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We’ve done a lot of road trips as a family — short Brisbane day drives, 8 nights up the Queensland coast in a Star RV motorhome, two weeks through New Zealand’s South Island, and plenty of other road trips in between.
This family road trip packing list covers everything we actually use — plus the things we’ve learned the hard way to always have within reach.
Heading out in a campervan or motorhome? We have a separate RV essentials packing list for that.
After all of those driving trips, we’ve got a pretty good feel for what actually needs to be in the car and what just takes up space.
Prefer a printable version? Get our printable road trip packing list
Family Road Trip Packing List & Essential Tips
Road trips have been a big part of my travel for as long as I can remember. We often did the big South East Queensland to Victoria road trip and reverse when I was little, back before flying was affordable.
20+ hours of driving, minimal stops with the goal just to get there. I hated it!
For us, we love road trips for the journey and not just to reach the destination. Whichever style you’re choosing, this guide will help you with what to pack for a road trip with kids.
Before You Start Packing
The most important thing before packing anything is knowing the basics of your trip — destination, length, time of year and whether you’re staying in accommodation or sleeping in the car.
These four things will change almost everything about what you need.
A 4-day summer Great Ocean Road trip looks completely different to a 2-week winter campervan trip through New Zealand. Start with those details, and the packing decisions become much easier.
One thing worth sorting before you leave: A rough plan of your overnight stops. Even if you’re being spontaneous about the route, knowing where you will sleep each night means you’re not driving around looking for accommodation at 9 pm with tired kids.
Our Road Trip Car Setup
Before getting into the full list, here’s how we actually set up the car for a long drive with kids — because where things are packed matters as much as what you pack.
The centre cooler bag sits between the kids in the back seat with snacks, water and drinks within easy reach. No stopping required for every snack request.
Pillows or small cushions for each kid. Our girls have always napped on long drives and a decent pillow makes a real difference, even now they’re teenagers.
A bag in the back seat for each kid with whatever they’ve chosen to bring for entertainment — books, headphones, Switch, whatever it is at the moment. We let them choose their own now they are older, rather than us packing activities for them, which honestly works better.
Purse and wallet kept accessible — not buried in the boot. You’ll want them at every fuel stop, cafe and attraction along the way.
The boot is for luggage, the cooler (if separate), and anything you won’t need until you stop for the night.
One thing we’ve learned: we nearly always pack too many snacks. But we’d rather have too many than not enough, especially with kids who somehow get hungry every 45 minutes the moment they’re in a car.
Road Trip Necessities — Before You Leave Home
Don’t leave the driveway without checking these off first:
- Driver’s licence, car insurance and vehicle registration — keep these in the glovebox, not buried in a bag
- Roadside assistance membership — if you don’t have one, get one before a long trip
- First aid kit — bandages, pain relief, antiseptic wipes, blister pads
- Travel insurance — for longer road trips, interstate or international driving, travel insurance is worth having. We use SafetyWing — check what’s right for your trip
- Travel documents — printed or downloaded offline. Don’t rely on mobile data for your accommodation confirmations in remote areas
- Navigation — Google Maps is our go-to but download offline maps before you leave. You will drive through areas with no signal
- Roadside emergency kit — jumper cables, torch, flares, tyre inflator, basic tools
- Spare tyre — check it’s inflated and usable before you leave, not when you need it
- Travel sickness medication — if anyone in your family is prone, pack this before you need it. Our youngest needs tablets for any drive over 90 minutes. Don’t wait until someone is green
Road Trip Tip #1: If you have a spare seat between your kids, set up a basket or tub between them with a selection of activities, snacks and drink bottles to keep everything in easy reach
Essential Road Trip Items
- Car charger — ideally one that charges multiple devices at once
- Portable battery pack — for day trips and hikes when you’re away from the car
- Hands-free phone mount — essential for maps, non-negotiable
- Pocket knife or multitool — more useful than you’d expect
- Torch — charged or with spare batteries
- Blankets and pillows — even if staying in hotels, kids will want them for the drive
- Cooler bag or esky — keeps snacks and drinks cold without stopping every hour
- Reusable water bottles — one per person, filled before you leave
- Plastic bags and zip lock bags — rubbish, wet bathers, opened snacks, you’ll use them
- Day bag — we rotate between a crossbody, mini backpack or satchel depending on the trip. Simon takes a larger backpack when we need more capacity. Whatever you use, make sure it fits your daily essentials without needing to rummage through the boot
- Paper and pen — useful to have in the car just in case!
- Road trip playlist — non-negotiable in our car
Personal Care and Hygiene
Keep your toiletry bag near the top of your luggage — you will want it at every overnight stop without having to unpack everything.
