road trip printable

25+ Free Road Trip Printables for a Truly Fun Family Car Trip

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Our last road trip activities for kids post has been read more than 50,000 times! And it’s been shared more than 8,000 times.  Wow – people really liked our ideas! It was full of the ideas we came up with to survive travelling with kids on a long road trip.  I’ve got a new tool in my family travel arsenal: Road Trip Printables!

Our last real road trip was 5 years ago and as we plan our next long road trip I’m happy to reread the former one and remember the tips!  

I don’t know how I forgot some of them – I’m adding aluminum foil to my list right now. 😜

This year our kids will be older: 11 and 13.  We expect our ride to be smoother than last time – for one they’ve both got bigger bladder capacity now.   (This time I don’t expect our son to need to publicly urinate in front of state troopers .)

But this time around we are spending more total hours in the car travelling from Ontario to Calgary, Alberta and back.  Dang, Ontario is big – it’s going to take two days just to get to the border from home!

We need some new ideas to keep our family amused during these extra long hours in the car.

I decided to find a whole bunch of free printable road trip car games and make a huge folder of them to spread out over the drive.  

I plan to also bring some plastic sheet protectors and low odor dry erase markers to reuse the best games.  ‘Cause I ain’t bringing a printer on this trip with us.

It would seem like a waste to just amass such a great list for ourselves when we can share them all with you!   So here’s a list of 25+ great free road trip printables – games worth printing for your long drive ahead.

Also, check out our kid-approved list of more  family fun road trip activities and games !

25+ Free Printable Road Trip Games

Don’t miss our kid-approved list of more  family fun road trip activities and games !

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this stuff is great!!!

Road Trip Activities for Kids - 11 Free Printables (PDF)

Check out our collection of printable activities for your next family road trip.

Download All 11 Printables

Or get the activity sheets individually:

• Alphabet Object Hunt (PDF)
• American States Word Search (PDF)
• Counting Cars (PDF)
• License Plate Letter Hunt (PDF)
• Passing Cars (PDF)
• Road Trip Bingo (PDF)
• Road Trip I Spy (PDF)
• Road Trip Maze (PDF)
• Spot the Difference (PDF)
• State Capitals Word Scramble (PDF)
• Would you Rather (PDF)

15 Printable Road Trip Activities & Travel Games

By: Author Jacquie Fisher

Posted on Published: December 3, 2021

Categories Travel Fun

The *NEW* printables are here — road trip activities and travel games for kids and tweens !

Summer has finally arrived and you know that that means?

It’s Road Trip Season!!

Yes, that’s totally a thing 😉

We LOVE to get out and explore A LOT so keeping kids busy en route with printable road trip games & activities is a must!

And now we’ve pulled them all together for you in one AMAZING new printable set!

Whether you’re getting ready for your first car trip or are a road trippin’ pro, take a peek at these AWESOME printable games, activities and planning pages that will keep kids busy and make planning your next car trip a breeze!

15 Road Trip Activities and Games (printables!)

We really love to travel a lot with our family, especially by car.

If you’re read our 50 Road Trip Hacks & Tips ,  you’ll know that the one thing I highly recommend is bringing along some fun activities that are sure to keep kids & tweens occupied!

So our *newest* set of printables will quickly help you keep the kids busy with LOTS of games, activities & challenges!

• Fun activities for kids to play on their own and also ones for families to play together.
• Traditional games like I-Spy and “Would you rather…” questions
• And Unique activities like the Road Trip Challenge & “Road Trip Bucks” Incentive system which can ONLY be found in this Travel Pack!

Plus we’ve included some great printable resources to help you save time while planning your trip too!

The Road Trip Activities Pack includes 36 printable pages:

• an 8-page Road Trip Travel Journal,
• 10 Fun games & activities like I-Spy, Scavenger Hunt, “Would You Rather…” questions & MORE!
• PLUS the “Road Trip Bucks: Rewards for Good Behavior” System (this is PURE gold for inspiring positive behavior on the trip!)
• And planning pages for adults: a Road Trip checklist & “What to Pack” planner too!

Printable Travel Activities & Games for Kids and Tweens

The pack includes independent travel activities and games for kids & tweens :

• An 8-page Road Trip Travel Journal
• a Road Trip Challenge game
• (2) Road Trip I Spy Game (a color & a black/white version that doubles as a coloring page)
• a Road Trip ABC Scavenger Hunt
• a Doodle Page
• “How Many Words Can You Make”? Activity
• and an Autograph Page (for fun people you meet on the trip!)

Get the Road Trip Activities Pack NOW!

Road Trip Challenge: A Travel Scavenger Hunt

One of my FAVORITE activities in the pack is the Road Trip Challenge!

It’s part scavenger hunt, part building life skills and part learning!!

Kids need to complete various items during the trip —

• easy activities such as “find a license plate from a state that’s not where you live”
• life skills like “help pack the car for the trip!”
• learning activities such as calculating how many miles you’ll drive on the trip
• and items that keep them searching — “find a car with a dog in it!”

Print the challenge off for each kid traveling with you and have a friendly competition to see who can check off the most items before you get to your destination 😉

Not only does it keep kids occupied throughout the whole trip, it’s also a wonderful way to get them to chip in and help, be more observant and document their travels.

Printable Road Trip Journal for Kids & Tweens

This is an AWESOME way to make & record memories while you travel The 8-page Road Trip Journal is so colorful and invites kids & tweens can document their trip (and squeeze in a little writing during the summer months too 😉

And we’ve also included some super fun Signature Boxes with the pack – one for all family members to sign so you have a handwritten memory of who traveled with you and the other is an ‘autograph’ page for any else that you meet during your trip!

Road Trip Games for Families to Play Together

This packet includes the following road trip games for kids and adults to enjoy:

• Once Upon a Car Ride Counting Game
• “Would You Rather…” Road Trip edition
• “What’s the First thing you should do…?” Questions
• and the “How Many Words Can You Make”? Activity is also a fun one for all ages!

 Each of these games will inspire some fun conversations and help families to get to know one another during the long ride. 

They’re also great for enhancing memory & communication skills too!

Printable Road Trip Planners

Also included are additional resources for adults planning the trip:

• a Road Trip checklist
• a “What to Pack” Trip planning printable
• and the Road Trip Incentive Money along with Spend & Earn Charts

The Road Trip Checklist will help you easily prepare for your next family car trip! It includes what to do to get the car ready for your trip, must-have tech items and tips for organizing the car to be sure everyone has their own space!

The Trip Planning & Packing List is a great tool to help you quickly know what items you’ll need to pack based on what activities you’ll do on your trip.  Use it to create a master packing list of clothes, shoes, gear and other must-have necessities.

Road Trip Rewards & Play Travel Money

And I’m saving the best for last — the “ Road Trip Bucks: Travel Incentives for Good Behavior” system !!

Seriously, this is so EASY to do on the trip and an AWESOME way to inspire kids to help out, find quiet activities to do and not constantly ask to be using tech!

The goal of Road Trip Bucks is to give kids options for positive behaviors while traveling, such as helping to keep the car clean, playing a game with siblings, reading a book, etc.

You choose what behaviors will earn Road Trip Bucks & how the earned play money is spent during your trip.

We’ve included ALL the following items in the printable Road Trip Activities Pack to help you get started:

• Road Trip Bucks (3 pages of travel-themed play money to print & use)
• A sample chart listing various “Activities” kids can do to earn Road Trip money
• A blank “How to Earn Road Trip Bucks” chart you can fill in with your own activities & ideas
• A list of rewards kids can buy with their Road Trip bucks
• And a blank “How to Spend Road Trip Bucks” chart that you can tailor with your own incentives!

YES!! I want the Road Trip Activities Pack!!

Just print off the Road Trip money, fill in your own activities & earning ideas and hang the charts in the car when you start your trip!

I like to hand out money as it’s earned – each child gets their own envelope so they can keep track of their money on the trip.  BONUS:  this is also a great math activity while traveling 😉

While we’ve included travel-themed activities for our examples, you can also expand on those options too.

Here are a few other ideas you might include as “Activities Kids Can Do”:

• Help get the dog/cat ready before the trip
• Pack your own backpack for the trip
• Follow our route on a map while we drive
• Finish your summer reading assignment
• Learn about places we’ll visit on the trip

After earning all that money, kids can’t wait to spend it!

I like to be sure kids are really ‘earning’ their reward so I usually price the rewards at $2 – $10 which means they’ll need to complete at least a few of the activities to earn enough to spend their money.

A few ideas of rewards that can be offered include:

• 30 minutes of tech time
• Money to buy souvenirs
• or be the first to choose your bed when we get there (I found out this is a pretty big incentive for tweens & teens!)

Again, add in your own incentives along with purchase amounts for your trip.  A few other ideas could be:

• Choose an attraction to visit on our trip
• Choose what snack we’ll have after dinner (you can give them choices like ice cream, s’mores, etc)
• or even “Ride in the front seat for the next leg of the trip” if you have tweens & teens who would enjoy that privilege.

Grab your pack & spend less time planning and more time ENJOYING your trip!

Wishing you Safe Travels!

xo ~ Jacquie

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Best Road Trip Games for Young Kids: 15+ Free Printables

Need free printables to keep young kids busy on a family road trip? Me, too! Here are my favorite road trip games for kids aged three to about eight.

I’m planning a four-day cross-Canada road trip with three kids between three and seven. On my own. No tablets or DVD players. Yikes! My husband will be driving the moving van, so entertainment is solely up to me. How to stay sane?

Well, I found some GREAT free printables for family road trips online. Many are for kids older than mine, so it took some sifting. 

But, wow! There are some INCREDIBLE free road trip activities out there. Here I share my favorites with you.

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links to excellent travel-related products. This means that if you use the links below to make a purchase, we’ll receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

How to use these free printable road trip games for young kids:

• Print them out and put them into a binder. This gives your child a portable desk, AND keeps everything together and tidy. 
• Slip them into sheet protectors , where it makes sense. This is an easy and cheap way to make them reusable. 
• Add a zippered pouch with crayons, washable markers and dry erase markers. 

And wa-la! Hours of quiet time. (Here’s to hoping!)

1. Road Trip Banner

But FIRST! Pinterest is FULL of fun ideas for family road trips, and this is one of my favorites. 

A simple, visual way to “map out” your road trip for your young kids is to string it up in your car! Use string, yarn or even gold duck tape as the road, like Grey House Harbor . Include your overnight stops. Interesting landmarks you’ll see along the way. Planned stops. And then move your car along as you go.

I’m guessing my kids will still ask, “Are we there yet” a million times. But at least I have something to point to. And it’s fun for me, too!

Use my simple Road Trip Banner Printable to create your own!

2. Free COLORING MAPS Printables for Family Road Trips

For simple maps young kids can color, head to Where Exactly Maps . Where Exactly Maps provides free printable map coloring sheets perfect for inspiring your little travel wanderer.

Maps include United States, Canada, Europe, United Kingdom, North East Asia, Africa and South America. Each one has two versions: simple, with only the country name, and complete with province/state names. 

While there, also check out the tectonic plates coloring sheet and labeling printable! A great road trip printable for your little geologist. Can work for both older and younger kids.

3. Road Trip COLORING PAGES for Young Kids

I love the coloring pages from Doodle Art Alley . They have a fantastic variety, and appropriate for various ages and skill levels. Countries and states or provinces. National parks. Transportation. Plus so many other fun ideas, like seasons, nature, animals and princesses.  

Two other great kids coloring pages for family road trips are:

• Transportation Color By Number Printables from Captain Coloring Book. Includes a ship, plane and helicopter. These are great for preschoolers because they’re color-coded.
• Vacation Color By Number Printables from All Kids Network. A huge variety, including beach, ice cream and transportation printables. These simple coloring pages have the color words for the legend so they’re great for early readers. 

4. TRAVEL BINGO Free Printables Game for Family Road Trips

There are a LOT of travel bingo printables out there. Most are best for USA-specific road trips, with license plates, flags, signs and fast food restaurants only found there.

Here are my two favorite travel bingo printables for kids that work for pretty much any road trip location:

• Meander and Coast : Super cute, has a good variety of things and is mostly country-generic. The only thing is the American flag, which isn’t a big deal to me.
• Stuffed Suitcase : A fun road trip games printables pack, including four versions of travel bingo and calling cards. Because more than one kid means you need more than one version, of course! I also love the “I Spy” game. The rest of the pack is fantastic for older kids.

