Teens, screens, time pressure and other challenges to navigate on a family road trip
I found both when I packed up the car with my husband and two kids — one of them a teenager — for the eight-hour drive from Boston to Niagara Falls. We had taken long road trips as a family in the past, but our kids, now 8 and 14, were older. My son, firmly in his 'closed-door, don't talk to me' phase, wasn't exactly thrilled about spending over 460 miles trapped in our smallish Nissan Rogue. We also live in a part of the country where we don't spend much time in cars in our everyday life.
How would we all manage the close quarters?
Here's some of what I learned — along with advice from the experts — about not only surviving a family road trip but having a good time:
First, why do it?Many road-trip veterans cite the chance to bond and create family memories. Eighteen-year-old Samara Worsham, for example, spent 30 days crossing 25 states with her family in 2022. Now preparing to leave for college, she says she cherishes that time on the road.
'There were long stretches with no cellular data, leaving us nothing to do but talk,' she said.
Along with visiting U.S. landmarks, Worsham's fondest memories include hotel pool swims with her siblings, and her father's mission to sample every fast-food chain across the country.
There are practical advantages to the family car trip too.
'It's more economical than flying, especially with a big family,' says Jamie Davis Smith, a lawyer and writer from Washington, D.C., who takes a road trip every year with her husband and children. 'Plus, you don't have to rent a car at the destination.'
Get family input on the itineraryAlain Robert, founder of The Travelologist, a Canadian travel agency, recommends including the whole family in planning.
'Ask what they'd like to see or do. Build around everyone's interests,' he advised. 'Once you have a backbone itinerary, share it and manage expectations.'
My family, in particular the kids, wanted to get there as soon as possible. They had their eyes on the destination, not the journey.
Include some cheesy stops — if you can take the timeDavis Smith said her family loves to discover quirky roadside attractions; on one trip, they had fun stopping at the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama — a store that sells lost airline luggage.
Inspired, I downloaded the Roadtrippers app and mapped out a few detour-worthy stops. Our shortlist included the Jell-O Museum in LeRoy, New York, as well as the Schuyler Mansion (of 'Hamilton' fame) in Albany, New York.
But best-laid plans... We quickly realized that an eight-hour haul didn't leave much wiggle room for exploration. Lesson learned: Keep daily driving to six hours or less if you want time to explore. We didn't have time for either of those two stops.
Whether you bring your pet or not, prepare for extra costsWe briefly considered bringing Rosie, our 2-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, but the hotel we'd booked at Niagara wasn't dog-friendly. No friends were available to watch her, so at the last minute, we boarded her at our vet — a first for Rosie.
We hadn't expected she would need two new vaccines, and we had to squeeze in a vet appointment two days before departure. This meant a steep bill the morning we left, and boarding costs awaiting us when we returned.
Travel journalist Kelly Burch, who road-tripped around the U.S. for seven months with her husband, two kids and senior dog, warned that pet policies on the road can be unpredictable. One budget hotel near Yellowstone National Park wouldn't even allow their dog to stay in their RV on the property.
'Triple check pet policies,' she advised.
Teens...
Knowing my teenager would need space, I splurged on a junior suite. He got his own bed, slept late and had the space to recharge. The suite came with a small kitchen and a breathtaking view of Horseshoe Falls — well worth the extra cost for three nights.
If we'd stayed longer, I would have reconsidered the splurge. But since we saved money by not flying, the room felt like a worthwhile tradeoff.
... and screensIf your kids are on the younger side, divert them with family car games.
'If you start the screen early, it can be difficult to convince them to do anything else,' says freelance journalist Stratton Lawrence, 43, who has written for Travel & Leisure about his family road trips — without devices. He's driven with his young kids and wife from South Carolina to the Pacific Coast twice, including one three-month stretch on the road.
Even older kids, he says, will appreciate something like a deck of cards or a paper atlas to see the geography.
'If you're going to be in a car for 100-plus hours, the kids aren't going to be entertained watching TV that whole time, so you have to have other things,' he said.
Overall, I think my teenager thought the trip was OK. His friend happened to be visiting Niagara Falls with her family and staying in the same hotel where we stayed. That was a welcome surprise. He also seemed to like our daytime outings, especially the boat ride into the Horseshoe Falls, where we got drenched with water.
