Best Time to Travel with Two Small Kids

My parents always left early 3 or 4 in the morning. We never left that early and I have 4 kids. We bought things for them to do in the car or just packed coloring books and crayons, books on tape from the library, small games, etc.

I like to travel with well rested children, so I wouldn't leave until 7am or so and have them just get up, get in the car and eat breakfast during the drive. Another piece of advice while traveling that far with kids is to ALWAYS eat meals in the car and use stops for going potty and getting some exercise. It is so pointless to get out of the car and then go sit down in a restaurant! A 12hr drive will take all day. If you get up and leave at 3am, you will be too exhaused anyway when you get there even if you do arrive a 3pm, you'll be too tired to do anything. I'm not sure exactly how young of children you're talking about, but in my experience, the kids will not go back to sleep and then you're left with overly tired kids for the rest of the day. If you leave at 7am they will be in a better mood all day. Stop at rest stops to go potty and bring a soccer ball to kick around or a frisbee to throw around for awhile -10 min or so to strech legs, then get back in the car and watch another movie. By the time you get to your destination at 7pm or so, the kids will be tired and should be able to go to bed at 8-9pm.

We have 3 kids - ages 8, 5 & 3. We do a 12-15 hour drive to upstate NY every 4-6 months. We always leave around 5am. The car is packed and running before we go upstairs to get the kids out of bed. They use the bathroom and get into the car and we drive away. They usually fall back asleep within minutes and don't wake up until around 7am -- their normal wakeup time. If they don't fall asleep, they are at least tired and just staore out the window (we keep the toys out of reach for this part of trip). We treat the day just like at home.... eat meals around normal time, have naptime for youngest after lunch, limit the DVD player to just 1 movie in morning and then again in the evening (when it's too dark to do much in car).

We've tried driving at night and it was total disaster. None of the kids slept until around 5-6am -- when we were almost at our destination. The first day was miserable and a total waste because everyone had to sleep all day... then sleep that night was pretty much shot as well because we weren't tired then. It basically ruined our schedule for the entire trip.

Take a soccer ball to kick around at a rest area after you eat lunch. Our lunch stop is extra long (almost an hour) because we make them run around like crazy. On a few trips, we've also looked up city parks that are near our route and let the kids play on the playgrounds. Sometimes that extra 5-10 minutes out of the way is worth it! We never eat at a restaurant. We grab fast food or bring our own and either eat in the car or at a rest stop/park so the kids can run around. It's best to eat in the car since they are sitting anyways and save the stops for running around.

Hi N.!
My husband & I drove to North Carolina from Ohio for a friends wedding one weekend & we left a little later than my 2 year olds regular bed time. She was awake for about an hour but then slept most of the rest of the way. I don't know how you came up with the 3am time to leave, but if I were you, I might consider leaving between 10 pm & 1 am, that is if you & your hubby can take turns driving, etc. It was WAY easier while my 2year old was sleeping because on our way home, we left in the afternoon and she barely slept but maybe an hour or two and it was hard to keep her entertained in her carseat. We have a portable DVD player and took plenty of movies & this helped tremendously, you might suggest one of those. Whatever you choose, good luck to you. Be sure to relax & have fun!
L.

We travel long distances at night with our children as well. Every year we go to our summer home in Tennessee which is about an 8 hour drive. Last year, our girls were 2 and 4 and had a hard time sleeping and we left at 8pm. This year we left at 11pm and all three, ages 5, 3, and 1, slept great and almost the whole way down and we only had to stop 3 times. On the way home, we left at 8pm and they did not sleep nearly as well.

