Our tried and true road trip tips traveling as a real food family for over a decade!
Product links in this post are affiliate links. It does not cost you anything and helps maintain the free information on this site! Please know I would never personally recommend any product I wouldn’t use on my own family.
You could say we have this road trip thing down…
Three teenagers in the house. Out of state vacations once a year. One in traveling sports. The other 2 in high school sports all year. And living in one of the most beautiful states in the U.S. for road tripping to find beaches, hiking trails, and secret spots. Yep. You could say we have this road trip thing down to a science! I’m excited to share with you some of my tried and true methods for packing real food for road trips year round!
Wherever the road takes you!
Whether you’re hitting the road for the holidays, a summer vacation, or maybe you’re a travel sports family, I’ve got all the tips for making real food happen. Whenever possible, I truly do try to keep us from going out to eat. Here are the thoughts in my head regarding that!
- It’s a huge budget saver. I’d even compare a healthier day of bringing our own food to fast food, and I’m sure it’s still less expensive the way things are these days!
- Avoiding seed oils. Even when trying to choose healthier options at restaurants, everything is cooked in inflammatory oils. It’s unavoidable sometimes, but if I can help it, I’m packing. For instance, hamburgers from home versus a hamburger at the restaurant is not only cheaper, but I get to control the healthy fat it is cooked in, AND I can choose grassfed for more nutrients if I want!
- Prioritizing nutrient density. Whether you’re on vacation or have a travel athlete, everyone wants their kids brains functioning at their best and feeling good. Empty calories, seed oils, and hidden sugar aren’t the best recipe for focused, well nourished kids. It’s that whole well fed but under-nourished thing.
- Happy moods, and optimizing performance. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about the kids in the car on vacation or your travel athletes, the food we put in their tiny bodies does translate into mood and performance. Period. It’s just worth it!
The approach
I’m breaking this post up into 2 sections. The first is packing gear because this is key to being able to make this happen without food spoiling, and to keep things organized so that it travels well! And second, I’ll show you some food ideas that pack well, including examples of ways we have packed for certain road trips.
Our favorite coolers that travel in a car well
This is the most asked question when it comes to road tripping. And for good reason. Obviously, if the food spoils it doesn’t do anyone any good. So the cooler matters, and from a packing standpoint, the size and packability matters for optimal space saving!
- Our Short Day Trip Backpack Cooler. I would say this cooler gets the most use year in and year out. We not only use it for day trips to the beach, trail seeking, and long sports days, we also use it for keeping a day’s worth of food in the front seat of the car for a long road trip of traveling all day. In other words, it can pretty much store a days’ worth of food.
- Our Favorite Ice Packs for the Smaller Cooler and/or Lunchbox Bags. These super thin ice packs stay frozen surprisingly long! I use them for the backpack cooler, as well as everyday lunchbox bags for school and travel. Bring them along for long vacation trips, or sports travel, and use the freezer at your Air BNB so that you have ice packs for all your day trip adventures!
- Our Long Travel Day For Long Vacation Cooler. When we are traveling all day to get to a vacation destination, this is the cooler we use to store food we are bringing from home to use for vacation. For instance, I like to bring my own meat when we vacation since it is usually priced better where I live, and we always have our yearly purchase of a grassfed cow in our freezer. It saves money to bring our own! We have traveled 21 hours in one day, and this cooler keeps everything at the right temperature. I pack most things frozen (such as the meat), and also add some ice packs.
- Our Favorite Ice Packs for the Big Cooler. We have had these for years. If we are traveling far for a week vacation, I’ll toss them in the freezer at the Air BNB and they will be ready to go for the long trip back home if there is any food left!
Our favorite lunchboxes that travel well in a cooler for car trips
- For the littles! This is the best little travel bento box for your little ones from older babies and toddlers through 5 or 6. The lid stays attached so things don’t go missing or drop on the floor, and all of the food is in one layer, easy to pick out and eat. Leakproof, lightweight, and easy to wash by hand or dishwasher! THIS is another very thin little meal box for little ones that packs really well with a slim, lightweight profile. The lid does come off, so keep that in mind, but we used these for road trips to the beach so often when the girls were young.
- For older kids! We love using the lighter weight non-toxic plastic versus the heavier stainless steel they use for school all year. There are 2 options we have loved and used here. This box holds 1.48L, and this box holds 1.25L. They slide or stack into the coolers easy, wash up super great by hand or dishwasher, and pack the perfect amount of food for your elementary aged kiddos.
