First Real Road Trip with Family in Ages, Any Advice?

We have a regular van and our family of 6 fits fine in it. I wouldn't spend the money on a passendger van. That's a bit too spread out for me. Kids will start yelling so others will be able to hear them and it'll be very loud in the end.

We don't stop for specific things when we're on road trips. We do stop at official rest areas during the day where there's plenty of bathrooms, snack area and grass for the kids to run around. You can bring balls or something to play with while you're at a rest area. At night we always stop at big gas stations that are lit up, no rest areas as there's no attendants at most of them at night.

Every time we stop everyone gets out to use the toilet and stretch their legs, whether they say they're fine or not.

Depending on how long we are on the road, we sometimes leave during the night so the kids can sleep during the bulk of the trip.

We have the kids bring a backpack each. They put in their learning video games and extra cartridges, rechargable batteries and the charger, reader books, and a specific number of small toys like tiny dolls or cars or something. If each child is allowed 5 or 10 small toys then we remember when we pack up how many they're suppose to have and can tell if someone is missing something. We don't allow noise makers, lol. Video games are on low, mute or they can use headsets. Crayons and a coloring book is allowed if the crayons are washable. We used to bring the marker sets that only work on the special paper.

We have specific times for snack breaks, usually when we pull over for gas or toilet breaks. Kills two birds with one stone. We keep trash bags in the car and keep things picked up as we go.

We used to use our portable DVD player before the triplets came along but now we can't afford a DVD for each child, lol. We don't have the built in kind in the van. Our teen will use it though when he's not using his iPod.

Other tha all of that, we don't stop for sight seeing but we do point out things while on the road, take pictures and talk inbetween the kids playing.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

Have ea child bring a backpack of their "must haves"
-bring ipods, dvd players (at least 2) w/a few new movies
-water
-notepads for each child to write in, draw on
-head sets! :)
-water bottles (one cute one per child)
-some sort of lap tray
-magazines, books
-bring a "new something" for each child for their age group
-sunglasses!
-comfry travel throw for each child (lightweight)
-don't forget sunglasses
-I assume each child has some gadget w/a camera on it :)
-lots of drinks, water & snacks
Have a fun, safe trip

if you have AAA you can meet with a travel specialist and then can plan everything out for you and even make you a map to follow. They have a better idea of places to go and eat and even find you places that take AAA for a discount. Even if you don't have it I would think about getting it incase you need roadside assistance durring a road trip like that. SOunds like fun! can't wait until my kids are older so we can start taking road trips. We want to do a new sports stadium every year in a RV. can't wait to start.

There is SOO much to see in DC. You could spend the entire week there and not be bored.The Smithsonian Museums are great and are all FREE! The National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian and is free as well. Then there are the monuments. There's Lincoln, Washington (which you can no longer go up in due to last summer's earthquake), Jefferson...and I think the Vietnam "Wall" is a must. Arlington Cemetary is also a great place to take the kids to realized the sacrifice so many have made so that we can be free. The changing of the guards ceremony there is every 1/2 hour and is worth seeing.

There is a new "International Spy" museum which is very interesting. I think it's close to $20/each though.

The metro is well marked and it's easy to navigate the city. There are free park and ride lots on the outskirts of the city. I would much rather park and take the metro than fight the traffic and pay the exhortitant garage parking rates.

Have fun!

I wouldn't waste the money renting another vehicle if you already have a minivan, unless you have a lease and cannot afford to have extra mileage.

Check out MapQuest you can create an account and map out your drive, you can add different places to stop for food, hotels etc. I would suggest a cooler in the car, I have one that Coleman makes and you plug it into the car (like charging a cell phone), bring snacks and a DVD player unless you have one built in.

I would not rend a van if you have a minivan already. That's just more money to rent plus a lot of times they use more gas as well. I don't know about stops just make sure you have lots of movies for all. Last time we took a road trip we got a DVD player for each of the boys. That way they didn't have to fight over who wanted to watch what. It made it so much easier!!!!!!

Good luck and God Bless!

We travel with our three at least two - three times a year for 2000 miles. Everyone HAS to get out when we stop if even to just stretch. We bring balls and create other active games at rest stops so they can burn some energy. Most of our stops are 30 mins so we don't focus on getting there as fast as possible, but as happy as possible. We also pack a lot of lunches and find local parks on our GPS as we are driving. The main reason is that this allows kids to run and play while I assemble lunch and is a lot less constraining than a restaurant where they have to sit and be quiet after hours or sitting and gives us healthier options.

The kids love exploring the parks and there are option many options within 10 miles of the highways. We see a lot of cool things that way and always leave time to make a detour to see something that we may pass that looks interesting. We also have "quiet" time in the car where all movies, music, etc. goes off and everyone gets a break for a bit. Good luck!

PS: I agree you don't need a larger vehicle and will spend a lot more on gas and get tired of the yelling. We sometimes switch up seats so kids can sit by different siblings and one is alone in the back for some alone time. It helps:) My kids are younger, but this applied when I was younger and the oldest of eight kids and we took super long trips.