Snack Ideas to take on Road Trips with Toddlers

When my little sister and I were growing up, we often had to accompany my parents on cross-country road trips for work or jut to visit family. I always had so much fun, but now that I’m older, I wonder how my parents ever managed to keep two young kids quiet and entertained in the backseat for hours upon hours of driving time! Now, I know how exhausting traveling with children can be, and one of the most difficult things to do is preparing travel snacks to stop them from getting too hungry in between meal stops. Here are 10 snacks that I’ve had success on going on road trips with toddlers, I hope they help you too.

1. Cereal. This one is really and most of us know about it, I’m sure, but it’s probably the best snack to take on road trips with toddlers. I like taking ziplocs of Honey Nut Cheerios, with each baggy containing a serving so that I know how much they’re eating.
2. Veggies. I like packing carrots cut into matchsticks, and chunks of cucumber; but I’ve had success with bell pepper spears and broccoli florets, too. Pack some hummus if you have room, and you’ve got a healthy dose of protein as well!
3. Frozen Yogurt. I think this has to be one of the kids’ favorite treats! Just take some yogurt tubes and freeze them before your trip.
4. String cheese. When I was growing up, some of the most popular string cheese brands would have fun little creature ideas that you could peel your cheese to look like. Consider encouraging your kids to do the same, but if they’re too young to understand how to peel cheese into monsters, you could always encourage them to peel it into mustaches or something similar. Cheese cubes also work great, just make sure you have a cooler to stop the cheese from going bad.
5. Bagel bites. I like spreading some bagels with cream cheese, peanut butter, nutella, or pesto, and then cutting them into chunks. The chunks hold together better because of the spread, and they’re easy enough for kids to eat in a car.
6. Dried fruit. I put some raisins and strips of dried mango into baggies to give to the kids, they’re still at the age where they don’t mysteriously start hating raisins for no reason so it works great!
7. Trail mix. I think it’s important to control the amount of sugar you let your kids have, so I usually make my own trail mix– also a good idea if you have kids who are allergic to nuts! I toss in some chocolate chips sometimes as a treat, but you don’t have to.
8. Grapes. I loved frozen grapes when I was a kid, and I still do. Pop some seedless grapes in the freezer before you leave, and you and your kids can snack on them as the day goes on.
9. Pretzels. A few pretzels in a Ziploc make a great snack for a road trip with toddlers, and if you did end up packing some hummus they can dip them in that.
10. Hotdog rolls. For these, I just take a wiener and place it at the edge of a tortilla, and top it with ketchup and relish. Then, I just roll it and cut it into pinwheels. I usually pack three tortillas for a road trip for 2 adults and 2 toddlers.