Family road trip - how long is too long?

[ahisma]

We're not new to road-tripping, but are considering a trip that would be a bit longer than our norm.

What is your max time on the road for a multi-stop trip?

[MommyAllison]

We've done a 24hr drive a few times. We've done it straight through, and split it up into 2 days, 3 days, and even 4 days. I prefer to just get it over with though!

[AngB]

My kids are under 4, so 12-18 hrs is about our limit (they do pretty well with road trips so far though). When they are older, I could see longer trips without too much trouble.

[lhafer]

My kids were 8 and 4 when we drove from Houston, TX to Salt Lake City, UT. That was a 24 hour drive, but we broke it up into 3 8-hour days because there were stops along the way that we wanted to make, and of the locations we wanted to stay overnight. We usually drive 12-13 hours straight (stopping to eat/potty/stretch only) with no issues.

[alexsmommy]

Well, we are considering a big driving trip this summer and I'm working on routes that put no more than 8 hours per day of driving. There will be stops in between most days, but thus far, that seems to be a good amount for multiple days of driving with our boys. We have done 12-13 hours straight when we had one destination, and once we did 16 hours, but that was coming straight though towards home.

[JBaxter]

We drive from Florida to PA in one day. Stopping for food bathrooms. My younger 2 are 6 &11 new movies, device chargers and different rows in the van.

[SnuggleBuggles]

We drive 10-11 straight hours each summer on the way home; do it in 2 days on the way up because we start driving after work.
Last spring break, it was just me and the kiddos on a 9.5 hour drive. While I could do it, I think my personal max is closer to 7-7.5.
eta- dh is pretty adamant about length of vacation if we are going to drive x amount of time. I am ok with a shorter turn around time.

[maestramommy]

3 years ago we did a trip to Grand Rapids for a family wedding. The entire trip, with the weekend wedding, was about a week, maybe 8 days. We drove 8 hours the first day from NH to Buffalo, next day drove into Ontario and visited Niagara Falls for the most of the morning, then continued on for only a couple of hours, stayed overnight in Canada, then drove to Grand Rapids, with a stop in Flint. After the wedding, we drove to family's house in Ann Arbor, then did the trip home in two 8 hour days.

The kids were almost 7, 5, and 3. They didn't have their own devices at the time, so they drew a lot, and listened to a lot of books on CD. We deliberately broke up the trip going in so they could have some fun time. Going home they were already pretty worn out so we just blasted through and it was okay. Nowadays they have their own mp3 players

[bcafe]

I drove 4 kids and myself from TX to Iowa this past Christmas. It is about 17 hrs and I broke it up into 2 days. It was just myself then, but this summer we will make the whole trip at once.

[daniele_ut]

We have done a 32 hour drive two summers in a row and will do it again this summer. On the way there we usually break it up into 5 or 6 days depending on whether we stop along the way to see family. On the way home we usually do it in 4 days. We could probably do it in 3 days, but it would be pushing it too hard for my 3 year old.

[Simon]

Up to 16 hours we can manage broken up over 1.5 days (36 clock hours), feeling like we're getting enough stops and still having some time at our destination on day 2, if that makes sense. Over 16 hours, I prefer to break into more days driving and hotels overnight. I don't think I have a total limit to hours spent driving for trips longer than 10 days.

[zukeypur]

Is this with or without benadryl?:ROTFLMAO:

I despise roadtrips.

[123LuckyMom]

We've done a 14 hour stretch in one go just with stops for food and bathroom. My kids are good travelers. The main problem is that they sleep a lot in the car, so they're always WIDE awake at our destination.

[MelissaTC]

I used to drive a 16-18 hour drive to visit my grandparents. I always took 2 days to get there and one to get home. We drive to visit family in NY a couple times a year. That can take anywhere from 9.5 to 12 hours, depending on traffic up the east coast. I hate long drives!

[AnnieW625]

I won't do more than 9-10 hours in one day. I just can't handle it. My inlaws live in SW Wyoming and that is a 17 hr drive for us and or a 9 hr. plus a hotel stay and another 7 hr drive so we just fly instead. We go there about every three years (we see the ILs when they pass through CA going to AZ for the winter and coming back). We don't have enough time usually to spend four days of our vacation traveling. If we had a solid two weeks and weren't forced to plan our visits for the summer (ILs spend December-May in AZ) when it is hot in Nevada and Southern Utah then I would be more inclined to go on a road trip that included the national parks in Utah.

[rlu]

Growing up both my sis and I were prone to car-sickness therefore we found about 350 miles per day the max. We did 3 week road trips every other year (dad saved up vaca time). One trip went into Canada (up through Victoria back down through Glacier); another was a somewhat straight drive to Yellowstone & Mt. Rushmore and then meandering back; another was a southern swing that went through Texas (we just couldn't fit in NOLA to our dismay); and some just traveled up and down the west coast. I loved those car trips and the relatively short drive between destinations had us finding gems of places we otherwise would have driven past.

eta: we were pulling a trailer thus restricted to lower speeds. DisneyLand is beyond the 350 mile limit but we'd push on that one as a kid. Now that I'm grown up and MIL lives part-way, we break up the drive into two days, for both my and DS's comfort. I truly miss the children's bonine since it seemed to work better for DS. He's getting closer to the rec age of 12 for the adult version.

eta: I had finally outgrown my tendancy to motion sickness and then had DS and that was that folks. Now I can barely ride a roller coaster and I used to be a true roller coaster kid.