Road trips and vacations can get everyone out-of-whack with their usual eating habits and schedules. As a parent, you might be extra stressed trying to help everyone manage their hunger, thirst, bladders and boredom, not to mention driving safely, navigating and keeping yourself fed and hydrated. This post is all about giving you some easy go-to ideas for road trip snacks for kids as well as a few bonus hacks for family road tripping and eating on-the-go.

General road trip snacking tips from a dietitian

Tip #1: Relax

My best friend Catie is a road trip warrior and taught me her catchphrase: “No rules. Just snacks.” This is her key to surviving road trips with young kids. Catie has four kids and has driven them- by herself!- back and forth across the country multiple times, so her advice is gold.  I think it’s a brilliant mantra to keep running through your head while road tripping. 

If you stress about getting out of your usual meal + snack pattern with your kids, that stress is going to make your trip more of a headache than it needs to be. Let go of things that you’re usually a stickler about and focus on the goal of arriving safely to your destination.

Tip #2: Quantity

Pack lots of snacks, then pack some more. Kids get bored in the car and want to eat snacks. That’s totally normal. Snacks keep them happy. A novel snack every so often is its own form of entertainment in the car. YES they may fill up on snacks and not be hungry at the designated meal time. That’s OK. Let them off the hook. Bring their leftover chicken nuggets with you and hand them back in 30 minutes down the road when they’re asking for… you guessed it… another snack.

Tip #3: Variety over nutritional value

When packing snacks, aim for a variety of food groups. This is a simple way to think about the nutrition aspect of your snack-all-day scenario. Just try and aim for a few different food groups- carbs, protein, fat. Veggies, fruits, dairy. Nuts, cereal, chocolate, raisins. You get the idea! You don’t need to stress about the nutritional content. Just aim for a bit of variety.

Tip #4: Meal food

Plan to also get some meal food in the kids’ bellies. Plan on at least one stop somewhere that you can get protein (chicken, hamburger, hotdog, lunchmeat, pb&j) or plan to bring some “meal food” like prepared sandwiches to supplement the “snack food.” Growing up, my family did plenty of road trips with bread, lunchmeat, cheese, mayo and mustard in a cooler in the trunk of the car. 

Tip #5: Beverages

Another good goal is to keep your kids hydrated on road trips. Yes, that might mean you need to break out the roadside kid potty a few extra times, but hydration is important. Don’t you feel yucky when you get dehydrated? 

I like sticking with water mainly because it doesn’t make a mess when it inevitably gets spilled. I may offer my kids milk or juice when we stop for a meal, but I like to keep it to water in the car. It also decreases my stress about spills, which is a positive.

Tip #6: Novelty

Break out the novelty items you don’t usually buy. It makes it a bit more exciting to be stuck strapped into a carseat for hours on end. 

For infants, buy those baby puffs that you may not normally splurge on. The freeze dried yogurt bites or strawberries. The pouches. 

For older kids, any sort of new or special snack will do the trick. You can even involve the kids for additional buy-in from them. Take them to the store and let them each pick out one box or bag of snack items. Kids like to have agency over some of their decisions! And it helps them look forward to the car trip where they get to share their special snack with everyone. 

Road trip hacks

You know I’m always down for any sort of tip, trick or hack to make life easier. Here are three:

Catie S, creative mind at Hearthstone Haven says to bring a pair of child scissors for your big kids in the third row. They can open all their own snacks this way. 

She also recommends putting an extendable reacher/grabber tool in your car. It is a life-saver when a kid has dropped something but you can’t easily reach it. 

Lastly, if you want to break up the screen time, try out some kid-friendly podcasts. We’ve enjoyed Readers on the Road, Gardenkeeper Gus, Molly of Denali, and some other PBS Kid options. 

Snack ideas

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Savannah- the gal behind Savvy Mom Hacks. I’m a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, and one of my goals with this site is to help parents feel less stressed about feeding their kiddos. I find when I’m packing- whether it’s food or my luggage- it’s easier and simpler when I reference a list. So, here is a list of a few snack ideas for your road trips with kids.

Non refrigerated snacks

• Cereal- you could go for the individually packaged mini boxes or buy a box and split it up into baggies ahead of time. I like the Kashi Cinnamon Harvest or Island Vanilla
• Cliff Z Bars With Protein or Costco granola bars
• Meat sticks – like these on amazon
• Packaged cheese or peanut butter crackers
• Gummy bears- they take longer to chew than traditional fruit snacks. Keeps kids entertained.
• Apple sauce pouches
• Clementines

Cold snacks

• Cheese sticks 
• Lunchmeat roll ups
• Cut fruit and veg- apples, grapes, bell peppers, cucumbers
• Yogurt- cups or pouches
• Leftover cheese pizza

Homemade snacks

• Trail mix- much cheaper than buying it already mixed! Raisins, cereal, goldfish, peanuts (if kids are over 4), m&ms
• Muffins- if you already buy Kodiak cakes for pancakes, they have a recipe on the back of their box for turning the mix into muffins. Or use your favorite box mix or from-scratch recipe.
• No bake chocolate chip oatmeal energy balls- I’ve been making this recipe for years and it’s always a hit. If you prefer to do things homemade, these make a great substitute for store bought chocolate chip granola bars. 

Cheap snacks

• Bananas- bananas are the mvp of budget snacks. They’re not going to do well on a multi-day road trip, since they tend to get bruised and banged up in the car, but for a one day trip they make a fantastic and inexpensive snack. 
• Make your own pouches with applesauce or yogurt. If you hate spending money on pouches, did you know you can purchase refillable pouches and make them yourself? Buy a large container of plain yogurt, sweeten it with strawberry jam or honey and then portion it into your own pouches. Just remember- you’ll need to wash them out at your destination so they don’t get gross and moldy. 
• Goldfish, cereal, chex mix- buy a big box/bag and split it up into baggies or snack cups ahead of time. Buying in bulk is almost always cheaper than buying pre-packaged! 

What’s your favorite road trip snack? Tell us in the comments!