I figure, if a trip is mostly OK for a teenager, it's a success.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
JetBlue posts smaller-than-expected loss as U.S. demand recovers
(Reuters) -JetBlue Airways on Tuesday posted an adjusted loss for the second quarter that was smaller than Wall Street expectations, helped by cost cutting measures and recovering demand for travel in the U.S. Over the past month, larger peers Delta and United have signaled that bookings are starting to stabilize, though at lower-than-expected levels, pointing to an uneven recovery. In April, JetBlue joined several major airlines in pulling its 2025 financial forecast, citing uncertainty tied to the Trump administration's sweeping tariff policies and federal spending cuts that weighed on consumer travel. "Demand for air travel improved as the quarter progressed, resulting in significant strength for bookings within 14-days of travel, as well as for peak travel periods," said Marty St. George, JetBlue's president, adding that the momentum continued into July. However, the carrier said it expects third-quarter revenue per available seat mile (RASM), an industry metric commonly known as unit revenue and a proxy for pricing power, to decline between 2% and 6%. It also renistated its 2025 unit cost forecast and expects it to rise between 5% and 7%. The carrier reported an adjusted loss of 16 cents per share for the quarter ended June 30, compared to analysts' estimate of a loss of 33 cents apiece. Operating revenue was $2.18 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting $2.28 billion, as per data compiled by LSEG. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Florida history: The rough, bumpy road that became Dixie Highway, spawning modern tourism
Editor's note: This story by former staff writer Barbara Marshall originally ran Jan. 14, 2016. It has been edited for updating, length and clarity. One hundred and 10 years ago, Dixie Highway began to spawn today's tourism industry. Beginning in 1915 and for decades afterward, "The Dixie" was the artery that delivered the tourists who became residents, transforming America's last frontier into a balmy, palmy middle-class paradise. In towns such as West Palm Beach, Dixie was the main drag where courthouses and businesses were built. Dixie spawned theme motels, juice stands and wacky roadside attractions. A rough, rutted road For intrepid tourists and adventurers at the dawn of the Automobile Age, a trip south on "The Dixie" was a grueling, often dangerous journey. Much of the road was a rutted sand track through Florida's piney woods and coastal scrub. It could take 10 days to two weeks to drive on a Tin Lizzie's narrow tires from Chicago to Miami. Coming into Palm Beach County, Dixie followed the dry ridge that Flagler's railroad crews had surveyed two decades earlier. "The FEC had taken the high ground, so basically they had whatever was left," said Lake Park historian L.J. Parker. "When they came to a lake or a sinkhole, they moved the road to the other side of the tracks." Today, the road is called Dixie Highway only in certain areas such as downtown West Palm Beach. Elsewhere, it has names such as Evergreen and Poinsettia avenues in northern West Palm; President Barack Obama Highway in Riviera Beach; and Old Dixie Highway in Lake Park and Delray Beach. Despite these perils, Dixie Highway modernized the South by providing its first good farm-to-market roads while simultaneously creating the dream of a winter Florida vacation, said historian Tammy Ingram. "Auto tourism opened up Florida to middle class tourism. You didn't need a train depot anymore," said Ingram, author of "Dixie Highway: Road Building and the Making of the Modern South." The genius behind Dixie Highway Credit goes to Carl Fisher, founder of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and an early automobile enthusiast. He helped form the Dixie Highway Association in 1914 to create a reliable route to get Midwesterners down to his latest project: a mangrove swamp he was busy transforming into Miami Beach. Fisher's idea was to cobble together the country's existing north-south roads and improve them, creating an interstate highway. (He'd done the same thing earlier with his transcontinental Lincoln Highway, connecting New York to San Francisco.) His genius was persuading states and cities to tax themselves into paying for improving those existing roads. 'Not a trip for faint of heart' When it officially opened in the fall of 1915, the road came south via two meandering, gerrymandered routes. The eastern route started in Detroit and went through Jacksonville and down the Atlantic coast. The western route left Chicago, connecting Tallahassee with Orlando then continuing down the Gulf coast. Eventually, the combined Dixie Highway routes stretched 5,786 miles across 10 states from the Canadian border at Sault Sainte Marie in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Miami on Biscayne Bay. "Before that, you had to find your own way down without maps or road signs," said Susan Gillis, curator at the Boca Raton Historical Society. Florida's torrential downpours were also big trouble for those early motorists. Yet, thousands came and stayed, starting Florida's 1920s land boom. "It was very treacherous, but that was part of the appeal," said Ingram. "It was not a trip for the faint of heart." "You left early and timed it so you were hitting major towns to eat lunch, get gas, have a place to stay overnight. You carried supplies including extra tires and gas. Wealthy people would have a driver and mechanic go with them." By 1920, Motor Travel magazine wrote that Florida "no longer lay beyond arduous and impassable sands … just around the corner from Stygian cypress swamps …" But many of those who followed Dixie to the boom did a U-turn during the bust that began in 1926. By May of 1928, Boca Raton was so desperate for tourists it erected a painted plywood camel over the road to attract Shriners headed to a national convention in Miami. A sign advertised that its new town hall (now the city's history museum) had restrooms. A month later during a Miami Elks convention, said Gillis, the city added antlers to transform the camel into an elk. Today, most of what remains of Dixie's original route through Palm Beach is Old Dixie, a workingman's road lined with thrift shops and car repair places. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida history: Creation of Dixie Highway in the early 20th century Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Royal Caribbean lifts annual profit forecast on steady cruise demand
(Reuters) -Royal Caribbean raised its annual profit forecast on Tuesday, banking on resilient demand for the cruise operator's high-end private island destinations and premium sailings. The company, however, expects third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $5.55 to $5.65, below analysts' estimates of $5.83, per data compiled by LSEG, amid rising fuel prices. Shares of the company were down about 3% in premarket trading, after rising about 52% so far this year. The company expects fiscal 2025 adjusted profit per share of $15.41 to $15.55, compared with its prior forecast of $14.55 to $15.55.