Top tips to survive a road trip with Teenagers!

Road trips with teenagers can be a great way to see the world but also to spend some quality time as a family. Travelling with teens is obviously easier than travelling with very young kids but teens can produce their own drama on a long drive and though they may not be moaning ‘are we there yet?’, teenagers still need plenty of entertaining on a road trip. Read on to find out ideas to keep the teenagers happy on a long car journey!

Top tips for travelling with teenagers

These tips are based on our experience of family road trips and long car rides. We recently drove from Croatia
to Slovenia last summer and regularly road trip across Ireland so these tips have been vital for us in ensuring we survive a road trip with teens and little kids of mixed ages! They’re our best tips and a lifesaver for the whole family on a long car trip!

Road Trip Activities for Teens and tweens

Try these fun activities for your teens to do on a roadtrip to keep them amused – older kids won’t need as much entertainment as younger kids but they do like some travel games with elements of independent activities such as listening to music or drawing and it’s a good idea to save these for your next road trip to save the sanity of the entire family!

• • -Read a Book

• • -If reading makes you carsick, try audiobooks.

• • -Create a road trip play list – give everyone in the family several songs that they put

• • together and collate one big playlist for a long trip! It’s fun guessing who picked which song!

• • -Our kids love playing a music quiz or general knowledge quiz or you could try quiz books such as madlibs or Would you Rather…..

• • -Try spotting number plates or cars from different countries.

• • -Try packing an art pack or some travel games for the ultimate road trip. These are our favourite travel games that are

• • easy to play in the car……

• • -Obama Llama

• • -Exploding Kittens

• • -Bears Vs Babies

• • -Travel Othello

If you have younger kids, your teens might like trying to create a travel road trip bingo to share with younger siblings for.a successful road trip. Read here for more ideas to survive road trips!

Road Trip Essentials for Teens

Audio and visual equipment are essentials if you have a long journey with teens. Headphones are crucial and will help you keep your sanity when you’re on a long road trip with teenagers! The last thing you want is conflicting songs playing while everyone tries to play their choice in music! For iphone users, you can’t beat the Apple Earbuds they have patial audio with dynamic head tracking places sound all around you to give you the best sound experience. They’re great for travelling because you can charge in the case. Best of all, they last up to 6 hours of listening time with just one charge and up to 30 hours total listening time with the MagSafe Charging Case. They’re also great headphones for sharing audio with siblings! Or if you prefer over the ear headphones, Beats Solo Wireless headphones are perfect for travelling. They’re set up instantly – just power on and hold near your iPhone – then connect simultaneously to your Apple Watch, iPad and Mac. These headphones have comfort-cushion ear cups that buffer external noise for immersive sound, so you can experience music the way it was meant to be heard. Beats Solo3 Wireless deliver up to 40 hours of battery life or with Fast Fuel, a quick 5 minute charge provides 3 hours of playback to get you back on track quickly. Integrated on-ear controls allow you to take calls, play music, adjust volume and activate Siri whilst you’re on the go. They’re also brilliant for travelling because they fold up small and come with their own handy carry case. You might want to try Spotify premium for music – so you can download songs for a number of hours before you leave and all have an account. Don’t forget Spotify now does audio books too which is a great thing!

As well as headphones, try using a Headrest DVD playe or a backseat entertainment system so you can watch a movie on your
tablet on the go. Aim for movies that are around 2 hours long and vote and download the
movies before you leave so there’s no arguments before you go!

How to survive a road trip with teens

Share the Map
Keep your teenagers involved in the road trip by sharing the map (or google maps) with them. They’ll be
topping up their Geography knowledge but might also pick a good spot for a travel break and to plan rest stops!
Have some surprises up your sleeve
It’s worth keeping a few activities back for those moments on your journey when everyone’s
getting grumpy! Could be a magazine, some sweets, plenty of snacks, special treats or even new book – just something that’s new will keep teens entertained on the car journey and help them have a great time. Teenagers always need topping up with road trip snacks and a road trip is no exception. Hungry teens are grumpy teens and ir also can help prevent car sickness! Pack a lunchbox of snacks for each child – as well as sweets and crisps, try to ensure a balance of fresh fruits and ensure there’s water bottles to prevent dehydration.

Great Ideas for Road Trips with Kids

Whilst teens can obviously cope with longer journeys than smaller kids. Regular breaks planned in advance are still useful to prevent too much boredom, bathroom breaks are still needed like with younger children (and motion sickness). You could try pairing this with a cultural visit or place of interest to explore on the open road to maximise your family time. You can try national parks or roadside attractions before you reach your final destination and include your teens in the planning process. Try the app ‘Roadtripper’ for places of interest to stop on the way to your destination. Before setting off on a long family journey, it is also worth checking your vehicle’s condition, especially the tyres, as worn tread can affect both comfort and safety. If a replacement is due, taking the time to get tyres fitted before departure can help avoid unnecessary stress during the trip.

Road Trip Games for Kids

Guess that Disney Song
Play songs from Disney’s top hits. Whoever guesses what movie it is from first wins that round. The first person to guess which character sings the song gets a bonus point. Even teens that aren’t a fan of Disney find this fun!

Become a Car DJ
Give everyone a turn to pick the next song. No complaining!

Mad Libs
Mad Libs are even funnier if you’ve got a mix of kids, teens, and adults! You can buy Mad Libs here.

Going on a Picnic
The alphabet shopping game! You play by the first player saying “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing… a boat”. The second person continues, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing a boat and … chocolate chip cookies!” The third person would continue saying they are bringing bananas, chocolate chip cookies, and doughnuts, following the alphabet for each new letter. Play continues until there is just one person who can remember all the items.

Build a Story
Make up a story together! The first person starts the story and can only say one sentence and then it moves to the next person who can only say one sentence and so on. The stories can get pretty funny, pretty fast!

Suspenseful Stories
Someone starts a made up story and right when it gets suspenseful or surprising says, “and then…” and the next person must pick up the story where the previous player left off. This is another one where the stories can take some hilarious turns.

This or That?
Try searching for a list to pull from off Google or think of questions on your own. Toast or Sandwich? Cats or dogs? Winter or summer? You could also try playing Would you Rather using this book.

Add some comfort to ensure your teenagers can sleep and relax in the car, make sure they
travel in comfy clothes and bring a blanket or dressing gown to keep them chilled out on the
journey!

Even though your teens are older, it’s worth still planning for emergencies and keeping car
sick bags and a first aid kit close to hand. Road trips can test even the most roadworthy passengers. Bringing healthy snacks are a must. If you
have several stop offs on your road trip, is worth packing a first night bag which has a spare
change of clothes, nightclothes and toiletries – that way you don’t have to unpack your
whole bag to get what you need for just a short stop-off on your journey.

Hope this helps you have a relaxing and fun family road trip. Of course, they’ll be some
arguments if you’re in a close confined small space for a while but road tripping provides so much
fun family bonding time – these will be the memories your kids talk about in the future on the way to their family vacation! A teen road trip can be a lot of fun!