Road trips are a fun and easy way for the family to spend some time together. To get the most out your time whilst travelling and to make sure that the only screams that you get to hear are ones of laughter, here are some ideas to make it work.

Let them choose

A great way of making sure the trip starts out well is to let each of your kids choose a few things that they want to bring along. The only rule would be that whatever they want to bring has to fit into a small laptop sized carry bag. Kids can then choose to fill their bag with as much stuff as they want to take like toys, books or games. Letting them choose by themselves means they are more likely to make use of what they bring to keep them occupied than if you packed for them, try it, it works!

Let them click away

Rather than clicking away on a laptop or texting on a mobile phone for the older kids, why not get them their own individual camera to use on road trips. You can pick up some great digital cameras for less than $50 and you will find that they have a lot of fun taking pictures at stops, making little movies and uploading their own personal snaps of the trip. Getting them a digital camera each is a worthwhile investment as it keeps them occupied and engaged with what’s around them, and they can be used many times over, which makes them quite a bargain.

Colouring books without the mess

A proven winner in keeping the younger ones occupied during the hours on the road is to give them a colouring book and crayons but there always seems to be a stray crayon or pen that ends up down the back of the seat with the lid off. If you want to let them have the fun of colouring but without the mess then try and find those magical invisible ink books we all seemed to have when we where their age. You can get books that come with a special pen that reveals colours, textures or even the answers to puzzles, but without the mess or worry of crayons or ink ruining the seats.

Story Telling

The reality of life is that your kids really don’t want to hear your endless tales throughout the journey, so why not get a professional to do the job instead? Audio books are a really good way of keeping most kids under 11 occupied for hours and you can download a range of stories onto your MP3 or even get a few CD’s from a local bookshop or your library. It even works for the older ones as well if you get an audio book that you download on to an iPhone or other device with a more suitable subject for their age.

With a bit of creative thinking you don’t have to resort to the usual DVD route and because they are doing something they don’t normally do at home, it should keep them amused for longer and make the road trip even more of a fun time for all the family.

Elizabeth Bailey is a travel consultant and a single mom. She enjoys taking her little joys out on adventures and frequently blogs about her travels. Visit Expedia Travel Insurance to learn about online insurance quotes.