THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (2024)

Post Summary: The definitive road trip food list with 50 snack ideas and meals to keep you happy the entire car ride. Plus, tips for what else to bring and recommendations for the best road trip coolers.

Road trips are the classic adventure that everyone needs to do at least once in their life, whether you’re traveling solo, with your best buds, or packing in the whole family. What’s the secret to a great road trip? Besides having your maps already downloaded to your phone (travel must #1), it’s to have a collection of the best road trip food at your disposal.

Being prepared with good travel food will ensure you don’t:

  1. Kill your travel mates because you’re hangry.
  2. Get killed by your travel mates because they’re hangry.
  3. Get lured in by every gasoline stop and somehow end up with bright orange Cheetos and Slim Jims.
  4. Waste your travel budget dining on Subway and Wendys road trip meals.

After road tripping with a toddler for half a year around the US, we’ve figured out the ultimate road trip food list so we can enjoy the journey together feeling nourished and happy. Our list includes road trip food ideas for adults and kids as well as healthy car snacks.

After the road trip food list, we’ve included non-food items you’ll want to bring and some tips on choosing the best road trip cooler.

Need More Road Trip Tips? Check out our other articles below:

The Ultimate Road Trip Packing List: 41 Essentials For The Road160 Fun, Deep, and Sometimes Silly Road Trip Questions
41 Fun and Challenging Road Trip Trivia Questions
17+ Fun Things To Do On A Road TripHow To Survive A Road Trip With A Toddler
40 Must Have Items To Have In Your Camper

*This road trip food list post may contain affiliate links, which means we might earn a small commission if you purchase from them. This is at no extra cost to you! We only recommend products and services we genuinely think are helpful.

The Ultimate Road Trip Food List

THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (1)

Healthy snacks for a road trip

We’ll start with healthy snacks for the road. I don’t know about you, but when we go on road trips, we tend to fall back on fast food and junk food. In an effort to have a quasi healthy road trip we make sure to include some healthy options so we can at least feel like we’ve balanced out all our snickers bars and Wendy’s frosties. Here’s our list of the best road trip foods that won’t leave you feeling sluggish at the end of the day. We also added in a few recommendations of some of our favorite brands.

Healthy Snacks For Car Rides
1. Fruit: Bananas, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, apples, oranges
2. Sliced veggies: carrots, cucumbers, celery, bell peppers, pickles, radishes
3. Cherry tomatoes
4. Olives (buy the pitted kinds)
5. Salsa
6. Deli sandwiches or wraps (already made from home or pre-purchased)
7. A simple charcuterie spread (summer sausage, pepperoni, sliced cheese, dried apricots, olives, crackers, etc.)
8. Popcorn
9. Yellow corn chips, blue corn chips, kale chips
10. Granola Bars and Energy Bars (Munk Bars are our favorite!)
11. Dried Fruit
12. Crackers (cheese crackers, saltines, whole wheat crackers, these almond crackers are my favorite!)
13. Pretzels
14. Nuts (almonds, peanuts, cashews, macadamia, walnuts, pecans)
15. Trail mix
16. Tuna (Get the kind that doesn’t need to be refrigerated! It can become a snack on crackers, a sandwich, or added to a salad)
17. Coconut chips (Dang chips are our favorite.)
18. Dark chocolate
19. Wasabi peas
20. Fruit leather
21. Whole-grain muffins
22. Bread (pretzel rolls, pita bread)
23. Water (Preferably in a water bottle like a Hydro Flask that will keep your water cold for hours.)

*The following are all still healthy snacks for a road trip but will require a cooler. Skip them if you are going sans cooler. Further down, we’ll talk about the best road trip coolers.

23. Hard-boiled eggs
24. Small yogurt containers or drinkable yogurts
25. Humus
26. Guacamole
27. Pasta salad
28. Lentil salad
29. Grocery store salad kits (Can be eaten out of the bag! Just cut the top, pour in the salad dressing, and shake it away. You can also opt to do salads in a jar)
30. Cheese

Essential Road Trip Snacks

THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (2)

These road trip snacks might not be the healthiest, but look…you can’t always be perfect!

