Healthy Road Trip Snacks The Whole Family Will Love
Road trip season is upon us! Finding the right healthy road trip snacks can help make the drive much more enjoyable!
It’s road trip season! As a kid, we took a lot of road trips and I really grew to enjoy them! Eventually. Haha. Being on the parent side of a road trip though is a whole other story though. Bless the hearts of my parents, and all parents out there, for sticking it out through difficult road trips, car pukes, and a million “are we there yet” questions. Or, Oliver’s favorite “my bum hurts”, 10 minutes into each road trip.
Let’s be honest, we could talk about road trips with kids all day long because of how much goes into them. And I will! But in a different blog post 🙂 This blog post is all about snacks though. More specifically, healthy road trip snacks. I know, is that even a thing? Aren’t road trips meant to be full of unhealthiness? I wish! Just kidding. They totally can be! But if you’re looking for healthier alternatives to your snacks and are tired of feeling bad about the food you eat on road trips, this post is for you!
Having good snacks on a road trip with kids can be a huge game changer! Once we started switching up our snacks from junk food to healthier alternatives, we have seen a huge difference in how we view road trips. And how we feel about ourselves after each road trip has dramatically improved. Josh and I used to not be big fans of road trips because they took forever and we felt gross whenever we got to our destination. Now we feel a little more energized and not like fat hippos rolling out of the car with Cheeto dust and chocolate smeared all over ourselves while suffering a sugar high and sugar crash simultaneously.
We don’t want that to happen to you guys ever again! Because of that, I’ve created a list of healthy road trip snacks that you can always refer to. Bonus, they are all things that we love and totally vouch for! This post is all about healthy road trip snacks that your whole family will love.
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Healthy Road Trip Snacks
There are several different categories when it comes to road trip snacks. We don’t all want just sweet things, stop mixing in some savoriness and some fresh snacks as well can help right add balance to your road trip offering. We also need drinks! If you’re not huge on just water, I’ve got some great alternatives for you guys. Also, let me clarify what I mean when I say healthy. I’m totally not a dietitian or nutritionist or anything! However I do feel like I know what unhealthy looks like when it comes to food, so I tried to find foods that were made from more organic or natural ingredients and didn’t have too many processed items in them. With that little disclaimer out of the way, let’s get started!
Equipment
Before talking about the actual snacks, here are some things that I would recommend that you bring on your road trip for your snacks. The last thing you want is to be digging through the car to find what you’re looking for, so a dedicated bag for your snacks (at least your non-cool snacks) is always a good idea! A cooler is also such a great idea to help things keep keep things chili. Most ice packs will last the duration of a good 10-12 hour road trip. Using a good ice pack will make sure that all of the snacks that should be kept cool (like fruits, veggies, cheeses, or drinks).
- Snack Bag
- Cooler
- Ice Packs
Fresh Snacks
Let’s be honest, I say let’s be honest a lot. It’s fine. But there aren’t a lot of options when it comes to fresh snacks. aside from fruit and vegetables. But that’s just fine! Even just a few fruits or veggies will help provide a good alternative to processed foods. The bonus of these fresh snacks that I’ve listing below is that they don’t necessarily all need to be refrigerated! Of course , if you can, you should still try to keep them cold, so putting them in a cooler is always a good idea.
- Veggie Strips (carrots and celery cucumber)
- Fruit (blueberries and grapes and mandarin oranges)
Savory Snacks
Now on to savory snacks. These are going to be your typical salty or, how I like to describe them to Oliver, not treats. You never know when you’re going to be craving something salty oh, so having a few of these snacks on hand on a road trip will help you from feeling like you need to stop at a gas station to buy them. And then you end up buying something and healthy! Preparation for a road trip is super helpful in keeping you on the healthier side when it comes to snacks.
- Jerky
- Popcorn (like Boom Chicka Pop Popcorn)
- Nuts (pistachios, almonds, etc.)
- Nut Butter
- Chips (Pita, Fruit, and Veggie)
- Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies
- Pretzels
- Cheese Crisps
- Cheese Sticks
Sweet Snacks
Sweet snacks! These are key, especially for kids. For some reason, Oliver, and most kids actually that I’ve met actually, just love anything sweet. Way more than savory things! Except for goldfish. Maybe it’s because they’re shaped like fish. Or probably because it’s the snack that smiles back. I bet that’s it actually.
- Fruit Bars
- Fruit Leather
- Dried Fruit
- Apple Sauce Pouches
- Annie’s Bunny Fruit Snacks
- Annie’s Bunny Grahams
- Granola Bars
- Fig Newtons
- Protein Bars
- Annie’s Organic FruitTape
- Gum/Mints
Drinks
All right, now let’ move on to drinks! Of course I always recommend water for a road trip. it’s key to your survival. But you also might want to get other types of drinks! It’s not a bad thing to have a little variety, right? A healthy variety, that is!
- Water
- Naked Juice
- Olipop
And that’s a wrap folks! Desert eat healthy road trip snacks that your whole family will love and that I recommend bringing on your next road trip. I know we all love them and we are kind of picky, so hopefully you will too! Good luck and happy travels!
