TRAVEL 101: ROAD TRIPS WITH TEENS

Road Trips with

TEENS AND TWEENS

BY LAURA PETRUSIC

It’s no secret teens and tweens love their devices. To be honest, so do most adults. It can be easy to fall into a world of solo digital occupation during long road trips. These family friendly activities create simple ways for older children to engage in road trip adventures.

Geocaching uses GPS coordinates produced from your phone to find hidden treasure buried are hidden pretty much anywhere. My kids take turns finding caches near our destination using an app. Remember to bring something to swap if you would like to make a trade from the items found in a cache. My kids like to collect and leave unique pencils as item trades.

Geocaching

Heads Up

This is a game for everyone that involves the community use of a device. On each player’s turn, they place the device on their head displaying a word. Teammates work to get their partner to say the word. It's fast-paced fun that only requires the app installed on a device to play.

Video Documentation

Do you have a rising YouTube star in the household? Why not channel their media making skills into creating a video documentary of the trip? This taps into their creativity and self-expression. There are numerous video editing apps out there that can get the job done. My tween’s favorite mobile video editing app is KineMaster.

Trip Planning

Involving older kids in the destination planning gives them something to look forward to. These choices can be filtered to few options before handing the decision over to your teens. If you have teen who likes a challenge, ask them to pack as much fun as they can into a specific budget.

Creating Reviews

Let your older kids express their opinion in the form of reviews of attractions, accommodations, and eateries along the trip. Remind them to be honest and fair when creating their review. Having a tween or teen’s perspective of an experience can help similar families to make choices when making their own travel plans.

Audio Books

When all everyone’s eyes need a screen break, putting on a crowd-pleasing audio book helps to pass the time. Our family leans toward adolescent friendly classics with a sense of humor- like “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. ” As a bonus, you will have some thing to talk about over dinner.

Would You Rather

You and your kids may be surprised how much you learn about each other during this game. Creating tough match-ups of “ would you rather” choices get everyone’s creative juices flowing. In our family, this brings out everyone’s sense of humor in trying to create ridiculous options.

Create a Collection

If there are multiple destinations on a trip, curating a unique collection of mementos can keep crafty older kids involved. At trip’s end, they can be scrapbooked to catalog the experience. Ideas for collection items might include restaurant napkins, drink coasters or visitors center pamphlets.