Travel snacks for kids
In this blog post, I will give you some ideas for road trip snacks for kids. I hope you can be inspired to make sure you have the perfect road trip!
When you are planning a road trip or any kind of travel there are always a lot of things to think about. And if you have kids with you, you better get the planning for the kids snacks right, or you could be in trouble!
There is nothing worse than a hungry screaming toddler in the back of the car when you are trying to drive, believe me!
I have three kids and have done some significant travelling with them over the years. Many road trips between Holland and the UK, some serious road trips down to the South of France and Rome, and family vacations to name but a few.
But to get the road trip snacks right is a challenge that changes every year as their tastes develop and change.
When we are on a road trip with kids, I like to have healthy snacks for children with us, but you may prefer to stop and have a full-blown picnic (weather permitting!).
It all rather depends where you are travelling, the length of the journey, the weather and your level of preparedness. Either way, I hope this post will give you some ideas for some kid-friendly snacks.
Picnic food for kids
Travel with babies
Travelling with babies can be full of incidents or a doddle depending on how you look at it and approach it. My daughter was a great little traveller as a baby and still is, but we have had our moments when she was little – running out of nappies (diapers) before even getting ON the plane was one example!
My wife, however, is completely unfazed by these situations and takes everything in her stride, which has helped my girly to be the seasoned traveller she now is.
In this post, we will NOT be concentrating on baby food as we assume you will travel with appropriate food for babies and milk as appropriate. I do not have any recipes yet for stuff like that, I am afraid!
We will concentrate more on food and good road trip snacks for kids above the age of two or three, so there will be a few snacks for toddlers included.
What you decide to feed your children is of course up to you as a parent, but I hope this will give you some road trip snack ideas for your kids.
I will now go through some ideas for you to consider if you are needing some inspiration for healthy road trip snacks for kids.
What are the best road trip snacks for kids?
So, what makes great healthy travel snacks for kids?
From my experience, the best food snacks to eat on a road trip to nourish your family and keep you alert as a driver are the ones you can easily prepare at home and that keep fresh on the road.
And of course, you may be wanting to give them healthy snacks for kids on the go and prevent them from getting covered in chocolate for example.
Think about stuff you can bake at home, prep, wash, cut and package that is ready to eat at any time.
Non-perishable snacks are a great choice obviously but they don’t need to be store-bought. You can make them yourself like some of the easy kid-friendly travel snacks that I share below.
Make sure you have some sort of cooler box or cooler bag to keep your food cool on your travels.
Healthy Sandwiches for Road trips
What could be easier than making some healthy homemade road trip snacks for your trip? Some tasty sandwiches for your road trip maybe?
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Ham and Mayo Sandwich
What could be better than this simple ham and mayo sandwich? I have never met a kid that does not love this!
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Ham Cheese and Mayo Sandwich
Or this ham and cheese sandwich? Sometimes the simple ones are the best.
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Marmite and crisp sandwich
This crispy sandwich with marmite is a delicious option to take on a road trip. Marmite is something you love or hate. All my kids loved it when they were growing up. Remember to add the potato crisps just before eating the sandwich. Kids love these, but they might make a mess!
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Peanut butter and jelly (PBJ) sandwich
The iconic peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a fantastic road trip sandwich due to the long shelf life of the fillings. So it works well even if you do not have any cooler bag or box with you. Most kids love these – not if you have a nut allergy though of course!
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Cold Sausage Sandwich
This cold sausage sandwich is always a success. Pretty filling and even better than the hot version!
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Chicken Mayo Sandwich
This chicken mayo sandwich is one of my favourites. So simple and tasty – a great way to use your roast chicken leftovers.
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Egg Salad Sandwich
This is favourite of both my girls. I remember my daughter’s first solid food being a spoonful of scrambled egg and she loved it.
She has never looked back – I still make dippy eggs for her regularly for breakfast.
These egg salad sandwiches are quite filling and provide plenty of protein.
