Advice/Tips on traveling by car with a toddler

Troy is 3yrs 2mos. We just returned from a trip to PA. From our house to our destination the ride was about 3.5 hrs. When leaving (both times) we planned it to leave at Troy's bedtime ~8:30pm.

The outbound part, he didn't fall asleep until almost 10:00pm and stayed asleep, but the time he was awake was a little stressful. The Return he fell asleep w/i 20 min of leaving. But he woke up 2 times (neither of which were while we were at a complete stand-still in traffic ).

We're planning to drive to South Carolina (~14hrs) in November (Troy will be 3 1/2) and looking for some ideas/advise to make it as sooth of a ride as possible.

We did NOT have DVD player (we need a new one-old one is broken) and plan to have one for our Nov. trip.

I'm torn if we should break it up into a two-day drive or leave at 9pm and drive straight through.

ADVISE? HINTS?

TIA!!

Re: Advice/Tips on traveling by car with a toddler

BUMP

Re: Advice/Tips on traveling by car with a toddler

Funny you posted this, we just got back from a trip to PA and we are going to SC end of August or middle of Sept..didnt decide yet and dreading it.

The PA trip was FINE....He likes to look around etc.

I would try to go in the middle of the night, thats what we are gonna do and take 3 stops ( every 4 hours) at times that are not nighttime or if he is awake .

Only advice I have right now.

We also gave /packed plenty of snacks and sticker books, coloring books etc.

Message edited 7/5/2010 9:25:33 PM.

Re: Advice/Tips on traveling by car with a toddler

what about a magna doodle to pass the time?

Re: Advice/Tips on traveling by car with a toddler

def a dvd player
and
an ipod converter for the radio so you can play his fav songs on demand (MY DD likes Princess and the frog and other disney songs!)