how far do your kids car-travel?

[brachysira]

Here's my personal dilemma.  My parents drive here in 2 days all the time.  It's about 15 hours in the car with minimal stops.  I have done the drive in a single day with DH, but we are sure we couldn't handle it with kids.

My grandma is old and can't really get around well enough to leave her nursing home enjoyably and she doesn't really know what's going on.  Last year, we flew to the middle of the country where my parents live because we thought it would be my grandma's last Christmas.  To fly to a tiny airport semi-near their house is pricey.  While there, some ice caused our return flight to be cancelled and we could not rebook for 4 days, dramatically extending our trip.  Since we rarely visit my parents, there aren't many toys and they live in the middle of nowhere, so there aren't really indoor play places, etc. and we were cracking up.  My parents have an arrangement with my aunt that they will do every other Christmas with my grandma, and so they (and we) did last year.  But my cousins live far away too and they are all pretty much like, nope, never coming.  So without my aunt's children/grandchildren visiting, my aunt and grandma would be alone on Christmas if we don't come and instead my parents come here.  

We are never flying to this burg again.  So we can drive, but will the kids be able to do 2 straight days of driving and then turn around in a few days and do 2 more?  Or we could do some "vacationing" like drive 4-5 hours/day and do an activity in cities along the way, completing the drive in 2 nights/3 days.  

What do you think? 

[seadragon2013]

We've been doing eight hour drives regularly since DS was about 2 years old. We've done a few two day, 14 hour drives as well. It's always been fine. We give him a tablet and try to find a place to stop for lunch where he can run around a bit.
I think drawing the drive out into more than two days would be painful. I'd probably be trying to drive 10-12 hours the first day and 3-5 the second day.

[pinkie]

Driving for Z is very tough. We did 8 hours home to and from a week long vacation and it was very tough for him. Or little guy is awesome in the car. I would say it depends on your kids but 15 hours is a lot!!

Could you fly to a major airport and then have a shorter drive?

[pinkie]

I missed part of your post - I think driving halfway and the. Taking a day or two to sightsee could work, but could you do it also coming back?

[brachysira]

My plan on the way was to drive to a Children's Museum about 5 hours away, play there and stay there, drive to the Great Wolf Lodge, about 6 hours from there, play there, stay there, play more, and drive the final 4 hours that evening. One the way back, we'd leave early, drive 7 hours, go to a museum that is open late, sleep in a hotel, and then drive the rest of it the next day. Or we could spend 2 nights in that location since it's a major city we like, although then it's really getting pricey.

My kids are good in the car, but I can't see them being willing to get into a car after being in it non-stop the previous day. The longest day in the car we've had was 7 hours and they were pretty hateful about car trips for a short while after that.

We researched flying to a larger city extensively last year. For $600 for our family, on Spirit, we could fly from an airport an hour from us to an airport 3.5 hours from them. But parking at the airport here and renting a car for a week would add to the cost, and we'd really be limited in gift transport b/c of Spirit baggage limits. It would cost about $1000 for tickets on a less restrictive airline. With 4.5 hours of driving, 2 hours hanging out in the airport, and hour of boarding/renting cars, etc. and 3 hours in the air, it's about 10 hours of travel, so it just doesn't seem worth it.

[wineandcake]

We do long drives all the time so I'm team drive. Just yesterday we each drove 9ish hours with a kid in each car. My boys are amazing travellers and the closest airport to us is 4.5hrs away so it always makes more sense to just drive.

I've done the drive from home to my parents in a single day with both kids (and both dogs!), it was tough but definitely doable. I prefer to do it over 2 days when H is travelling with us since it's easier to stay in hotels and do things. If it's just me I power through because stopping is too difficult with a wild baby and 3.5yr old. We usually leave after work so it's late (7pm) and we get to the hotel super late. Wake up early, let the boys go for a swim and then hit the road by 8am with stops at parks along the way. I don't like to waste time at our final destination so the less stops the better. Mac doesn't get to use the ipad often so car trips are special and he's usually really happy to just stay in the car for the day.

[brachysira]

Well, the i-pad is not that special around here, although they never get sick of it...we almost don't even need it in the car because they are happy looking at books and snacking until it gets dark. But on the flip side, they get lots of exercise, so it will be hard to tell them they cannot move for so long.

