Camping trip with small children - activities for the trip

Hey!
I'm Johanna and we spent three weeks traveling through southern Sweden with our two-year-old son in the summer of 2023.

Anyone who has ever been to Sweden knows that the distances between the stages can be quite long. As we are at home in beautiful Upper Bavaria, there was also the long journey to the ferry in Rostock. Our son doesn't like to chill out in the car, so I had to think of something to keep him occupied during the long drive.

I would like to pass these ideas on to you so that you too can have an enjoyable trip with your family.

Our top 10 things to do during car journeys:

1. picture books

Our son loves picture books and clearly has his favorites. These were of course packed. As he had his 2nd birthday shortly before the vacation, there were also two new picture books from the family. I only gave them to him on vacation. So we still had something new and exciting up our sleeve.

2. tiptoi

3. small vehicles

We always have a small bag with Hotwheels cars or Siku tractors with us. These have also proved their worth on the ferry crossings. Our son also likes to share them with other children and quickly finds other children to play with. He has a small folding table in the car on which he can ride with them. He found it particularly funny when our car took a bend and the little vehicles took off on their own. The small trailers with functions (e.g. baler) have proved particularly popular here.

4th Toniebox

We also used the Toniebox a lot. It was an absolute must-have, especially for falling asleep in the car. Our four favorite Tonies were enough for us. A bedtime story, a radio play, a song Tonie and a music story were enough variety for our son. Too much choice only leads to him not being able to make up his mind and constantly wanting to change. After an exciting outing, he also likes to relax with a quiet story in the car or on the picnic blanket.

5. colored pencils and a coloring book

If you have the opportunity to set up a small kneeling mat or a small table for your child during the trip, then I recommend you pack these things too. Even though our son is not yet able to color properly at the age of two, he liked to doodle around the motifs or we added something together. He also found watching mom or dad coloring entertaining. He then "colored in" our works of art.

6. threading games

There are of course ready-made threading games available, e.g. from HABA. If you have large wooden beads and shoelaces at home, you can of course also use these. We were allowed to borrow a threading game from our cousin and threaded various animals and motifs. And because children love to repeat things, our son kept emptying the string and re-strung the beads. Of course, you can also make a game out of it by having mom or older siblings draw on how the beads should be arranged.

7. duplo bricks

Even on our last vacation, when our son was only one year old, we had a handful of Duplo bricks with us. You can build tunnels for the little cars, for example. Towers and stairs are also very popular with us. You'll be surprised how many ideas children have with just a few bricks.

8. magnetic games

There are now various picture books or metal boxes with flat magnetic motifs. We opted for a metal box from HABA and only included the large motifs. With the two background cards included in the box, you can build different scenes on the farm. Our son found this totally exciting. As the magnets hold well, nothing flew around during the trip.

9. plasticine

Admittedly, I was a little worried at first that we would be able to pop it out of every crack in the child seat after our vacation. But in hindsight, I'm so glad we had a tin of Playdoh with us.
I placed a small board on the small table and our son got a plastic knife and a plastic fork that we had left over from a Togo meal. We rolled snakes, which he then cut into pieces. We kneaded pizza, topped it and cut it into pieces and shaped tractors (as best we could). The kneading was a great change from the other activities. And if a crumb did fall off, the dough dried well and could be easily removed from everywhere.

10. snacks

Children's cookies with animal motifs, fruit bars and sweet Hipp jars, which he was allowed to spoon up himself, have also bridged many a tired time for us. Sometimes the children are simply exhausted and don't want to play anything, but are still bored. At times like this, it was high time for snacks. We have snacks on vacation that we don't usually have at home and that makes us even happier.

If you have a small table for the children where they can draw or put something down, you should think about a non-slip mat. We simply used one from our drawers. This prevents the toys from whizzing away on winding roads.

And let's be honest - what child isn't allowed to check their tablet or cell phone from time to time? I certainly don't prefer this, but everyone knows those moments on vacation when you still have a few miles to go to your destination but the kids just don't feel like it anymore. To make everyone's vacation more relaxed, it's a good idea to have two videos ready for the children to watch in such cases. Our son, for example, likes to watch videos of himself and there are more than enough of them on his parents' cell phones.

Make sure you allow enough time for breaks. For us, this is about every two hours. Make sure that the children move around during the breaks and get some fresh air. Stops at playgrounds have always worked very well for us.

I hope you were able to find one or two ideas for yourselves.
Do you have any good ideas on how to keep the little passengers busy?
Let us know in the comments under our Instagram post for this blog post! We would be delighted.

Have a good trip!

Much love, Johanna.