Healthy Road Trip Snacks

This post will give you some ideas for some healthy road trip snacks. These travel meal ideas or snack ideas are all simple recipes and foods which most people should be able to easily put together. All the ideas here I can buy at my local supermarket, Aldi.

These ideas can also be used to prepare a healthy picnic. The focus of this post is to help you select healthy foods when you travel. Remember it is all about getting a good balance.

I hope you will be inspired to prep some healthy food to ensure you have the perfect road trip or day out!

What is Meant by Healthy?

There is a lot of information out there describing what is healthy and what isn’t. At the end of the day, the trick is to have a balanced diet which is one gets by eating a variety of different foods.

The main things to think about regarding healthy eating, are to avoid foods that are heavily processed or with too much fat, salt and sugar, as all of these can be detrimental to health if taken in excess. All is OK though, of course, in small amounts.

There are of course plenty of diets out there like keto, weight watchers, gluten free etc etc. Some of these may be healthier than others and many are aimed at achieving weight loss.

Some have completely opposite approaches to nutrition. I will not be following any of them in this post, but just applying some common sense to avoid foods that we know are not perhaps the best for us.

Some Tips to Provide Healthy Snacks to bring on a Road Trip

Some simple tips when preparing your healthy road trip foods are to try and avoid using ingredients with high saturated fat levels. For example, use margarine instead of butter in sandwiches, or limit the amount of mayonnaise you use in a sandwich.

It will still taste good if you use less – it just does not have to be drowning in it.

Use 0% fat yoghurt as opposed to full fat. There are some great tasting low-fat yoghurts out there. Use low-fat milk instead of full fat.

Some high-fat foods are also highly nutritious and good for you, like eggs, avocados, nuts, fish and olive oil.

So just remember to try and keep a good balance as you need healthy fats as well.

Avoid foods with high refined or free sugar levels like candy, cake, soda and donuts etc. They are not essential in a healthy balanced diet.

There are plenty of foods out there with natural sugars like fruit, which are more healthy for you. Natural sugars are sucrose, fructose and glucose and contain calories just like refined sugar but fruits have lots of nutrients and fibre which helps provide the balanced diet.

Try not to eat too much salt as it can raise your blood pressure. One bag of potato chips is not going to kill you of course, but everything in moderation, which is why I have left potato chips off this list as there are more healthy things to take with you.

Use whole grain bread rather than white bread in your sandwiches (unless in France of course – see later on!).

How to eat healthily on the road

Do not overeat. Some foods are so tasty that we want to eat loads. But resist the temptation to overeat.

We only need so many calories a day, which depends on our body size, level of activity and gender.

When we are travelling on a road trip we are likely to be sitting for long periods so we may not need as many calories as on a normal day of activity.

Remember anything we do not burn off will turn to fat, and this is what causes heart disease in time.

So try and get some exercise if you can – if you stop for a rest break – do some walking to stretch your legs.

Drink plenty of fluids. Make sure you have water with you on your trip to keep yourself hydrated. Ensure you have some sort of cooler box or cooler bag to keep your food cool.

I will now go through some ideas for you to consider if you are needing some inspiration for healthy food ideas for travelling.

What are the best healthy road trip snacks?

So, what makes good road trip meal planning? What to pack for a road trip? Which healthy travel food to prepare?

How to plan healthy travel meals? What is the best healthy road trip food?

From our experience, the best healthy car snacks to eat on a road trip are the ones you can easily make yourself at home.

You know exactly what has gone into them, how fresh they really are and you can prepare your own healthy snacks for travelling in the car before you leave.

Lunches for road trips

Obviously the products that stay fresh on the road are also to be recommended. Think about stuff you can bake at home, prepare, wash, cut and package that is ready to eat at any time.

We will not give a complete healthy road trip food list here, more a few ideas to help you plan your own healthy snacks for long road trips.

Healthy non-perishable snacks are a great choice obviously and are food that travels well. You can make them yourself like some of the healthy snacks for the road that I share below.

Road Trip Sandwiches

There is nothing easier than making some healthy homemade sandwiches for your road trip maybe?

When we have travelled in France, and we have done some seriously long road trips there, we do not actually prepare sandwiches upfront.

We travel with a multifunctional knife and we know we will find a Boulangerie or supermarket somewhere and buy fresh some bread, ham and French mustard mayo and make our own fresh baguette sandwich on the go.

There is really nothing better than crusty French bread, but it has to be fresh.

However, in other countries will tend to prepare our sandwiches beforehand, depending on the ingredients available. Here are some examples of sandwiches we would make if we were travelling from home.

We normally package them in re-sealable plastic bags or air-tight containers.

To make your sandwiches healthier, use margarine instead of butter and do not use too much mayo. They will still be good!

Ham and Mayo Sandwich

What could be better than this simple ham and mayo sandwich (apart from one made in a French baguette of course!)?