Rollaboard Travel - Tips on Traveling Light

Whether you are planning a big move or a fun family vacation it can be a challenge when you have young children. Traveling with infants and toddlers requires lots of patients and plenty of free time. It is especially important to plan accordingly when traveling across country with little ones. With the right preparations your trip can be fun and successful.

Plan Your Route

Before you hit the road it is important to figure out how long of a trip it is to your destination or multiple destinations. Once you figure out how far it is and the roads you will be taking then you have an accurate mileage count. This is important when determining how many days you will need.

Driving Schedule

It is important to give yourself plenty of time when traveling with little ones. Trying to cram lots of driving into each day will become wearing on your energy and patients. To help make your trip more fun, break up the drive into no more than five hundred miles in one day. This will most likely take you all day to do so it is important to get an early start.

Book Hotels

To make your travel plans run smoothly and to get a bit of down time between days of driving make sure you book hotels. With an accurate driving schedule you should be able to book your rooms along the way. This is nice so you can have a place to shower, bathe the kids and relax before getting back on the road.

Pack a Cooler

When you have infants and toddlers in tow it is really important to pack a cooler with snacks and drinks. Having plenty of sippy cups and bottles of formula or breast milk is essential for long trips. You will also want to pack non-perishable sandwiches in case there are no places to get lunch when they get hungry.

Plan on Stopping

When traveling by car with your little ones it is hard to drive for long periods of time. Remember to plan on stopping quite a bit with infants and toddlers, especially if you are potty training. It is almost more convenient when they are in diapers because you can wait to stop and change them instead of taking lots of potty breaks.

Entertainment

To make the ride more enjoyable for your infants and toddlers make sure you pack plenty of toys and books. Teething rings, rattles, links and sensory toys are great for infants to keep them busy in their rear facing car seats. On the other hand toddlers require more stimulation so a DVD player, DVDs and books to read are great for road trips. Also kid songs CDs are great if you do not mind singing along for fun.

Necessities

While this is the last category on the list necessities are the most important things for your trip. Infants and toddlers have a lot more necessities than older children to make their experience more enjoyable. Remember the binkies, bottles, sippy cups, blankies, diapers, wipes, extra clothes and medicines.

If your babies get fevers or are teething it is nice to have your bag of goodies along to help save the day. Also if there is a spit up situation or a blowout it is always nice to be prepared. You cannot prepare enough when it comes to traveling long distance with your infants and toddlers so take your time when packing and planning.