How to Keep Yourself Entertained While Traveling

I recently took a road trip to visit my family in the next state over. I drove about six hours to my parents’ house and stayed for three days then drove two hours to my grandparents’ house where I stayed for three days and then four hours back home. Twelve hours in the car is a long time. Luckily for me, my son is a good traveler and slept a significant portion of that time and most of the rest of it he looked at books or played one of his “computers.”

So while traveling I was left with the struggle of how to entertain myself much more than I had to worry about my son. I do not enjoy the process of traveling. I love to vacation and visit friends and relatives, but the travel itself is torture for me. So I thought I would share a few tips for making your travel time more interesting.

One of my favorite things in life is reading, so when I travel I always have an audio book or two to help me pass the time. I do recommend bringing along more than one audio book in case one of them is completely boring. You do not want the story to lull you to sleep. I do know at least one person who struggles to pay attention to the road because she gets caught up in the book. She is smart enough to recognize if she is not able to pay attention to driving and will turn off the book. This hasn’t ever really been a problem for me. So choose a fun book and just watch the miles fly by while you enjoy a good story.

Another thing I do while traveling is eat. This one is hard to recommend because it isn’t very healthy, but I think most people snack while they travel anyway, so here are some tips for keeping it a little bit healthier. Choose snacks that take time to eat such as a sucker/lollipop or sunflower seeds. Don’t choose one of those high calorie, high fat foods that will be gone in three bites like a doughnut, it will leave you craving more and won’t accomplish any passing of the time. Dried fruit is another idea, though it is smart to take one serving size with you, so you don’t end up eating more than your body can handle. Avoid getting one of those HUGE fountain drinks, choose something in a reasonable size and grab a bottle of water to go with it. Then when you are traveling go easy on it so you don’t have to stop at ever rest stop along the road — or climb over all of the other passengers on the plane to reach that closet of a restroom on the airplane.

This last tip is a little nerdy, but it does pass the time while traveling and it is good for you to have to think once in a while. Do some math. Yes, I know, nerdy, but seriously when you pass a sign that says how far it is to your destination check the speedometer and figure out how many more minutes or hours it is to your destination. You can also figure out what percentage of your trip is ahead of you or behind you.

Good luck and safe traveling.

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