The kids are getting to the age where we can start taking them longer distances. I'm thinking we'll take them up to a few hours away... in my mind, the perfect road trip is 3-6 hours. Any longer than that and I start to get a little stir crazy!
When I was a kid, we used to drive 5 hours down to Nags Head, North Carolina and that wasn't so bad. Except that I was baking in the back of a station wagon in the blazing sun, and that was no bueno.
Have you taken your LO on any road trips?
cantaloupe / 6923 posts
Yes. And it was bad. An 8 hr trip turned into a 12 hr trip. Never again!
pineapple / 12053 posts
Yep! First of all, we drive 2-3 hours one way several times a month to see family/work. Secondly, we drove to NorCal (8+ hours) to camp when LO was a year. It was crazy but fun. We've also taken her to Yosemite (5+) and lake Mohave (5+).
hostess / wonderful watermelon / 39513 posts
3 or 4 times a year for 6-7 hours. Only one trip was bad...LO 1 was almost 8 months old.
bananas / 9973 posts
Yup. Always 5+ hours going to Mammoth. Did Tahoe broken into 2 separate days. I wouldn't say it was terrible. But not really fun.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
No, but we want to... DH wants to do a road trip all the way from Socal to Vancouver, Canada! That's probably at least a 20 hour drive. He wants to stop at different sights along the way though - Santa Barbara, SF, Portland, Seattle.. and end in Vancouver. But then we'd have to drive allll the way back down again...
Eta: well, we did do one 8-hour drive to SF for a wedding, and we've gone to SD a few times (but it's only an hour or two away).
pineapple / 12566 posts
A few short ones, I would never do anything more than 3-4 hours while the kids are young. We did NY to Martha's Vineyard when DS was 4 months, which was awful since he screamed most of the time. Bordeaux to Biarritz (2ish hours). A few road trips within Austria and Vienna to Budapest (only 2.5 hours).
grapefruit / 4110 posts
The disadvantage of loving in isolated towns is that you have to drive everywhere. 1.5 hours was common to get to the next biggest town. Last year we went twice a week there for speech. So I have a much higher threshold than 3 hours for a road trip, that is just normal. His first 3 hour trip was at 4 weeks old when we bought the new car.
Then 3 hours for his Gastro and of course the big d land. At 1 we did 6 hours to Arizona to see my family and again at two we went twice in two weeks because of a death.
Just for thanksgiving we did 5 hours to the bay to see family. We have been regularly back and forth 3.5 hours between old home and new home since spring of last year.
For us, Phoenix was a road trip. Everything else is just normal. We will likely do a drive across the states to the east coast in 2 or 3 years (he will be 5 or 6 but new baby will be 1 or 2) to see family. I personally would rather drive than fly if I can.
persimmon / 1096 posts
We do an annual vacation to Hilton Head, which is about 12 hours. We break it up into two days - the first is 8 hours, then we stay in Charlotte NC, then 4 more hours on day 2. Two summers ago he was just 9 weeks, so he slept most of the way. This past summer he was nearly 16 months, and that was the occasion when we introduced screen time, which was a big hit and made the trip very easy. He's s pretty laid back traveller, so road trips don't scare me. Though next summer we'll have a 2.5 year old and a 6 month old, so that could be a different story 
GOLD / watermelon / 14076 posts
We've done a few...all around 3-3.5 hours. They were fine, but LO is pretty good in the car to begin with.
pear / 1693 posts
We've taken a couple road trips that were 3-5 hours. LO ranged in age from 8 months-13 months, and maxed out at about 2.5 hours before needing me to entertain her.
honeydew / 7230 posts
We drove to Kansas for a wedding one weekend when they were 5 months old. It took about 8 hrs (would have been 6-6.5 without the kids) and it went much better than expected! We did have several emergency diaper change stops, but we mostly did bottles which sped things up considerably.
coconut / 8079 posts
LO has done lots of car travel already and does great. The longest was 6-7 hours.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
Just what should be 4 hours trips. They have been 5-6 with her and traffic (thanksgiving). Doing it again next Friday, only this time part will be during her normal bed time. Going to be interesting.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
Yup, we drive to visit my family often. It's 7-8 hr drive depending on traffic. Thankfully, dd1 is wonderful on road trips. Hope DD 2 is the same!
eggplant / 11824 posts
A couple that were 3-4 hours, and then a bunch in the 2-hour range. Luckily LO falls asleep asap in the car (so do I!) so it was fine.
clementine / 927 posts
Mmmmm hmmmm. 9 hrs to Toronto, then another few to Montreal. Only works overnight for us.
pineapple / 12793 posts
We drove from Toronto to DC to southern Florida when DD was 11.5 months. Bubble Guppies for the win. It was four days in the car and LO was such a trooper.
grapefruit / 4903 posts
Many times. I don't even think of 3 hours as a road trip, to be honest! We've done road trips across the country, the longest of which was 2-3 days each way. We've done that twice. It's really not too bad! The worst was when she was 3 months, nurses all the time, and hated her infant car seat.
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