15Hr Drive with Small Kids

We would never embark on any road trip more than 2 hrs. We prefer flying over driving anyday.

That said, with this amount of time... If I were you and had no option to fly, I'd make it a 2 day trip so you are more rested when you arrive at your destination.

My neighbors swear by driving at night but there is no way I could do that because like you, I don't sleep well in a car and I would want to be awake and aware to help keep hubby awake and aware while he was driving.

Never put your family at risk if you feel you can't safely drive straight thru. If something were to happen, it would be horrible. Make it a 2 day trip, just to be on the safe side. Good luck!!

Two day trip for sure. I have done an 8 hr car ride and its the max I could do with one child. Just drive 8 hrs and stay in a hotel for the night and get up early and do the other 7hrs, its safer and will make for a more enjoyable trip. I think leaving at 7am is a good time b/c you don't have to worry about the driving in the evening.

This year we are leaving a day early and spending the night somewhere.

We say every year how we hate having the first day of our vacation a mostly "driving nightmare" day of H-E-douible hockey sticks!

This year, we;ll begin our vacation week with a small (1 hr or less) drive, check in at the resort and we won't be tired and cranky from the trip! That's no way to start a vacation. And my O. child is 9, and the drive is about half of what you're facing.

Is my suggestion obvious? LOL

We just drove 13 hours to and from Atlanta last week, so it was almost as long as your trip. We find that while our kids sleep in the car, they are so exhausted from the ride that they still sleep great when we get there. They have always been this way, even when they were younger. Now they are 5, 7, and 9. We make as many stops as they need...which ironically is SO many more when my husband is with us :).

We left Atlanta about 9 yesterday morning and with our stops and breaks, we pulled into our house about 1145. It was WELL worth it though because we missed the nasty storms the mid-Atlantic has been getting.

So I say you see how it goes. If your kids do well, then keep going. If you or your husband get tired, stop. Just be flexible and don't stress.

.... if the kids sleep throught the night but my husband and I are awake driving all night, will it make for a miserable/tiring start to a long busy vacation?
- YES! We were only dealing with a 7 hour drive but my husband insisted we do it at night while our son slept in the car. My son slept, but not very good quality sleep, so then he was cranky the next day and I was absolutely exhausted because I had not slept at all! (I cant sleep in cars either). Now, we try to do our 7 hours in the evening.... say leave at 6pm and get there at 1pm. This way our 3 year old stays awake the first two hours or so then falls alseep and when we arive around 1am I can just move him into bed and go to bed for a few hours myself. Maybe you could do this for 2 days... plan in avance and maybe stay the night at a cool hotel with a pool or something so you can drive at night, get to hotel around 1am, sleep, play the next day at the hotel and then drive again that evening?

For a fifteen hour drive, I'd break it up into two 7.5 hour days of driving, taking breaks every two hours for the kids to run around and burn off some energy. We've found that this improves everyone's endurance and mood and also makes the arrival at our final destination much more peaceful. We drove cross country about three years ago with our four children who, at the time, were 8, 6, 3, and 1. We broke the driving into three days with frequent stops planned. Since the kids and I had never made the drive before, I also looked up lots of things to do along the way, so we did a lot of sight seeing, which just made the trip more memorable and enjoyable for everyone. (Sometimes just stopping at an interesting rest stop for half an hour is a great adventure for the kids.) It had the unexpected result of making the driving part of the vacation and not just something to endure before getting to our destination. In fact, some of my favorite parts of the trip ended up being places we saw because we needed to take a break from driving.

We'll be breaking our 14 hour drive with an 18 mo old into two days. It's not worth the risk in my opinion to drive at night. Last year he was about 5 months old and we made the drive down over night BUT we stayed up the whole night before, packed the baby up to grandmas in the morning and slept all day then got up and headed out around bedtime for the baby. It took the first couple of days for us to get caught up on sleep and really feel ready for a vacation though. Coming home we split it into two days since we didn't have anyone to watch the baby so we could rest up the day before. This year we are not doing the over night thing at all. It might make for a quieter trip, but the danger of driving late and being tired isn't worth it for me.

We just drove from Chicago to Jacksonville with a 3yr old and 10 month old. We decided to do it all in one shot. We left at 3pm, stopped at rest areas to stretch/play/snack/potty, had dinner at a place with a play area, and put the kids to bed around their usual bedtime (changed into jammies). I think it took a total of 20 hours with all stops/meals/etc included.

