How to Best Prepare for a Cross-Country Road Trip with Your Family

I share my essential tips when preparing for a cross country road trip you won’t want to miss!

Are you getting ready for a cross-country road trip with your family? If so, then you know that keeping everyone safe and comfortable is of the utmost importance. Planning ahead can be the difference between an enjoyable journey and a stressful one.

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In this article, we’ll explore tips and strategies to make sure your family has a great time on your cross-country adventure!

Road Trip Preparation Tips

To get started, let’s begin with helpful advice for pre-trip planning, which can save you a lot of hassle and stress down the line.

Budget Your Route

Before leaving on your trip, take some time to set up a road trip budget and research the best routes and attractions along the way. Look for interesting sights, great restaurants, and fun activities that everyone in your family will enjoy.

Remember that the journey is often just as important as the destination, so take some time to plan out your route and budget accordingly.

If you are looking for road trip ideas, read:

If you’re planning on taking your young dog with you on your cross-country road trip, you’ll want to check out this article on everything you need to know about road-tripping with your puppy.

Prepare Your Car

Before you head out on any long road trip, you should spend time ensuring the car is prepared. That means performing maintenance checks before you begin your journey, such as checking the oil, battery, and tire pressure, and ensuring you have an emergency car kit in your trunk in case of a breakdown. As a general rule, if my vehicle will need an oil change before the trip, I will also have a mechanic check my brakes and rotate the tires. This can save you money in the long run if you have an issue during your road trip.

While preparing your vehicle is crucial, ensuring you have the right car insurance is equally important to protect your journey from unexpected events. Be sure that your car insurance policy covers everything you need for a road trip, such as towing and roadside assistance. It is also important to check with your insurance provider if there are any specific requirements or restrictions when it comes to traveling out of state or internationally.

Emergency Car Kit

At a minimum, your emergency car kit should include:

spare tire
tire pressure gauge
car jack
jumper cables
flashlight
flares or emergency reflectors

Remember the First Aid Kit

When driving cross-country, you could find yourself driving off the beaten path. If you should break down and any of your family members have an accident, it’s crucial that you have a first aid kit with you that includes all those basics like band-aids, bandages, ointment, tweezers, sterile gloves, and so on.

Consider Avoiding Certain Routes, e.g. Busy Trucking Routes, or Driving at Less Busy Times

When driving long distances with your family, you’re sure to be even more cautious about driving safely.

In addition to always employing safe driving methods and paying attention to the road, you can reduce your chance of being caught up in an accident if you drive at less busy times to avoid congested traffic and avoid certain routes, such as busy trucking routes.

For instance, if you’re driving along the Courtney Campbell Causeway around Tampa, it’s best to avoid driving in rush hour. The last thing you want is to be hit by a car or truck.

Safety Strategies for a Road Trip

Once you have prepared the car for your cross-country journey, it’s time to make sure that everyone in the vehicle is safe. Here are some tips that will help you stay focused on safety while driving.

Get Plenty of Sleep Before Driving

Driving when you’re tired is a surefire way of increasing the risk of being involved in an accident. While you should always be in a good state to drive and avoid accidents, it’s even more important when you have the whole family with you. So, never drive if you haven’t had enough sleep.

Ideally, you should share the driving between you and your partner to avoid driving while feeling sleepy. If you are the sole driver and you don’t get enough sleep, you should avoid starting on the next leg of your journey until you have had enough rest.

It’s better for your itinerary to run late than to risk involving yourself and your family in an accident.

Invest in Roadside Assistance Plan

There’s no telling when you might run into trouble during your cross-country road trip. To make sure that your family is safe and well taken care of, it’s a good idea to invest in roadside assistance. Some auto insurance companies may offer this service at an added cost, or you can look for independent providers.

Set Boundaries and Expectations

Before you set out on a road trip, make sure to talk with your family about expectations for the trip. Set ground rules that everyone in your family agrees to abide by and communicate those expectations before beginning your journey.

Comfort Tips To Ensure Happy Travelers

Finally, you want to make sure that your family is as comfortable as possible when driving cross-country. Here are a few tips to help keep everyone in the car happy and content during your road trip.

Take Snacks and Drinks with You

It’s important that the whole family has access to plenty of snacks and drinks during a long cross-country road trip. Moods and energy levels can unexpectedly drop after spending time on the road, so make sure you pack lots of snacks and drinks that are suitable for long trips and will keep energy levels high. Here are some of our favorite road trip snacks.

You should never presume that you will always be in a location where you can purchase snacks and drinks. You could even break down. Therefore, it’s essential that you pack lots of food and drink to keep the whole family comfortable.

That includes taking bottles of water with you. Everyone should drink plenty of water every day to stay hydrated. We like to pack large gallon jugs of water and refill our bottles as needed. It’s a great money-saving hack.

