My Family’s Experience with 9 Days of Travel by Car

How my family of four traveled by car for nine days in and around New Hampshire.

I genuinely love New England and have zero desire to travel anywhere out of it during the summer and fall. Late Winter and early spring are entirely different story. I’d gladly erase the month of March in New England. It’s really not necessary.

This love of New England during certain times of the year works well for us. Half the year we adventure without having to set foot on an airplane. We usually stay in our camper; however, recently we traveled for 9 days in and around New Hampshire by car.

Although there was no airplane travel to plan for, we stayed in two different hotels and with family members. I knew from previous experiences that this had the potential to be stress inducing. My goal was to reduce the items we brought alleviating some of that stress.

We utilized the same plans I had with our One Backpack Experiment when we traveled to Folly Beach, South Carolina. Packing as intentionally as possible freed us. We did not feel burdened by stuff and effortlessly transition to each new stop on our trip.

What I Packed

One Back Pack Each of Clothing 

I needed to have enough clothing for us for 9 days. Here’s what I packed for myself. I packed similarly for the kids too. My husband does his own thing. My kids and I each had one backpack we packed in.

2 pairs of shorts

1 dress

6 shirts

8 pairs of underwear 

2 bras

1 lightweight sweatshirt

1 cardigan 

3 athletic shorts

3 tank tops

2 bathing suits

1 swim coverup 

One pair of sandals

1 fleece jacket

One pair of sneakers

2 pairs of socks

Hat

I had the luxury of doing laundry mid trip. This is something I may plan to do in the future for longer trips. I ended up over packing because of this and came home with some clean clothing.

The majority of our clothing fit into our Eagle Creek Compression Packing Cubes , minus bulky items: sweatshirt, fleece, hat and sneakers, that went directly into our backpacks or on our feet. The cubes can be used like a regular packing cube, or the additional zipper around the edge can be used as a compression cube. They are made of ultra-lightweight ripstop poly fabric and add very little weight to my back pack (the medium size weighs 2.6 ounces, the small even less). They are pricey, but have a lifetime warranty. I found the cheapest price directly through their website and there is a coupon you can sign up for with your email.

I’ve learned to pack these in a way where I can remove the cube from my backpack, unzip the top, roll it back and can see all the clothing inside easily. It’s kind of like having a little drawer anywhere you go. This was especially handy for keeping my kids organized while we went from location to location. We just removed each item we needed from the packing cube while at one location and then when we were ready to head to the next spot we would zip it back up, put it in our backpacks and head to our next destination. I use the medium size cube for the majority of our clothing and the small size cube for things like underwear, socks, etc.

We didn’t fly this trip so I didn’t need to worry about fitting the clothing back into a packing cube. Instead as we dirtied items they went into a laundry bag. At the end of the trip I brought this into our house and threw it all in the washing machine.

Toiletries

Since we weren’t flying I didn’t have to worry about the size of our toiletries or putting them into a clear bag for security. Instead I focused on ease of use and storage while we shifted from hotel to hotel. I’ve used this travel toiletry bag for multiple trips this summer and it’s been awesome.

It’s been game changing in our camper as we have no drawers and very little counter space to put our toiletries in and easily hangs from the door in the bathroom. It was great on this trip too. Everything was nicely organized and stayed off of the counter. The kids grabbed their toothbrushes and tooth paste when they needed it and when we left it was easy to fold back up and throw in my back pack.

Beach Bag

My husband’s family has a house on the lake so we needed to pack accordingly for this. We also were able to spend a day with our friends who were staying at a lake and needed things for this too. I packed a separate beach bag with beach towels, googles and life jackets.

Bedding 

In between our hotel stays we stayed with my husband’s parents. We needed to bring our own bedding for that part of the trip, so in our trunk I packed pillows, sleeping bags and air mattresses.

Misc

We packed a few random things in each of our backpacks. My daughter brought a stuffed cat, some sticker books to use in the hotel room and a couple of books to read. My son, similar things. I packed UNO and a book for us to all read together and some charging cables.

Other ways I prepared for the trip

Turning our car into a rental car

Our South Carolina trip was wonderful because our rental car stayed so empty the whole time. A day before the trip I brought our own vehicle to “rental car status”. 

I had the oil changed, washed the outside of the car, emptied and cleaned the inside of the car and filled the gas tank. I only put the essentials back in the car. Things like an iPhone cord, puke bags (for car sick kiddos, which we unfortunately used) headphones for kids and a couple of car toys they choose. I also added a small garbage can in the back for them and this worked well to keep their back seat area cleaned.

How it Went

This trip had the potential of being stress inducing and anything but relaxing. The combination of driving multiple hours, staying in three different locations (all requiring various luggage being brought in and out) could have lead us to feeling weighted down and our car stuffed. I was intentional with every item we brought, making sure it was worth the amount of time and energy that it would take to care for, knowing it would take time away from enjoying our trip.

This strategy worked. The baggage portion of the trip felt effortless.

Our hotel rooms stayed clean and clutter free. We easily packed up when it was time to leave.

When staying with relatives I didn’t feel like I had to keep track of a ton of things in their home and I’m happy to say not one item was lost along the way.

Our car stayed clean the entire trip. So much so that my son said in shock the morning after we returned home from the trip when we got into the car to go to the grocery store, “Look how clean our car is even though we just got back from a big trip!”

Anytime I do one of these “travel light” experiments it makes me rethink the things I own. We currently live in a 1000ish square foot house and it has been well curated. It holds our family of four, we homeschool here and my husband works remotely out of our home. This house works hard for us. It doesn’t feel stuffed, but traveling lightly motivates me to streamline even more. I have a strong desire to edit our things and recreate that lightness we feel when traveling as much as possible.