If your husband will be doing most of the driving, try and sleep as much as possible. When you get to your destination, you will probably have to try and nap in shifts to "catch up" on sleep the first day.

I wouldn't do it any other way, though. I just can't see trying to do a 12+ hour drive with both kids awake during the day. Soooo much easier for everyone to do it overnight.

We did a 17 hour drive last summer with a 3 and 18 month old. We headed out at 4, stopped for a long dinner, drove another hour, had a potty tooth brush stop, and then they got a story in the car. The 18 month old slept from 9-7. The 3 year old from 9-3, and then 4-8.

We were wrecked but it was so nice to have silence. This is the only way we will travel.

Imagine sitting on a hard seat for hours and hours, your spine is rubbing against a hard back on the seat, your legs feel numb, it's just plain uncomfortable and you can't lay down to sleep, your head keeps bobbing to the front and then to the side then the front again. You just want to lay down and rest.

That's what it's like for a child in a car seat. The thin foam in those compress after the child has been in them for a while and they become very uncomfortable.

I think making this trip into a 2 day trip would be the kinder way. It would allow for multiple stops where the kids can get out of their seats and move around. Almost every 2 hours. Some breaks for meals and others just for snack time and movement. They need to be up and moving several times throughout the day.

I think if it were me I would sit beside the younger child too. That way you can interact with them more readily.

If hubby wants to get up at an ungodly hour and start the trip while the kids are still asleep that would take a lot of the stress off for spending the extra money for a hotel. I don't know your financial situation but if i could afford the night in the hotel I would do it so that everyone could have a solid nights sleep and be fresh for the new day after a good long breakfast.

Once the kids are a few years older then I would stop every 3 hours for snacks and meals and play time then drive on through until you reach your destination. It would be much more doable then.

I would recommend stopping and getting a hotel room for a night. Even if you and your husband each catch a few hours of sleep in the car, it won't be nearly enough to feel well rested for an upcoming busy vacation. Plus, if you really don't like driving at night, it won't be as safe for you or your husband during that time. Try to drive a little farther the first day, so the second isn't as exhausting. I'd shoot for 10 hours on day 1 and 5 hours on day 2.

Is it 15 hours INCLUDING playtime/food/potty breaks... Or 15 hours adult style.

If its NOT in Includinh... Then you actually have a 20-25 hour drive in front of you.

If its 15... Leave at 4am. Kids in Jammie's and they'll sleep several hours in the morning.. You'll be there at 7pm

If it NOT including... Leave at noon. BOTH days. Spend the morning in the hotel playing in the pool, etc. That way you usually get an afternoon nap with the kids all tuckered out, AND night driving (kids in pjs at dinner break) night driver gets to sleep in / read a book/ relax... And you're checked into the hotel around 10pm. Plan on stopping every 1-2 hours (bathroom & wiggles out for 30-60 min) when kids are awake (hence why wearing them out before driving is great for the afternoon nap). Fast food is GREAT, not for the food, but the play places.

I do whatever will allow me to be at my best on the next day. If I can't cope, then nothing will go right. :)

Been doing road trips with kids for 25 years now. My best-case scenario is when we break up the drive. We start after work on Friday night, drive 3-4 hours, & then get up the next day & break those last hours into plenty of stops....allowing everyone some sanity. Makes the trip longer, but infinitely more fun!

Leaving out this Friday after work for a 16 hour drive to Albuquerque. Our goal is Tulsa by midnight for an overnight stay, & then the rest of the trip on Saturday....planning to arrive in Rio Rancho by bedtime. We have stops planned in OK City & Amarillo....& will also stop for whatever catches our eye! Love being flexible.....& hope the 2 16yo brats behave! One LOVES to travel & the other loves to be a buzzkill. :)

I say, make it a 2 day trip.
Not a fan of night driving. Not as safe, worry about breaking down, kids
invariably may not make it through the night driving.
Drive duriing the day. Make plenty of stops. Bring new toys they've never seen. You get to your destination safe & more rested!

Have a fun, safe trip!

