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Hitting the road for a family road trip just isn’t the same without a rockin road trip playlist to set the mood! Upbeat tunes and sing-alongs can be some of the best entertainment when passing the time. So we have put together 100 best road trip songs for families, to save you time.
After all, you’ve got plenty of other things to organise for your family road trip without having to plan the music too!
Music is such a powerful trigger for memories and you want to make this road trip one to remember always.
That means introducing the kids… or whoever your road trip buddies happen to be, to some of the classic driving songs
But don’t worry… these 100 songs aren’t all about driving. Some are just simply too awesome not to include on the ultimate road trip playlist!
Plus we’ve added them all to a Spotify playlist, so you can listen straight away!
Now let’s check out the list of the best road trip songs playlist and see if your favourite road trip songs to sing made the cut!
100 BEST ROAD TRIP SONGS FOR YOUR FAMILY TRIP
Here are the perfect songs for your next road trip, with great songs to take you from the parking lot to the country roads, on a classic sing along, with the car window down and a long journey ahead:
- Drive My Car – The Beatles
- Road Trippin’ – Red Hot Chilli Peppers
- Highway To Hell – ACDC
- Fast Car – Tracy Chapman
- Nutbush City Limits – Ike & Tina Turner
- My Sharona – The Knack
- Rockin’ All Over The World – Status Quo
- A Thousand Miles – Vanessa Carlton
- Born To Run – Bruce Springsteen
- The Boys Are Back In Town – Thin Lizzy
- Get The Party Started – Pink
- Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
- Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey
- Life Is A Highway – Tom Cochrane
- One Way Or Another – Blondie
- Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
- Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac
- Paradise City – Guns N Roses
- Highway Star – Deep Purple
- All The Small Things – Blink 182
- Drive – The Cars
- I’m On My Way – The Proclaimers
- Shut Up and Drive – Rihanna
- Running On Empty – Jackson Browne
- American Pie – Don McLean
- Youngblood – 5 Seconds of Summer
- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
- Wake Me Up Before You Go Go – Wham
- Plans – Bird of Tokyo
- Come Alive – The Greatest Showman
- Can’t Stop The Feeling – Justin Timberlake
- Like a Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
- Hotel California – Eagles
- Cars – Fear Factory
- Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol
- Since U Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson
- Copperhead Road – Steve Earle
- Eye Of The Tiger – Survivor
- Teenage Dirtbag – Wheatus
- Believer – Imagine Dragons
- Firework – Katy Perry
- Happy – Pharrell Williams
- The Long And Winding Road – The Beatles
- Ironic – Alanis Morissette
- I Get Around – Beach Boys
- The Anthem – Good Charlotte
- Blister In The Sun – Violent Femmes
- Jump – Van Halen
- Start Me Up – The Rolling Stones
- Island In The Sun – Weezer
- How Bizarre – OMC
- Semi-Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind
- Drive – Incubus
- Tik Tok – Kesha
- I Got A Feeling – The Black Eyed Peas
- Summer of 69 – Bruce Springsteen
- All About That Bass – Meghan Trainor
- Tubthumping – Chumbawamba
- Sweet Dreams – Eurythmics
- Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) – Greenday
- Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice
- Hey Brother – Avicii
- Poker Face – Lady Gaga
- Road To Nowhere – Talking Heads
- Leaving Home – Jebediah
- Party In The USA – Miley Cyrus
- Roadhouse Blues – The Doors
- Hey Soul Sister – Train
- Hit The Road Jack – Ray Charles
- Livin’ On A Prayer – Bon Jovi
- Long Road to Ruin – Foo Fighters
- Just Ace – Grinspoon
- Life Is A Highway – Rascal Flatts
- I Knew You Were Trouble – Taylor Swift
- Cotton Eye Joe – Rednex
- I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) – The Proclaimers
- We Built This City – Starship
- Rock and Roll All Nite – Kiss
- Little Red Corvette – Prince
- I’ll Be There For You – The Rembrandts
- I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing – Aerosmith
- Call Me Maybe – Carly Jepson
- Under Pressure – Queen
- ABC – The Jackson 5
- Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5
- Come As You Are – Nirvana
- Crocodile Rock – Elton John
- Original Prankster – The Offspring
- Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous – Good Charlotte
- Dreams – The Cranberries
- Just A Girl – No Doubt
- All I Know – Birds Of Tokyo
- This Is Me – Keala Settle
- Survivor – Destiny’s Child
- One Way Or Another – Blondie
- Learn To Fly – Foo Fighters
- Welcome To The Jungle – Guns N Roses
- Don’t You Forget About Me – Simple Minds
- Rolling In The Deep – Adele
- Just The Way You Are – Bruno Mars
The Key To The Perfect Road Trip Playlist
An essential holiday playlist should be loaded with upbeat tunes and energetic vocals. The last thing you want when you’re driving those long roads is a sombre collection of songs to wind you down.
