Family Friendly Road Trips: Rest Stops

This is the first in a series of articles on how to make your road trip more family-friendly.

Our family took three road trips this summer: one 135 miles one-way, one 600 miles one-way, and the most recent was 1250 miles one-way. Over the last few years, we've taken quite a few road trips and with each one I grow more impatient and frustrated with places that are not family-friendly.

First, let me give you an idea of our challenges. We have four children ages 6.5 yrs, 4.5 yrs, 2.75 yrs and 10 months. This inevitably means frequent bathroom breaks, many snacks, and a really filthy car. It's also a challenge with entertainment as children so young have a much more difficult time doing "road trip activities." I'll cover activities in a future post.

Aside from food breaks, bathroom breaks are the biggest concern on the actual trip. As much as I'd love to say we only took breaks during our gas station stops, it couldn't be farther from the truth. Our strategy was to drive at least an hour and a half before we stopped.

Rest Stop Strategy:
1. For a simple bathroom break, the rest stops right off the highway (not an actual exit) work really well. Surprisingly, they were most often cleaner than fast food restaurant or gas station bathrooms. They also provide little distraction so that you can get back on the road quickly. Most also have green areas for the kids to run around for ten minutes, if needed.
2. Try to avoid fast food restaurant bathrooms. Unless you're stopping to eat there, it's a big distraction as the kids always want something. The bathrooms are also unreliable as to their cleanliness.
3. Limit Drinks. Yep, it sounds horrible! But just like any human being, boredom often means endless sipping on a drink. For our kids, we fill their cups at every stop with about 4 ounces of water. It keeps them well-hydrated, but not so much water we're stopping every half hour.


Our favorite rest stops:
Occasionally we come across really fabulous rest stops. Here are a couple. If you have one, post it in the comments and I'll add it to the list.
1. Cody, Kansas. Just off of I-70 on the south side, there is a large "Travel Stop." It has a gas station, Baskin Robbins, Starbucks, convenience store and NICE bathrooms. A huge bonus for us was a fenced in Playground! We had a picnic dinner and the girls ran off some energy. After our stop, we managed 3.5 hours in the car all at once.
2.