“Thinking about hitting the road solo with your kids but not sure how you’ll manage the chaos, snacks, and sanity?”
You’re not alone—road trips can be challenging. As a single parent, taking a road trip with your kids might feel overwhelming. I’ve road-tripped solo with my three kids regularly, and while I’ve faced different kinds of challenges, it’s also been full of memories that stick with me for life.
After deciding to take a trip for Spring Break in 2025, Solo Parent, Three Kids, One Big Adventure: Why I Decided to Take This Trip – Single Parent Life and figuring out my budget Budgeting for a Solo Parent Vacation: Making Every Dollar Count with Three Kids – Single Parent Life, I knew I would need to spend a lot of time planning how we were going to get there.
Let’s dive into the route planning, entertainment ideas, safety tips, and sanity-saving strategies that make family road trips not just manageable, but memorable.
We’ll go over:
- How Many Hours Should You Drive on a Road Trip with Kids?
- How to Choose the Best Route for a Family Road Trip
- Best Places to Stop on a Road Trip with Kids
- How to Keep Kids Entertained in the Car (Without Losing Your Mind)
- Road Trip Safety Tips for Solo Parents Traveling with Kids
How Many Hours Should You Drive on a Road Trip with Kids?
Gone are the days I used to road trip without putting much thought into it. Pre-kids, I enjoyed hitting the road, blasting my music, and singing at the top of my lungs (badly).
Just drive and go.
Things are a lot different when you have kids! There’s more planning involved and more things to take into consideration, especially if you’re not familiar with the places along your route.
Here are some things to think about when planning a long trip with kids:
- When should I stop for gas? How many miles until I reach half a tank?
- How often do the kids (and me) need to get out and stretch?
- What interval of time in the vehicle before my kids go stir crazy?
- How often should I stop to avoid emergency potty situations?
- How long can I reasonably drive in a day without everyone arriving completely exhausted?
- What time of day is best for driving with my kids’ sleep and energy patterns?
For my Spring Break trip:
- It takes about 3 hours to get to half a tank in my vehicle.
- The 3-hour mark is usually when my youngest starts to get irritable. My older two can tolerate longer stretches of time.
- My youngest is relatively new to potty training. This was the first trip without pull-ups, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. I brought our training portable potty—just in case we had to stop quickly in the middle of nowhere.
- From experience, my kids can tolerate traveling for most of the day, but not overnight.
- I used to love driving at nighttime. With my kids, we drive during waking hours.
Traveling from the Midwest to Pensacola, FL was approximately 12 hours, and I broke it up into two days. This is what it looked like on the way there and on the way back it was reversed:
- Leave home and drive 3 hours
- Stop for: lunch, potty break, stretch, and gas
- Drive another 3 hours and stop at a hotel for the night
✅ Total travel time each day was ~6 hours.
How to Choose the Best Route for a Family Road Trip
Now that you know the frequency of how many hours to drive and stop, it’s time to build out your route. Initially, I used ChatGPT to help:
- Get an initial route using prompts to avoid driving through certain areas along the way.
- Find the halfway point to Pensacola and identify hotels in the area.
- Help identify stops every 3 hours along the route.
- Identify kid-friendly restaurants at each stop.
- Find parks at each stop for the kids to play at.
I found that ChatGPT sped up the process of building out the route! I would highly suggest verifying all the suggestions provided by ChatGPT. After reviewing each of the suggestions, I made a few tweaks:
- All stops were identified
- Parks found at each stop
- Able to find restaurants that the kids would like
- Booked our hotels using Hotels.com.
- Added all the information to my Google calendar and travel journal
✅ The route was finalized.
Best Places to Stop on a Road Trip with Kids
I had some criteria around where I wanted to stop:
- Safe and populated location (not in the middle of nowhere)
- Places that had parks where the kids could play and get some energy out
- Locations with kid-friendly restaurants
- Try new places we haven’t been yet
After ChatGPT gave suggestions, I read reviews and checked if the places met my criteria. I also involved the kids in helping finalize places to eat and which stops they preferred.
How to Keep Kids Entertained in the Car (Without Losing Your Mind)
You’ll see a lot of suggestions on limiting screen time, playing games with the kids in the car, listening to audiobooks together, etc. That might work for some families. With my kids’ ages and driving solo, that doesn’t work for me! On a regular day, I do limit technology. On a road trip, I throw those limits out the door. I’m all about keeping the kids entertained so I can focus on the road.
Entertainment
My kids are ages 4 to 11 years old. Each of my kids is responsible for their backpacks. They are also responsible for packing their backpacks. Yes, even my 4-year-old! I do help with some guidance, but for the most part, each of them knows what they want to bring.
