4 must have items to survive a 13 hour car ride with a toddler

This post contains affiliate links to things I’ve personally used and recommend.

We are freshly back from a glorious trip to Bar Harbor, Maine. I truly left a piece of my heart in that cute town. If you’ve never been to Bar Harbor, start planning your trip now and get yourself there. It’s amazing!

Anyway, I have an almost two year old, and in this post I’m going to share some tips on how to survive a 13 hour car ride with a toddler and live to tell the tale.

Now, I do have the preface this by saying my son is a gem. (Unless we’re in a restaurant) He has always been an A+ sleeper and is very laid back with a splash of sass. So, just remember that when I’m sharing my tips….he’s just a chill little dude for the most part, and it is all him. It has nothing to do with my parenting skills – buhhhhlieve me.

One more thing before I get started. I’m going to link all the stuff I’m recommending and it’s ALLLLLLLLLLL from Amazon. I am madly in love with Amazon. (Isn’t everyone?!?!? or is it just me?? I’m going to go with everyone) So you can easily click my links, add the goodies in your cart and stick them in your saved stuff. I swear my saved list has about 500 items in. I have a problem.

NOW. Onto the reason your suffering through my rambling…..

Amazon Fire Kids Edition Tablet

I really don’t think we would’ve survived the 13 hours in the car, the touristy trips around Bar Harbor or nights in the cabin without this little electronic beauty. They have a few different versions, we got the 8.

The 8 comes in three colors – yellow, blue or pink. It’s $129.99 or you can split the payments up over 5 months and pay $26.00 a month. I think if you choose that option, you pay the taxes and such with the first payment, but don’t quote me on that.

It comes with 1 year of Freetime unlimited which is AMAZING. Books and games and all the fun stuff for kiddos, already has a kid proof case on it AND if it breaks within 2 years, THEY’LL REPLACE IT. Ugh. Amazon. You rock my world.

We loaded a few of his favorite movies on it as well and it was truly a life saver.

Water Wow books by Melissa and Doug

These are amazing. The book has colorless picture pages with hidden objects that appear when you use the marker and the marker is filled WITH WATER! (Insert mind blown emoji here)

There is no mess. No markers. No toxins. No smell. IT IS JUST WATER!

And when the pages dry, THEY ARE BLANK AGAIN! (Insert five mind blown emojis here)

They are a great price and a must have for kids. These will be a permenant staple in our diaper bag from now on and I cannot wait to whip them out whenever the need arises.

That’s literally all I took with him in the car for entertainment and he was thrilled with them, so of course, so was I. But I did take some of our favorite snacks from Happy Baby/Tot. This has been my favorite baby food brand since I started solids. I made my food for the most part, but it was so nice to have a brand I trusted if I ran out or between my food making schedule.

Happy baby Yogis

I know it says baby, but these are always in my diaper bag. Minimal mess, healthy, and my kid goes bananas over them. He’d eat a bag a day if I let him.

Happy Tot pouches

Now, I don’t know about you, but I am becoming a raging freak about the earth. These plastic pouches hurt my soul and I am so ashamed to be buying them, but LAAAWDY are they so great and convenient. In the car or while waiting for your food at the restaurant, these are great to hand your toddler in a pinch.

You can also purchase your own pouches to put your own food in, but I like being able to keep these in my diaper bag and not worry about refrigeration.

That’s literally it. We wouldn’t have survived this trip without these four items.

Do you have any must have items for road trips? Let me know! I’m always looking for parenting tips and hacks! Especially about making traveling easier.

This was a quick post but follow me on instagram to stay in the know about future posts! I’ll be posting more about Maine and the beautiful town of Bar Harbor and I also have a girls trip to Massachusetts coming up! Lots of exciting stuff coming to the blog this month.