Hacks for Making Ski Day Trips Successful

Day trip skiing?
These 7 hacks can help simplify your trip! 

• The night before, let your kids sleep in their long underwear – they think this is fun and then you don’t have to worry about making them change out of their PJ’s in the early morning. We just get them out of bed and put them in the car with a blanket to cover them up. Note: we put regular socks, not ski socks, on them for the car ride and change to ski socks once we get to the mountain so they don’t get wet before we are ready to go.
  
  
• Pack an on-the-go breakfast – we have our kids help the night before, but we usually pack a super simple breakfast (think yogurt pouches, apples or oranges, dry cereal). We use snack cups to hold dry cereal or a toasted bagel and we use their water bottles for their drinks. You could also put juice or tea or hot cocoa in a cup with a lid if they would rather drink that.
  
  
• Bathroom before you leave the house – Even if your kids are still half asleep, take the extra few minutes to go to the bathroom before you leave the house. This doesn’t always work, but it often means that we can make it all the way there without a bathroom stop. If we don’t have them go to the bathroom at home, then we are guaranteed a bathroom stop somewhere along the way.
  
  
• Don’t forget the shoes – the only downfall to just putting the kids in the car is we sometimes forget their regular shoes and realize we either have socks or ski boots. It is not fun to try to take a kid to a gas station bathroom in their socks. Remember to bring regular shoes!
  
  
• Blankets for the car ride – kids are much more comfortable if they can cuddle up with a blanket and it ensures that they start the day warm. Nobody likes a ski day where they start out cold.
  
  
• Have a car bag pre-packed (clipboard or notebook, drawing books, stickers, iPad, great music). Have your kids help pack it the night before, so they like what is in it. We keep ours packed for the whole season and just check and replenish paper etc. as needed. I personally feel that a little car boredom and staring out the window isn’t bad for kids. After all, kids of the 80’s survived many a car trip without movies or devices, but you do you, and think about what works best for your family. We usually have a few shows downloaded on our iPad and try to save them for the car trip home or the really big traffic jams. On the way up we let the kids wake up slowly, eat their breakfast, listen to music and stare out the window. One of my kids loves to draw in the car, the other would prefer to just listen to music and look out the window. If we hit a lot of traffic and are going to be stuck in the car for a really long time, we bring out the movies.

• Have extra snacks and water for the car ride home – Just last weekend we got stuck in the car (I’m talking no movement for 2+ hrs due to an accident) and I realized that we didn’t have a lot of extra food or water in the car. It’s a good idea to have lots of extra water and snacks, just in case. Luckily were close enough to the resort to walk back and buy some snacks, but now I’m going to pack a bin of non-perishable snacks and drinks in case it happens again.

Need some help with packing?