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A dad who has been taking family road trips for 13 years says these are the 5 biggest mistakes he’s made in the car

August 19, 20240
Overpacking for a road trip is a mistake.

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When packing for a road trip with kids, Taylor said not to overdo it.

“A lot of people love to have that viewpoint of you can’t be too prepared, but you can be too prepared,” Taylor told Business Insider. “When we first started traveling with two kids, we made sure to bring the entire house.”

Taylor said the family used to load the car with various toys and stuffed animals, which made their car more cluttered and trips more stressful.

“When you have so much stuff in your vehicle on a road trip that you can’t be comfortable, it’s just not worth it,” he said. “For me, keeping things clean is how I manage my stress level.”

After all, when road-tripping with babies and toddlers, Taylor said there’s already more to pack.

“You already have equipment you have to travel with — car seats, booster seats, a diaper bag, and a pack-and-play popup,” he said. “Bringing so many toys just doesn’t help anybody.”

He added that leaving toys at home has made Taylor’s kids more content with simply looking out the window on long car rides.

“We’ve definitely learned over the years how much less stress it is when you’re not worried about either forgetting something at home or having a filthy vehicle,” he said.

But not bringing a pillow for each passenger was a mistake …
Pack snacks that aren’t messy, like grapes.

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“Kind of like how when you don’t sleep because you don’t have your own pillow, we all get hangry and it can really have a huge impact,” Taylor told BI. “As much as adults like to pretend like they’re in full control of their emotions, hungry adults are absolutely miserable.”

Taylor learned this tip when his family would hit the road without enough snacks in the car.

“You can’t have too many snacks,” he said. “It seems really obvious, but one of the things that we have seen both with airplane travel and with road trip travel is that we all get hungry at different times.”

To keep your car clean, Taylor recommends bringing jerky, grapes, and string cheese.

“I know a lot of families take the chip route,” he said. “We avoid crumbly things when we’re doing road trips because we know how that contributes to the grossness of a car.”

In Taylor’s experience, spending too many hours in the car without stopping can spoil a road trip.
Taylor’s family on an Alaskan road trip.

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“Approaching a road trip with either an alternate route or a backup plan is something we’ve had to get good at,” Taylor told BI.

For example, on a recent road trip to Alaska’s Denali National Park, Taylor said the family planned hikes and booked tours, but a wildfire made the area inaccessible.

“There were thousands of tourists scrambling at the same time,” he said. “We hadn’t done any research about what to do if our plans had to shift.”

Taylor said the family thankfully extended their trip but had to opt for a smaller accommodation where the kids had to sleep on the floor.

Luckily, Taylor used to live in Alaska, and he knows locations that had fewer tourists

“There’s the whole scenic side of the state that people pass over because everybody drives on the Parks Highway that goes from Anchorage up to Fairbanks,” he explained. “On the other side, you can drive through the wilderness and experience the tundra. It’s not a mainstream destination.”

Taylor said it’s always good to do more research on destinations to have a more flexible itinerary in case of cancellations.