When preparing for any vacation, and especially with toddlers, it’s easy to get caught up in buying a bunch of ‘stuff’.  Toddlers have very few needs while on the road and in fact the only other things I bring for the road are actual food and drink items and movies.  We don’t get wrapped up in bringing actual activities for the kids.  Keeping things simple with packing for the road keeps the kids from getting overwhelmed.

 

 

Koolatron 36-quart refrigerator  This is awesome!!!  Essentially, it’s a refrigerator for your
vehicle.  Technically it can fit behind the front seat of a vehicle, but we have a hard time squeezing it in there.  Nonetheless, it keeps things cold and comes with a car adapter and a
regular outlet.  We like to plug it in our house the night before we leave just to cool it down.  We also bring it in our hotel room and plug it in there.  It’s so nice not to have to deal with ice and still keep perishable items (milk, deli meat, and water are our most used items) really cold.

 

Thule Rooftop Cargo Carrier (largest size available)  This can get quite pricey and could make a good gift idea.  As indicated, we have the largest size available.  I’m not quite sure what size it is, but it’s definitely large enough to fit collapsable rocking chairs, rock n play, suitcases, umbrella strollers, etc.  Before you invest in this, you need to know that your vehicle needs to have proper car top accessories.  I don’t know the proper terms, but you have to have a way to attach this to your roof.  We have a Chrysler Town and Country and it has roof rack on it.  Anyway, this allows us to store things on top of our van so we have more space inside our van.  If you’re traveling in a vehicle that doesn’t have a lot of trunk space or if you’re planning on bringing a stroller that pretty much takes up an entire trunk, then this item is definitely for you.  I seriously don’t know how we’d fit all of our luggage in our van without it.

 

N. Gil Open Top Extra Large Utility Tote  This is our ‘snack bag’ on the road.  Typically I do
like bags that have a zipper, but I purposefully pick a bag without a zipper for our bag in
the van.  This allows for easy access to snacks on the road.  We also bring this bag into our hotel room.  As a family of five, we also pack a laundry basket full of other food/snack items that are just for our hotel room.  Yes, we bring a lot of our own food when we travel.  It’s convenient and it saves money.

 

Rockland 2 Piece Luggage Set  Each of my daughters (ages 3 and 2) have a set of this
luggage.  We got their names screen printed on each piece, but it would be fine by itself.  I apologize for sounds confusing here…. each child gets their ‘backpack’ that they fill with toys and stuffed animals.  They do have access to this on the road and also in the hotel.  They do each have a suitcase however I tend to pack all of the kids clothes for each day together in a gallon ziplock bag.  For a seven day trip we have seven gallon ziplock bags of toddler clothes.  We then divide these seven  ziplocks into their suitcases.

 

City Mini Double Stroller  I thought I’d include our stroller here in case anyone is
interested.  We LOVE this stroller and definitely use it to its potential.  When we road trip, we put it in our trunk and typically don’t take it out until we reach our destination.  When we do pit stops we try to have the kids walk as much as possible (unless they’re a baby and not of walking age).

 

Baby Carrier  I absolutely use baby carriers when we travel.  Specifically when on the road, I might use a carrier when we stop for a break and I don’t want to use a stroller.  On our last major trip, we had a nine week old and we packed a double stroller, umbrella stroller, and baby carrier.  When we stop for a break, I would wear the baby since he was too small for the umbrella stroller and it wasn’t worth busting out the double stroller since we wanted the other kids to burn off some energy.  I’m not specifically identifying a baby carrier here since I have seven different ones and your needs might vary by situation.

 

Well there you have it, my top six essentials for a road trip with toddlers.