Open to buying an all-in-one road trip printables bundle? Check out this one from BE Family Travel on Etsy.

5. Easy Road Trip WORD SEARCHES for Young Kids

I’m a big fan of word searches. When I was young, my mom had search races with me and let me win sometimes! Good memories. And they’re great for early readers. So long as they’re easy. 

Here are some great easy road trip word search printables:

• Easy Summer Word Search from Puzzles to Print. An easy, friendly word search with eight words. The longest is only six letters. 
• Let’s Take a Trip Word Search from Word Game World. More challenging, with 20 words. Most words are short. The longest is sunglasses. 
• Short Vowel Word Search from Teachers Pay Teachers. This word search isn’t specifically about road trips or travel, but it’ll work! It’s perfect for early readers to build confidence and have fun coloring, too.

For a small cost, you might just want to purchase this easy road trip package from Little Wiggles Design on Etsy. It’s fantastic for ages 3 to 5.

6. “I SPY” Road Trip Games for Young Kids

A fantastic resource for “I Spy” free printables is Paper Trail Design . They’re the perfect balance of easy AND challenging for young kids. How is that possible, you ask? Well, take a look! 

The images are simple, but of various sizes. Quantities are all below 10, but together sure add up. You have plenty of fun themes to choose from, like ice cream, mermaids and Star Wars. Or classic options, like transportation, camping, road trip, animals and weather. 

Other great “I Spy” printable games for road trips include Outdoor Adventure and Summer Fun from Picklebums.

What should they pack in their suitcase, carry-on or road trip bag? Check out this Kids Vacation Packing List . 

7. “I SPY ” RACE Game Printables for Family Road Trips

A fun and easy twist on the “I Spy” road trip game is Awesome Alphabet Road Trip I Spy Printable from Sunny Day Family. It’s cute, and it’ll take early readers a while to get to Z! 

For early readers, they can simply cross off the letter when they see it. Stronger readers and writers can write out the word or license plate combo they saw.

8. Simple Road Trip SCAVENGER HUNT Printable Games for Young Kids

There are a lot of road trip scavenger hunt printables out there. Similar to travel bingo printables, I found many had USA-specific items that wouldn’t work that great for my young kids on a cross-Canada road trip.

But I DID find a couple of great generic ones! My favorite is from Make and Takes (illustrated by Juliann Law ). The items on the list can be found on any road trip. Like power lines. Birds. Bike. And the pencil-sketch style of these drawings is beautiful. I I hope they inspire my own little artists! 

Another road trip scavenger hunt printable I love is this car color search from Productive Pete . A simple concept, perfect for building confidence and working up to the tougher ones!

9. DRAWING PROMPTS Printables for Family Road Trips

My five and seven year olds LOVE drawing. We go through SO. MUCH. PAPER! So, these free drawing printables from Picklebums are perfect for young family road trips.

My favorite free printables for road trips include:

• Road Trip prompts, like “what’s in the truck” and “where does the road go.” The last one is SO Mary Poppins!
• Make a Face is a great reusable drawing prompt. Put it in a sheet protector to use with dry erase markers. I can hear the laughter!
• Drawing Challenge Cards is excellent for early readers. Plenty of drawing prompts for hours of entertainment. You could also pull a card out whenever they get bored. 

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10. Road Trip DICE DRAWING Games for Young Kids

During online learning, my daughter’s kindergarten teacher had them play this roll-a-monster game from Embracing Motherhood. It’s been SUCH a hit in our household! I bought large dice for each of my kids. And wa-la! A perfect free printables road trip game for young kids.

Here are my favorite roll-and-draw free printables for young kids:

• Roll-a-butterfly from Printoteka. Because butterflies are awesome.
• Roll-a-monster (3 options) available on ARTimus Prime.
• Drawing games from Drawing How to Draw, including roll-a-face and roll-a-landscape.

Put them to work AND get them excited for your family trip! Check out this Kids Packing List with Pictures . Even preschoolers can use it!

11. PUPPET THEATER Road Trip Activities for Young Kids

My goodness, there are SO many super cute finger puppet printables on Pinterest! If your kids are into animals, fairies, princesses, or robots, just pick your favorites! I’ll prepare a set for my 2 year old, and let my oldest two color and cut out their own. 

Here are three of my favorite finger puppet free printables for family road trips:

• Animal Finger Puppets from Highlights. Print in color, cut out and tape into rings. As easy as you get!
• Farm Animal Finger Puppets from Arty Crafty Kids. Kids can color before cutting and taping into puppets.
• Noah’s Ark Animal Finger Puppets from The Confident Journal. No taping involved, but you may want to pre-cut the finger holes. 

If you’re open to paying a small amount, you really should check out the finger puppets from Pukaka on Etsy. They’re SO cute! Family puppets. Monsters and aliens. Monkeys and circus performers. And characters from your favorite kids book.

Note: I highly recommend printing at least two copies per child. Even if you print onto cardstock, I can see these ripping pretty quickly. And then there’d be tears. SO. MANY. TEARS. Consider yourself warned!

12. GLASSES Printables for Family Road Trips

Check out these free printable glasses from Picklebums. I LOVE this idea for dressing up and making the family road trip extra exciting. Combine them with a crown , and you’re all set.

13. Road Trip MAZE Printables for Young Kids

Mazes can be a great way for young kids to pass the time on a road trip. Choose from many different themes that your kids are interested in on Pinterest. 

Here are my favorite mazes for family road trips:

• Vehicle mazes and country mazes from Muse Printables. This huge collection of easy mazes is perfect for family road trips.
• Seasonal Mazes from Superstar Worksheets. Beautiful free printables to celebrate the changing of seasons.
• Transportation mazes from Emma Pelling at Smiling Art. Elegant and unique. My seven and five year olds will love coloring them in. Plus the counting challenge, too.

14. PLAYDOUGH MATS Free Printables for Family Road Trips

Check out these playdough mats from Picklebums. Slide these into sheet protectors and you have perfect playdough entertainment for a family road trip. Add a pitstop challenge! Have them find leaves, flowers and pebbles to use in their creations. 

My favorite free playdough mat printables for road trips include the bugs and pirates sheets. You can also support this shop by paying a nominal amount for the city playdough mat.

You may also like Best Trips with MOM

15. TRAVEL KIT of Free Road Trip Games for Kids

Here’s one of my favorite travel activity packs for young kids, offered free from Somewhat Simple . It has a few special gems that set it apart.

Like the Made You Laugh jokes, which my daughters will absolutely LOVE. The color Slug Bug travel game, which is simple enough for all three of my young kids to play. And the Do Not Open Until tags, which are perfect for building fun and anticipation along the way. Think: Bubbles for a playground stop and glow wands when it gets dark!

16. TRAVEL JOURNAL Free Printables for Young Kids

Keeping a travel journal is SUCH a great habit to teach kids. On my first solo trip, my mom gave me a journal. And I’ve been keeping them and re-living my travels from them ever since!

The style of travel journal for young kids will obviously be different from older kids. Since my kids are new to writing and practicing their sounding skills, I want a travel journal with a blend of writing and drawing. 

Here are my favorite FREE road trip journals for young kids:

• Travel Journal Printable by Dover Publishing. Simple writing prompts with images for weather and rating. 
• My Vacation Printable by Five Marigolds. Cute and friendly style, with simple writing prompts and a drawing section.
• Travel Journal Template by Kids Travel Books. A cute 26-page, A to Z kids travel journal with writing and drawing prompts. Some pages are best for international travel but most work for any type of trip. 

In the end, I had a specific vision for a kids travel journal to engage my early readers, and couldn’t find it. So, I built it myself. If you’re open to a small purchase, check out our Kids Travel Journal Printable for Early Readers .

What are your favorite road trip printables for young kids? Any tips for the rest of us? Share in the comments below!

Enjoy this post? Please SHARE with your friends!

You may also like:

• How To PLAN a Road Trip You’ll LOVE in 7 Steps
• Best Kids Travel TRAYS For Cars, Planes and DIY
• Kids Travel JOURNAL For Early Readers
• Kids Vacation Packing List

Featured photo credit (car with kids): hwilson8 from Reshot

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20+ FREE Road Trip Game Printables

Welcome to Sugar, Spice & Glitter! Please note, this post may contain affiliate links. For more details, see our Full Disclosure .

Welcome back to Sugar, Spice & Glitter! Please note, this post may contain affiliate links. For more details, see our Full Disclosure .

Ella & I love road tripping and while sharing our Best Tips for an Awesome Family Road Trip , I thought I should put together a list of some of our favorite free printable road trip games !

Free Printable Travel Games for Kids

Really, the majority of printable activities can be done on a road trip, but sometimes it’s fun to grab some printables that specifically relate to your road trip or give unique activities that can only be done in the car (like license plate games).

I almost always laminate our printables for repeated use, but you can also use a page protector for a quick alternative.

Clipboards or portable lap desks are great for letting kids draw or play these games on-the-go. We love our cheap plastic lap desk – it has compartments that can store markers, craft supplies, additional notebooks or games, etc. We got ours at Walmart or Michaels, but you can also grab similar versions online .

Another awesome way to pass the time during your road trip is our Road Trip Chain hack:

Printable Road Trip Games

1. I love these easy Do-a-Dot Travel Printables from Moms & Crafters – there are 5 of them that help practice color matching and fine motor coordination in little ones!

2. These Road Trip Drawing Prompts from Picklebums are a fun way to boost creativity during a long trip.

3. Itsy Bitsy Fun has a cute  transportation memory game you can print from home.

4. This Road Trip Printable Pack from Playdough to Plato has a few different options including a graphing game!

5. Of course, our Word Battelship Printable is a favorite on our road trips! (Click here to download!)

6. We also have an ABC “Scavenger Hunt”-style Printable Road Trip Game. (Click here to download!)

7. No printer needed for this quick Alphabet Tic Tac Toe from The Letters of Literacy.

8. If you’re worried you haven’t packed enough printables, a whiteboard is a great idea from the OT Toolbox!

9. And Next Comes L has so many of these wonderful I Spy printables, like this Watermelon I Spy version .

10. Grab a shoelace and print off this Shoe Lace Tying Printable for some practical life practice on-the-go.

Printable Travel Games for Kids

11. Mum in the Madhouse shares a variety of free car printables including classics and one perfect for the budding car enthusiast – I Spy for Different Car Models ! (I might just print that one off for my dad the next time he joins us!)

12. For American road trips, this License Plate Game from Makeovers & Motherhood is a great way to learn geography and stay entertained!

13. Road Trip Pictionary from Lalymom lets pre-writers get in on the fun with some great drawings of their trip!

14. These Bingo Road Trip Printables from Housing a Forest are completely black and white which I like for saving colored ink and also the kids can add coloring them in as one activity!

15. I am loving this Busy Book for Travel (with a quick tutorial for turning any notebook into a travelling busy book!) from Powerful Mothering.

16. Two printables in one with this Car Bingo Game – one for specific car models and another for general road signs/objects from That’s What Che Said. (Plus a bonus blank bingo card for personalizing your own!)

17. Fun Learning Ideas has sooo many great printables, like this Find the Numbers Pet Game .

18. Another fun one from Fun Learning Ideas, this Pattern Making Race  requires pattern blocks which you can keep in a cup or ziplock bag.

19. If your trip involves a plane ride, this Airplane Scavenger Hunt from Mama, Papa, Bubba is a great find!

20. And if your trip involves a stop in a hotel, grab this Hotel Scavenger Hunt from Moms & Munchkins!

21. Here is an entire folder set of printables from Poofy Cheeks!

22. This  collection of 4 Road Trip Printables  from In the Playroom includes a game of Traffic Jam, Car Bingo, Car Search and the Alphabet Game.

If you’re planning a road trip of your own, be sure to grab our free road trip planning printables here.

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Was unable to download the free recyclable game from FB… link did not work…….

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Simply wanna remark that you have a very nice site, I like the design it really stands out.

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Nice Post keep going on.

Amazing Post on the Internet , Keep Rocking

What a great collection of road trip friendly games for keeping everyone happy.

Top-class ideas.

Why do you laminate your games?

