Ideas for keeping kids entertained on road trips
- weplanyoucaravan
- Apr 20, 2024
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 6
Everyone travels differently with kids. It may be age dependant, or dictated by motion sickness, or how well they can stay occupied. We’ve generally aimed for no more than 4 to 4 ½ hours per day travel time (this with one or two stops) – but there is no right or wrong way to do it, its all about what works for your family!
Here are some ideas for keeping kids occupied in the car.
SNACKS
It’s not always easy with a caravan to pull over quickly after the inevitable “I’m hungry!” from the back seat, so it’s a good idea to carry a range of health snacks. We recommend not giving too much sugar when in the car, as it just makes them more hyperactive. Whether your kids are old enough to have these in the back seat, or whether you want control of the snack box from the front, here are some snack ideas for caravan road trips that don’t need refrigeration:
Apples, bananas, or any fruit in its own skin
Cut up fruit and vegetables
Sultanas and other dried fruit
Popcorn
Nuts (can be a choking hazard, so make sure your child is well used to these)
We always tried to avoid snacks that were particularly messy, mostly because I didn’t want to have to clean the back seat upon arrival or be invaded by mice, but also because they often ended up with us having to stop once said messy snack was consumed, thereby negating any advantage. If you don’t mind getting a bit messy, there is also:
Rice crackers or rice cakes
Finger sandwiches (make sandwiches, cut crust off, divide into 3 even slices)
Cheese that doesn’t need refrigeration, e.g. Babybel minis, Laughing Cow triangles, cheese sticks
AUDIOBOOKS
There is a vast range of audiobooks and on-demand audio for kids that you can use on platforms including
ABC kids listen app - free app from ABC with lots of options for younger kids.
BorrowBox - free app used to borrow books and audiobooks from a library. Can register at any library, including some that do online registrations.
Spotify – digital music, podcast, audiobook streaming service
Audible – audiobook and podcast streaming service
Some audiobooks we can recommend are:
The Harry Potter series written by JK Rowling read by Stephen Fry
The Secret Garden
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series
Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series
Magician written by Raymond E Feist
Anything Thomas the Tank Engine
Audiobooks that we’ve been told are good include:
Jack & Harry books written by Tony McKenna
Runt by Craig Silvey narrated by Genevieve Hegney
Matilda read by Kate Winslet
Percy Jackson
Anything written by David Walliams
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings narrated by Andy Serkis (for older kids)
Wizards of Once read by David Tennant
The Boy Who Grew Dragons series by Andy Shepherd
Mr Bambuckle’s Remarkables and Toffle Towers series by Tim Harris
Truckers set by Terry Pratchett
Podcasts to try:
Squiz Kids (daily news podcast targeted at primary school age)
Weird Animals by Kate Shaw
Car Trip Trivia
Dr Karl
Geeking Out from National Geographic
Noisy by nature (ABC)
COLOURING/ACTIVITY BOOKS/DIARIES
Colouring is an option if your kids don’t get motion sickness.
We always avoided bringing textas or crayons into the car, again because I didn’t want to have to clean up any potential artwork on places other than books.
Crayola have a range of mess free colouring books that use marking pens that have no colour unless used on their books – so you don’t end up with texta all over your car doors!
We have used a strong clipboard for colouring in, but you can also get a range of travel tables and travel trays.
We always developed Destination Activity Books for our children to do in the car. They generally had age-relevant information about our destination to get them excited about their visit and facilitate discussion in the car about what we were going to see, information and activities on animals and plants of the region that were new to us, along with other road trip games to keep them entertained. We are now beginning to share these with other families, check them out at
We usually include a few games of Spotto in our Activity Books – our kids love these! If you would like some free samples, download at
For older children we recommend purchasing a suitably lined book or journal. Your child can be encouraged to write about their day. Suggestion points to write about include special meals, things they did that they enjoyed and why, any part of the day they didn’t enjoy and why, thoughts about your location and details about any friends they have made.
TABLET OR DVD UNIT
Many parents are against technology, but we found it invaluable during our caravan travels in three (3) circumstances: long travel days, Mum with a migraine, and long periods of rain.
We recommend keeping the technology until you’ve exhausted all other options, then using it as the lifesaver to get that last hour of travel done. Also invaluable on occasions where you are unwell (in our case, Mum had a migraine). The more used to it the kids get, the less valuable it becomes in situations where you really need a bit of peace and quiet.
Don’t forget to have it loaded up with their favourite movies and tv shows.
CAR GAMES
Car games are a popular pastime on our travels, especially for the first hour or two of each road trip. We have a list of nine (9) road trip games that we play in the car. We list these and describe how to play them in our Road Trip Activity Book.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Feel free to ask any questions or make comments below. We would love to know your tips for keeping kids entertained!
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