Medication:
- Pain relief (Panadol, Ibuprofen)
- Cold and flu tablets
- Allergy medication
- Motion sickness tablets — always
Toiletries:
- Soap or shower gel
- Shampoo and conditioner
- Deodorant
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Sunscreen
- Insect repellent
- Hand sanitiser
- Wet wipes — endlessly useful regardless of the ages of your kids
- Tissues
- Lip balm — car air conditioning dries everything out
- Toilet paper — keep a roll in the car. You will need it at a remote stop eventually
- Microfibre towels — pack these if you’re beach stopping or using public facilities. They take up almost no space.
Road Trip Clothes Packing
Pack for the length of your trip and the expected weather. Our general rule is one outfit per day for shorter trips, or slightly fewer for longer ones, where you’ll have access to laundry.
No more than three pairs of shoes per person. Always more socks and underwear than you think you need.
Warmer weather:
- T-shirts and shorts
- Swimmers and a rashie
- Sun hat and sunglasses
- Light layer for evenings and air conditioning
- Comfortable walking shoes
- Thongs or sandals
- Poncho or packable rain jacket
Cooler weather:
- Long pants and jeans
- Long-sleeve tops and jumpers
- Beanie, scarf and gloves
- Warm socks and boots
- Waterproof jacket
Road Trip Tip #2: Pack clothing by day rather than by person. You can have a set outfit for each member of the family packed into a packing cube so each day you only need to access a single packing cube of clothing rather than pulling out a separate bag for each person every time you stop to change and wash.
Road Trip Food and Snacks
Food is personal and depends on how much you want to stop and spend versus bringing your own.
We always pack snacks even when we plan to stop for meals — kids get hungry between stops and having something in the cooler bag is easier than every second kilometre being a request for food. Or sometimes we stop for dinners and have simple travel lunches.
Our actual road trip snack staples:
- Filled rolls or sandwiches for quick lunches
- Chips — accept the crumbs
- Grapes and strawberries — non-messy fruit
- Cheese and crackers
- Muesli bars
- Dried fruit and nuts
- Plenty of water — more than you think you need
Avoid heavy sugar loads in the car. Energy spikes and crashes in the back seat are nobody’s friend on a long drive.
For a full meal planning guide and free printable, see our road trip food list.
You may also want to check out these camping meal ideas for other options that would be great for road trips as well:
Kids Road Trip Packing List
Beyond the family essentials above, here’s what we specifically pack for the kids:
Comfort:
- Pillow or small cushion
- Light blanket
- Favourite stuffed toy or comfort item for younger kids
Entertainment:
- Headphones — essential once they’re old enough
- Their own chosen entertainment (books, devices, cards, whatever they’ll actually use)
- Downloaded shows, podcasts or music for no-signal stretches
- Printable road trip activity pack — great for younger kids or for stretches where devices aren’t working
- Travel games & activities – the type that are good for car rides
Activities we still pull out for the whole family:
For babies and toddlers specifically:
- Nappies and wipes — more than you think
- Formula, bottles, food pouches
- Small familiar toys
- Snacks they can manage independently
Winter Road Trip Extras
If you’re driving in cold or wet conditions, add these to the list:
- Snow chains if heading into alpine areas — check requirements before you go
- Thermal underlayers
- Extra blankets
- Waterproof boots
- Warm gloves that work on a touchscreen
- Extra water — heating in cold cars can dehydrate everyone faster than you’d expect
How To Pack The Car
A few things that have genuinely improved our road trips:
Pack the boot in reverse order — things you’ll need first go in last. If you’re stopping overnight in one place before moving on, your overnight bag should be accessible without moving everything else.
Keep the back seat manageable — cooler bag within reach, one bag per kid, pillows ready for naps. The back seat shouldn’t require excavation to find the wet wipes.
Snacks and drinks in the front or centre — not in the boot. You will stop the car far less often.
Heavy items low in the boot — better for driving stability and easier to find.
Use packing cubes — we use different colours per person. It makes unpacking at each overnight stop quick and keeps bags contained in the boot or motorhome storage.
Our Road Trip Toolkit
Everything else you need to plan your trip:
- How to plan a road trip
- Road trip with kids — tips that actually work
- Road trip food and meal planner
- Best road trip songs
- Road trip games and activities
- Jucy Condo campervan review
- Star RV Polaris 6 motorhome review
- Brisbane to Sydney road trip stops
- RV essentials packing list
- Printable road trip packing list
Printable Road Trip Packing List
This road trip essentials packing list is sure to help you prepare for your next road trip with kids.
If you want to ensure you are completely organised, you can get our printable road trip packing list from our online store.
This printable family road trip checklist can be reprinted as often as you need for future road trips you take as well, making it a great way to avoid feeling overwhelmed when packing for a road trip.
Get it here:
Packing for a road trip can be daunting. And the list of things to pack doesn’t stop at just clothes and toiletries.
These essential items are the things most people should have on their packing list, but this is not an exhaustive list by any means.
Make sure you are well prepared for your next family road trip with our printable road trip packing list.
