Traveling with 3 kids (soon)

[chrome]

[brent239]

Being single never knew the value of those middle seats, one stayed in the attic for years til I stored that camper. most recently I offered one free, Ended up shipping to Cali to a Gentleman thats more than super grateful for that seat. Now that I know this, im sure i'll have more than my unuseful middle seats available

[SteveVanB]

Didn't know where to post this but, single Westy jump seat for sale.
http://orlando.craigslist.org/pts/1563544437.html
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91 CARAT

[reluctantartist]

I will be traveling with 2 infant soon and I am in the process of installing the middle bench seat. I too would like to hear more of peoples experiences traveling with babies. We were planing on doing a trip in March but when we realized it was going to to be 9 hours of driving each day (2 days total) to get to our destination, we decided not to do it since we are not sure the babies (7 mos) would be able to handle such a long trip. What have other people managed to do and how?

Thanks
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1982 Westy, 1974 412 Variant... Yes, Aircooled's are great! Oh and I do have modern computer controlled vehicles too, but I just don't care about them.

[markmc90]

I did a week of traveling in my 7 passenger syncro with 4 adults and 2, 7 month olds. We put the middle seat in rearfacing, this gave the back seat a lot of leg room and the wives could sit there and entertain babies. Also allows you to mount child seats better. We even hung a curtain between the middle seat and the front. It was perfect. We did two 12 hour days and never had to stop for the kids. Obviously there was some diaper changes while driving but it worked great.

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87 Syncro

[whafalia]

Only one kid, but when we want to cover some ground we have taken to leaving around bedtime for the first stretch. I can usually burn a tank of gas before I'm sacked, get a cheap motel or the three of us can curl up in the back for roadside stealth (though he' getting bigger). We then wake up 200-250 miles closer to our destination.

[ak_runner]

We did 3,500 miles with an 8 month old in our Westy Syncro starting the day after we purchased it. Our son traveled well and we had a great trip. My wife suffers from motion sickness so he spent most of the trip alone in the backseat. Plan on stopping once in a while to allow some exercise and rest breaks and you will be fine. Just make sure you have plenty of supplies for your kids, food, wipes, toys, diapers, etc. If you teach your kids to handle long trips when they are young it will be easier as they get older. Ours are now 7 and 16 and think nothing of taking long road trips in the Westy. By long I mean the shortest one are 6+ hours a day of driving time and may cover 1,000 to 2,000 miles before we get home.

On our 3,500 mile trip we pulled out of Elk Grove, CA at 9PM on a Friday night and drove down to Mill Valley to pick up the Coast hwy for the drive north. Sunday night we stopped at a Truck Stop outside of Portland. Monday was our short travel day, Portland to Seattle with a few hour delay in Tacoma to replace the alternator in the parking lot of a VW dealership. We stayed with a friend in Seattle that night and headed north Tuesday evening after dinner. Friday night we made it to Whitehorse, YT. Had a three day delay there for a faulty clutch but pulled out Monday evening and arrived home in Anchorage Tuesday evening. Even with the mechanical issues it was a great trip and I would not hesitate to do it again.

Pack your van and take the trip, the things we regret most in life are those we did not do.

[speedygeorge]

[bac914]

We're up to 3 boys now, 6 and under and we've made some long road trips.

I'll second the suggestions for leaving either really early or late so you can log some miles while the kids are either sleeping or in that early morning haze.

We've found that every small town along the route has a town center that has a park in it and when the kids need a break, we can check out a new place to climb and slide and run around.

Bring food to eat in the car. It's amazing how much time and miles will "go by" while you are feeding them, save your stops for running around and getting the wiggles out. Don't forget the snacks for between meals.

Then there is the time honored stay at a hotel with a pool trick. My parents did this to us growing up and even in the nintendo video game age, it still works.

Bring entertainment, movies, books, etc. Check out an RV store prior to departure for other classic games like travel checkers, connect four, and I spy, etc.

Join AAA (what am I saying, you already are a member b/c you own a vanagon...) and get the trip guide/maps they provide and let the kids be navigator.

Reset your expectations about the drive being part of the adventure and it will make the whole thing better.

All this talk has me itching for a road trip now....