Hot Tips for Family Road Trip Adventures
Six years ago I got a bee in my bonnet that I wanted to drive the Pacific Coast Highway and camp the whole way down. So we did it! Mr. Hedin’s parents had just bought a trailer that we could borrow so we loaded it up and headed out.
That trip started a tradition that still continues. We’ve road tripped to the Washington Coast, the Oregon Coast, Glacier Lake, Crater Lake, San Francisco, and this year we’re headed to Yellowstone.
These are our families favorite vacations.
It turns out that long hours in the car chatting about life, learning about the history of where we are at that moment, and even the arguing have created life long memories. Here are my tips for planning the perfect road trip for your family this summer.
Tip #1
For a ten day trip, choose a destination for your trip that’s about 10 hours away (if you drive straight there). You can add more hours to distance as your kids get older, but we’ve discovered 10-12 hours is the sweet spot. When we went to San Fransisco we took two weeks - fourteen days - to get there and back and it’s about 14 hours from our house.
Destinations from Seattle that are fun:
Crater Lake
Glacier National Park
Olympic National Park
Redwoods
Yellowstone
Banff National Park
TIP #2
If you’re taking a trailer (highly recommended) it will take longer to drive anywhere you are going than what maps tells you. I don’t know why. Plan on it. We discovered that no matter what we did we ended up getting to our campsite at 5pm.
Speaking of which, plan your campsites ahead, make reservations, and make sure you know what time you can arrive. We’ve arrived when the camp host is gone and we’ve arrived before we were supposed to. At least knowing if you are early or late means you can talk your way into or out of trouble.
Tip #3
Remember your audience. We started doing this when the kids were little. Jud was five when we did our first road trip. Which means we did not book five star restaurants - we debated who had the best tartar sauce on the Washington Coast. Our San Francisco stops were much different than if it would have just been Mr. Hedin and I.
Find a park. Find a goofy roadside attraction. Stop for ice cream. Find the best burger in town.
Tip #4
Teach!
I have a love of history anyway - it was my major in college - but teaching my kids a little something about where we are gives these trips a sense of purpose. The first year I did loads of research and made little packets for each of the kids with the history and games for them to play. No one read the history. Since then, I’ll print off the license plate game and a few word searches but the history pieces I keep on my phone and I read them off as we approach.
Some times it feels ridiculous and like only Mr Hedin and I are interested, but taking Washington State History is a middle school requirement in Washington State. This year my daughter has impressed me with what she has remembered from our drives. I wasn’t totally sure she was ever listening.
Share where you would go on your road trip! Or any tips you have for fun family adventures.
