Entertainment ideas

Summer travel season is just around the corner! That means lots of time in the air or on the road with potentially very bored kids. I’m assuming you don’t want to be the parent hearing “are we there yet” for hours on end, so be sure to pack plenty of in-flight or road trip entertainment for the kids.

Like most traveling parents, an iPad is my go-to device. Although my mantra is that normal screen-time limits do not apply when we are in-flight (or on the road), I don’t love seeing my kids stare at a screen like zombies for hours on end during our travels. It is important to mix it up with some good old fashioned tech-free entertainment too.

I was intrigued by a study that British Airways did last summer that showed that the best in-flight entertainment for young kids was not the iPad. However, like many fellow family travelers, I wasn’t pleased with some of British Airways’ recommendations, which were decidedly not mess-free. Legos? Loom bands? Play-Doh? All I could think about is how many times I’d be crawling under the seat in front of me to pick up tiny pieces or how the time-starved post-flight cleaning crew would hate me for what my family would leave behind after a flight.

So, with less-mess as my guiding principle, here are 20 tech-free products to entertain your kids on your travels. Best of all, the majority of these products are under $10!

1. Melissa & Doug License Plate Game ($19.20): A reusable board to play the classic game of spotting license plates from every state. Great for teaching geography too.

2. Road Trip Bingo Cards ($8.99): A great game for your children to play together to pass the time on the road. Each set comes with three cards and sets are available for interstate highway trips, license plates, traffic signs, and more. I love that the Bingo cards include pictures to make the game doable even for pre-readers.