Tweet Disclosure: We are a member of the Verizon LifeStyle Blogging team and did receive a Nokia Lumia 928 to review. However, the opinions are our own. Please read our site disclosure here.
Family Road trips create vacation memories to last a lifetime and great technology and apps can help make them wonderful experiences. Our family just took another massive cross-country road trip this summer from Houston, TX to Rye, NY. Having road tripped around 1/2 of America, we have found that our tech gadgets and favorite apps make the planning and day-to-day travel easy and convenient. Keeping three children happy, the husband relaxed and juggling the trip logistics requires many arms and legs so we have to round up any help we can get.
While this is the ideal for road trips, the big nap days are over….
Tech:
- A Tech Savvy Car: helps the time pass quickly (usually family budget friendly so consider for the next round). Most cars now have smart phone charging plugs, GPS, DVD players and some like our Chrysler Town and Country Mini Van even feature 110 volt power outlets. Having your smart phone charged for quick access to google maps and key travel apps is a must
Our Chrysler Minivan powered two laps tops, portable DVD players and cell phones
- A Wireless Hot Spot: allows mom and dad to keep in touch with family, friends and work. Teens can even catch up on summer reading lists. We love our Verizon Hot Spot since it has powered our connections nationwide
- A Smart Phone Camera: creates valuable memories of the kids and “the world’s biggest chair”. While we use our Go Pro camera for cool adventure shots, for everyday use we need something fast and simple to capture those spontaneous shots and videos. Our new Nokia Lumia 928 phone is perfect for taking family road trip photos. When traveling, life is so much easier when you only have to carry one device. With the Nokia 928, we like how the 8.7 MP PureView camera keeps the shots and videos steady with its optical image stabilization. Our shaky cam days are over and our family and close friends will be forever grateful
- Portable DVD players, iPads, iPods and Leapsters: keep the kids busy, but we try to balance the video games with reading, math, family car games (animal, mineral or plant guessing) and even singing (but, no show tunes!). Make sure you inventory all the devices and chargers as the family moves place to place and consider investing in a multiple device travel charger to organize the chaos
Tech provides the road trip peace
Apps:
Apps make family vacations so much easier. You can find apps for everything from planning, logistics, to sharing the latest video adventure. On a road trip, locating gas, bathrooms, and restaurants along the way keeps your vacation stress free. We are so happy that we have apps that can handle these often dire situations. While we have written about some of these apps before, we must sing their praises again since they saved our sanity. All apps are free and available for both Android and iOS unless noted. Here are our top 5:
- Gas Buddy: check out current gas prices, and find nearby stations which is useful while back roading to see the country side
- Waze: use the free GPS app for navigating cities to avoid major traffic jams. Users fuel this app with current tips
- Squat and Sit: find clean bathrooms across the country. You can even add your own ratings~ do we have some stories to share! Meanwhile, the app’s name gets the kids laughing if you need a diversion
- Food Tripping : locate restaurants, farmers’ markets, juice joints, artisanals, and any local healthy alternatives to fast-food chains. This app worked great for our family since we like to sample each region’s cuisine and eat organic when we can. If anyone has food allergies, be sure to read: Apps To Help with Food Allergies and Asthama
- Joya: share vacation videos with friends and family while on the road regardless of file size. Within seconds, the video is in the hands of your friends and family with a simple click on a url. This means no more missed vacation highlights or spontaneous family dance moments
For actual trip planning check out our post: Great Travel Apps To Plan Family Vacations. Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing adventures from our road trip family vacations so check back for more fun soon!
The Kids Love Road Trips
Related helpful articles:
Apps To Help with Food Allergies and Asthama
Family Road Trip Survival guide by Traveling mom
How to take a family Road Trip by Real Posh Mom
Whine-Free Road Tripping with Kids via Go Girlfriend.com by Jennifer Smith Nelson
Best Road Trip Apps for Kids from CommonSensemedia.org
PS. Can you find Pinky?
How fun! I am going to have to borrow some younger kids for a trip LOL – my teenager is not interested in traveling with mom and dad these days. I miss that.
Love the pic with all the tech in the minivan – you know that is how I travel too!
Robyn, Thanks so much for the great comments. Come visit us so we can caravan with our minivans! ha ha
I love road trips! I miss them a bit, but I realize that these days my road trips would probably be full of kids fighting and me pulling my hair out.
Waze is one of my favorite apps! My friends from Israel introduced us to it 🙂
Sarah,
Thanks so much for the wonderful comet. We can relate no worries!
Great tips! I had no idea about the app “Squat and Sit”. We’ve done that w/ our daughter for many years but without an app and usually w/o a toilet 😛
Terri Ann, So glad the blog was helpful! You should write an app!