I'm a Dad of 2, and These Are My Secrets to Successful, Screen-free Road Trips

That summer road trip with the family doesn’t need to be stressful. One travel writer, and a father of two, shares his secrets to pulling off a successful — and screen-free! — drive.

Maybe it’s my own childhood that makes me so wary of screens in a car. Back then, my family and I would be packed into a 1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle, the dog and the hamster cage in our laps in the back, for epic 1,000-mile journeys between New York and Florida. Yet I have joyful memories of those long slogs, which left me with a lifelong lust for the window seat.

Today, my family takes our road trips in a full-featured minivan, which even has a screen for each passenger that drops down from the ceiling. Not that my two kids, aged four and six, know they’re there. Since 2020, we’ve logged thousands of miles on road trips from our home in Charleston to places as distant as Montana and Baja California, Mexico.

These trips with little ones in tow might’ve been easier with a stream of PBS Kids, but my wife and I have resisted the urge to switch on the screens. After all, we put reasonable limits on their TV time at home, usually around an hour per sitting. Why not in the vehicle, too?

So far, it’s worked. Here’s a closer look at the bag of tricks we pack in the space between our captain’s chairs up front.

Hands-on activities

We’ve found that variety is the key to keeping our kids engaged. Coloring books are a go-to, with sets of Crayola Twistables Colored Pencils, which are self-sharpening (and don’t leave me having to wipe marks off the van’s interior). We also like the series Paint by Sticker from Workman Publishing Co., which lets kids create masterpieces as they match stickers with their numbered spots. Scratch & Sketch books are another fun alternative, as are the choices for both pre-K and elementary-school kids from Highlights Hidden Pictures.

On past trips, I’ve learned the hard way how difficult it is to recover a small toy part that’s fallen between seats. These days, we pack toys without detachable pieces. Magnatab, for example, has a variety of boards that let kids practice letters or numbers, or simply draw, with a magnetic stylus and metal beads that won’t go missing. We go for nostalgic classics, too: I think every family car should have an Etch A Sketch, a Magna Doodle, and a Wooly Willy.

Family games

On more scenic stretches of road, we find the best way to inspire wonder and appreciation is a family game focused on looking out the window. Travel bingo boards from Regal Games have hardly changed in decades but are still a hit; we carry both the interstate version and the classic edition. We also swear by the traditional Alphabet Game, in which players have to find all 26 letters, in order, on passing signs. (In our van, we only allow letters from license plates if they’re on vanity tags!)

Story time

Audio can fill the hours while still allowing little eyes to watch the world pass by — and it’s a good choice for kids who might otherwise get motion sickness. Ours are obsessed with Maked Up Stories, a podcast by a dad who takes a prompt from his kids and spins a yarn for 10 minutes or so. NPR’s But Why is another good one that helps parents by answering questions like “Why do pigs oink?” and “Are seeds alive?” Wondery has a wide range of kids’ podcasts, for both young children and tweens, on all sorts of topics.

Tonies characters are more hands-on: they’re programmed with 16 to 50 minutes of songs and stories, and they work in concert with a fabric-wrapped speaker box that also has a headphone jack. Kids are in control of their story choices, whether it’s with a classic character such as Peter Rabbit or Red Riding Hood, or a contemporary Disney favorite such as Elsa or Moana. (We pack a headphone splitter that lets both our kids listen at the same time.)

Rest-stop game plans

We rely on a big-picture strategy when it comes to taking breaks. Even if the day’s goal is to drive 500 miles, we’ll need to pull over plenty for restrooms. We try not to waste our time milling around anonymous gas-station parking lots. Instead, we search for worthwhile attractions on Atlas Obscura, which chronicles quirky and intriguing places around the world, such as the roadrunner statue made from old bric-a-brac right off I-10 just west of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Other road-trip-friendly examples include the Archway, an attraction that spans I-80 in Nebraska, or the incredible City Museum, a hands-on institution off I-70 in St. Louis. Atlas Obscura also spotlights hundreds of locations important to Black and Indigenous history, including many in North America.

A well-stocked library

Because our kids enjoy reading in the car, we always visit the library before departure to stock up on new books. And while it tests the boundaries of “screen-free,” we’ll use the Libby app to download e-books, too.

A version of this story first appeared in the June 2023 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline “No iPad Required."

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