Ready for an Adventure?
The ULTIMATE Road Trip Packing List
Activity Pack
I get it, road trips are long and hard. Because we limit the screen time on road trips as much as we can stand to, we have to be prepared. Here’s a list of EVERYTHING else I try to keep at their fingertips. *Tip* I try to rotate what’s in their seat pouches hoping to keep things fresh and interesting for them as the hours drag.
Art & Books
+ Blank Sketch Pad (1 each kid)
+ Bound pads of lined paper (1 each kid)
+ Blank “Create your own Comic Book” books (1 each kid)
+ Pencil box of colored pencils, erasers, regular pencils (to share)
**Crayons melt! Particularly in those little handle holes where kids like to leave them and then you’ll never get the wax out. So no crayons!**
+ Paint by Sticker books
+ Pencil Sharpener (the kind that collects it’s own shaving!)
Each kid gets to pack their own backpack. They can bring whatever stuffies or books they can fit in the bag for the trip but they are responsible for carrying their own bag. This puts a natural weight limit to the number of books and a boundary to the number of things I later have to make sure we don’t leave behind.
Games
– Playing Cards for: Go-Fish, War
– Mad Libs
– Uno Cards
Food Pack
Overstock of non-temperature sensitive foods. I kept this pack in the skybox and reloaded the Dry Drawer in the cooler every morning with a days supply. This way we had what we needed at our fingertips without taking up a ton of room inside the vehicle.
Snacks
+ Chomps
+ Go-Go Apple Sauce
+ Z-Bars
+ Bobo’s PB&J
+ Gummy Snacks
Special Treats
– Stingers Waffles (after hiking treat)
– Mambas/Tootsie Rolls (driving treats!)
Cooler
We invested in a new cooler this year and absolutely loved it! We went with the Ninja Frost Vault and I’ll tell ya, what tipped the decision was the DRY DRAWER. I had my reservations about a Ninja branded cooler versus a brand I’ve used before but this dry storage IS NO JOKE. The drawer stays refrigerator temperature without getting everything all WET! Having a reliable cooler in the back of the car saved us over a hundred bucks A DAY! I loaded the dry zone with stuff that I didn’t want to get melty and sticky but also didn’t want to be soaking wet. Ninja will sell you a divider for the cooler section for a whopping extra 30 bucks, we just used a cutting board that we already had at home. Dividing the cooler section allowed me a little more structure to all the stuff I wanted to keep in the top.
Cooler
+ Le Croix
+ Kids mini-Sprite cans
+ Capri-Suns
+ Mini- Orange Juices
+ Condiments
+ Deli Meat
+ Hot Dogs
Dry Drawer
– Protein bars with chocolate coating
– S’mores Chocolate
– Cheese
– Vegetables
– Yogurt
– I did put a little “Lunch box Ice Pack” in the drawer because I wasn’t sure how cold it would actually stay, didn’t even need it. We replaced the ice up top every day to make sure the meat stayed cold and everything in the drawer was super cold even when the ice pack was no longer frozen. (The protein bars were almost hard to eat even because they were so cold!)
Bread Bag
This bag slipped right along side the cooler in the back. When we’d stop to make lunch it’s as if I had my own little kitchen in the car!
+ Bread (obvi)
+ Hot dog buns
+ Lunch chips: Salt & Vinegar, Cheez-Its, Goldfish
+ S’mores Graham Crackers
+ S’mores Marshmallows
– Mom’s secret stash of Oreo Thins
– Dad’s secret stash of pretzels
– Paper Plates
– Napkins
Hike Pack
THE Hike Pack just seems to keep building hike after hike. Every adventure I find something else that I wish I had had on me during a hike. This trip we added the Tripod to the hike pack as well as a bladder from an old HydroPack so that I could carry my own water. In addition to THE Hike Pack, we also bring two other hydro-packs. A kid size one for the boy to share and one for Michael.
+ First Aid Kit (detailed below)
+ Extra dry socks for both kids
+ Hand towels
+ Knife and multitool
+ Hiking Snack- a protein and fast burning carb to have mid hike for that extra boost!
Camp Pack
We are not big tent campers, it’s a lot of work! So this camp pack is for your occasional GLAMPERS! All you camping families out there, props to you! One thing missing from this list (on purpose) is BBQ tools. The place we were staying at provided S’mores sticks and metal tongs for campfire/BBQ cooking but if your destination doesn’t provide those don’t forget to throw those in as well!
+ Flashlights & Headlamps
+ Extra Batteries
+ Walkie-Talkies (& their charger)
+ Aluminum Foil
+ Cutting Board
+ Kitchen knife
+ Multi-tool/Swiss Army knife
– Citronella Candles
– Lighter and matches
– Duct tape
– Garbage bags
– Zip-lock Bags
– Campfire wine mug (w/ a lid for bugs!)
– Cork screw
– Bottle topper
Clothes
This list will be obvious, but part of the process so here we go. One tip that’s been helpful for me and maybe less obvious is the beach day bag!
Clothes Bags
+ Hiking clothes for X days
+ Hiking socks
+ Campfire clothes for X days
+ Non-Hiking clothes for X days
+ Ankle socks
+ Undies
+ Jammies
+ Warm layer for cool mornings/evenings
+ 1 extra set of a day clothes (incase someone falls in the creek)
+ Toiletries
+ Toothbrush & Toothpaste
+ Don’t forget your Hiking Boots (probably not IN this bag but in the car)
+ I like to WEAR our sneakers so that we all have three pairs of shoes but only have to pack two.
Beach Day
– Towels
– Girls Suits in dry bag
– Boys Suits in wet bag
When you split up to change into suits your bags are already separated. After swim time, boys put wet bags back in the wet bag so you don’t have dripping trunks all over everything. Girls can add their suits to the wet bag when you meet up after the locker rooms. Lets be real, girls are more likely to be responsible with the wet!
– Sun Screen
– Swim goggles
– Inflatable pool/beach toys
– Sand Toys
– Water-friendly ball/football for catch
– Water shoes
– Flip flops
Glove Box
All those things that you have to have at your fingertips, but nothing that you don’t! It’s a small space!
+ Hard copies of reservations (incase you lose service)
+ Park Passes/Discover Passes/Parking Passes
+ Paper Map (incase you lose service)
– Napkins
– Nail clippers
– Hand Sanitizer
– More Bandaids
First Aid
With an accident prone child I tend to keep bandaids everywhere. But I do try to keep two main “First Aid Kits” in two key locations: One in the car, one in the Hike Pack. These kits are more extensive than just a ziplock of bandaids. The look something like this:
Hike Pack
+ Bandage Tapes
+ Non-Adherent Pads
+ Gauze Bandages
+ Triple Antibiotic Ointment
+ Sling
+ Emergency Blanket
+ Flush Saline
+ Cohesive bandage wrap
+ Band-aids
+ Butterfly bandages
+ Blister Custions
+ Tweesers
+ Bandage Scissors
+ Combine Bandage Pad
Car Kit
– Triple Antibiotic Ointment
– Antiseptic Spray
– Kids & Adult Pepto
– Kids & Adult ib profen
– Butterfly badages
– Blister Cushions
– Aleeve
– Sting-Kill Swabs
– Sunscreen
– Sunburn Cream
– Bug Spray
– Baby wipes