Hi Yogid, I laminate them for a few reasons. It makes the games more sturdy for travelling and also waterproof if anyone spills their drink on the game. Also, if it’s a game that we can use a marker on, it allows us to re-use that game over and over again with a simple wipe clean.

Thanks for the tips can’t wait for our first family roadtrip

I hope you have an amazing first family road trip!

My kids loved the battleship game. Thanks for sharing!

I’m so glad they enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know!

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Over 6,200 homeschool resources and growing!

50 Road Trip Printables to Keep Kids Busy on Trips

Published: March 10, 2023

Contributor: Sara Dennis

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

Are you tired of bored, unhappy kids in the backseat on a long road trip? Instead of handing a tablet to your child to keep them entertained, use these road trip printables !

50 Free Printable Road Trip Games

Road trip activities for kids are a fun way to keep your kids entertained on your next road trip without needing to pull out electronic devices. You can use printable games for the whole family or activity sheets for individual children. The best part is that you’ll find free printable car games for younger and older kids alike!

Road Trip Scavenger Hunt Printables

On a scavenger hunt, children run around looking for items on a list. These printable scavenger hunt ideas change the classic game slightly and have children hunting for items they might see on their next car trip.

Scavenger Hunt Printable – You’ll find scavenger hunt printables at different levels to print for your kids. One includes pictures of the items for toddlers and preschoolers to check off, while the other one includes a longer list without any pictures.

I Spy Road Trip Printables

My kids adore I spy coloring pages when we’re traveling. But sometimes only one child wants to play I Spy. The best way to solve this problem is to print one of these free printables that feature I Spy games for kids.

I Spy Scavenger Hunt – During the next road trip season, print up a few fun I Spy Scavenger Hunt games for older children to play. They’ll stay busy trying to find a blue truck, a bearded motorcyclist, and other items while you cruise down the road.

Road Trip I SPY Printable – Download this pdf file for your younger children. The printables include pictures of people, signs, and other objects, making it the perfect way to keep your youngest kids entertained in the car.

I Spy Restaurant Printables

As you’re driving down the road, you will pass by different restaurants. These fun travel activities have children playing I Spy using restaurants.

Restaurant I Spy – This worksheet includes pictures of the various restaurant logos, so it’s a great printable to give to your non-readers so they can keep track of which restaurants they’ve seen on their road trip adventure.

Printable Restaurant I Spy – This I Spy is a restaurant-themed I Spy printable. Kids won’t be looking out the window. Instead, they’ll be searching the worksheet for the various styles of eateries.

Road Trip Journal Pages

As you’re traveling across the United States, print up some of these road trip journal pages for your elementary or middle school children. The printable activities will inspire your children to write and journal about their adventures on the road.

Kids Travel Journal – This printable pack includes writing and drawing prompts to help your kids get started. It’s a great addition to an older child’s travel binder.

Travel Journal for Kids – This is a twenty-eight-page printable pack that includes free road trip activities, writing prompts, and fun games to play.

Printable Kids Travel Journal – This printable travel journal includes fun road trip ideas for your kids to complete on the next family outing. They can track the weather, the best and worst parts of the day, and the most interesting thing that happened.

Road Trip Story Starters

Have your kids write a story about the next family road trip. It’s a fabulous way to get kids writing while they’re sitting in the car.

Story Starters for Road Trips – If your kids are having trouble getting started, hand them this printable with story starters. The printable includes a variety of ideas that will inspire your children.

Road Trip Bingo

Are you looking for a fun twist on the classic Bingo game? Then take a look at these Bingo cards! The cards are a great addition to any collection of fun road trip games.

Road Trip Bingo Cards – You’ll find seven variations of this road trip Bingo card so that everyone in your family can have their own card. You’ll search for items such as a rest area, camper, or traffic cone as you travel down the road. There’s even a free space in the middle!

Bingo for Road Trips – This simple Bingo card is perfect for your youngest children. It’s not large and is full of fun things to find as the kids look out the window.

Road Trip Bingo PDF

Road Trip Bingo for Kids – This travel Bingo game is tons of fun whether you’re in a car or in a hotel. It’s super simple, so even two-year-olds can join in the fun.

Try using your drive time to play car Bingo on your next long road trip. You can look out the car window to see what’s outside or search for specific license plates on cars that you pass.

License Plate Bingo – You’ll find a free downloadable license plate Bingo game. Who will be the first to shout Bingo after filling out their card?

Bingo for Car Trips – This Car Bingo game has kids looking outside the car to discover items on their Bingo cards. Kids will be looking for planes, cows, churches, and more!

License Plate Games

These free road trip printables have children looking for license plates from different states. There are several variations of the games, but they’re a fun activity to help kids pass the time studying cars as they travel.

Printable License Plate Game – This travel activity provides a list of all fifty states for you to keep track of the license plates you see as you travel down the road. It’s a fun travel printable that’s perfect for a long car ride.

License Plate Game – Combine geography with a fun license plate game! Color in the state of each license plate you find on the road. Don’t forget to check the license plates of cars at the different rest stops!

Road Trip License Plate Game – This free printable license plate game gives you an image of the various license plates you may see on a long trip. It’s the perfect printable for younger kids as they will have a picture of the license plate they’re looking for.

Altoids License Plate Game for Road Trips

Another great idea is to use an Altoids box to create a license plate game for your kids to play on a long road trip. Make sure the box is empty before you begin!

DIY Mini License Plate Game – Make your own mini-game for your kids to play while traveling. You’ll find a free printable as well as instructions to help you get started.

Printable Road Trip Word Search Puzzles

More fun activities you can print for a long road trip are some free printable word searches . These are great road trip activities to keep your elementary or middle school kids entertained for several hours.

Word Search Road Trip Puzzle – Hand this puzzle to your children and see how many words related to a road trip they can find in the word search. There are approximately twenty words hiding on this sheet.

Printable Word Search – Your kids will love completing this printable road trip word search. They’ll need to search for words such as rest stop, interstate, and destination.

Road Trip Word Scramble

Do your children enjoy word scrambles? Word scrambles are puzzles where the letters are mixed up and kids need to unscramble the letters to figure out the word. These word scramble printables feature words kids will use on a road trip.

Word Scramble Road Trip Puzzles – Are you looking for a word scramble appropriate for younger and older children? This printable includes two different versions: an easy, printable version for younger children and a regular version for older children.

Word Scramble for Road Trips – Print off this colorful word scramble for your kids to complete on your next road trip. It will eat up a lot of time as the kids work to solve the puzzle.

I Spy Road Trip Bingo

Your kids will adore these fun road trip printables that combine two fun games into one. The goal is to spy items outside the car to complete the Bingo cards.

Printable Road Trip Bingo – Kids of all ages will enjoy playing these printable Bingo cards. They even include images to make it easy for even your youngest children to participate in the game.

Free Road Trip Bingo – Can your children find the images on their cards before a sibling? These fun cards are perfect to keep kids entertained while traveling.

Printable Road Trip Scavenger Hunt

On a regular scavenger hunt, kids take off across the neighborhood searching for items on the list. These hunts are created for kids who are stuck in a car for several hours.

Scavenger Hunts for Kids – This list will guarantee good behavior as the kids look out the window in the hope of finding every item on the list. You’ll find two lists available: one for younger children and one for older kids.

Printable Scavenger Hunt – Print and laminate this free printable. Your kids will enjoy crossing off the items they find on the sheet as you travel.

Printable Road Trip Activity Book

Instead of free printable travel games to stave off boredom, try some printable activity books. The books will help your children with their fine motor skills while helping to pass away the time while traveling.

Busy Book for Toddlers – This interactive book for toddlers will keep your kids quietly busy no matter where you are. They’ll have a blast matching the colors, shapes, or animals o your next road trip.

Road Trip Tic Tac Toe

If you’re looking for printable travel games for kids, then don’t miss playing road trip tic tac toe! It’s a great game for a long drive with children bouncing in the back seat.

Tic Tac Toe Printable – Download and print several copies of this printable tic tac toe game. You might want to put the printable into a page protector and use dry erase markers to play.

On the Go Tic Tac Toe – Consider laminating this fun game card to help it last the entire road trip. And think about using snacks instead of markers to play tic tac toe.

Printable Tic Tac Toe – Your kids will love this colorful tic tac toe card! It’s a great way to keep your kids occupied while you travel.

Fun Summer Printables for Car Rides

Summer Fun Worksheets – What could be better than some fun summer worksheets to keep your kids entertained? You’ll find a nice selection of sheets, including a word search, I Spy, and a coloring page.

Alphabet Road Trip I Spy

Try an alphabet game on your next road trip. These games have kids looking to find objects that begin with every letter in the alphabet.

Road Trip Alphabet I Spy – Find an item, or two, or four to fill out each letter of the alphabet! This is a fabulous alphabet game to play with your kids.

Awesome Alphabet I Spy – Can you complete the alphabet by finding an item that begins with each letter of the alphabet? You can play the game individually or as a family while traveling.

Printable Travel Games

Everyone will adore having these printable travel games to complete while stuck in a car for hours on end. You can print them up, hole punch the sheets, and put them into a travel binder.

Printable Roads for Kids – Kids will love running their cars over these roads as they travel around the country. This road trip printable will help to also keep your kids quiet in restaurants.

Road Trip Printables

Road Trip Packet – This packet of printables includes a road trip maze, word search, and a travel bucket list, among other fantastic worksheets.

Printable Games to Play on Road Trips

Fun Games to Play in the Car – What’s better than conversation starters while you’re riding along in the car? One person can start the conversation while the next person answers the questions.

DIY Traveling Activity Idea

Sometimes it’s nice to put together a travel activity that’s a little more involved than a simple printable. These DIY activities are easy to make and will give your children something different to do while traveling.

DIY Travel Activity Kit – Turn a coupon file into a fun game that you can pull out when your kids get bored. If you don’t have a coupon file, you should be able to find one at the dollar store.

Catch a Spider Traveling Activity – This is another fun Altoid tin game you can print and put together for your children. They will need to attempt to catch the right number of spiders. Not only does the game improve your children’s fine motor skills, but it also uses simple math.

Find it On the Road Trip Printables

These find-it-on-the-road printables have kids search cars you pass for specific car colors. It’s a fun way to pass the time at no extra cost!

Car Color Search – Have your children search cars you pass for specific colors. Make sure they check all the cars at the gas stations as well as those on the freeway. They’ll be able to discover each state’s favorite car color!

Rainbow Car Find – Can you find cars in every shade of the rainbow? Print off this fun worksheet and find out.

Do A Dot Travel Printables

Dot marker printables are fun at home. They’re also a great way to keep kids quiet while traveling. You can hand your children a pack of stickers to paste on each dot. Another option is to bring along dot pens in several different colors.

Printable Travel Sheets for Mini Do a Dot – These do-a-dot sheets include images of airplanes, cars, suitcases, and traffic lights, making them fun to complete on a road trip.

Do a Dot Printables for the Car – Hand your child a car do-a-dot printable to complete in the car. Your kids will love having a fun project to complete while traveling.

Summer Do a Dot – If you’re traveling on summer vacation, your kids will be fascinated by these summer do-a-dot printables that feature summer objects.

Drawing Prompts for Road Trips

While writing a story may be fun on a road trip, sometimes kids are in the mood to draw instead of write. These drawing prompts will give your children a few ideas to get them started.

Road Trip Drawing Prompts – These drawing prompts have kids imagine what may be in the various vehicles that they pass. They’ll draw what’s in a truck or where the road goes.

Road Signs Bingo Game

Bingo Game Road Signs – How many road signs will you see on your vacation? Find out with this fun Bingo game featuring road signs that you may pass as you drive.

Printable Road Sign Bingo Game – Your kids will adore playing this road sign Bingo game that’s easy enough for even your preschool children to enjoy.

Games for the Road: Road Sign Bingo – Every passenger will have a different Bingo card as you search for signs. Who will complete their Bingo first?

Road Trip Kindness Activities

It’s easy to think of just our family’s good time while on vacation. But a road trip is also a great time to think about spreading a bit of love and joy as you travel.

Packable Project for Road Trip Kindness – You’ll find fun ideas on how to include small bits of kindness into your travel plans. There are even some printables to download and print to make things easy!

Kindness Activities – Take advantage of these sweet ideas on how to spread some kindness around the country as you drive.

