Road Trip Busy Bags

We love going on family road trips! We have done many over the years with our three girls, and am always ready for our next adventure. There are many important things to keep in mind and take along with you on your trips, but one thing is for sure…..you need a few road trip busy bags to keep you and the kids happy and occupied during the many hours you’re traveling in your car. Here are some road trip busy bag idea we’ve used to keep our kids occupied in the car that put a smile on their faces (and keep us from hearing “are we there yet” too often). Special thanks goes out to Oreo for sponsoring this post so we could share our tips with you. 😉

Each Summer, and an occasionally during Spring Break, we pack our car full of comforts from home and head out on a long road trip. We like to keep our day driving to about 8 hours each way, and have been on so many that we have learned the best ways to keep our kids busy on those long trips. Any activity, game, or treat is helpful…..and a variety of them is better yet! Of course you need to make sure to bring one for each child, so to begin with you will want to find a few containers like these!

Sometimes I fill an empty wipe container like you see here, and other times I fill gallon storage bags…..it just depends what I have on hand. Because I’m frugal I would always suggest using what you already have at home before heading to the store for additional items to pack the busy bags for your kids, but with the room you have left I would make sure you have some of the following things to keep them happy along the way. Here are some fun and inexpensive family road trips busy bag ideas to bring along (some items are affiliate links):

1. A treat, my kids love Oreos (these 2 packs are the perfect size to satisfy a sweet tooth)
2. Small notebook
3. Pencil – colored pencils – pen
4. Small toys – cars, army men, or ponies (depending on what they like)
5. Stickers
6. Word search – crossword puzzles (depending on their age)
7. Glow sticks and bracelets
8. Etch a Sketch
9. Calculator (believe me it keeps them busy even if they’re little)
10. Sticky note pad (they’ll think it’s “super cool”)
11. Squishy ball
12. Flash cards
13. iTouch or small gaming system
14. Book
15. Ear buds or fun headphones
16. Free printable road trip I spy game

This is what we do. I find the amount of containers I need so that for every 2-3 hours we are in the car they have a busy bag for that timeframe. Since I have 3 children, I figure out how long we will be traveling, the route we will take, and when we will stop for a potty/busy bag break…..and I start packing. Most of the time I find little items around the house that they haven’t played with in a while, pick up a few items at the local dollar or grocery store, and then head to the grocery store last to grab food for the trip and the 2-pack Oreos I will pack in their busy bags (they come in a package of 18 so there’s enough for everyone….I’m guilty of eating one too during our breaks).

I can’t tell you how helpful these road trip busy bags have been on our vacations! Of course we talk quite a bit, discuss where we are and where we are going, but having some quiet time with fun activities makes the road trip not just bearable but actually FUN….imagine that! 😉 Where are you planning your next trip??

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