Tips For Roadtripping In A Rental Car With Kids

Traveling with children is an incredibly rewarding experience for both you and your child. You get to bond and spend time together, see new and exciting things and probably have a few good stories to tell when your trip is over. Travelling with children can also be tough, it is hard for anyone to sit for hours on end let alone small children. Here are our prep tips on traveling in a rental car with your young as the holidays quickly approach.

Choose The Right Vehicle

Even though you may only be traveling as a family of four, renting a standard compact car with five seats may not be enough. I will always say that Minivans like the Toyota Sienna are the best road trip vehicles, they have plenty of room for passengers and cargo and the modern fuel efficiency technology has made them fairly inexpensive to drive. After vans, a solid choice is a Honda CRV they offer plenty of space so you don’t feel cramped and the cargo area is more than enough for a family of four. If you are unsure which vehicle would be best for your family, our rental agents can walk you through each vehicle to help you find the right fit.

Snacks

Packing snacks for a child can be a hassle in the best of times depending on how picky of an eater they are but you have to be especially careful to not pack anything that could stain the rental car. Our suggestion would be apples, bananas, and grapes. It is best to steer away from chocolate or anything that can spill to avoid extra clean up costs.

Entertainment

Back in my day, before I started sentences with “Back in my day” the only thing I had to keep myself occupied in the car on long road trips was a comic book and playing the license plate game with my sister. Kids these days are so lucky to have access to smartphones and iPads during long trips. Children can play games and watch movies on their trip to grandma’s house and as the old saying goes, an occupied child is a happy child. If you don’t have access or want your children connected like that all the time a box full of toys (no small parts that can be lost), books and good old fashion road games are more than enough to keep most kids occupied. 

Safety

Safety is our number one priority at Advantage, we want everyone to feel as safe as possible when driving our cars. That being said it is important to remember to bring your child’s car or booster seat with you when you pick up the rental car. We do not rent out booster or car seats for insurance purposes and we will not let you leave with the car if we see you have a child with you that requires one and no seat to put them in.

Plan Ahead

During the trip hype up all the places, you will be passing or where you will be stopping for the night. My parents did this for me when I was younger and having something to look forward to made sitting in the car for 15 hours to visit my cousins much more bearable. Talk about the pool at the hotel or how there are only 30 minutes until you stop at their favourite restaurant for lunch.   

The next time you and the family are heading out on a road trip, rent from Advantage! All of our vehicles are brand new 2017/2018 models and they start as low as $9.99 a day!