Road Trip Planning Checklist

You’ll find a wonderful selection of travel planning printables below. These printables include a couple of planning checklists and a list of essential items you should remember to take.

Planning Checklist – Have your children help you get ready to travel. These planning checklists were designed so your kids can do some of the packing by themselves.

Checklist for Trips

Road Trip Essentials + Checklist – Are you worried you may forget something? This essential checklist will make sure you haven’t forgotten anything important that you’ll miss when you’re several hundred miles away from home.

Road Trip Packing List

Packing List for Road Trips – This packing list makes sure you know exactly what you need when you’re traveling with kids, such as snacks, technology, or Mad Libs.

How to Make a Road Trip Binder

To make a road trip binder, you’ll want to grab a sturdy three-ring binder so it will hold up to heavy use. Then include some pencil cases with markers, crayons, or pencils. You might prefer to use page protectors and dry erase markers so that your kids can wipe off the sheets each night and have fresh printables to complete in the morning.

Then print up all the printables you believe your children will enjoy, three-hole punch them, and place them in the binder. If you’d like to be super organized, use dividers to keep the pages organized by type of activity.

Road Trip Binder With Printables – You’ll find simple instructions and more printables to include in your road trip binder.

Printables to Add to Road Trip Binder

These are fun printables to include in a road trip binder for any age. You’ll be able to print off coloring pages, a crossword puzzle, or a connect-the-dots printable.

• Connect the Dots Printable
• Printable Memory Game
• Free Printable Mazes for Kids
• Cute Coloring Pages
• Printable Bingo Cards Free
• Follow Directions Worksheet
• Printable Crossword Puzzles

Other Ideas for a Fun Car Ride

Printables aren’t the only option when you’re driving with your kids. You can also play some fun games that don’t require any preparation other than knowledge of the rules and the ability to talk.

Two Truths and a Lie

This game requires that one person tell everyone else two truths and one lie about themselves. The two truths might be: I am a girl. I wear glasses. I am from Mars. Then everyone has to guess which statements are the truth and which statement is the lie.

Play Would You Rather

The idea behind this game is that one person asks a “Would you rather… option A or option B” type question. Then the other people in the car must answer which option they would prefer. It’s a fun way to get a conversation going as people debate the merits of one option over another.

Here are some fabulous would you rather questions for teens to get you started.

In Conclusion

While you may be spending hours traveling around the country in a car this summer, there’s no reason for your kids to be playing on electronic devices the entire time. Create a travel binder for each child filled with some fun printable games for your children and family to play in the car.

Sara Dennis

Sara Dennis is a veteran homeschool mom of six who’s still homeschooling her two youngest kids after the older four have graduated, entered college, and moved on to adult life. She blogs at Classically Homeschooling .

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Printable Road Trip Planner!

by Sharon Rowley 2 Comments

We love to take family road trips – to explore National Parks, see local attractions, and enjoy great food! But maybe you're planning a first time road trip, or maybe you are wondering how to split up a road trip or even how to plan a road trip with multiple stops? If so- this free printable road trip planner and road trip planning guide will certainly help!

Start by Downloading Your Free Printable Road Trip Planner!

This post is going to show you how to start brainstorming vacation ideas with your family, and then bring those big ideas down to a detailed level of planning. And to manage that- you'll want to use this road trip planner!

Simply sign up below to join the MomOf6 community, and you'll be directed to a thank you page with download instructions!

Then hop right back here to read how to use this road trip planner!

*You can view our Privacy Policy here . To access the printable without subscribing to our newsletter, click here to send an email requesting access.

Road Trip Planning Guide

Where are you headed?

The best way to plan a road trip is to start with a general destination/area of the country in mind, and then ask your family some questions about what they think might be the cool things to do in that area.

A great way to start this discussion is to use a map (I love using a map like the one above This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. that shows the National Parks it!) or a Road Atlas ( this one features the National Parks as well This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. !) and look at it together to spark some discussion.

For example, our family is talking about planning a trip to California this summer- so I kicked off the discussion by asking my kids questions like, “When you think about California, what comes to mind? What places in California do you think would be amazing to see? What kinds of things do you think would be cool to do there?”

The idea is to get a feel for what their perceptions are of an area- and what might make a trip like this awesome for them!

Write down everyone's ideas in the “Dream List” section of the road trip planner.

When you are done working on this “dream list” section of the road trip planner, you'll know exactly what to plan to make this a great family road trip!

Break it Down Into A Daily Travel Plan

When figuring out how to plan a road trip with multiple stops, like the one we are planning in California, I start by plotting out our possible route on Google Maps . I enter our starting point and then have it give me directions to our first destination, and then I continue adding destinations until I have completed our road trip loop.

Sometimes it becomes obvious that I haven't planned my destinations in the right order to minimize the driving time, and when that happens I just “grab” the destinations and drag them into the correct place in the desired order, and Google Maps recalculates the distances to drive.

Once I feel I like the general plan of this multi-stop road trip- I'll save the map that I created. (Click on the three lines in the upper left corner of Google Maps, and then click “Share or Embed Map” and then copy the link to the map. I paste that into wherever I am keeping notes for this trip).

I then go back to my Road Trip Planner Printable- and I start to plug in the timeline and all of the destinations, writing in the distance in terms of miles and travel time between stops. (To see the distances between locations in Google Maps, click “Details” on the left side where it shows the car icon and the grand total mileage and travel time. It will then expand the list to show the distance and time between stops.)

Be Mindful of Travel Time!

Even though you are planning a road trip- I am sure your family doesn't want to spend their entire vacation in the car! So there are a few tips I can share on how to split up a road trip and make the time in car work for your family:

• Know how much time feels like “too much time” in the car. For us- we can do a 12-18 hour haul to get to our starting destination. But after that, we like to keep it under 4 hours of in-car time during any other day of our trip. And ideally- we like to break up our driving days so that we spend more than one night in one place if we can.
• We know that for our family- the best time to drive is in the early morning hours. If get everyone up at 6 am to pack up the car and go- we know that all of our teens will go right back to sleep once we are underway- usually sleeping for the 4-hour drive to wherever we are headed. When they wake up at 10 am to start their day- we're already there! But for parents with younger kids, you might find that it is best to put in a few hours during a mid-day nap. Figure out what works best for your family!
• Know your driving capabilities. My husband and I are early risers anyway- so driving in the morning works better for our own alertness levels. Other drivers might find that evening drives work better. Know what works for you!

Add Your Trip Details

This is where it really gets exciting! Now it's time to plan out activities for each day! What are you going to see and do? Are there any great restaurants you want to try? How long do you want to spend at each place (knowing this will tell you how many things to plan in one day).

What tickets do you need to secure in advance? (If there is something you absolutely want to do on this trip- buy your tickets as far in advance as possible!)

Where can you build in some downtime or allow for flexibility if something cool pops up?

Where do you begin to do research on a destination?

My two favorite ways to research a destination are to use Fodor's Travel Books and to do Google searches for an area, adding “Best Things To Do With Kids”.

So for our California trip, I purchased Fodor's California This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. and literally flipped through every page of the book, circling places that I thought would be great for us.

I also did Google searches on all of the areas we are interested in, such as “Things To Do in San Francisco with Kids” (or “with Teens”). Armed with these ideas- I went back to my family to see what they thought of these things.

But I also love to hold back a few surprises that only my husband and I know that we are going to do- and that we can share with the kids during the trip!

Then be sure to check out this list of the Best Travel Games This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. for kids over on my Amazon influencer page This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. !

Calculate Your Budget

You should have enough of a trip framework at this point to start calculating your expenses. (I know- the least fun, but very necessary part of your vacation planning!)

It's important that you know how much your activities and food costs will be, as well as what gas will cost for your road trip so that you can establish a budget for your accommodations.

In my opinion, I like to work backward into determining the amount I can spend on hotel rooms or AirBNBs knowing that I have first set aside enough of our vacation budget to cover all of the things that we want to do. Because when vacation is over- your memories are usually based on all that you did together more than on where you stayed!

Book Your Accommodations

And finally- now that you know your desired travel dates for each location and a budget for your accommodations, it's time to start making reservations!

For every reservation that I make, I send the email confirmation into a vacation planning folder that I set up in my email inbox. That makes it easy to quickly pull up confirmation numbers if I need them at check-in. On my road trip planner, I will also make a note of cancellation policies for each accommodation. Hotels often give you a 2-3 day advance cancellation window- but condo or AirBNB reservations may not be cancelable.

If I book anything that restricts my ability to cancel my reservation- airline tickets, accommodations, tickets for activities, I also purchase cancelation insurance. Yes- it is an added cost to my trip that most times I never use. But when you are traveling with a family of 8 people as I do- you need to be able to have an out and get your money back if someone were to get sick and you had to cancel your vacation. So give some serious thought to protecting your investment, or steer clear of bookings that don't give you room to cancel!

Was This Helpful?

I hope that you find the free printable road trip planner and the planning guide helpful to you as you plan your next family road trip!

Need help packing for a road trip?

You might want to check out these other posts that offer tips and advice on planning and packing for road trips:

• Packing for a Road Trip : How to Pack the Inside of Your Car
• The Best Car Coolers for a Family Road Trip
• 8 Must-Have Road Trip Essentials!
• Are We There Yet? Tracking the Family Road Trip

And if you are looking for some cool family road trip destinations:

• 5 Amazing National Parks for Your Summer Bucket List
• Things to Do in Williamsburg with Kids!
• Things to Do in New Smyrna Beach Florida with Kids!
• 5 Reasons to Visit Mammoth Caves with Kids
• 10 Great  Things to Do In South Dakota  with Kids!

Elisha Jo Northup says

January 17, 2021 at 7:40 pm

Where’s the link to download the road trip planner? I did see the words in bold at the first paragraph of this article and it isn’t clickable? I looked through the entire article to try and download this content – nothing. HELP!

Sharon Rowley says

January 18, 2021 at 1:36 pm

You can add your name and email to the subscribe box and you will be brought to the thank you page where you can download the game, and you will not be added to the list twice.

You can also find the link to my printables library in every email that I send.

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Home › Blog › Popular Road Trip Printables That Are A Must For Hitting The Road

Popular Road Trip Printables That Are A Must For Hitting The Road

Published Jun 09, 2023

Today I wanted to share my favorite road trip printables you can print out for free. Whether you want to keep thing organized or have a printable on hand to pass the time for young kids, I got you covered! Sit back and scroll and find a handful of printables at your fingertips that all involve planning your next road trip! Don’t stress over how to entertain your kids, or finding a way to ensure you packed all the essentials, these road trip printables will swoop in to save the day.

Packing lists, travel Bingo, games and more are what you will find below. Nothing beats a good printable that you can use to save the day. I do recommend for the kids to play with is to buy these clear sheet protectors so that they don’t tear up the paper, or ruin it in the beginning of the trip. It also helps protect the printables from accidental spills. Also, make sure to check out these road trip hacks to make your trip as smooth sailing as it can be.

14 Road Trip Printables I Recommend

1. printable packing list.

Print out this traveling kids packing list . This is great for those older kids who want to be independent but might still need a little guidance on what to pack!

2. Printable Trip Planner

This printable planner allows you to write out and plan your trip by the hour or even day. This is a perfect way to stay organized and stick to a schedule.

3. Printable RV Checklist

If you are traveling by RV check out this free printable RV checklist to ensure you have all the items packed away and are ready to hit the open roads.

4. Print this Car Checklist for Your Road Trip

For anyone who enjoys a good checklist, you will love this car checklist to look over before you leave to go off on your adventure. This checklist will help make sure you don’t forget any crucial items.

5. Print the Kids Car Entertainment

Maybe you just want some fun coloring pages for your little one to be able to color on. Here are over 500 free coloring pages for kids   that you can print and keep on hand for when you hop in the car.

6. Road Trip Bingo Download

Hit the road with this fun Velcro road trip Bingo for kids and even adults to play to pass the time! They are on the hunt for mail boxes, horses, wild flowers and more.  This version of road trip bingo will keep kids busy too!

7. Printable Packing List

Here is another basic packing list printable that offers items like drinks, toiletries, first aid kits, pillows and more. Ride in comfort knowing nothing was left behind.

