The Best Road Trip Food Ideas

So you’re going on a road trip and you want to pack easy, no-mess snacks for the road ahead. Packing the right food for your journey will mean you won’t have to arrive at your destination with the car’s interior sticky enough to catch its own food.

Baby carrots: Road Trip Food Ideas

Photo by Fruit and Vegetable Mag

Baby carrots are one of the most convenient, healthy road trip snacks. They are bite-size, mess free, and healthy! Buy a bag of baby carrots and split them into snack portions and store in zip lock bags. If carrots aren’t your thing, you can do the same with just about any fresh, crunchy fruit or vegetable. Cut them up into slices and pop them in a container and voila: a healthy snack!

Yogi sip: Road Trip Food Ideas

Yogi Sip is a great mobile sip snack. One 300 ml Yogi Sip is packed with calcium which builds good healthy bones! So when little Johnny falls out of a tree for the first time he hits the grass with a *thump* and not a *crack*.  No I don’t work for Yogi Sip. Yes, I’m open to the idea.

Mixed Nuts: Road Trip Food Ideas

Photo by Channah

Mixed nuts are simple, tasty, they’re not sticky, smelly or have the ability to smear or stain. They’re also one of the most healthy road trip snacks. Opt for an assortment of nuts which include cashews, macadamias, pecan, walnuts, peanuts, almonds and brazil nuts. As yummy as pistachios are, on a road trip nobody likes to fumble and fight with their food, it’s hard enough trying to keep your hands on the wheel while you try stop little Johnny from pulling his sister’s hair. You don’t want to add finicky food to the equation.

Pretzels: Road Trip Food Ideas

Photo by Cindy Kalamajka

Pretzels make for a one of the most simple snacks for road trips. They are convenient and kids love them! Pop them in a zip lock bag and hey presto, you have another great ally in the snack department.  A word of warning. They’re more-ish!

Peanut Butter and Jam Waffle-wich: Road Trip Food Ideas

Photo by Yum Sugar

If there is one thing I’ve learned, its: don’t mess with a good thing. Peanut butter and Jam. Now there’s a good thing! Add a waffle to the picture and you have a mouth wateringly delicious peanut and jam waffle-wich. This snack is a great way to take the age-old road trip sandwich food idea, put it in the fun-o-meter and crank it up a level of awesome.

Biltong: Road Trip Food Ideas

Photo by Rob Owen-Wahl 

Get your on-road dose of protein with a stukkie* biltong. Slice it fine for an easy quick nibble. If your kid is a ‘biter’, chop chunkier pieces (about 10cm long) to help get rid of some of their pent up energy. The kids at your destination will be forever grateful.

Jelly Babies: Road Trip Food Ideas

Photo by Eamon Ambrose 

Nowadays most soft jelly sweets are fat free, which means you can happily give these treats to your kids without having to worry about them getting teased in the playground for looking like the Michelin man. Mess free sweet snacks for road trips are essential when using a car rental, making jelly babies perfect, unless they’re dipped in chocolate milk and flung around the vehicle… that could get messy.

Dried fruit: Road Trip Food Ideas

Photo by Alex Furr 

Packing dried fruit is a great alterative for sweets. Sure, they’re packed with loads of nutrients, but they are also yummy enough to satisfy your sweet tooth. With a long shelf life, if stored correctly, chances are your dried fruit will still be perfect snack food for the journey home too.

Pizza roll-up: Road Trip Food Ideas

Photo by Delish 

This meal-on-the-go food takes a bit more prep than just opening a packet. Exercise your inner ‘Susie Homemaker’ and get your butt in the kitchen to whip up delicious, substantial snacks for road trips for your family. Take a whole-wheat flour tortilla, spread 2 tablespoons of prepared pizza sauce onto it, add about 12 baby spinach leaves and 3 tablespoons of grated mozzarella. Pop it in the microwave for about 45 seconds to melt the cheese. Remove it, roll it, allow it to cool and then chop into bite size portions.

This roll-up pizza snack is small enough to serve on the road as a fun snack for the kids, but big enough that you don’t have to worry about little Johnny shoving it up his nose. Then again, where there is a will… there is a way!

Humus sandwiches: Road Trip Food Ideas

Photo by Fernando Kuri 

Sandwiches make for great road trip food. Take humus, cucumber slices, alfalfa sprouts, romaine lettuce and tomatoes and slap it on whole-grain bread. Hummus is made from chickpeas, which have a really impressive resume of vitamins and minerals including calcium, magnesium, vitamin B and iron. It’s like spreading health insurance between two slices of whole wheat.

Once you’re done building your sandwich, add a fun flare to your creation by using a large cookie cutter to shape your sandwich.

Now you’re set to pack smartly for the journey ahead with your no mess, healthy road trip snacks. The only thing you have to worry about now is what games you’re going to play to keep the kids busy in the back seat. That biltong isn’t going to keep their mouths busy forever.

*Stukkie is the Afrikaans word for ‘piece’.