Family Travel Tips: Road Trips with Kids . Before you set out on your trip, take a look at a map and guestimate where you’ll need to stop and refuel. Find an interesting place to have a meal in the vicinity (we like historic diners and lakeside picnics), so you don’t have to keep stopping and starting. Combining gas stops with breaks saves a lot of time in the long run. For long trips in the car we play . This is a great way to share family history with each generation. When our kids were little, we started out with simple questions and as they got older we made the questions harder. It is now a game they love to play and share their knowledge of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great- grandparents. When my 8- year- old asks . Knowing how to read a map is a valuable life skill, so it makes me happy that he’s learning, and he’s happier that he has a job to do. My uncle, who drove a semi for 3. Always travel with a big thermos. Most gas station shops will let you fill it to the brim with coffee for just a dollar or so, which can save you big bucks on a long road trip. Like almost everybody, we’ve been looking for ways to cut back a dollar here, and a dollar there. Before we take any family vacation, I usually rent a bunch of DVDs that my kids can watch in the car or plane on their DVD player. Before our last trip, however, I hit our local library for DVDs and found a huge selection of audio books for kids as well. It was such an easy way to save a few bucks, and every little bit helps. Here’s another idea for a creative car ride. Buy a package of pipe cleaners in assorted colors from any craft store. My kids love to create with pipe cleaners—making necklaces, swords, bracelets, towers—anything their little minds can think up. When We take road trips, I always do some online research to find interesting places to stop for breaks (historic sites, museums, charming towns) and also beautiful places for picnics (state parks, lakes, waterfalls). I hate the thought of eating at roadside rest areas, because they are generic and don’t give us any sense of our journey. Whenever I travel with my baby and toddler, I always bring along a box of denture cleanser tablets. They are amazing for cleaning pacifiers, baby spoons, sippy cup lids, and anything else that is hard to sterilize on the road. I just fill a glass with warm water, drop in the item, and pop in a tablet. We’re good to go in five minutes. If we’re taking on a road trip and will be staying in a different place each night, it is often easier to pack one bag for a day instead of using a separate bag for each person. Rob, Vinny, and Matt take $500 each to the wholesale lots of Northern New Jersey to try and secure drivable cars for their trip to Atlantic City. By packing everyone’s clothes for one day into a single suitcase, you only have to bring one bag into the hotel each night and the others can be left in the locked car. On our vacation last year we planned a road trip up the coast of California to visit all the colleges in which my kids were interested. I booked my visits with the school in advance, used my hotel points to book my hotel rooms, and hit the road. We kept a cooler in the truck with fruit, juice, water, and sandwich fixings. We agreed that breakfast and lunch would be “picnic style” but dinner would be something to look forward to. The kids loved picking our restaurants for dinner and I liked saving the money. I also printed a list of all the Costco locations along our route with gas stations and planned my stops for gas accordingly. I watched my speed to ensure I was going no faster than the speed limit and I ended up getting close to 4 more miles to the gallon and saving over $1. I had budgeted. Planning our trip took me about a week, but both my kids said it was the best vacation yet. Holiday Car Travel With Babies By Amalah I saw in a recent advice column that you drove from DC to Pennsylvania with Noah when he was small. If I were to rent a car to visit my family then that would be an 800 mile round trip. My current car is 7 years old so adding milres at this point isn't going to depreciate it too much. I figure 10 cents per mile. Maintenance/repair is cheap so that only adds maybe 6. I spotted this on my local power company’s web site. If your kids have asthma or allergies, here’s a tip to rid your car of mold and dust mites before a road trip: Just turn on the AC and open the windows 1. I recently learned the hard way to make sure all my identification and paperwork (driver’s license, registration, insurance) is up to date before we go on a road trip. Planning a long car trip? Read how to prepare your car. Illustrated long trip car checklist Home For Used Car Buyers How to choose the 'right' car Reviews of popular used cars Best fuel efficient used cars. National Geographic presents America's best road trips, including famous scenic highways as well as off-the-beaten-path trips. Authentic Old West Forgotten Florida Ghost Towns of Colorado The Ozarks, Arkansas Dalton Highway, Alaska Montana's. At an out- of- state roadblock, I got a ticket because my registration had expired. The fine was twice as