- For teens and adults! There are 2 versions in this size as well. This box holds 1.76L, and this box holds 1.65L. Both slide or stack into coolers well, and wash up in the dishwasher or by hand. It really just depends on what set up you like when picking which style!
- Specialty containers we love.
- Salad Specific Lunch Cubes! When my teens started stealing my travel salad containers for road trips, I ended up getting more just for them! I use it all summer long, as well as while chaperoning field trips, and for sports travel.
- Yogurt & Granola Combined Containers. These little containers get so much use on vacations or morning travel!
- Snack & Dip Container. Perfect for snacky dippers like veggies and Ranch, apples and peanut butter, or crackers and hummus!
- Favorite Divided Snack Containers. These little containers will not only be helpful for road trips, but just might be the snack box you reach for all school year long for those little morning snacks the kids have to pack for the classroom snack time! We like both THIS style, and THIS style depending on what we are packing.
Our favorite food warming devices for the car
While keeping food cold during a trip is first priority, sometimes having an option to warm food back up on a long road trip is nice! Whether it is a big batch of taco meat, grilled burgers or sloppy joe’s for buns, BBQ chicken, oatmeal for breakfast, or rice bowls, being able to warm food up in the car really opens up the options for meal ideas!
- The electric lunchbox solution! Talk about a game changer, my friends. You can pack the food cold, and then plug this electric box into the charger in the car to warm up whatever is for dinner in no time! We have this size that fits a little over 6 cups of food. But they do make even larger ones that hold up to 8 cups!
- Smaller, portable mini travel crock. This is a great option for single portions or smaller meals. Back when I used to work on the road, I used this for my workday lunches. My husband used this weekly when he worked in an office to warm up his lunch too! It is great for oatmeal, soups, pasta, one pot meals, and more!
Breakfast Ideas to eat in the Car!
We are those people. You know. The ones that drive from Michigan to Florida in one day? Yep. My husband has sat in the driver’s seat for 21 hours straight, and that means….leaving before the kids are even awake for the day! So, we have quite the system in place for a full day of driving, including a lot of breakfast ideas for the car!
- Pictured below, you’ll see our typical “driving to Florida” kind of a breakfast. It goes in the day cooler up in the front of the van with me so that when the kids wake up in the car and are ready to eat, they can have breakfast ready to go. Yogurt and granola in the yogurt cups, hard boiled eggs and fruit in the snack cups!
- Breakfast sandwiches. These can be eaten cold, or warmed in an electric lunchbox. Pack up some fruit for the side and you’re all set!
- Baked oatmeal squares. These are delicious cold, so we don’t typically worry about warming them up. You can pack fruit and hard boiled eggs on the side too.
- Breakfast cookies are perfect for traveling too!
Lunch & Dinner Idea – PACKING IN BULK
The first option for packing lunches and dinners is to do it “family style,” meaning not individually packed into lunchboxes. This is a great way to pack when everyone is willing to eat the same thing. Or, when packing a family dinner in the electric lunchbox, such as tacos or burgers. Pictured below is a very simple road trip we took for a gymnastics meet out of town. I remember not wanting to fuss with lunchboxes, and this just makes for easy travel. You can pack paper plates for everyone to eat from. Also pictured below is an image from a friend of mine that packed tacos for her family road trip to Florida! I loved her tips, so I wanted to include them for you! She used the Siete brand bags of tortilla chips for walking tacos in the car! How fun! (She is such a fun and informative follow on her business Insta here or her website Firm Foundations here!)
- Taco meat
- Grilled burgers or chicken
- Meatballs
- Pasta Salads
- Rice Bowls
Lunch & Dinner Idea – PACKING INDIVIDUALLY
The second option to pack for lunch and/or dinner is to pack individually. Sometimes it just works better for everyone to “choose their own adventure!” Especially when you have little ones who might want a more bento box style lunch than mom, using the lightweight lunchboxes that pack in coolers well (listed above), is the perfect solution. Below you will see some packed travel boxes for the kids when they were younger, as well as a mom box on the bottom right. Just think easy to eat, less mess! In fact, try making some bulk shredded chicken and check out these ideas for using it in lunchboxes here! Don’t overcomplicate – it can be whatever they like bringing to school in a lunchbox too. There’s lots of great packable lunchbox ideas in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!