We do this regularly. We drive straight through 17 hours. We have tried both scenarios. Driving in the day is far better. It's safer not only because you aren't fighting sleep, but you can also see better. And the two trips we took at night made the kids not sleep well AT ALL. So half the trip was spent with fussy, cranky and whiny kids. IT was no fun. My hubby also does the majority of the driving. When I take the kids by myself, I HAVE to get a room because I just need the rest. But every time, I wish I could just drive straight through. We usually leave around 6 a.m. and arrive at midnight. It's a long day, but if we sleep in a bit the first day of vacation, we are usually ready to go out and enjoy ourselves.

We drove 12 hours on vacation last year and decided to go through the night so the kids could all sleep. We had a caravan of us, my MIL and GrannyIL, and my SIL BIL and their kids to make sure we were all OK on the way there. Most of the kids go to be between 8:00 and 9:00 usually, so we let them run around until about 9:30 so they could get sleepy and figured it would be a long restful night for them.
We were soooo wrong. The kids wouldn't sleep. My three year old was wired and kept asking when we were going to be at the beach. My nephew in the other car who was one and a half at the time screamed until about 4:30 in the morning. The adults were so exhausted and stressed out by the time we got there that we ended up driving thru McDonalds and going to bed at 6:00 that night! We swore we would never EVER do that again!
We are going back this year, but all the adults took half vacation days so we can leave Friday afternoon, drive until the kids can't deal anymore, and then get a hotel room for the night.

Every year, we drive from W. Central IL, to Salem, West Virginia,and back, at least once, sometimes 2-3 times, we go evey year in the fall for Thanksgiving, and then some years in the summer for 4th of July or an August Family Reunion. We also usually make one or two trips to Nashville TN, which is 10 hours. We have done it with my daughter, from the time she was 6 months old, she's now 5 years old, and then the first time with my son, when he was 5 months, and he is now 3. The hardest time was when my daughter was 2 and a half and potty training and my son was 5 months and still nursing, there were lots of stops on that trip, and we made it a two day trip, staying overnight about 2/3 of the way there. Once they were each over 1 year old, we started making the trip in one day.

We always drive during the day, because neither of us is a good night driver - I fall asleep at the wheel, and he can't see well at night with headlight glare and bad depth perception. Also, when we go to WV, my hubby is going hunting the very next morning with his family, so he doesn't want to drive all night and be exhausted. We usually leave very early in the morning, like 5 am, and then we are there by supper time, or at least a little before bed time so thaty don't have to go straight to bed after being cooped up in car seats all day - they get some time to run and play. The kids do usually take about 2-3 one hour naps during the trip.

We always bring lots of finger food snacks and sippy cups with drinks and refills in a cooler. We always stop about every 3 hours for a break at a rest stop, park, or restaurant make sure many of these are places they can run around - even McDonalds playlands are a god-send on these trips - check McDonalds website to find which ones have playlands on your drive route!

Other tips are, we make sure to pack some toys they haven't played with for a while (you can hide them a few weeks beforehand,so when they see them in the car it is like new), lots of books, my daughter has recently liked books on tape or cd with a book to go with them and an old walkman or discman to listen to them with her headphones on ( check your local library) - you could do the same with MP3s on a player or phone, kids music CDs to play on the car stereo, we always take their magnadoodles, coloring books and crayons (washable - and in a ziploc, in case they are left int he car and melt in the summer). We buy some new cheapo toys at the 1 dollar store Dollar Tree or Deals - and wrap them and say every hour they get to open something new. We did have a DVD player that was portable for a while, but it broke, we may get another with the back of the headreast dual screens - we only used that as a last resort in that last couple hours when they are just so tired of being stuck in their car seats that they are crying. We also make sure we have their favorite toy/stuffed animal and their bed blanket that smells like home for security for them - also a kids neck pillow horseshoe shaped to keep their little heads form slumping over when they sleep - you can find these at WalMart and Target in the aisles with carseats and kid "gadgets".

When it was only my daughter and DH and I , whichever adult was not driving usually sat in back with her, to talk to and entertain her. Now, we play the games of finding the alphabet on signs, or finding certain things along the route - horses, cows, red car, blue car, barn, tractor....etc., talk about the traffic ( in a nice way), shapes we see in the clouds, teach about road signs, rules of the road, the way the car works, the things we see outside, etc.!

Good Luck! It is hard, but if you do it regularly, they become great little travellers, and that makes shorter trips a breeze!

Jessie