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Our first official family vacation and road trip was to our neighbors in Tennessee. I have lived in Georgia my whole life and have yet to really explore Tennessee so I was eager to have the excuse of using our newborn to travel the 2.5 hours into Chattanooga.
Then last week we went to Myrtle Beach which was about 5.5 hours from us but with stops (including a sit down lunch at my in-laws who lived on the way) it took us 8 hours. Between those two trips, I compiled these tips.
Tips for Road Tripping with a Newborn
Skip hotels and rent out a home.
Though hotels offer cribs for newborns, there’s nothing like not knowing what condition the cribs will be in plus smooshing yourself into a small space for the first outing out with husband plus baby. We scoured AirBnb plus VRBO in search of an entire cabin so we could cook, lounge, entertain ourselves, and have plenty of space to do so. We brought the pack n’ play, a few toys, and then the basics for baby and us. Plus, I had prepared a few frozen meals to heat up in the kitchen and we clicked “Hot Tub” to narrow down our search results. So when baby went to sleep, we hopped in the hot tub and enjoyed the mountain views. All for the price of a studio suite in a hotel room. Need I say more?
If you do need to stay at a hotel, like we did in Myrtle Beach, make sure there’s a kitchen and access to laundry. I pre-made lasagna for the first night we arrived and just warmed it up in the oven. We went to get a few groceries to save money. Yes, it might be paying more money to have a half or full kitchen but we found it very helpful and always try to do that on long trips even without kids to save some money.
Check out my general travel tips here.
Be realistic.
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The kiddo
At five months old, we needed a place for her to sleep, change of outfits, diapers, wipes, and a few toys for our daughter.
At nine months old, we needed all the above plus a high chair and stroller. The high chair we have is one that attaches on to a regular dining chair (this Fisher-Price SpaceSaver) so it’s not a big space commitment, but there are even more portable ones. We nixed a heavy duty stroller for a more compact mid-range lightweight stroller by Cosco.
If we had an older daughter we probably would have ditched the pack n’ play and she would have bigger clothes and diapers but the basic concept would have been the same.
For where we were with a five and nine month old, we also brought my pump “just in case,” and an Ergobaby carrier.
The adults
It was just like we usually do: be smart and pack light. No need to overdo it: that is just added stuff and could add stress and time packing and unpacking and packing and unpacking plus keeping track of everything so everything gets back home. Plus with a washer and dryer in the rental cabin and in the hotel we could just wash our clothes. Even without that stuff, I have often hand-washed in sinks on previous long overseas trips.
Check out my general travel tips here.
The fluff
Like I said, I packed pre-made meals but we purchased drinks, snacks, and a meal or two when we got to Chattanooga and Myrtle Beach.
For Chattanooga, I doubled my heaviest duty camera bag (this Epiphanie bag I featured here) as also a diaper bag. I carried my DSLR with one lens and a back up battery with this diaper wallet from Elari that held a change of outfit, a few diapers, butt paste, and wipes (plus we had back ups in the car).
For Myrtle Beach, I decided against a DSLR altogether (since we weren’t really sightseeing) and I used a smaller Epiphanie camera bag to double as a diaper bag and purse.
Here are some of my personal tips for packing light: packing carry-on sized luggage + how to travel lightly to minimize weight and cost while maximizing your sanity.
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Child-Proofing Where You Stay
I noticed our crawler only discovered outlets when we got to our hotel room. I recommend bringing your own outlet covers (like $2 at major grocery stores) or masking tape.
Theoretically, most hotel rooms don’t have a lot of “decor” for kiddo to get into…. but ours did so we just did some re-arranging, closed doors, and kept a close eye on her.
We didn’t worry about bringing a lot of toys because we know she gets bored easily and things like plastic spoons, remote controls, and wooden popsicle sticks are insanely effective babysitters. So, we packed her favorites and knew we would figure out the rest there.
Activities on the Road
For the trip to and from Chattanooga, we timed it perfectly and she was young enough to nap both ways for the majority of the trip.
For Myrtle, this was not the case and in fact the drive to Myrtle Beach she slept a whopping one hour out of 6 hours.
I loaded tablets with movies, had a basket of toys ready, sat in the back with her to play with her, and made sure we allotted an entire day to driving because I was expecting frequent stops. Fortunately, even with little sleep I was able to keep her pretty well entertained and only needed two stops (one of which was a longer stop so she can play and move around freely). So, I may not be the best person on this subject! It did feel like quite a job, though, keeping her happy enough.
Activities at the Destination
Chattanooga isn’t great for babies. But fortunately babies don’t need much to entertain themselves so when they aren’t crawling around yet, I highly recommend just doing stuff to keep the adults entertained.
When they can crawl, it’s all about giving them enough opportunities to be mobile. Restaurants stopped being realistic once we had a crawler on our hands. We still did them, but less often (which is another reason we needed a kitchen in a place where we can just cook and let her crawl around) and smartly: avoiding nice restaurants, trying to time meals right, and knowing one of us might have to walk around with her while the other one eats and then trading off.
At nine months old, she did great just people watching in a stroller or being held. But we would definitely need to keep in mind that we couldn’t spend long days out and about so that she could have opportunity to crawl around freely. If not, she would be fussy and antsy because she didn’t want to be constrained.
What are some of your road trip tips with kids?
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