We have traveled 7 times with our 18 month old and each place has been 8+ hours (visiting family and vacations)
we never leave at night. we have always left early in the morning (7 or 8am). For our 14 hour vacation drive we broke it up into 2 days.....7 hours one day adn stayed at a hotel with a pool and had a blast.
Do you have a DVD Player. my kid does not watch much tv at home and then she gets to plop infront of our traveling dvd player and just has alot of fun. Also since your kids are older, get some traveling games and they can play together like Connect 4.
When I was growing up, my dad would keep us up and we would be helping pack the car until 10pm at night. we got in the tub and in our pj's and then Dad would tell us to go to bed and we would be there when we woke up in the morning. that always worked for him but I dont like drivign at night (too many critters on the road)
good luck

My neighbor drives from Chicago to New Jersey with his small kids. They leave at 8 PM --that way the kids sleep till 7 the next morning. If I was to go somewhere, that's what I would do.

My parents did the drive with my brother and I when we were kids and they always left at 8 AM. We did end up sleeping a bit in the car. Candy, they fed us a lot of candy to keep quiet. In fact, it's the only time I can remember being giving candy! And soda!

Growing up, we would make drives almost every summer for 3 weeks to NH. My dad would come home at 12-1p (take a half day at work), and nap till 5-6pm. Then we would pack up the car, change diapers, do potty stuff, get in our pajamas, eat a good dinner, and then hit the road. The drive takes approximately 16 hours, so my parents would opt to travel at night to start. We would pop in a movie and by 9:30p, most of us (4 kids) would pass out for the night. My parents would switch off and on with the driving, and it made it easier to travel.

I wouldn't leave during off hours. We've found that our kids somehow get a second wind and will stay up when it's early or late. We assumed they'd sleep, but it just didn't work out that way and they end up on a goofy sleep schedule. Lesson learned. I would consider sticking with a normal daytime schedule for travel.

Here are some ideas to keep them entertained during the trip when they are up.
http://www.bigbluetrunk.com/ourcorner/689

My kids are also 5 and 3! We went to Myrtle Beach in June which was about a 11 - 12 hour drive (that's including stops). Let me just say that buying a portable DVD player from Best Buy was the best purchase we could have done! I would have them take turns picking out a movie. I would also try to play games in the car. Oh, and I have a portable soft tray that goes over their lap that they can use when they play with their toys or color. I bought it at www.leapsandbounds.com. I love that website! I hope this helps and have a safe trip!

That's when we used to leave to travel from CT to FL. Usually the kids would stay up for 30 min to an hour and then go back to sleep, waking up around 7:00 or 8:00. Then we'd stop at a rest area for breakfast and let them run around a bit.

We frequently traveled to Ky. when our kids were small. (they are 10 and 12 now) We always traveled at night. Keep them up or nap them early. They slept the whole way there. Sometimes they would wake up for a 1/2 hr or so when we reached our destination, but never had a problem with it. Good Luck.

We just travelled to Virginia Beach from Ohio with our 6y/o and 2y/o. We left about 5:30am (due to hotel check in time). We took the kids from their beds directly to the car. Both fell back to sleep till around 8 am. We used our laptop computer for them to watch dvds and had lots of paper and crayons. 6y/o also used his Leapster2 (we got him a new game for the trip that we suprised him with after he woke up and needed something to do) and 2y/o got her beach Barbie. They both did great - we were pleasantly suprised. Only things I would change are what someone else mentioned about having a ball or something to play with at rest stops and packing a cooler with food so you have something better than fast food - most rest stops have a picnic area.

Have a great trip (I can't wait to go on vacation again, LOL!)!!!

I have discovered it really depends on the kids. If your kids are car sleeper kids, then yes I say drive during the times they would normally be sleeping. My children pretty much only sleep in their beds. We took a vacation a few weeks ago that required us to drive for 8 hours. We left at 7 pm at night and drove until 3 am thinking the kids would sleep from about 8 pm on. We were completely wrong. They just got really fussy saying that they wanted their beds. On the way home, we left at 10 am and they were fine driving in the car all day. Our children are 4 and 2. Of course, they needed a lot of interaction, but at least it wasn't whining about something that we couldn't do anything about.