We love to travel, and through the years we have found many ideas to help make our trips even more enjoyable!  Here are a few that might help relieve stress on your next vacation!

If you are driving, try to limit your travel day to 6 - 8 hours per day.  Most kids (and parents, too) are at their limit by that point.  Bring some sports equipment in the car (balls, jump ropes, etc) and stop at parks or rest stop areas to get some energy out. 

A dirty car can make everyone stressed.  Make sure to pack along a small trash bag for each row of seats.  Make each child responsible for keeping their area clean.   No matter the age of your children, take along some wipes to clean up messes.  Even parents and teenagers need to wash hands or clean up a food spill at times.

Freeze bottles of water or juice boxes.  Drink them as they melt so they will be cold.  This is a great way to keep food cold as well, without the bother of ice or ice packs.

Unpacking and repacking the car makes my husband grouchy so we developed a way to limit the back-and-forth of luggage.  We pack an overnight style bag with just what we will need for the hotel along the way (if we will be staying two nights along the way, we pack two nights worth).    Then we just take in that one bag (and any valuables/ electronics). 

Set a daily budget for the trip.  We designate an envelope for each day of the trip and put the appropriate budgeted amount in each envelope (minus the cost of hotels, gasoline and large attractions which we traditionally don't pay with cash).    We can keep tabs on the extra money we spend;  when the envelope is empty we know it is time to stop spending (and get very creative on free things to do!).  Any extra money left at the end of the day goes into an extra envelope to be used for a special treat or for a little extra spending on another day.

For more tips, activity reviews and listings of kids eat free restaurants, visit our website at www.familyfriendlyamerica.com