This is what works for our family:
- Pre-load Amazon Fire devices with movies and games.
- Older kids have a Nintendo Switch, they share the accessories and games.
- Older kids also have Kindles and pre-downloaded books.
- Kids all pick out a few toys and at least one lovie.
- I bought travel books for them and crayons to color (there are a lot of fun road trip options for kids on Amazon).
During the drive, I used my phone’s hotspot a few times—so the kids’ devices could be connected for certain apps to work. However, there were areas where we had no reception. So, I would highly suggest preloading most of the items.
Snacks, Snacks, Snacks
Before the trip, I asked each kid what snacks they wanted to bring on the trip. Along with a backpack, each of my kids brought a lunchbox and they each filled it up with their desired snacks. This is helpful as they had it with them in the vehicle and easily accessible. Additionally, I brought the following:
- 1 large bag with extra snacks (this bag would also double as our beach bag)
- 1 cooler backpack for cold items that had juice, water, and snacks that needed to stay cold, like pre-cut apples and cheese
- 1 large box of chips
Don’t forget trash bags!
All three of my kids sit in the back seat. I placed trash bags in strategic places where they all can reach. The vehicle can get super messy quickly, and I was hoping this would help with that.
Don’t Forget About You!
As a solo parent, you can often focus on solutions for the kids, that you can forget about yourself!
What keeps you entertained on long drives? Music? Audiobooks?
For me, it’s audiobooks! So, I downloaded a few audiobooks before we left. To make the most of the dedicated time for our road trip, I downloaded books related to starting your own business and freelancing. I also downloaded a fantasy book in case I got bored with the business-related books.
✅ Entertainment and snacks figured out.
Road Trip Safety Tips for Solo Parents Traveling with Kids
Pre-Travel
Before traveling, you want to make sure your vehicle is in good shape for the trip. A few suggestions:
- Tire tread and air pressure check
- Oil change (if needed)
- Tire rotation (if needed)
I also suggest printing your route. This may sound like it’s old school, but you want to be prepared in case technology fails and you have no connectivity. When I was growing up, we used the Thomas Guide, and my Dad taught me how to read a map and navigate. For road trips, I always bring:
- Turn-by-turn paper directions with routes and stops. It is easy to print off of Google Maps.
- Bring an Atlas—yes, a REAL atlas. If you’re traveling through areas, you’re not familiar with, this can help redirect you. Here’s a link to the one I have: Rand McNally Large Scale Road Atlas 2025.
- Have emergency items in your vehicle: flares, emergency cones, jumper cables, and fire extinguisher.
Finally, tell a friend or family member where you’re going and share your route, including where you plan to stop. Additionally, check in with them throughout your trip.
During Travel
I follow a few rules when I’m road-tripping solo with my kids:
- Start with a full tank of gas.
- Fill up when you reach the halfway point and know how many hours your vehicle typically takes to get to halfway.
- There are some areas on the road with long stretches without gas stations, make sure you are aware of these areas and fill up before you reach it.
For our trip, we stopped every 3 hours. Three hours is also when my tank would be halfway full.
A few other safety items I follow when traveling:
- Be aware of your surroundings.
- Prep the kids on the expectations and safety.
- Stop in populated areas—which may be challenging when traveling through rural areas.
My youngest is newly potty trained and I wasn’t sure how the long car rides were going to go. I ended up bringing the potty training toilet with us, in case we had to stop in a random place on the road.
Additionally, involve your kids! Walk them through what you’re going to do, where you’re going, where you’re stopping, safety rules, and the expectations of their behavior.
✅ Pre-travel safety checks and safety plan done.
What’s Next
To follow along with our 2025 Spring Break vacation, future posts will cover:
- My Packing Plan for a Road Trip with Kids
- 2025 Spring Break Vacation Recap
- 2025 Spring Break Lessons Learned
Final Thoughts: You’ve Got This, Road Warrior!
I know there’s a lot that goes into taking a long road trip with your kids as a solo parent. Some fun things you might try:
- Make a travel journal to document your trip!
- Track your mileage and time traveled.
- Most of all, have a great time with your kids and enjoy your family time!
Solo road-tripping with kids isn’t easy—but it’s totally doable (and even fun!) with the right prep, mindset, and snacks. Whether you’re traveling cross-state or just taking a weekend getaway, planning can help you feel more confident and make space for those memorable “we actually did that!” moments. The journey won’t be perfect, but it will be yours—and that’s what your kids will remember most.
I’d love to hear from you! 💬
- Have you ever taken a road trip solo with your kids?
- What’s your must-have item or favorite kid-friendly stop?
- Any hilarious or hard-learned lessons from your travel adventures?
✨ Drop a comment below and let’s swap stories and survival tips.
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