A family RV trip is a great way to make memories that last a lifetime. Consider these simple yet effective suggestions for keeping everyone content and relaxed.
By Scott & Van Russell, F505257
July 2023
Are you planning an RV adventure with kids? Nothing beats the quality family time and freedom you expe-rience when traveling in your home on wheels. In many ways, RV travel is a perfect fit for families. You have everything you need in your rolling condo on wheels. Of course, it’s very convenient to have a bathroom and kitchen along with you for the trip.
Florida’s Jonathan Dickinson State Park.
RV travel is a great way to get everyone to unplug and have some fun. Something about hitting the road and camping together creates a memorable experience for everyone.
Is RVing with kids or grandkids worth the extra effort? With a little patience and planning, it can be the trip of a lifetime.
Before you drive off on your next trip with kids in tow, here are some tips to ensure that everyone ˛ youngsters included ˛ will get the most out of their travel experience.
1 PICK A DESTINATION THAT WORKS FOR EVERYONE
As adults, many of us tend to want to get the biggest bang for our buck when it comes to vacation time. I know I fall into the trap of wanting to see and do as much as possible. However, this strategy often backfires with cranky little ones and uninterested teenagers.
Simply put, less is more when traveling with kids. Instead of trying to take an epic cross-country RV trip filled with a new stop every couple of days, consider limiting your itinerary to one location, or remain within one general area. Kids get worn out easily from constantly riding in a car or RV, and you may find that everyone enjoys the experience much more if you stay put for a while.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a family-friendly destination.
It helps to choose a travel destination that has a lot to offer both the kids and the adults. For example, our family has visited Gatlinburg, Tennessee, many times in our RV. This destination offers numerous attractions that the whole family can enjoy.
Gatlinburg is located at the entrance of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which provides amazing options for outdoor adventure and scenery. The town itself is filled with kid-friendly activities, such as mini golf, mountain coasters, zip lines, an aquarium, and aerial gondola rides in the mountains. It’s the perfect mix of scenery and vacation fun for all ages.
Consider travel distances and seek locations that offer a mix of both outdoor and indoor pursuits that would work best for your family.
2 LET KIDS HELP PLAN THE TRIP
Looking for a great way to help your kids get excited about your upcom-ing trip and feel like they are part of the planning process? Borrow or purchase books about your travel destination for your kids to read. Then ask them whether they found any places or activities from the books that they would like to check out. This little hack helps your kids to learn more about where you are going, but it also gives them some ownership and extra interest in the trip. We did this for an RV trip that we took as a family to Washington, D.C. I found a couple of D.C. travel books geared to kids that talked about the monuments and all there is to see and do in the city.
Then we asked our daughter what she wanted to check out while we were there. We were amazed by how much she had learned about the area and how much more excited she was to visit after reading the books. She was the most interested in the Washington Monument, so we made it her idea for our family to go there. She loved helping to plan the trip.
Tennessee has many waterways that offer unbeatable views.
For national park trips with kids, we love the book series “Adventures With The Parkers‚ by children’s book author Mike Graf. Each book in the series focuses on one or more of the major national parks, and all feature a fictional story of a family that camps in the park. The story is filled with facts about the national park mixed with a fictional adventure.
We purchased the Adventures With The Parkers books for our daughter before traveling to each national park in our RV. She loved the books and often used them to tell us about places in the parks she wanted to visit or trails she wanted to hike. This was a great way for her to learn more and help plan our family adventure. Having the kids help with trip planning is a win-win RV travel hack for the whole family.
3 PLAN YOUR ROUTE WITH STOPS INCLUDED
When planning your RV travel route, make sure to incorporate stops along the way for bathroom breaks and eating lunch. It’s stressful when kids announce they need to use the bathroom and you don’t know a good place to pull over that will safely fit your RV. Even when you can use your own RV bathroom, you still need to locate a place to stop.
Rest areas and truck stops can be great RV-friendly locations for breaks. Use RV apps such as Roadtrippers or RV Life Trip Wizard as helpful resources to find stop-ping locations on your route that are RV friendly.
4 PACK SMART TO SAVE MONEY — & YOUR SANITY
Do your whole family a huge favor and plan what you need to pack for RV travel days. Hungry travelers are cranky travelers. Make sure your provisions include low-mess snacks and drinks to have in the car or RV on driving days. This isn’t a great time for sticky drinks or cheese puffs!
Waterfalls in Great Smoky Mountains National Park make great family photos.
We usually limit drinks to water, because other beverages can lead to extra bathroom breaks. Some low-mess snacks that we love are trail mix, string cheese, fruit snacks, jerky, squeezable applesauce packets, and granola bars. Need a full lunch in the car? Consider a Lunchable brand snack box; or make your own using meat, cheese, crackers, carrots, and grapes in a bento box.
Also remember car activities to keep kids busy and help pass the time while you are en route to the next destination. Ideas include movies; iPads or other tablet PCs; computers; coloring books; puzzle books (crosswords, word searches, mazes, sticker books, or Highlights magazine), license plate bingo, and reading books.
5 MAKE TIME FOR SIMPLE FUN
Did you go on family vacations as a child? What are some of the things you remember most? These trips are often a memorable part of childhood. Anything that breaks the daily routine seems to stick in our memory. If you are like me, I recall the little things, like swimming in the hotel pool and going out for ice cream.
Adults often feel that a trip needs to include exciting adventures for it to be considered great. The funny thing is that kids tend to enjoy and remember the little things. It’s like giving a toddler an expensive or elaborate present and finding that all they want to do is play with the box! Consider leaving enough time on your trip to enjoy some simple activities to connect with your kids.
Some ways we love to embrace simple moments together while RV traveling are by cooking dinner on the campfire, creating new s’mores recipes, playing cards at night before going to bed, hiking, flying a kite, fishing, swimming, and stargazing. Anything that isn’t part of your normal routine can be a memorable way to connect with your kids on an RV trip.
6 GET CREATIVE TO KEEP KIDS ENGAGED
Anakeesta in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, features a treetop play area and zip lining.
A great tip for keeping kids interested in your trip activities is to give them an inexpensive camera and ask them to help you take photos. It’s amazing to look back and view the trip later from your child’s perspective.
If your child isn’t too keen on taking pictures, consider giving them a little notebook and asking them to draw a picture or write down what they did each day and what they enjoyed most. This will make a great keepsake of your family trip.
We gave our daughter a camera once on an RV vacation to Acadia National Park in Maine. We were amazed at some of the photos she captured. She took pictures of things that we never would have thought of. For Christmas that year, we gave her a book filled with photos she had taken as a remembrance of the trip. She loved it and felt so proud to see her own photos displayed.
Taking an RV trip with kids is an exciting way to create memories that will last a lifetime. With a bit of preparation, your family’s RV adventure can be an amazing experience. We hope these ideas inspire you to hit the road and make new family memories!
Scott; his wife, Van; and their 13-year-old daughter have traveled full-time in their RV for eight years. They have worked and homeschooled on the road through 42 states so far. They blog about RVing tips, travel destinations, jobs for RVing, and the full-time RV lifestyle on theadventuredetour.com and rvnomadjobs.com. They are also RV content creators (@theadventuredetour) on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.