8. Print these Road Trip Scavenger Hunts

Another fun game to play is this road sign scavenger hunt ! Let your kids be on the lookout for specific road signs that they can spy! Or print this road trip scavenger hunt for kids of all ages.

Road Trip Printables for Staying Organized and For Fun

9. Blank Packing List to Print

I love this blank packing list where it designates areas for clothing, electronics, etc. So you can hand write in all the items you need for each box, and then check it off as you go.

10. State Trivia Game Printable

Here is a fun state trivia game you can play with some older kids when they start to show they are getting board. A fun learning activity to pass some time.

11. License Plate Bingo Print & Play

We loved playing license plate Bingo as a kid, and I am sure your kids will like it too! It was always fun seeing where all the cars were from as we traveled.

12. LEGO Travel Printable

If your kiddo is a fan of LEGO’s they will love this LEGO travel printable . She shares how to travel with LEGO’s and a great free printable that will keep your kiddos busy as you put some miles on the road.

13. Printable Kids Travel Kit

This kid’s travel kit binder is really amazing and there are over 150 free printables you can print and use as well. This is one massive list that is great to have for those trips that you need a lot of options along the way!

14. Printable I Spy for Car

Print out this alphabet I spy game to help your kids learn and enjoy the trip. They will always be on the hunt for items to be able to use for the letters of the alphabet!

More Road Trip Tips & Hacks

• T he 16 Best Road Trip Snacks 
• 10 Road Trip Snacks to Pack for Your Next Trip 
• 15 Road Trip Games to Bust Travel Boredom 
• 17 RV Hacks & Living Tips to Make Your Road Trips Awesome 
• 28 Traveling Tips to Make Your Next Trip a Breeze

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15 Road Trip Planners and Checklists: Free Printables

Staying organized and documenting your travel is so important. We recommend  road trip planners to keep track of budgets, packing lists, and daily itinerary details.

One of the best road trip supplies you can get is a way to organize your upcoming trip! Here’s a list of 15 free printable road trip planners!

This list of road trip planners includes many with specific pages to note your budget plan, expenses, daily itinerary activities, accommodation details, and more!

You’ll also find packing lists specifically for a road trip so you don’t leave anything important behind.

Check out these 15 planners and checklists for road trips to help plan and organize your next adventure on the road!

This site contains affiliate links which means WE may receive commissions for purchases made through these links. We only provide links to products we actually use and/or wholeheartedly recommend! As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Read the full Disclosure Policy.

Family road trip packing tips.

When determining the family road trip items to pack for your next vacation, keeping the kids entertained is a big deal! Here are a few more accessories and travel toys lists we’ve created you might find helpful:

• Road trip accessories for kids
• Road trip toys for babies
• Road trip toys for toddlers
• Travel toys for younger kids
• Road trip journals for adults and kids
• Road trip activity pack – FREE printable download

Road Trip Planner Printables

These road trip planner printables include travel planners, checklists, and packing lists to use for your next trip!

Wanderlust Road Trip Planner Printable

This wanderlust road trip planner is to use it to not only plan for our travels but to keep records of what we spend, where we went, and in general journal everything about the trip.

FREE Printable Road Trip Safety Checklist & Planner for Moms

Everything you need to know to stay safe, along with free printables to make planning your road trip simple.

Best (FREE!) Printable Road Trip planner

Printable road trip planner: add GPS co-ordinates, addresses, and much more to stay organized!

The Best Printable Road Trip Checklists

Planning a road trip? These essential road trip checklists will help you plan, organize and pack all the essentials you need for the ultimate road trip.

FREE Printable Camping Route Planner For Your Camping Road Trip!

Planning a long camping road trip can quickly become overwhelming but it does not have to be! A camping route planner is a great tool to help you with the logistics of the traveling portion of your trip.

Travel Planner - Free Printable Travel Checklist

• Travel Checklist one printed with check boxes and one for you to fill out (2 pages) 
• Travel Bucket list with lines for you to fill out
• Daily Activities (with a spot for expenses, food plans, budget and more)
• Travel Planner cover sheets (2 pages)

Printable Travel Planner – {29 Pages}

Everyone going on vacation should have a printable travel planner on hand.  There is so much to do when you’re preparing your family for vacation and you’ve just got to have a way to not lose track of everything.

Free Travel Planner Printable

If you’re looking for a simple way to have a travel plan in place, take chare of your traveling plans with this free travel printable.

Family Travel & Vacation Planning: Brainstorm List Printable

Tool to help keep all the potential activities, tours, restaurants, shops, parks, and more organized! It’s just a simple brainstorming list with spaces to jot down those ideas by categories that make sense.

Our Essential Summer Road Trip Packing List

List includes absolute essentials, hacks for snacks, clothing, safety gear, entertainment, and odds and ends that make road trip travel so much better.

Printable Road Trip Packing List

Free road trip packing list printable so you don’t forget anything before you leave!

Travel Packing List – Free Printable

Take some of the guesswork and stress off of mom this year with our free printable packing list! Planning for your next family vacation is going to be AWESOME!

CLICK the graphic below to get the free Road Trip Activity Sheets!

USA AUDIO TOURS (GuideAlong)

“Download the app to your phone – no cell or wifi service needed. Based on your GPS location, the app takes you on a guided tour of the area and points out all the interesting features and stops. It’s like having a guide in the car with you.”

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Printable Road Trip Planner for your best vacation 2024

Here's your ultimate printable road trip planner, with 35+ worksheets, including planning pages, checklists, and packing lists for your perfect journey.

Road trips are an exciting way to explore new places and create unforgettable memories. However, without proper planning, a road trip can quickly become overwhelming and expensive.

That’s why we’ve created a printable road trip planner to help you stay organized and save money on your next adventure.

This planner includes sections for trip details, itinerary, packing list, budget, saving money, and meal planning.

Keep track of all your travel plans with this printable set of worksheets, checklists, and itineraries. You’ll be able to map out your next trip, budget your expenses, and make the most of your time on the road.

Let’s dive into the details and start planning your dream road trip!

BONUS! Get FREE printable road trip packing lists. From paper maps to snacks, from batteries to blankets, this free download will keep you from running around wondering what you forgot – because you won’t forget anything.

FREE Road Trip Packing Lists

Printable road trip planner, why do you need a printable road trip planner.

Whether you’re exploring a new part of the country or heading back to a favorite destination, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of hitting the open road.

But there are a LOT of details, and the best way to keep them organized is with a printable road trip planner.

The Local Tourist’s Printable Road Trip Planner is a set of worksheets, planning pages, and checklists designed to help you organize and plan your perfect adventure.

With over 35 pages of content, this printable road trip planner has everything you need to plan your trip, from dreaming up destinations to tracking your budget.

I have to tell you that I love the e-book and workbook. I am a big planner and all of the worksheets are like heaven to me. The meal planning and packing lists you provided are invaluable to me. I like to be prepared and your checklists pointed out so many items that I would not have thought of (until I needed them).  Cindy Godsey

Here are just a few of the ways your Printable Road Trip Planner can help you plan your perfect adventure:

• Keep track of your preparations.

A good road trip takes planning, and this printable road trip planner can help you keep track of everything you need to do before you hit the road.

Use the preparation timeline to make sure you’re on track, and the pre-trip checklist to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything important.

• Dream destinations.

Are you looking for inspiration? The dream destinations page can help you brainstorm potential places to visit.

Once you have a few ideas, use the choosing destinations pages to evaluate your options and narrow down your choices.

• Plan your activities.

What do you want to do on your road trip? Use the interests and things-to-do suggestion pages to brainstorm activities and set achievable goals for your trip.

You can also use the attractions and restaurants research pages to plan out your stay and make sure you don’t miss any must-see sights or eateries.

• Stay organized.

With at-a-glance itinerary, accommodation, attraction, and restaurant pages, you’ll be able to keep all of your plans organized and easily accessible.

Use the distance log and daily itinerary pages to track your progress, and the total, pre-trip, and daily budget pages to stay on budget.

• Get inspired.

A printable road trip planner isn’t just a tool for organization—it’s also a source of inspiration.

Use the blank pages for notes and the two-column pages for easy organization to create a custom plan that reflects your unique style and interests.

This printable road trip planner is a great way to help you stay organized, stay on budget, and stay inspired as you plan your perfect adventure. It helps make this a fun process that’ll have you excited to take your amazing vacation.

TLTip: Print the pages you need and put them in a binder or folder, creating your own customized travel organizer.

Inside Your Ultimate Printable Road Trip Planner

Here’s everything you’ll get inside this printable road trip planner.

Preparation Timeline Worksheet

A preparation timeline worksheet helps you stay organized during your vacation planning and ensures that you don’t forget any important tasks.

For example, it’s a good idea to jot reminders to get your oil changed, ensure you have any necessary medications, or purchase travel insurance.

This timeline has space for last minute tasks up to those you should do two months before your trip.

Choosing your Road Trip Destinations

The first step in planning your road trip is figuring out where to go. Figuring out your travel itinerary also has the bonus of being one of the most fun parts of the experience.

Choosing your perfect road trip destinations can be overwhelming, but these planner pages make it easy.

Included in the planner are several worksheets dedicated to helping you choose your road trip destination, including listing your dream destinations, interests, and suggestions for things to do.

The Dream Destinations worksheet is a great starting point, inviting you to list all the places you have always wanted to visit. Think big and dream of far-off destinations that might not seem immediately attainable.

Looking for vacation ideas? Check out this guide to the most beautiful road trips in the USA .

It’s an excellent opportunity to brainstorm, and it’s helpful to keep this list for future trips.

With the Figuring Out Where To Go worksheet, you’ll answer a series of questions designed to help you hone in on your perfect destination. These include:

• What kind of trip you’d like to have
• When you’re going
• Your travel time each day
• The kind of roads you prefer
• What the weather will be
• Type of accommodations you like

When you fill out the What are your Interests worksheet, you’ll list what you and your fellow travelers enjoy doing. The worksheet helps you determine what kind of experiences you want to have on your road trip.

It’s basically a brain dump, and there’s a list of Things To Do on a Road Trip to get your imagination fired up.

For example, maybe you want to visit lesser-known National Parks, or seek out every World’s Largest you can find. This list is like a starter pack to get you planning a unique experience.

After you’ve made a list of your Road Trip Goals , like spending time with family or taking time for yourself, you’ll write down all your Potential Places .

By using these worksheets to choose your road trip destinations, you can ensure that you’re choosing places that align with your interests and align with the type of experience you’re looking for.

Accommodations, Attractions, and Restaurants Research

While part of the lure of a road trip is the ability to change plans when you see something unexpected, it’s also a good idea to research ahead of time.

In the road trip planner, you’ll find worksheets to help you keep track of your research for these key aspects of your trip.

The first worksheet is for Accommodations Research , which allows you to research and compare different hotels, motels, or vacation rentals for your trip. The worksheet includes columns for price, pros, and cons.

This can help you make an informed decision and find the perfect place to stay.

The second worksheet is for Attractions Research , where you can list and compare different attractions, landmarks, and activities that you want to experience on your road trip. When you find interesting places you’d like to visit, make a note in this planning page.

Finally, the third worksheet is for Restaurants Research . Compare dining options for your trip to help you plan where to eat and ensure that you have a great culinary experience.

By using these worksheets to research and organize your accommodation details, attractions, and restaurants, you can ensure that you make the most out of your road trip.

You can make informed decisions and avoid any unpleasant surprises, such as arriving at a hotel that doesn’t meet your expectations or a restaurant that doesn’t serve the type of food you like.

Road Trip Itineraries

Once you know where you’re going, it’s time to figure out when. An itinerary is one of the most important parts of the planning process for a successful road trip.

Even if you prefer to keep things loose, having a general idea of where you’ll be and when can make the whole experience smoother.

Because each person plans differently, there are several itinerary pages included in this ultimate road trip planner:

• Month calendar
• Itinerary at-a-glance
• Itinerary brainstorm
• Accommodations at-a-glance
• Attractions at-a-glance
• Restaurants at-a-glance
• Distance log
• Daily itinerary
• Daily planner

The planner includes a blank Month Calendar , an Itinerary At-a-Glance , and an Itinerary Brainstorm , so you can map out your trip and have a clear idea of what you want to do each day.

The planner also includes Accommodations At-a-Glance , Attractions At-a-Glance , and Restaurants At-a-Glance worksheets, so you can keep track of the places you plan to stay, visit, and dine at.

