How to Avoid the Road Trip Question: Are We There Yet?

image courtesy MomsCarKeys.com

This week MomsCarKeys.com shared a great road trip resource with us.

MomsCarKeys.com has a free comprehensive guide called “Are We There Yet?” that helps us stay safe, save money, and have fun on the road.  Inside are all the safety things we think we will remember in an emergency.  In reality the stress of an emergency leaves us flustered and forgetful.   Having the answers all in one place helps us relax and still stay safe.  And did I mention it’s free?!

The guide includes great money saving tips, like how to find the nearest restaurants where kids eat free.  (For more tips on eating on the road, see our review of a great guidebook called “Healthy Highways”)  “Are We There Yet?” also covers how to save money on gas, food and lodging.  Since the Best Kid Friendly Travel booking engine is powered by Travelocity, I especially like that it recommends searching Travelocity and Orbitz for hotels.  I might be a bit biased there, though. 😉

My favorite part of the guide is the ‘Keeping Kids Entertained’ section where it lists several fun family car games.  All the games are easy to explain, easy to understand (even for youngsters), and best of all… easy to play.   Most with no equipment at all, although the guide does include several pages of printable games.  My personal favorite is ‘States’.  The guide explains, “The game can be a great way to learn the states!  You can either print a photocopy of a map of the United States, or have your kids draw their own maps if they’re old enough.  Once they have their map, have them color in your own state yellow (1 point), the states that border your state orange (2 points), the states that border THOSE states red (4 points), and so on to purple (6 points), with the remaining states blue (8 points).  Every time they see a license plate, they get the points as they’ve been colored in on the map.”

This is such a useful guide, I have printed it out and put a copy in my car.   I recommend you do the same before your next road trip and the next time we hear the question, “Are We There Yet?”, we just pull out this guide and start having fun.