Our family goes on road trips pretty often. One of the most frequent trips we have to make would be the eight plus hour drive up to hubby's hometown in Penang. Aside from that, we've also made various road-trips across Europe for the year we were based there. Going by how often I've had to pack for these trips, you'd think that packing would be a breeze for me. Unfortunately though, I still am quite a slow packer, plus I have a tendency to overpack (with two boys under five in the car, who might just throw up sometime during the journey, I'd rather be safe than sorry!).
So here's five things that are must-haves in the car when we travel:
:: Music and audio books: This is mainly to keep the hubs awake when he's driving, and Junior J likes listening to stories when we travel (This is one of our favourites. With 11 stories, its also value for money! We also like BBC's version of Winnie the Pooh.)
:: Plastic bags: For collecting trash, and the occasional vomiting incident.
:: Dried fruit: Snacks are a must, especially on long journeys when you may not be able to find lunch/dinner on time. The boys love snacking on raisins, banana chips (we like the ones from Bollywood Veggies since they are unsweetened), and everyone loves dried mango. I know, its all sugary, but at least they are better than lollipops and other sweets.
:: Drinks: Usually its just cold water for everyone, plus milk for the kids. The kids also like slurping on Heinz's fruit Splats on hot days (we freeze these the day before and just leave them to slowly thaw out in the car).
:: Change of clothes: This is for the kids. Again, for cases if they throw up. Or for pee accidents (you know how they always need to go NOW when you're whizzing down the expressway with no rest-stop in sight for the next 10 km?).
How about you? What's your packing style, and what are your must-haves for road trips?
I like how you are so prepared for the road trips and didn't take the "shortcut" (aka electronic gadgets) :-)
ReplyDeleteWe are pretty used to road trips (go back to our hometown in Ipoh and sometimes KL). For the past few years, we started our journey before dawn, like 3-5am (depending if it's a long weekend or not), so that the kids would continue to sleep. And except this year, that they are older now, all the years before they slept through till we reached destination (all 4-6 hours)! So I didn't need to pack anything. Just bring a water bottle and that is it :-) But I think from next year onwards, we would probably start to bring some stuff to entertain them as we couldn't expect them to sleep through anymore, sob sob.