A Distance Log helps you keep track of the distance between destinations. The Daily Itinerary lets you keep track of weather, your route, and your confirmation numbers. Finally, with the Daily Planner , you can make the most of your time.

Road Trip Budget Worksheets

Ah, the budget. One of the least favorite, yet most essential aspects of planning a road trip. Making a budget, and sticking to it, can reduce any potential stress. Whether you have a little money or a lot, this is a vacation and you want to make it as easy as possible!

Your printable road trip planner includes several budget worksheets to help you manage your expenses and stay within your budget.

The Total Budget worksheet provides space for you to list all your expected expenses, such as gas, accommodations, attractions, and food.

The Pre-trip Budget worksheet allows you to plan and budget for expenses before you hit the road, such as buying any special attire you might need (rain slickers, hiking boots, etc), stocking up on supplies, and getting your vehicle serviced.

The road trip travel planner also includes a Daily Budget worksheet, which allows you to track your expenses on a daily basis. This worksheet includes sections for all of your daily expenses such as gas, food, and activities.

Additionally, the planner provides a cheat sheet of tips on how to save money on your road trip . It includes strategies to help you cut costs, such as packing snacks and meals, using discount coupons, and taking advantage of free attractions.

Road Trip Meal Planning

Food is a big part of your road trip. You have to eat, right? It’s also one of the biggest expenses.

With the road trip meal planning printables, you’ll find lots of ideas for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. Planning your meals helps keep your food costs down.

Snack Ideas provide suggestions for healthy and delicious snacks to pack for the road. Food for Meals is a packing list of ingredients you can take to make your own meals on the road, such as sandwiches, salads, and pasta dishes.

Meal Ideas offers inspiration and ideas for easy meals you can prepare during the trip.

Additionally, the planner provides a Road Trip Meal Planner worksheet, which allows you to plan your meals for the entire trip.

This worksheet includes sections for each meal of the day and allows you to plan your meals in advance, so you can enjoy delicious and healthy meals throughout the trip.

Road Trip Packing Lists

Before you hit the road, make sure you’ve got everything you need. There are several packing lists so you don’t forget any road trip essentials .

The planner includes a pre-trip checklist worksheet, which allows you to list all of the items you need to pack before you hit the road. This includes items such as chargers, medications, and travel documents.

The planner also includes separate packing lists for your vehicle, personal items, and food and drinks. The Vehicle Packing List includes items such as a first aid kit, jumper cables, and paper maps.

The Personal Packing List includes items such as clothing, toiletries, and entertainment. The Food and Drink Packing List makes sure you’re covered with snacks, water bottles, and coolers.

Additionally, there’s a Blank Packing List with space for notes, so you can customize your packing list based on your unique needs and preferences.

The Blank, Two-column Packing List allows you to list even more items.

By using these packing list worksheets, you can ensure that you have everything you need for the trip and avoid any unexpected surprises or setbacks.

Download Your Ultimate Printable Road Trip Planner Today!

This printable road trip planner is an invaluable tool for anyone planning a road trip.

With over 35 printable worksheets, including planning pages, checklists, and packing lists, this planner provides a comprehensive guide to help you plan and organize every aspect of your trip.

From choosing destinations and researching accommodations, attractions, and restaurants to planning meals, budgets, and packing lists, this planner has everything you need to create a successful and enjoyable road trip experience .

If you’re planning a road trip and want to make sure you have everything you need to enjoy the journey, then this printable road trip planner is the perfect resource for you.

You can buy and download the planner for only $10, and it’s available immediately upon purchase. So don’t wait any longer, get your printable road trip planner today and start planning your perfect road trip!

2024 Ultimate Family Road Trip Packing List (+Free Printable Checklists)

Packed for Life contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using one of these links, we may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. See my Disclosure policy for more info.

Planning a family road trip can be exciting but also overwhelming, not knowing exactly what to pack. That’s where our experience road tripping comes in handy.

We’ve created the ultimate family road trip packing list and FREE printable checklists to make things easier for you on the open road. Drawing on our years of experience from countless road trips with our kids from babies to teens. Including cross country adventures, and week long road trips, to everything in between.

This guide covers everything. From road trip essentials for the whole family, to car and safety gear, plus tips on what to leave behind. Which you can easily adapt for wherever you’re traveling to.

With our travel-tested advice, and free printable checklists, you’ll be perfectly prepared for your adventure, making packing stress-free, straightforward, and do we dare say even fun!

Table of Contents

ROAD TRIP PACKING LIST FOR FAMILIES

Road Trip Essentials for the Car

When heading out on a long road trip, there are a few car essentials we think are important to add to your family road trip checklist.

We’ve found this road trip planning App , to be a fantastic tool for planning our routes & collaborating with others on the road.

• Driver’s License, Car registration and roadside assistance info – Check your glove compartment box before leaving your house to make sure you have any (and all) information you may need in a very worst case scenario.
• Extra Set of Car Keys – make sure to store it somewhere you won’t lose it, or give it to another family member. One of my fears is losing our car keys in the middle of no where, so having an extra set is peace of mind for me.
• Rental Car Agreement – If you are renting a car for your road trip, make sure to bring the agreement with you in the glove box.
• Sun Shades for the Windows – The sun can get a bit overwhelming, especially if you have really young children in the car. We’ve found Sun Shades like these super helpful.
• Cell phone holder – Especially when using GPS, having a Cell phone holder can be a game changer for your road trip.
• Car Seat or booster seat – Choose one that’s suitable for the ages of your kids, and somewhat comfortable for a long drive. We’ve found that stopping every two hours max keeps everyone happier.

Emergency Vehicle Kit

A Roadside Emergency Kit is one of the most important things we bring. It’s better to be safe than sorry and be prepared to handle the unexpected, like a flat tire is our motto.

It always gives us peace of mind knowing we have the basics, and think it will for you too.

Plus I don’t know how many times it has come in handy for helping other travelers out along the way during our own trips. It should include:

• Jumper cables
• Tire Pressure Gauge
• Flashlight & batteries ( we prefer head lamps)
• Jack & Tools
• Food / Energy Bars
• Matches / Lighter

What to pack “Just in Case”

Accidents happen. But, how you handle them can be completely different if you are prepared. Not to mention there are certain things you just don’t want to forget for a long car ride. 

Add these to your road trip with kids checklist:

• Map  – You may not ever need it, but make sure you have a paper or book road map. In case your phone dies, google maps steers you wrong, or anything else happens, you will be glad you have it.
• Paper Towel & Toilet Paper – Keep these handy for unexpected bathroom stops, or unexpected spills. Well with kids you can expect a mess!
• Wet wipes –  Whether you have a baby or not, we think baby wipes are life savers & road trip necessities.  You can clean up spills, hands, and even clothing with a few baby wipes. My daughter is 10 and we still use baby wipes for all our travels. Not just for kids!
• Small trash can – To keep your car clean, and organized with a small spill-proof car garbage can. Don’t forget the trash bags.
• Plastic bags – No one wants to talk about this, but you need to have extra bags in case anyone gets car sick. We also like to have a designated car garbage bag we empty out every day. That way the mess stays somewhat in check.
• Towels – As a safety precaution, it never hurts to add a few towels to your packing road trip. This can help in various situations of spills, sickness, and comfort.
• Licenses & wallets – Just as a reminder, make sure you have everyone’s licenses, wallets and debit / credit cards before you even walk out your front door.
• Health Care Cards / Medical Insurance Info – Also make sure to have your health care cards or medical insurance info handy.
• Extra food, water & games – In case you get stuck somewhere unexpectedly. Water is also good in case of overheating.
• Family First Aid Kit

Family First Aid Kit Essentials

If you are traveling anywhere, I highly recommend keeping a First Aid Kit in your car, and a smaller one in your backpack if you are off on hikes for the day.

Besides, if your kids are anything like mine, they go through bandaids like they are going outta style.

Here are some items we include in our family first aid kit, in addition to the usual suspects:

• Extra Band aids
• Blister Band Aids
• Disinfectant
• Polysporin / Antibiotic cream
• Acetaminophen & Ibuprofen (Kids & Adults)
• Prescription Meds
• Gravol / Motion Sickness meds
• Allergy Meds
• Rehydration Tablets
• Medical Tape
• Mosquito Repellent
• Hand Warmers
• CPR pocket mask
• Small Flashlight
• Small Pocket Knife
• Hand Sanitizer
• Plastic Gloves

PRO TIP : Buy a small cloth first aid kit, or toiletries bag and fill or switch out with your preferred Family First Aid Kit items. Keep First Aid Kit and medications handy and within reach.

Family Road Trip Essentials

When packing for your entire family, you may find that you don’t need (or want) as much as others. Or, on the flip side, you may find that you like to bring everything but the kitchen sink, just in case. No judgment here!

Do you have to bring everything we recommend on this list? Absolutely not! Specific items you pack for your family road trip will vary based on preference and destination.

Here are some family road trip essentials that can useful supplies for your next trip:

• America the Beautiful Park Pass – If you are planning on visiting USA National Parks, then a park pass will save you $$.
• Mouthwash – If you plan on bringing snacks, or even stopping to eat, having mouthwash is a must. Between having fresh breath and smelling fresh breath, you don’t want to forget this. Mints or minty gum also does in a pinch.
• Portable Charger / Power Bank   – Save yourself trouble with a pre-charged battery pack. If you have teens, a portable power bank is a must for a successful family road trip. Or in our case keeping a device addicted adult happy.
• Car Chargers  – Not only should you have a portable power bank, but bringing extra chargers that can be plugged directly into your car are a good idea. Don’t forget your device cables too for when you are in the hotel room. (Kindles, cells, tablets, gaming devices, laptops etc.)
• Camera / Go Pro – While you are out creating memories, be sure to document the fun, silly and sometimes ridiculous and unexpected moments along the way.
• Walkie Talkies – When traveling with friends and family in a convoy, we find walkie talkies are a great way to stay in touch.

Entertainment Essentials

The thought of packing for a road trip with kids can be overwhelming. But, it doesn’t have to be.

Keep in mind that you want to be including items for them to keep your trip stress-free as well. Road trip activities to keep them entertained.

• Tablet – For those moments when you just can’t take hearing another “are we there yet?”
• Headphones -You do not want to hear everything everyone is listening to on your road. A symphonic cacophony is not the most relaxing of sounds. So, save yourself the trouble, and pack headphones for everyone. If you are bringing wireless headphones , make sure to charge them before the trip.
• Books – If no one is prone to getting car sick, pack a few books or a Kindle for your family members to enjoy on your road trip. You can include learning books, entertainment, or even coloring books.

PRO TIPS: Make sure you charge any devices before you leave. Also, you will want to download any games, music, or apps beforehand.

PRO TIP : We’ve found it helpful to make sure each kidlet (and adult) has their own small travel backpack or bag with their own activities, devices, snacks, waterbottle & a change of clothes. Keep it beside them so they can easily reach it.

Kids Road Trip Essentials: Road Trip Activities for Kids

• Road Trip Bingo
• Coloring Book & Activity Pages
• Road Trip Kit
• Travel Magnetic Tangram Puzzles
• Entertaining Questions to Spark Conversations
• Paper/ journal – If you have creative kids, I recommend packing some journals, a sketchbook or paper to practice art, writing, and crafting with. Let your kids keep their own memories of their trip, with a kids road trip journal.
• Crayons / Pencil Crayons : Pack a few different crayons / pencil crayons and let them go at it! You can also add markers or pens in your overnight bags, so they can “fill-in” later if you’re worried about felt pen marks in the car.

PRO TIP: We’ve found these twistable pencil crayons are perfect, so you don’t have little bits of shavings all over your car.

• Road Trip Activities – Bring a variety of age appropriate activities. Especially if you are traveling with toddlers & preschoolers.
• Outdoor Games – Bring a few outdoor activities like a frisbee, or bubbles. We’ve found this really helps to get the wiggles out at rest stops and provides entertainment at campsites along the way.
• Road Trip Playlist – While you could just listen to the radio, making and playing a road trip playlist will up your parent cred, and make groovin’ in the car a hit. Don’t forget to embaress your kids by singing at the top of your lungs. We do 😉
• Audio Books or Audible – Perfect for keeping everyone from young kids to the older kids entertained on long trips. 