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Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich
This is the classic BLT. Delicious always and good to travel with.
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Chicken Curry Sandwich
This is a very tasty chicken curry sandwich that will travel well if you can keep it cool.
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Cheese and Pickle Sandwich
For a small kid’s sandwich, this might be a step too far as the pickle is perhaps something that will attack their tastebuds if they are not used to it.
But where I come from the cheese and pickle sandwich is an absolute favourite and certainly in the British teenage years it is like the PBJ is to Americans.
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Cucumber Sandwiches
The classic sandwich from an English afternoon tea. Make sure you slice the cucumber thinly!
I am sure you will have plenty of your own sandwich recipes you can use as well for your sandwich fillings. The possibilities are endless of course.
Healthy snacks for the road
Pre-prepped vegetables are another good way to have some easy snacks on the go for your trip. By pre-slicing and peeling carrots, cucumbers, celery and tomatoes you can have some healthy food to munch on during your journey.
Keep them in an airtight box to keep them fresh.
These are some of our favourite healthy snacks and we keep a box like this in our fridge at home now as it is so easy to just grab a healthy bite when you wish.
Fresh fruit to eat on your road trip
Fresh fruit is another easy way to sort out some healthy snacks for kids on the go. Mainly easy to transport and ready when you need it.
And of course, kids love them!
They can also be transported well in airtight boxes if you think about grapes and berries, as examples. Make sure to wash them before you pack them.
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Fresh fruits
Simply wash and arrange a container with fresh fruits, check out some great containers here.
Cherries are always good to eat on the go
Probably not wise to give cherries to small kids because of the pips, but my kids love them!
Bananas and apples you can always just eat as is. Oranges and kiwi fruit you can peel when you want to eat them.
Road Trip Snacks For Kids
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Fruit salad
You can also think about prepping a fruit cocktail and keeping it in small containers to eat when you feel like it. A great sweet treat!
These are quick make-ahead meals for road trip.
Dried fruit – the perfect road trip snacks
Dried fruits are also healthy vegan snacks perfect for road trips that you can buy in your favorite grocery store. Think about food like dates or apricots.
Lovely to nibble on and a good shelf life so they are good for a long trip.
Dried fruits are great non-perishable travel food.
Other kid-friendly snacks for road trips
There are lots of other types of snacks for kids you can consider purchasing before going on your road trip. Much of these have been bought from Aldi. Think about food like:
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Mixed nuts, cashews or peanuts
Beware though as you do not want to give kids nuts if they have a nut allergy. Apparently peanut allergy is one of the most common causes of allergy in childhood and can be fatal.
So if you are travelling with kids that are not yours and not sure of their medical history, be careful when dishing out nuts!
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Ritz crackers
Crackers are always a hit with my kids, but they can make a mess if not controlled in the back of the car!
RITZ CRACKERS ORIGINAL
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Crisps (Potato chips) or other packaged snacks
So you may have some of these left from your crisp sandwich, but let’s face it these are always going to go down well with kids. Choose a flavour they all like.
Cheese and onion or natural seems to take preference in my family, but they will also devour a bag of Nacho cheese Doritos in no time!
Ultimate Snack Care Package
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Protein or granola bars.
Energy bars or protein bars are of course a super easy trip snack. A good alternative to just a Mars or Hershey bar.
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Biltong or Beef Jerky
Biltong or Beef Jerky is also a great snack to take on the road. It will keep for ages and provide plenty of protein. Delicious.
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Cheese dips or cheese triangles
Cheese strings or other cheese snacks like cheese triangles or cheese dips are always a good way to keep the kids quiet.
Even better if you can spread on a cracker somehow without making a mess.
Cheese triangles
Cheese dip
Homemade Road Trip Snacks
There are plenty of car snacks for kids you can make up-front especially for a road trip, rather than buy ready-made. Here are some road trip snack ideas for kids that may appeal.