Take Lots of Breaks

Taking lots of breaks will enable you to be more focused when driving as well. You should also incorporate lots of breaks into your cross-country road trip because your kids are sure to become irritable after spending long periods cooped up in a vehicle.

By planning your itinerary ahead of time, you can factor in breaks and stop at places of interest along the way. We always look for parks, rest stops, or roadside attractions that our kids can explore and enjoy during the stops.

If you and your family become restless, you’ll enjoy your cross-country road trip less, so don’t underestimate how important it is to stop frequently and recharge your batteries to be ready for the next leg of the journey.

Pack Appropriately for Weather Conditions

You should pack appropriately for the weather conditions. If you’re going to be driving through wintery conditions, make sure your vehicle is prepared and that everyone has warm clothing to wear. It also near hurts to pack extra clothes for you and the kids. Accidents happen, and you don’t want to be left unprepared if something unexpected happens and everyone needs to change their clothes.

Don’t Forget Cushions and Blankets

If you’re planning on camping, you’ll want to take lots of blankets and pillows with you, as well as your camping gear, to ensure everyone stays warm and snug at night.

But even if you’re planning on staying at hotels and other accommodations, it’s important that you pack blankets and cushions to keep everyone comfortable during the drive; especially if you’re driving after your children’s bedtimes.

Pack Activities for the Kids That Adults Will Also Enjoy

Sure, you can play road trip games with your kids, and for much of the time, your children will love watching the varying beautiful scenery that you pass through as you cross the country. But, seeing as most of your time will be spent in the car, it’s important that you pack plenty of activities for the kids to do.

You could pack things like games, books, road trip bingo cards, and electronic devices. You could also prepare things like playlists that have been made specifically for the long trip.

You know your kids best – make sure you pack plenty of things to keep them occupied during a lengthy drive.

Maximize Meal Planning Options

Unless you want to eat fast food every day, it’s important that you plan your meals out in advance. You never know where you will be when it comes time to eat dinner or have lunch.

Try meal prepping and get creative with what foods can be cooked over a campfire or using an electric skillet. You can also opt for no-cook camping meals that double as road trip meals that don’t need to be reheated.

Summing Up

There are lots of cross-country road trips you could embark on. But before you do so, it’s crucial that you prepare for your journey. These cross-country driving tips will certainly help!

That not only means working out your rough itinerary, deciding on places of interest to stop at, and choosing your accommodation. It also means taking the right steps to ensure your family stays safe and comfortable throughout the duration of the road trip.

Though, if you are unfortunate enough to be injured in a truck accident that isn’t your fault after you have sought medical attention, you should contact a specialist truck accident lawyer who can help you gain compensation.

By taking the tips and advice discussed in this article into account, you’ll be sure to have an enjoyable and memorable cross-country road trip that will stay with your family for years to come. Good luck!

Ready to Start Planning Your Trip? Use These Helpful Links to Book Your Trip!

AIRFARE
- Find low fares with airfarewatchdog, Skyscanner, and WayAway.com.
- Get airfare deal alerts up to 90% off from Dollar Flight Club (free & paid membership options)
- Book your plane ticket with Expedia or Kayak
- Book your Airport Parking Reservations and save money.
ROAD TRIP/CAR RENTAL
- Take the scenic route and rent an RV from RVShare
- Get packed for an epic road trip and don’t forget the Road Trip Games to Play in the Car Need more space? Get a rental car thru Discovercars.com.
LODGING
- From hotels to private homes, find the perfect accommodation with Hotels.com or booking.com.
- For camping and RV campgrounds, find the ideal location with Campspot.
PACKING
- Travel in style with a suitcase, carry-on, backpack, or handbag from Away and Eagle Creek.
- For packing cubes, we love these from Eagle Creek and these reusable silicon bags for a 3-1-1 bag from Stasher.
TRAVEL PLANNING
- Looking to start travel hacking and want a place to keep track of it all? There’s the free TravelFreely site.
- For budgeting help, get our road trip budgeting tips here.
ATTRACTIONS/ACTIVITIES
- Save on tickets to attractions, sightseeing tours, and more with
  - Tiqets for cultural events, museums, Broadway shows, etc.
  - CityPASS for multi-day attraction passes at up to 55% off in select cities
  - Get Your Guide and Viator for guided tours/excursions, day trips, and activitties
  - Groupon for discounted local attractions and event tickets
  - Undercover Tourister for discounted theme park tickets
- Find guided outdoor activities led by local guides at 57Hours.
- Find information on local trails with the AllTrails App.
LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
- We use and recommend Rosetta Stone to learn a new language. We bought the $179 lifetime option with unlimited access to ALL 25 of their languages.
Need something else to plan your perfect trip? Visit my travel resources page for more trusted partners.

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How to Best Prepare for a Cross-Country Road Trip with Your Family