Driving Holiday: How to Plan a Great Family Easter Trip

With holidays right around the corner, we’re covering everything you should have prepped for a family driving holiday for the memory books! 

Planning is the make or break between a beautiful, well organised trip and a failed, wish-it-would-end-already getaway. Let’s ensure the former with this simple guide of curated tips. 

While many avid travel enthusiasts will not be surprised by anything on this list, sometimes all it takes is forgetting one thing to put a rain cloud over your driving holiday. So whether this is all new and exciting or just for brushing up, we’ve got your back. 

Plan your route

Knowing where you’re going is not the same as knowing how to get there. And often there’s more than one way from A to B. This could be a fun family group activity, or just something you take a look at before the time.

Pop open Google maps or that trusty old school roadmap and check the routes to your location. Take note of the different roads. There might be some fun landmarks, towns or sights you can incorporate into your drive that will add to the fun and make it an adventure. 

This will also help you see how far you need to/can travel per day and plan any stops. Pulling over for fuel, working out where to spend the night if you need to cut the drive up and throwing in any sights you’d like to stop in will help everyone understand the travel plan for the trip. 

And if you’re still deciding where to go, just take a look at these ultimate road trip destination ideas.

All this leads nicely into our next tip …

Take frequent stops

A driving holiday is oh so exciting, but remember that the journey is part of the fun. Especially if you’ve planned your route. Make sure you aren’t driving more than 10 hours a day – with plenty of stops – as fatigue and exhaustion can creep in and the effects can lead to trouble. 

Keep this in mind when planning your route. Allow time for breaks every two or so hours to stretch your legs and use the restroom. If these breaks can be coupled with exciting sights to see or places to visit, that’s a huge win-win scenario for everyone. 

Also, remember not all roads are created equal. Some roads are best travelled by day where you can see clearly and far ahead in case of animals or debris and potholes.

Check car safety

This tip is one many people have learned the hard way and you’d much rather not, given the choice. Finding out your car is overheating because you didn’t check the oil or other fluids once you’re half a day’s drive out of town is a sure-fire way to put a foul taste in your mouth. Ditto with tyres that don’t grip the road properly.

To keep your Easter road safety up to scratch, before any driving holiday make sure you check your tyres, oil and water in your radiator. Check your wipers and wiper fluid too, along with your seatbelts, lights and mirrors. Obviously, now’s a great time to make sure to fill up on fuel too!

If you aren’t sure what your tyre pressure should be, usually if you open your driver’s door there will be a sticker with a small spreadsheet of images and numbers showing the tyre pressure for different situations. If not, you can always check your car manual, which will have more information. You can find more info on checking your tyre pressure here. 

If you do happen to have a breakdown, here’s what to do.

Play fun car games on your driving holiday

There’s a long list of fun games to keep everyone in the car entertained on a driving holiday. From all time favourites like I spy with my little eye to other lesser known little gems like a road trip scavenger hunt. The idea with the latter is you write out or print a list of things you expect to see along the drive and if you spot it first you get to cross it off your list. First to complete the list wins. 

You can make up your own games with a little thought, and if you’d like some inspiration here’s a list of 21 fun games to play on a driving holiday.

Just remember, as fun as it is to play games in the car – you should never have too many distractions while driving. Here’s how to find out if you’re guilty of distracted driving.

Curate your playlist

One of the best ways to get excited for a driving holiday is to prep your playlist. There’s many ways of doing this to keep it fair. For example, either have everyone choose a song to add one at a time or each person makes their own playlist and that rotates every hour or so. We’ll leave the nitty gritty for you to decide on. 

A fun idea to throw in here is to find a playlist of popular songs to play a game of guess the artist – or if you’re feeling like pros, guess the song and artist. First person to guess the song gets a point. Simple. And we all know that games are more entertaining when there’s a prize, so decide on a timeline and a prize to get everyone on their toes.

By the way, ever wondered why music sounds so good in the car? Here’s how car sound is engineered for your driving pleasure.

Pack snacks for your driving holiday

Being prepared with snacks means everyone can eat at their own pace until the next stop. You could even combine some of the tips above and use the best snacks as prizes!

The perfect driving holiday snack food is bite sized, easy to pack, and doesn’t make a big mess. Here are a few suggestions:

• Carrot sticks and hummus
• Chips, nuts or jerky
• Protein bars
• Chocolate cookies
• Cheese sticks
• Muffins
• Sandwiches
• Boiled eggs
• Strawberries

This article gives some more great recipes for road trip friendly snack food. Also check out these packing tips to make sure you’re optimising that much-needed boot space.

Driving holiday set? What about insurance?

• Route – check.
• Oil, water, tyres, wipers, mirrors, lights, belts – check.
• Fun car games – check.
• Music – check.
• Snacks – check.

Car insurance? Having car insurance is a great way to get your car back on the road quickly if an unfortunate accident happens. Check out our comprehensive car insurance. We’ll cover your car from weather damage to fire to theft and in the case of an accident. Now you’re ready for your epic driving holiday!