much as it would have been in my own state. In my experience, gas stations immediately off the highway always seem to charge considerably more per gallon than gas stations away from the interstate. With my GPS, I can easily find the next- nearest gas station, and prices are always lower. I am willing to drive a mile or two to save a few dollars on a tank of gas. I have four kids under 1. When we go on a road trip, I pack a toy bag with essentials that encourage my kids to burn off some of their excess energy at highway stops: a few jump ropes, bucket stilts, a couple of inflatable beach balls, and sidewalk chalk (for playing hopscotch and four- square). Oh, and I also like to pack an inexpensive stopwatch, since my kids are more motivated to run to, say, a big tree and back, if I time them. When you are on a road trip and need a bathroom break, keep a lookout for a budget chain hotel. They are easy to find, often conveniently located just off highway exits. They tend to have rest rooms in the lobby area and, in my experience, these bathrooms are usually much cleaner than those in gas stations and fast food restaurants. My kids are always squabbling in the back of the car. The last time we took a long car trip, I came up with a little project they could do together. I gave them each a roll of low- tack masking tape and told them they could build a divider between themselves, right down the middle of the back set. Soon, they were busy and giggling and they ended up with a tremendous wall of tape. When we got to our destination, the wall came down in one fell swoop. Every parent who drives with kids in the car needs to know about Free. Headset. org, a worldwide automobile safety program that distributes free cell phone headsets to anyone who wants one. To get a free headset for your cell phone, you just need to sign up and select the make and model of the cell phone you use. They will send you a free headset, but you pay the shipping charges (about $5). My family likes playing license plate bingo. These printable bingo cards from Scholastic. I fill in the names of different states before we leave home. Car Trips with a Baby or Toddler - Travel with Young Children Sign In Connect With Facebook or Sign up with email. I can use it to tack up a spare tee-shirt to the car window to block the sun from bothering my 17-month-old daughter when she’s trying to. Hello, So I have a question about taking a long road trip in an old car!!!!??? About us: We are a young couple (I am 19 and mu husband is 21). We live in Salt Lake City, UT. We have been here for 1 year. We moved from Port Arthur, TX. I just found out that I am. Keeping an old car might work in certain places, but here in the UK we have to have our vehicles tested each year for road safety, road worthiness and emmissions. However old cars (yes, even American) are pretty reliable if you remember to drive them once every other month or so! Thanks for including an article on when to replace your car. I’ve been pondering the question regarding Jolly Green Gene (my car). Having worked for years at the front desk of a hotel, I know that every hotel has a few rooms that are better than others—perhaps slightly more spacious, or with a nicer view, or in a quieter location. Making an effort to be nice to the front desk staff when you arrive can go a long way in getting a better room. I always say, “This is a very special trip for us.” We usually end up with a wonderful room, and sometimes even an upgrade! I’ve read again and again that even just- cleaned hotel rooms are full of germs. That’s why I never travel without sanitizing wipes. When we first get into our hotel room, the first thing I do is wipe down all the surfaces that the housekeeping crew would probably miss: Light switches, TV remote control, telephone, doorknobs, bedside alarm clock, and especially the toilet flush handle. Oh, and I always remove the bedspread. If your car has a panic button, you can use it as a security alarm system when staying at campsites or in motel rooms where your door opens directly to the outside. Presumably, your car is parked nearby. Put your car keys beside your bed at night. If you were ever in danger from an animal or intruder, you could press your car’s panic button to set off the alarm. The car horn would sound repeatedly until you turned it off or the battery died. You can reset it with the button on the key fob chain. My son just loves doing word search puzzles. Before we go on a family vacation, I make up customized word search puzzles for him to do in the car or on the plane, using words about our trip and destination. Discovery. School. Puzzlemaker makes this simple and fast. You just type in words that you want included, and the program generates a word search puzzle that can be printed out. We often take two days to get to grandma’s since our kids are still small. I always pick a hotel that offers free breakfast. Hampton Inn is one of the best for this, in my opinion. Then, we carry bread and some cold cuts and/or peanut butter in the car for lunch. It works out well because we stop at a nice rest area, eat, and let the kids burn off some energy. There’s