Road trips with kids that don't end in tears
Three hours between stops, and the stop has to be a place rather than a services. The driving rules that work, the kit that earns its space, and five routes.
Photo · Rain Zou · Pexels
The mistake that ruins a family road trip is not the destination. It is the length of the longest single stretch of driving.
Four hours in a day split into two twos is fine. The same four hours in one go is the trip everyone remembers badly.
Here is what actually works.
The three rules
1. Three hours maximum between stops, and less with under-fives. Two is better. The total is less important than the stretch.
2. The stop has to be a place, not a services. A playground, a lake, a castle, a beach, twenty minutes of running. Forty minutes somewhere real resets everyone; twenty minutes at a motorway services does not, because nobody has moved.
Plan the stops before you leave and put them in the map. It takes ten minutes and it is the single highest-return piece of preparation.
3. Four to five hours of actual driving in a day, maximum. And on the first day, less, because everyone is already tired from getting to the car.
The kit that earns its space
Sick bags, within the child's reach. In a seat pocket, not in the boot. This is the single most useful sentence in this guide and everyone learns it the hard way once.
A car seat you have fitted yourself, before the day. Hire-car seats are frequently supplied unfitted, occasionally in poor condition, and always at a daily rate that approaches the cost of buying one. If you are hiring, book the seat explicitly and inspect it.
Downloaded entertainment, not streamed. Mobile coverage on the routes worth driving is exactly where it fails. Download before you leave the wifi.
A cool bag with food that is not sweet. Cheese, crackers, fruit, sandwiches. Sugar in a car is a decision you regret ninety minutes later.
One wet bag. For the clothes that will need changing, which they will.
A refillable bottle each, and refill at every stop.
Our family packing list has the rest of the kit.
Five routes where the distances are right
1. The Algarve, Portugal
Short drives between everything, a coast with a version of the beach for every age, and it is inexpensive. Our Algarve town-by-town guide has the bases, and the eastern end is the one for small children.
2. Ireland's south west
Kerry and West Cork, where nothing is more than two hours from anything and the roads are slow enough that you stop constantly anyway.
The roads are narrow. That is the trade, and it is genuinely fine once you accept the pace.
3. New Zealand's South Island
The classic, and it works because the distances between the good things are two to four hours rather than eight. Our South Island road trip has the route and Queenstown with kids covers the stop everyone makes.
Campervans are a genuine option here in a way they are not everywhere, because the infrastructure is built for them.
4. Scotland's north and west
Short distances, castles, beaches and no crowds. The North Coast 500 is the famous version and is busier than it was; the west coast from Oban north is quieter and just as good.
The midges between June and August are a real consideration and repellent is not optional.
5. The American southwest
The one with long drives, and it earns a place because the things between them are extraordinary. Utah's national parks are two to three hours apart, which is exactly the right spacing.
Air conditioning, water and fuel discipline matter here in a way they do not in Europe.
The overnight-drive question
It works for some families and it is a gamble.
If your children sleep reliably in the car, a 4am start buys you a whole day and empty roads.
If they do not, you arrive with everyone wrecked and lose the first day anyway, plus a driver who has not slept.
Do it only if you already know the answer, and never on the strength of hoping.
The seating argument, solved
Rotate. Whoever is in the middle at the start of the day is not in the middle after lunch. Announce it before you leave and it stops being a negotiation.
And the front seat has a minimum age and height that varies by country and is a legal matter rather than a family one. Check the rules for where you are driving, because they differ across Europe and again in the United States and Australia.
The practical layer for driving abroad
Check whether you need an International Driving Permit for the country you are driving in, because the answer differs by your licence and the destination, and the two IDP conventions cover different countries, which is why one permit is not always enough.
Check the car seat rules, which vary by country on age, height and weight.
Tolls and vignettes need buying in advance in several European countries, and a hire car may or may not come with one.
And check what your insurance covers, particularly for a second driver, which is where the sharing of a long day actually comes from.
Our driving side tool covers which side of the road you will be on, which sounds obvious and is the thing that catches people out on the first roundabout.
What to skip
Skip the six-hour first day. Everyone is already tired from getting to the car.
Skip the itinerary with a different bed every night. Two nights minimum in each place, because packing and unpacking is the part children hate most.
Skip the screen-free road trip as an ideal. Books and games for the first hour, screens for the third. Nobody is winning a prize.
And skip the motorway when the parallel road is only twenty minutes longer. The stops are better, the drive is more interesting, and twenty minutes is nothing against a playground you can actually stop at.
Before you book
How to plan a family trip has the general method, and the family packing list has the kit.
Best all-inclusive family resorts is the opposite kind of holiday if the driving does not appeal, and the South Island road trip is the best single route on this site.
Prices in our guides are in each destination's own currency and the converter does the rest.
Driving requirements, child restraint rules and permit needs differ by country and change. The European Commission's road safety pages and your own licensing authority are the sources worth checking before you drive abroad, rather than a travel guide. Here is how we research and re-check guides.