Save those for when you’re chilling at your end destination!
Instead, you want great road trip songs that will pump you up and keep you energised on the open road. We think this mix does a great job of doing that.
It has a little bit of something for everyone, from classic rock n roll to modern pop.
There are country songs and love songs. Greatest hits and many you may not have heard for a while!
And there’s a good chance some of the songs may even make the bigger kids cringe a bit during the long drive, but that’s half the fun!
And if they get a bit whiny, you can turn the music up louder.
I’m joking…
Best of all, this road trip soundtrack is bound to have you singing along to the best family trip songs and grooving your way down the highway towards your family holiday destination!
Related: 6 Tips For Surviving Road Trips With Kids
Get the Road Trip Playlist on Spotify
We want to make sure your road trip planning goes smoothly, so we have taken one job off your list by creating the car songs for you!
We have even created a top road trip playlist with all the songs included in this list on Spotify, so you can add it to your own account straight away!
Get the 100 best road trip songs to download for Spotify.
If you don’t already have a Spotify account, it’s completely free to sign up.
Not sure what Spotify is? It is essentially a music streaming service. A bit like Netflix for music. You will find most of your favourite artists and albums are on Spotify and you can listen to them or create your own playlists for every occasion too.
If you won’t have any network coverage during your road trip… which is highly possible, you can download the playlists to your phone if you have a paid subscription with Spotify. They are really affordable.
We share a family account and it’s great value because there’s no need to buy CDs now, as everything is right there in your account, making it a great way to enjoy music, podcasts and radio streaming.
There are loads of other music streaming services too, including Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music.
We haven’t added the playlist to the other streaming services yet, but let us know if you’d like us too and we can likely make it happen!
RELATED READING – OUR FAVOURITE TRAVEL GEAR
Road Trip Planning Resources
Speaking of road trips, now you’ve got no excuse not to set off soon for your own road trip adventure!
We’ve got some great road trip inspiration and planning tips to help you create the perfect road trip experience for you and your family members, as you spend time together on your next driving adventure.
From what snacks and meals to pack for your trip to itineraries to inspire your next driving holiday! And of course, the essential road trip packing list!
Here’s some great road trip inspiration for your next escape:
- The best Australian road trip routes
- Hobart to Launceston Tasmania road trip
- Must-do North American road trips
- New Zealand South Island self-drive
- Asia road trip itineraries
- European road trip itineraries
- African road trip itineraries
- Road trip activities for kids
- RV packing list
- And some inspirational road trip quotes for your Instagram pics!
For fun between sing alongs, grab our mega road trip activity bundle, loaded with 16 pages of themed games and activities that the whole family can join in with.
Need Some More Playlist Inspiration?
We have a few different playlists on Spotify that you might enjoy if you need a bit of a change or need to please a different audience.
If you are travelling with younger kids, we’ve got you covered with our ultimate kid’s music playlist – the best car songs to keep the kids happy!
It’s probably not what you want to hear for 8 hours straight on the road, but sometimes a few Disney classics are just what you need to keep the youngsters in the back happy! Especially if you’re taking a road trip to Disneyland!
But even if you’re not, here’s our Best Kids Party Mix, because road trips should totally feel like a party and it’s full of fun car ride songs!
If it is empowered women and positive vibe songs you are looking for, this motivation mix is another favourite for family road trip songs to sing! Especially for a road trip with the girls!
Is your favourite roadtrip song missing from the playlist? Comment below and let us know what it is!
