May is here and that means summer is nearly on its way with the travel plans are booked, kids are yo-yoing between no waking up early to go to school excitement and the misery of missing their friends. For those, families who have opted to drive to get more of a road trip experience then you’ll need to be armed with apps; navigation and keep the kids on their toes apps.
This past February, I found myself in the shotgun seat of a seven-seater car with two lovely girls (age 9 and 7) and the one thing that kept the sanity of both kids and adults were the apps. The kids will be asleep in no time, its those times when they are awake that will need the following apps to get all to take part.
Waze
If traveling in China this app, won’t work but outside of China this is the best app for navigation. This app will tell you how long to get to your destination, alternative routes, which are all from other drivers. If you are driving in a capital or urban area then you can get warnings of upcoming police and construction hazards. The only drawback is that it will drain your battery so make sure this is connected to a power source at all times.
Free
Platform: iOS, Android
Roadtrippers
Check out the website before heading out to get ideas for your next great adventure. This app will help plan pit stops along the route you have picked such as restaurant, kid-friendly ones and parks. This app also includes the offbeat hotels along the route in the event that you might need to stop for unforeseeable reasons. Hotel Tonight works well with this app as you get to know where last minute hotel rooms are available and if they are child friendly.
Free
Platform: iOS, Android
Tales 2 Go
The kids will reach their limit and full of using apps in the car and the books will fall into that category much earlier. But this audio books app will be just the thing to keeping the sanity levels at a safe and bearable. There’s education grade levels, celebrity narrator, listen to a language, and more. drawback is only 30-day trial.
Free trial (USD 99.99 per year)
Platform: iOS
Mad Libs
The one thing that you will want is to record the moments, so this app lets you take photo from your gallery, type in nouns like when you see a place and don’t know the name then let the app do the rest. There are different ones to try: WWE Mad Libs, Hello Kitty Mad Libs, and Family Guy Mad Libs!
Have a great drive, pack snacks, load up on spotify for age appropriate music, get a local SIM card with data packages, and power batteries just in case.
Stay safe!
Photo: waze.com