PRO TIP : Use a Back seat organizer that fits over the front seats keeps all the snacks, electronic devices, books, small toys contained and in reach of the kids.

Comfort Items

• Change of clothes – The last thing you want to happen is to have a mess with all of the extra clothes packed deep in your luggage. To alleviate the chance of this happening, pack an extra outfit in one small bag that stays on top of everything else.
• Pillows for Kids – A little comfort during your road trip can make all the difference. You don’t have to pack king size pillows, but letting each child bring a neck pillow (at minimum) is a great start! My daughter loves this bcozzy travel pillow.
• Travel Pillow for the adults – Just like for your children, the passenger also needs to be comfortable. Don’t forget to pack a pillow for you and/or your partner!
• Blankets – Kids love them & you’ll be happy to have them in winter months, or if you are driving overnight.
• Diaper bag –  Include an extra in car diaper bag for  easy access with young’uns. Fill with extra diapers, wipes, a plastic bag or a resuable wet bag, a couple of changes of clothes that is easy to grab and carry at rest stops.

Bring Road Trip Snacks & Meals

Packing road trip snacks and meals will save you time and money while heading to your final destination.

Avoid the nasty gas station food and have healthy travel snacks on the go. Making a family vacation meal plan will make your meals easier.

• Cooler – If you have extra room in your car, or you are trying to save money on food costs, you can’t go wrong with packing a cooler. Just make grocery store stops along the way to pick up supplies.
• Road trip meals: Check out our Easy Road Trip Meal ideas
• Snacks – Healthy snacks are a must. This will save you hangry kid and partner moments and money. The best road trip snacks to pack are things like nuts, granola bars, sandwiches, beef jerky, protein bars, and string cheese. Avoid packing sticky and messy snacks.
• Drinks – Just like snacks, you need to pack some of the drinks your children like. We use resuable water bottles, and refill them as needed.

⭐️ Grab some easy travel snack recipes here for your next trip.

PRO TIP: Freeze a water bottle or two full of water, then you can have cold water as it melts. It can also double as an ice pack in your cooler.

🚙 Check out our delicious road trip snack ideas .

Road Trip Packing List: Clothing

I will highlight a few key pieces of clothing for family road trips.

• Rain jackets – Instead of carrying an umbrella, pack some light rain jackets for everyone. Keep everyone warm & dry. We like this one for kids , this one for men and this one for women .
• Footwear – Bring a few options. Walking / hiking shoes, easy slip on sandals for the car and warm weather, then boots for rainy and winter season. I admit I love my Crocs for road trip travel days. Easy to slip on and of and comfortable for walking around all day if needed.
• Sunglasses – Sunglasses will cut the glare, protect your eyes, and keep you in the height of fashion.
• Hats – Sunhats, ball caps, garden straw hats, water hats. The possibilities are endless to keep the sun off your face.
• Seasonal Gear – Depending on the time of year you road trip, you may want to bring ski equipment, bikes, boogie boards, kayaks etc. What you bring will depend a lot on the size and type of vehicle you are traveling in.
• Packing Cubes – For keeping your clothes organized
• Swimwear, suits, coverups – Check out our full Beach Vacation Packing list here

PRO TIP : If you are moving around a lot on your road trip, pack each days clothes into a ziploc bag or in a packing cube . Then you can just bring into the hotel with you, rather than bringing all the bags in and out each time.

What NOT To Pack for A Family Road Trip

Now that we have our road trip essentials list, let’s get into some things we think you don’t need to pack on a family road trip

• Everything but the kitchen sink – Once you pack in the kids, cooler, dog, clothes, road trip activities you may not have as much room as you think. Consider if you can rent gear, & what’s absolutely necessary for your families enjoyment, comfort, and safety.
• Lots of toys – Inevitably with too many toys, pieces get lost, favourite toys get left behind, or there are fights amongst siblings. Pack a few car games, and maybe one small toy, but leaving most of them home.
• Too many sweets – While it is fun to have some treats, too many sweets can bring everyone’s mood high and then low. A bad combo in a confined space! Balance it out with combo of whole fruit, and protein (nuts, jerky, trail mix).
• Avoid large & hard shell suitcases – Because they’re space hogs. We much prefer small duffels, or backpacks. I have even been known to just bring my clothes in a reusable shopping bag. You can pack them in tight around stuff.
• Messy car snacks – need I say more?

Road Trip Destinations:

• Big Sur Road Trip: Epic Places to Visit & Hike
• 7 Day Family Friendly Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon Itinerary
• Yosemite National Park, Awesome 2 Day Itinerary
• Vancouver Island Canada Bucket List
• Boston to Bar Harbor & Acadia Road Trip

✅ Kids travel backpacks are perfect for holding their road trip activities, snacks & water

Free Road Trip Checklists for Families

FINAL THOUGHTS: What to Pack for A Family Road Trip

There you have our list of what to bring on a road trip. Although you may need to be a bit more mindful when packing for a road trip with your family, it doesn’t have to be too complicated.

When making your packing list, ask yourself:

• How long will we be in the car?
• What necessities can my children not live without during this time?
• What will provide the most comfort for my family on this road trip?

Once you answer those questions, you will have a solid road trip packing list for your family.

Donna Garrison is the founder of Packed for Life, an ever curious traveler with a passion for making memories with her family. With a unique perspective on travelling on a budget gathered over 30 years, 20 countries and 5 continents she gives families the tools & resources they need to experience the joys of travelling more for less through practical solutions. She helps over 20,000 families a month plan & take the family travel, camping and road trip adventures of their dreams in Canada, the USA and around the world. Contact her at: Donna [at] packedforlife.com

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What to Pack for a Road Trip (+FREE Printable PDF Packing List)

Not sure what to pack for a road trip or just don’t want to forget any road trip must haves? I’ve got you covered with the ultimate road trip packing list with a FREE printable pdf checklist of everything you’ll need. This checklist is perfect for any road trip – whether doing a short day trip or a long cross country road trip.

My road trip essentials list includes everything you need for you and your vehicle as well as fun things to bring on a road trip. For anyone traveling with kids and/or pets, I have also included family and pet road trip essentials to keep them healthy and happy.

The Ultimate Road Trip Checklist

Road trip essential items (that should always be in your car!)

• Driver’s license, registration and insurance information
• Pen and paper
• Cash and coins (for tolls, parking meters or places that don’t accept credit cards)
• Paper map (I always like to bring a paper map just in case as a backup to GPS or my phone dies and I can’t access navigation apps)
• Smartphone (loaded with road trip apps like Google Maps)
• Cell phone car charger
• Extra set of car keys in case you get locked out
• Emergency road side assistance kit – this one by AAA is more affordable or splurge on this one
• Jumper cables, flashlight, duct tape , scissors, pocket knife or seat belt cutting tool if not part of your emergency kit
• Tire chains, ice scraper and snow shovel if traveling somewhere cold in the winter
• Extra gas in a can (just in case you run out of gas!)
• Sunglasses for everyone
• Blankets (for those that get cold from the AC or to keep warm if your car breaks down at night or in the winter)

Food, drink and snacks for your road trip

• Lots of water! (Keep some water both in the trunk and inside the car)
• Insulated water bottle (to keep your drinks cool and to fill up at water fountains)
• Food and snacks – Stock up on non-perishable road trip snacks ( granola bars , fruit, turkey jerky, nuts, dry cereal, popcorn, crackers, trail mix) but you can keep some food in the cooler as well.

Entertainment for road trips

• Travel journal and pen
• Books, audio books or kindle
• Music playlist (here is my free Spotify road trip playlist with the top road trip songs of all time)
• Road trip games ( Mad Libs on the Road , License Plate Game )

Health, safety and personal care essentials

• Face mask or other face covering to cover your nose and mouth when going inside a gas station, grocery store, convenience store or other indoor establishment
• First aid kit (band aids, pain reliever, allergy medicine, anti-nausea medicine, antacid tablets, cotton balls, q-tips)
• Antibacterial wipes or hand sanitizer
• Sunscreen because you can get sun damage from UVA rays (make sure to keep sunscreen in the car so that you can reapply)
• Disposable gloves for filling up at gas stations
• Essential medication and prescriptions
• Toothbrush, toothpaste and floss
• Lip balm, lotion and other toiletries
• Scarf and extra sweater or fleece (to keep warm if the A/C is too chilly)
• Bug spray (I like this one because it is pocket sized)
• Body wipes for when you are not feeling fresh

Other recommended items for your road trip packing list

• Cell phone mount
• Car seat back organizer – This one has an insulated main compartment and this is a good one for kids
• Towels – Can be used as a seat cover, picnic blanket, to cleanup spills or dry off in an unexpected downpour.
• Paper towels
• Toilet paper in case you run into bathrooms without any!
• Plastic and trash bags
• Nail clippers & tweezers
• Reusable shopping bag for when you leave the car to buy snacks or souvenirs
• Day pack (tote or small backpack) – Handy for exploring your destination but also to keep inside the car with your personal items
• Camera – Make sure to keep a camera in the car. Also consider a GoPro for videos or instax camera
• Sun shade to keep your car cool while exploring
• Batteries for any devices you bring and external battery to recharge your electronics (this is one of my travel essential items for any trip!)

Family road trip checklist – if traveling with kids

• Tablet for each kid loaded with movies,books, educational apps and games (my nephew loves this kid friendly tablet )
• Headphones for each kid (my niece loves these headphones )
• Notebooks and colored pencils
• Change of clothes for babies younger children – keep in the car so they are easily accessible in case of spills or illness
• Extra formula/baby food/diapers for infants
• Favorite toys or stuffed animals

Pet road trip essentials – if bringing your pet along

• Leash, collar, tags
• Pet food and bowls
• Vaccination records and medication
• Bed or crate for the hotel room

What is on your roadtrip checklist?

Liked this packing list? Check out some of our other helpful travel essentials guides and packing lists:

• Carry On Bag Essentials List
• Beach Essentials Packing List
• Essential Things to Take to a Hostel
• Best Eco Friendly Travel Products & Accessories to Help You Travel Green
• Practical and Useful Travel Gifts That Every Traveler Needs

Related Posts

10 Comments

This list is a great resource! I take frequent road trips and I always carry a paper map as well. I learned my lesson on a cross country trip and we ran into several areas where our GPS lost satellite service. Crazy. I know. But now I carry an atlas in my minivan everywhere I go.

Before each trip, I think it is very important for us to plan our safe and comfortable road trip especially preparing car for our trip such as checking basic car features, making sure the tires are in good shape, packing first aid kit, tool-box and emergency numbers.

You’ve got some good tips there. I can pack really fast myself because I travel a lot. I just grab things and put them in my suitcase. I leave my ziplock bag ready so I can just grab that and it has everything in it I need.

I will be going on a road trip this weekend this article is perfect right now. Thank you.

Thanks for sharing so much information. Ideas like these are so useful for a travel freak like me. Looking forward to going for a road trip soon! 🙂

Great list. We’re going on a road trip next month around California so it’s really useful. We need to start making our playlist and downloading a few audiobooks to keep us entertained on the journey.

I should use this as my go-to list for my next road trip. This will help so much and prevent me from leaving my essentials.

Fantastic list! I keep forgetting bin bags lately. Definitely downloading the PDF so I remember everything next time! (Btw you should put your blog name on the PDF!)

Thanks that is a great idea. Will do it next time I revise the list.

Oh these are some really good tips, thanks for putting all together 🙂

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How To Save On Your Next Road Trip (With Road Trip Games Printable)

I’m excited to be partnering with Marathon to share how you can save time and money with MakeItCount ™ Rewards .

Want to save money on your next road trip? Find out how we save money and earn rewards with Marathon’s MakeItCount™ Rewards program. Plus, print these fun road trip games to keep the kids entertained along the way.

I’m also giving away a $50 Marathon Gift Card and you could be my lucky winner! Keep reading to enter…

As a busy mom, I spend a lot of time in my car. From taking the girls to camp, driving them to school and running all my errands, my car goes through a lot of gas.

That’s not even counting the road trips! We love to travel and there’s something exciting about piling everyone in the car, snacks and all, and heading off on a brand new adventure.

Of course, with all that driving, the spending can add up. That’s why I’m always looking for ways to save and luckily, I’ve discovered Marathon’s MakeItCount™ Rewards .