[photomama1990]

My friends do a strait through 12 hour trip a couple of times a year. And another friend does a FL trip that is 24 hours of driving and they only break it up over two days. I think it totally depends on your kiddo.

[summer]

We did 10-hour and 12-hour drives this summer with our kids, plus a 11 hour + 2 hour flight to and from Italy (although the last flight ended up being two full days of traveling because of a major delay, but that's a long story). My kids handled these trips a lot better than I would have expected. For our long drives, we usually pick out a park where we are stopping for lunch or dinner, get our meals to go, and then take them to the park for an hour so the kids can play and eat. For long trips, I always try to load a couple of new apps/books/shows on the tablet, I hit the dollar store hard for toys and things they haven't seen before and are very novel to them, and I pack as much portable food as possible. This combo has worked well for us. (Shout out to expatmama , crimsonandclover , pinkie , @meghanfelldown, and you, brachysira ; I am forever indebted to you for all your advice.  It was so incredibly helpful on our flights.)  I think doing it over two days would be fine. Three days is too much IMO.

My parents took us back to Utah every summer, which was a 15-hour drive. When we were younger, we'd drive about 10ish hours on the first day and then 5ish on the second day. Even without all of the gadgets and stuff we have now, it wasn't horrible. It certainly wasn't perfect, but no one died. ;-)

[brachysira]

Yeah, I recall my parents taking us on a lot of long road trips. I'm sure we did at least one 10 hour day in the winter to ski and another 10 hour day back 3 days later. I never minded it too much, if I recall, and you're right--we didn't have things to watch or apps to play. The most fun of it was buying little boxes of sugar cereal before the trip, getting string cheese in the gas station (we didn't have that any other time like my kids do), and getting my mom to rub my feet. But what was better for long car trips back then (for those of us who survived), were that car seats were only for tiny babies and were optional so I could have a whole seat in the mini van or sit with my feet on the ceiling in the sedan. We could also switch seats so I could sit in the front and play with the radio or my mom could sit next to me in back and read a story. We never stopped to run around but then no one even thought about kids needing exercise back then, I think. We also did a lot of trips that involved multiple days of driving to various western locations. I didn't like hiking in the desert too much and I thought vacations were fun, so probably just having a tiny box of froot loops was enough for me.

[wineandcake]

We definitely never had a bunch of stuff in the cars. A few snacks and maybe when we were a bit older we had walk man's or a portable DVD Player that we had to share. Kids will surprise you I'm sure and it'll be great. I wouldn't worry much about stopping at museums, they don't need that kind of entertainment for just a drive- a small park or an open area to run around are great for drives. At this age, honestly, special treats and a couple new toys should be enough.

I'm saying this mostly for my own benefit haha. I'm flying alone with both boys next week and I'm terrified. Hunter is insane so I'm fearing for my sanity and hoping that a few junk snacks and a toy will keep him sitting still for just over an hour.

[expatmama]

Im so glad it went well summer . To be honest, despite a ton of plane travel the longest car ride we have ever taken was just under 5 hours. The kids were great, DH on the other hand, did not cope well. So it may be awhile before we do any big US road trips. I don't know why he got so stressed out, but I had to talk him down from running out and buying airplane tickets and he complained the whole way while the kids were happy with snacks and iPads. So I won't try to do that again soon.

[brachysira]

wineandcake, you'll get through it!

I know they probably don't NEED museums, but since my parents live in the middle of nowhere, I feel like stopping at some cool places will help me like the trip more. I don't have any friends there anymore really and everyone except my parents is rabidly for Trump. We'll bake Christmas cookies, decorate the tree, open Christmas presents, watch cable, but then we'll be bored, and all of that is stuff we could do without travel! So at least fun stuff on the way should make me feel like the trip is not just a chore.

[beenandgone]

We drove 17 hours 1200ish miles to Maine with all four of my kids this summer. Actually, I did it with minimal help from my parents because DH had just had spinal surgery and didn't want to drive that far. I did out both this year, with 4 children (10 months, 1.5, 3,and 9) and I did it a few years ago with DH when my Feb 13 kiddo was only 6 months old.

We also travel 10 hours to northern Wisconsin a couple times a years.