What is the best time of day to travel by car? We need to make a 7+ hour drive. DD is 11 months old and STTN, starting at about 7:30. Is it better to travel during the day and arrive in time for bedtime (which means I'll have to pump and keep her occupied for long stretches), leave super early in the morning, or leave late in the day so she'll sleep for a long stretch (knowing that this will really mess with her routine)? Help! What has worked best for you?
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We prefer to either start at bedtime and drive through the night or leave at 2-3 am, stop for breakfast when LO wakes up, then have just a few hours left to drive so LO can nap at our destination. We make a 12+ hour trip a few times a year.
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We prefer to leave before dinner. She's usually awake for about 45 minutes before getting annoyed and we stop for dinner and change into pjs. Usually she's up for about another hour and then sleeps the rest of the trip. Yes she wakes up when we arrive but we've never had trouble getting her back down
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I have taken several 4-6 hour road trips alone with DS. I prefer to leave in the morning and usually he just falls asleep the majority of the trip. I really have stressed out about this before road trips, but it is worked literally every trip even if he has STTN the previous night.
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We leave about 2 hours before dinner, stop at a restaurant for dinner. Then it was an hour or two and he will/would go to sleep for the rest of the ride. Got us there pretty early in the morning but we took turns driving and sleeping. OR we would make plans to stop every couple of hours to get him out to a park or something. That sucked because the 8 hour drive became 12 or 14 hours.
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We prefer to either start right before bedtime or plan it so we stop for dinner about midway then she will sleep the rest of the time.
My family is about 7 hours away and this has worked out really well for us. Even getting in around midnight doesn't really mess with her too much.
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I've never done 7 hours, but for 4-5 hour trips we leave right at nap, stop when they wake up, play, eat, etc. and get back in the car for the rest. Best of luck!
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6 comments