounds, such as animal noises. The box says 4 and up, but my kids could do it at 2.
-play doh!! it travels better than you might imagine. LOL

I hope the trip goes well for you this time.
 
I've never tried it for car trips, but for long plane rides I bought a bunch of new small toys & activities (mostly dollar store type stuff), and spaced them out over the duration of the trip. If they were old enough I even had them take off all the packaging themselves in order to stretch out the amount of time they spent with the item! You could even set a schedule, like the get a new thing every hour.

I've also tried having a stack of books to look at, but yeah - they only last for so long.

My SIL does play doh in the car, she gives each kid a baking sheet to put on their lap and they can play with it on there. She said it wasn't messy at all!

Good luck!
 
I've found, that no matter what I plan, and what we take with, whether on a 15 hour plane ride or a 7 hour car drive (and we're doing this next week on Wed - ack!) the kids go through it all within the first hour and spend the remaining 6 hours complaining. At least DD does. DS falls asleep. She is just the worst traveler. *sigh*

Anyway, they both pack a backpack with toys to keep them busy in the car. They get to choose their own toys, then they trash the backseat with them. :)

We do messy stuff on the plane, but the thought of play doh all over the car...ugh. I think my husband would faint dead away at the thought! ;) So mostly we make them tough it out. I think I'll check out some car games for next week's trip. They're getting old enough for car bingo...or a scavenger hunt or something.

We have been traveling long distances on a regular basis with them since the beginning as my parents live in the seattle-area and my in-laws live near Berlin. We are near Munich. So it's 6+ hours to the in-laws driving, and it's a good 15 hours to my family flying. I'd say they are old pros, but we still get tons of complaining...no matter what!

I wish you luck and nerves of steel!
 
We have those canvas buckets that we keep our toys in at home. I empty one of those out then back it with toys, coloring books, and books. I set it in between my two girls and they can grab things out for themselves. Toy cars have always worked extremely well for them. Ideally they would put the toys back in the bucket when done but usually they dump it on the floor. Since we stop every two hours or so for potty breaks I usually gather everything back up and put in the tote. Between that, and movies, and a nap my kids tend to make it through our drives. We usually travel two 12 hour days in the car to see family. Why oh why can't airfare be cheaper?! Good luck Jo, I'll be thinking of you!
 
When we traveled the first time for a long road trip with my boys I was so scared about the ride there and they did great. I packed them a box 'o fun for the trip. They each got a brand new box of crayons, a brand new wire bound notebook, a couple coloring books and a bunch of dollar store stickers. We also had Leapsters at that time, but they really lost interest in those pretty quick, but loved their notebooks that they could mess up and color and put stickers into wherever they wanted. We also had a DVD players, but didn't use that as much as I thought either. Good luck!
 
We used to pack backpacks full of old favorites and new toys, picture books, coloring books, etc...

I liked for Dusty to stop and let us all out of the car every hour and a half or so. Not just for my sanity, but the kids, too!
 
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