MakeItCount™ Rewards

It’s already super convenient for us to shop at Marathon because we have a station just up the street from our house. With over 5,700 stations coast-to-coast, they’re easy to find when we’re on the road too.

I like stopping there because the stations are clean and well-lit, but my girls like it because they have so many road trip snacks to choose from! Those two are all about the snacks, but at least it keeps them busy while I’m pumping the gas.

Even better, I’m using Marathon’s MakeItCount™ Rewards program to save money when we fill up. It’s quick and easy to sign up and saves us 5¢ on every gallon every day.

Join now and you’ll even get bonus savings! Starting in September, signing up for MakeItCount™ Rewards will save you 10¢ per gallon for your first month of membership. It’s good for up to 4 visits, covering 20 gallons each time.

Not only can you save on gas, but filling up or making select purchases on snack or drinks can also earn you points that can be redeemed for additional gas discounts, hotel stays, airfare and shopping at retail stores.  I love that MakeItCount™ has partnered with brands like Wyndham and Southwest because that means when we’re on one trip, we’re already earning rewards for another one!

Additional partners include Target eGiftCards™, Domino’s Pizza, PetCo and more. Since we have to fill up our tank with gas, why not get some cool stuff out of it too!

You can even help the environment by using rewards to support the Sustain Tree Planting Program, a partner of the Arbor Day Foundation®. So, whether you want to travel more, shop more, or make the world a better place, there’s a MakeItCount™ Rewards partner for everyone.

Sign Up To Start Saving

Ready to start saving? Just go to MakeItCount.com and click where you see “Join MakeItCount™”. From there, just follow the sign-up instructions and you’re in! It’s so easy that you’ll wonder why you waited so long to do it!

You can also sign up by downloading the free app. Once you join, you’ll start saving money and earning awesome rewards. The app even has a great location feature that shows nearby Marathon stations, so you never have to guess where one is.

Enter To Win

As if saving money on gas weren’t enough, Marathon wants to give FREE gas to one lucky reader! Just enter below and I’ll choose one winner to receive a $50 Marathon Gift Card. The giveaway ends on September 30th so just be sure to enter by then.

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By submitting your e-mail to this giveaway, you understand that you may receive communications from both Marathon Petroleum Corporation and FunMoneyMom.

Road Trip Games

Keeping the tank filled may be the most important part of a road trip but keeping the kids entertained is just as crucial. After all, you can only answer “Are we there yet?” so many times.

I let the kids have their video games but want to be sure we get some good family bonding time in too. That’s why these road trip games are so perfect. You don’t need anything to play most of them (and only pencil and paper for the other one) and they’re great for all ages.

Feel free to print these road trip games for your next getaway.

So now you’re saving money AND having fun…it’s the perfect combination! Don’t forget to sign up for MakeItCount™ Rewards today so you can take advantage of the bonus savings too!

If you’re looking for ways to Save on Your Next Phone , check out this info!

The post How To Save On Your Next Road Trip (With Road Trip Games Printable) appeared first on Fun Money Mom .

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The art of a road trip

By MINGYUAN SONG | April 25, 2024

COURTESY OF ALLYSON CHIU

Road trips can be fun, even if it’s on the New Jersey turnpike with big trucks and traffic.

Every college student chases after this arbitrary thing called freedom. To some, it means to study whatever they want. To others, it means to say “screw it” and go to Coachella in the middle of the semester. But for me, it looks more like what Chris McCandless did in Into the Wild — to buy a beat-up car after college, sell everything else he owns and vanish into a long road trip into the wilderness. Well (SPOILER ALERT), maybe minus the dying in Alaska part. 

I haven’t graduated yet and don’t have enough money for a car, nor do I have the courage like McCandless did. I did, however, have a badminton tournament in Boston and needed to drive the team up to the venue. 300 miles on I-95 along industrial New Jersey doesn’t quite compare to a tour of the American Wild West but, at this time of my life, it’s close enough. 

So with the Enterprise vans rented by the school, we set out on our eight-hour trip to rural Massachusetts (I admit, the tournament venue was nowhere close to Boston). However, we didn’t make it very far before stopping at the Safeway near Morgan State University, because, after all, road trips are not complete without a backseat full of snacks.

We had a weekend’s worth of badminton matches ahead of us, so it wasn’t like we could stuff ourselves with junk food — most of our shopping cart was filled with bananas, granola bars, bottled water and Gatorade. But of course, to satiate at least some of our cravings, a bag of assorted fun-size Snickers and purple Doritos made it into the mix. 

The first stop of a road trip is always to get a lot of snacks. 

I had a backup driver, but I genuinely enjoyed the sensation of flying down the Interstate (at less than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, of course) and shooting the bull with my buddy in the passenger seat, so I drove the majority of the eight hours there. It was not without breaks, of course. Being from California, I was originally a bit shocked on my way up to Boston last year when I saw the frequent rest stops every 20 minutes or so. On the West Coast, we were used to stopping at a local town with McDonald’s and gas stations scattered along the highway, not government-funded rest stations. 

They were a pleasant surprise, actually. We stopped at a few on the way up, and each of them were incredibly clean and modern, equipped with an assortment of fast food and coffee chains. The food was terrible — it was obvious that they were just warming frozen chicken tenders in the toaster oven. But at least it was convenient. I didn’t have time to stop for other amenities like the massage chairs, but they are probably not the most sanitary anyway.

I didn’t need the coffee to keep myself awake, despite Vishnu threatening to give me a boring lecture on the physics midterm I had coming up. Instead, we talked about literally everything else, from one person’s journey to his PhD to the other person’s experience living in Indonesia. As it turns out, eight hours is about enough time to learn almost everything about four people’s lives. 

To kill time even further, we played all the classic road trip games: punching each other at the spotting of a yellow car or a Volkswagen Bug, 21 Questions and Contact. My dad always stopped me from playing these games since they would “distract me from driving,” but I’ve only found that they help the car bond. This sounds corny, but the best part of road trips is always the conversations that you have in the car, the stupid games you play to pass time and everything that you learn from each other. The destination always matters less in the end. 

People always look at me weird when I tell them that I don’t have a particular desire to travel internationally. Road trips are just my preferred way to spend my vacations. For my high school senior trip, my best friends and I drove from San Francisco to Oregon, then Idaho and back. And to move into college, my family and I drove from California to Baltimore, passing cities and parts of America that we would never otherwise see. 

Sure, seeing the Eiffel Tower and Machu Picchu and the Sydney Opera House would be cool, but the friendships and the relationships that I get to foster on long drives are so much more valuable to me. My friends and I could’ve flown down to Puerto Rico and gotten drunk like the rest of our high school class, but I cherish the memory of chatting around a campfire and playing a game of chess at sunrise over Crater Lake so much more. 

Of course, to each their own. I don’t judge people on how they spend their vacations, and I hope you don’t judge mine. But I hope that one day, when you and some friends find a weekend with nothing to do, you might think about renting a car and driving away as far as you can. You might be surprised by what you find along the way.

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VENICE (Reuters) – Pope Francis travels to Venice on Sunday for his first trip of the year, testing his mobility and resilience after a number of health scares in recent months.

It will be the 87-year-old pope’s first visit to the lagoon city since his 2013 election and he will also be the first pontiff to visit the Venice Biennale — a prestigious art show with exhibitions sponsored by numerous nations in myriad spaces.

The Vatican’s exhibition has been set up in a women’s prison and the pope will kick off his trip early on Sunday, flying directly into the Giudecca jail by helicopter from the Vatican to view the show entitled “Through My Eyes”.

It features creations by nine contemporary artists who worked closely with inmates on the project.

The unusual decision to house the Holy See pavilion in the jail highlights Francis’ repeated calls for society to rally around the poor and neglected, including prison populations. He has regularly visited detention centres during his papacy.

The pope is expected to meet some of the prisoners and staff on Sunday and deliver the first of three speeches, before heading by motorboat to the 16th century church of La Madeleine and then on to St. Mark’s Basilica for a Mass.

About 10,000 people are expected to attend the service, with thousands more likely to fill the giant St. Mark’s Square outside to follow it on large screens.

He will fly back home in his distinctive white helicopter after a visit set to last just over six hours.

It is the pope’s first trip beyond Rome since a brief visit to France last September. He had been due to attend a climate change conference in the United Arab Emirates in December, but pulled out shortly beforehand after coming down with influenza.

Francis uses a cane or a wheelchair to move around due to a knee ailment, and suffers from repeated bouts of bronchitis and flu. He unexpectedly withdrew from a Good Friday procession in March “to preserve his health”, but has looked well since then.

The Venice trip is the first of four planned inside Italy in the next three months. He is scheduled to visit Verona in May and Trieste in July, and also is expected to attend a June summit of Group of Seven (G7) leaders in Bari.

In September, he is set to embark on the longest foreign trip of his papacy, travelling to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore from Sept. 2-13.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Gavin Jones and Frances Kerry)

Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.

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José Ramírez’s grand slam for Guardians sends Red Sox back to Boston looking for some home cooking

CLEVELAND — Chase Anderson’s walk to load the bases in the second inning was all the Guardians needed.

With two outs and the Sox trailing, 1-0, Anderson, making a spot start in the absence of Brayan Bello, had to deal with Jose Ramirez.

The at-bat quickly went to 3-0 before Anderson landed two strikes to bring the count full.

That’s when the battle began.

Ramirez proceeded to foul off four straight cutters, foul tipping one into the glove of catcher Reese McGuire, who couldn’t hold on, keeping the at-bat alive.

That turned out to be fatal because two pitches later, on the 10th of the at-bat, Ramirez scalded a line-drive grand slam over the right-field wall.

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For the second game of this series, it was Ramirez who beat the Sox.

Bases loaded, tenth pitch. José Ramírez is inevitable. #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/MotELHCZQG — Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) April 25, 2024

“I just didn’t make pitches and that’s kind of the biggest thing,” said Anderson following the Sox’ 6-4 loss Thursday at Progressive Field. “Guys we went down and my goal was to go in and do my job and step up and I just didn’t do it today.”

Anderson was erratic. He walked three batters in his 1⅔ innings and hit one.

“The hit by pitch, the walks,” added Cora. “He’s been very efficient. It was just one bad inning there.”

The Sox battled back, scoring two runs off Cleveland starter Triston McKenzie, who worked just four innings and was forced to hurl 75 pitches. The Sox slimmed the margin to just a run in the fifth with a Ceddanne Rafaela RBI ground out, and a run-scoring single from Jarren Duran. But a McGuire passed ball with Chris Martin on the hill in the seventh inning scored Ramirez, putting the Sox out of commission.

This is José Ramírez, a chaos causer. #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/GVc1YquZz4 — Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) April 25, 2024

Overall, Cora is pleased with the 4-2 road trip.

“It was a good road trip,” said Cora. “So now we have to go home and figure that out when we get there.”

Fenway, at least so far, has been the Sox’ nemesis. They are 3-7 at home and 11-5 on the road. They have a three-game home set beginning Friday against the Cubs, a team that is 9-3 in their last 12 games and 16-9 overall. Sox fans should see a solid pitching matchup Friday with Kutter Crawford (0.66 ERA) going against Shota Imanaga (0.84 ERA).

Both Rafael Devers and Tyler O’Neill will be in the lineup after missing a good chunk of the Sox’ previous homestand with injuries.

That’s important.

“We take pride in playing well at home,” said Tyler O’Neill. “We didn’t get off to the greatest start last homestand, but there’s plenty of baseball coming up. I’m looking forward to getting back to Boston fans and Fenway. We obviously have a lot to prove.”

Devers, though still hobbled, has shown that he hasn’t missed a beat since returning from a bone bruise that kept him out for five games. In his second contest back, he produced another three-hit game, marking his 219th multi-hit game since the start of 2019, which ranks third in the majors.

“I know we talked about the knee, but I think the shoulder is where it’s supposed to be,” said Cora. “Like I said, you have to be patient with those guys. You have to because at the end you when they’re healthy or close to 100 percent, that’s what they do.”

When the Cubs leave town, the Sox host the Giants in a three-game set.

They played well despite being battered and bruised on the road. Now, they must do so at home.

“We have to go,” said Cora. “We got to. Friday night. Let’s make it fun.”

Julian McWilliams can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him @byJulianMack .