All the recipes mentioned are on this blog site and can be accessed by clicking on the link.
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Flapjacks
A delicious sweet oat bar with dried fruit. They never last long on our trips. Kepp them in an air-tight box.
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Cinnamon Donuts
These cinnamon donuts are delicious but do not stay good for that long so you need to eat them quickly!
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Homemade cookies
Cookies are always a good idea to take with you on your road trips. There are easy to dish out and not too messy. Homemade ones though are even better if you have time and willing to make them beforehand. These ones are one of our favourite English cookie recipes.
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Cake or cupcakes
Cake always goes down well wherever you are. It can be a bit messy, but hey!
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French-style pancakes
These pancakes are great to take with you – if you fill them with Nutella and roll them up you can keep them in an air-tight container and dish them out as required. Highly likely they will result in chocolate covered kids though 🙂
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Bacon egg muffins
These little savoury cup cakes can be made up front and eaten when required. They will not keep that long though outside a fridge so you should eat them in the first day.
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Yoghurt Fruit Pots
These fruit pots are great healthy snacks for long car rides. You need to keep them cool but they are tasty and the kids will love them.
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Hard boiled Eggs
Hard boiled eggs are simple to prepare upfront and will give the kids a protein boost if they need one.
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Meat balls
These Danish Meatballs are a great snack that we love to take on a trip. You need to keep them cool but they are really tasty and will not last very long.
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Sweet dessert
After your main snack, whatever it may be, you may need a sweet dessert to finish the kids off. This one is great, as long as you can keep it cool.
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Cold pasta
For an easy pre-prepped pasta you cannot find an easier recipe than this one. Cool in the fridge before leaving, pack in separate containers and keep it cool until eating. Delicious!
Hot Food on the Go
If you have a well-insulated flask you can, of course, take some healthy hot soup with you if you are going to need to be warmed up. A good idea if you are travelling somewhere snowy in the winter and there is the slightest risk of you breaking down. You never know…
Taking some hot meals and keeping them warm for a long time may be more of a problem though and I wouldn’t recommend it.
Thermos Stainless King Vacuum Insulated Bottle
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Soups
With the proper thermos flask you could easily keep a mushroom soup or a tomato soup hot for several hours!
Drinks for your road trip
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Cold drinks
You will also want to take some drinks with you along the way to prevent dehydration. We have some great metal vacuum insulated water bottles that we take with us which keep our water or fruit juice cold.
Normally we just take water but sometimes we will take flavoured water or a fruit squash with us.
We do not take soda with us on a road trip normally as it is not the healthiest of things to drink with the sugar levels they use.
Vmini Water Bottle
Healthy Smoothies for on your travels
Smoothies are great healthy travel snacks for kids. Probably one of the best travel snacks for kids.
They are tasty and filling and a good way to get some clean vitamins into them. Just be aware that you need to keep them cool to keep them fresh and that they will not last that long.
Give them a good shake before you consume them as the different constituents are likely to separate.
Road Trip Snack Ideas For Kids
So I hope this post gives you some ideas about the best road trip snacks for kids.
What are the best travel snacks for kids? What are the best family road trip snacks? Well, that is up to you as a parent.
How healthily do you wish to feed your children? How long will you be travelling? Are there any allergies you need to think about?
Will you be travelling in the cold with a chance of being delayed? What are the essential road trip snacks?
These are all questions you need to ask to put together the best healthy snacks to bring on a road trip.
All the recipes mentioned above are simple to prepare upfront and your travel experience will be so much improved when you know what you and your children are eating.
Whether the food you choose are healthy travel snacks or just easy clean snacks for kids, it is up to you.
You know what your children like to eat and what is best for them. I just hope this will have given you some travel snack ideas for your next road trip with your kids.
The main thing is not to go hungry!
Tell me; what is the best road trip snack and beverage for kids in your opinion? Let me know in the contact section below.
More road trip food posts:
Kids Road Trip Snacks
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