Summer Travel Tips: How to Enjoy The Ride

When I think of summertime as a kid, I always think of road trips. My grandparents lived about 12 hours from us, and at least once a summer we would each pack a bag and make the drive to their house. I used to love those trips, but being a parent of three small children I have come to recognize how much work they really are!

I received compensation and samples for this post. all opinions are my own. 

This summer we had the opportunity to make the road trip of a life time. We moved our little family from Phoenix, Az to Anchorage, Ak. That is 3,665 miles and 62 hours of driving. It is safe to say that we are pretty seasoned road trippers. Along the way we learned what worked and what didn’t to help us enjoy the ride.

Music– For me good music is a must. I have learned that everyone has their own choice for road trip music. I prefer musicals to sing along to, my husband loves a good audio book. No matter what, we always sit down before our trip and download our favorites to our iPod. Now that we have kids ww make them a playlist of songs they love as well. Some of my favorite memories are belting out my favorite tunes with my favorite people in the car.

Entertainment– Our kids are pretty good in the back seat, but I always be sure to pack some fun stuff for them to do while they drive. We like to wrap up some little dollar store toys and yummy snacks and pass back reward presents while we go. They also love coloring books, their LeapPad tablets, movies, and classic handheld games to help pass the time in their seats.

Food– Good road trip food is a MUST for us. We have found that we like to leave early in the morning and stop somewhere in the road for a sit down breakfast. My kids will always eat pancakes so they leave full, happy and ready for a nap. The rest of the day we can munch on our favorite snacks or swing into some fast food as we go.

Road trips are so fun, but one thing is for sure, they can be hard on your car. From rock chips in your windshield to the weird smell that lingers from all being confined to a tight space eating fast food, after road trip clean up is a must. Right?

Lucky for us, Refresh Your Car has everything you need to whip your car into shape after long days on the road. We always start our trip with a new air freshener.

There are so many styles to choose from, but for this trip we went with our Hula Girl. Not only is it fun to have a little dancing friend along for the drive, but she smells so good and keeps the car smelling fresh instead of like stale french fries.

Once we get to our destination we always hit the car wash and follow it up with a good vacuum. Once everything is cleaned out, we wipe down the interior with Refresh Your Car’s Clean Wipes. These handy wipes come in all your favorite scents and kill 99.9% of bacteria*. Make sure you really get the kid’s car seats! Now our car is clean and ready for our next adventure.

*Refresh Your Car! is the only EPA approved automotive products that cleans, conditions, sanitizes and protects interior automotive surfaces. *Kills Staphylococcus Aureus (Staph) and Enterobacter Aerogenes.