another $1. Frankly, I find the kids’ energy expenditure worth more than the savings. We play more during a picnic lunch than when we stop at a restaurant. Lastly, we bring our own drinks. We carry water, juice, and Gatorade in a cooler. Buying it at the grocery store is much cheaper than the gas station mini- mart. To help with this, we bought one of the Coleman “powered” coolers that plugs into our cigarette lighter. Before our last family trip, I loaded my i. Pod with free audio stories for children from Storynory. My kids were thrilled to be able listen to something “just for them” and I was happy that these stories were age- appropriate. We teach our kids how to dial “9. And we teach them how to use a cell phone, in case of emergency. It’s also a good idea to take a few minutes after settling into a new hotel room to show them how to operate the hotel phone. Kids should know how to contact the front desk, how to get an outside line, and how to call for an ambulance. Use your time in the car to remember the past. If you have a portable VCR or DVD player, watch home movies on long car rides. It is a great way to remember fun trips or special events. I worried that my 1. I brought two key elements from his nursery: a portable CD player and his night light. At bedtime, we put on his “night- night” music and plugged in his night light, which filled our hotel room with a familiar amber glow. He was asleep within minutes. My kindergartner and preschooler love eating at chain restaurants that give out kids’ activity placemats and coloring materials while you wait. Taking a long road trip in an old car?????????? HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!? Hello, So I have a question about taking a long road trip in an old car!!!!??? About us: We are a young couple (I am 1. We live in Salt Lake City, UT. We have been here for 1 year. We moved from Port Arthur, TX. I just found out that I am pregnant and it had been super hard this past year in Utah since we have no family here. We know we are moving back at the end of March because our lease is up and need to be with family at this time which was all back in Texas. We came here to Utah on Greyhound, while here we bought our first car! About the car: Our car is a 1. BMW 3. 18. Ti with just over 2. Within the first few months of us having the car we took a trip from Salt Lake City, UT to Las Vegas, Nevada to visit my husband brother. It took about eight hours. The car got there fine and got back. When we were getting the emissions and safety done we replaced both O2 sensors. A few months after that the radiator cracked and after sitting in the driveway for a month the car wouldn’t even turn on. When I brought the battery to O’reily Auto they said that the battery was completely dead and that I would have to buy a new one to even turn it on. Without enough money to fix it we left it there for about 2 months. A man from our church wanted to buy the car. He gave us some money for it and he fixed it. He fixed the cracked radiator and said that he did all services on the car. He gave us the car back for the time being because he said he did not need it right now, and for the past 6 months we have had the car and have been driving it as if it was our own, even though it is still his. When I looked at the battery to see the new one I noticed that it was the same one that was in there before. Here are a few things that have gone wrong since we got it back: 1) The radio stopped working it will not turn on. I am not sure if its electrical or what, but no radio. The windows would not roll up and down, we put a new fuse in and they work now. The car pulls and jumps a little. If I slam on the brakes it takes a few seconds once I let off for the car to start moving again. If I slow down on the brakes to turn or at a stop light and push on the gad immediately again it pulls a little bit. The slower we brake and step on the gas the less, or not a hard it happens. About the trip: It is from Salt Lake City, UT to Port Arthur, TX which is about 1. I was doing some research that said that daily commutes to work are harder on a car than a road trip. Reason being because on the way to work you are stop- go but on a road trip you are smooth sailing. My husband and I do not mind taking a few days or even a week to make the trip if needed that we stop often. Talk about crazy!!) So that wouldn’t be a problem, though we do plan to sleep in the car (I do not know if that makes a difference.) Once we got to Texas that would be it. We would not be driving back to Utah, and would save up money to fix the car completely maybe put a new transmission. We are really not too sure what to do. We can try to sell the car but we have put a lot of money into and would like to keep it if at all possible. We have about a month to sell it and I am not sure if that is possible. Ive never sold a car before. Any and all serious answers would be greatly appreciated!! I just realized that I did not explain that we bought the car back from the man from church!!!
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December 2016
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