Road Trip Snack List
32. Beef Jerky
33. Chips
34. Fun candy (Any kind of candy that brings you joy for your road trip. Gummy bears, reeses pieces, airheads)
35. Ranch dip to go with your healthy veggies
36. Fun drinks (Just make sure the drink is able to be resealed or small enough that you’ll drink it all quickly. My favorite road trip drink is coconut water!)
37. Cookies

Road Trip Snacks For Kids And Toddlers

While we don’t put a distinction between road trip food for the adults and road trip food for kids, here are some fun ideas you can add in addition to the travel food listed above. We found that allowing for leniency with what we let our kid snack on will mean a more fun time for everyone in the car.

Road Trip Snacks For Toddlers and Kids
38. String Cheese or Babybels
39. Peanut butter pretzels
40. Clementines
41. Squeezable applesauce
42. Squeezable nut butters (peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter)
43. Graham crackers
44. Goldfish
45. Fruit snacks
46. Fruit roll ups
47. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
48. Dry cereal
49. Nutella
50. Snap pea crisps ( I love the wasabi ones from Harvest Snaps. I can only get them online because my grocery store never has them!)

Essential Non Food Items

THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (3)

Now that you’ve got your travel food and made your road trip food list, let’s talk about non food items to have on your road trip packing list. We are both advocates for minimal waste living so we do advise using reusable items like real utensils, glass containers, and reusable straws rather than single-use items. I know it can feel like a nuisance, but once you get used to doing it, it’s easy to integrate it into your habits. We’ve provided links to different products, so you can check out some good options.

-Trash bags (old shopping bags work well)
Stackable glass or plastic containers (While glass may feel like a hazard, I find that most of them are built for endurance and would require some extreme throwing around to actually break. Either way, bringing containers rather than an entire bag of snacks is a great space saver.)
-Reusable straws (we like this multipack option here)
-Bento boxes (another option is to make individual bento boxes with everyone’s preferred snacks put in. It’s essentially a healthier version of a Lunchable. Great option if you’re traveling with kids.) Check out these cute bento boxes here.
-Utensils
-Plates
-Paper towels
-Hand sanitizer
-Ziplock bags
-Wipes
-Cups if you want to share drinks
-Ice packs for the cooler (We prefer to use reusable ice packs like these, but frozen water bottles or ice cubes in a ziplock back will do the job as well.)
-Reusable grocery bag to carry your non-perishable stuff
-Plastic tub (If you’re going on a long road trip and will have lots of snacks, a good option is to pack all your non-perishable items in a tub like this.)
-Cooler

Related: A Comprehensive Guide To the Best Toddler Carriers For Traveling

Best Road Trip Coolers

THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (4)

If you’re going on a long road trip, you’ll definitely want to bring a cooler so you can have more options for the journey. Things to consider when deciding what kind of road trip cooler to bring.

  • How much space will you have in your car?
  • How many days will you be driving and subsequently how much food will you need?
  • Cost of the cooler
  • If you road trip or camp a lot and will use a cooler several times a year.

Yeti Roadi 24 Cooler

THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (5)

Our choice for the best road trip cooler is the Yeti Roadi 24 Cooler. It’s a mid-sized cooler that can fit a bottle of wine standing upright. We like its lightweight design and that its compact size can fit on the ground behind the passenger seat.

It has a mid-range price point, so if you are wanting something more economical, you’ll probably want our next pick.

Igloo MaxCold Cooler

THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (6)

If all you need is a no-frills cooler to keep your food cold, the Igloo Maxcold Cooler is a great option. The thin design also makes it a great choice for someone wanting to save room in the car.

Arctic Zone Titan Deep Freeze

THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (7)

If you like a soft cooler, the Arctic Zone Titan Deep Freeze consistently offers the best bang for your buck.

Yeti Tundra 45

THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (8)

Lastly, if you are wanting a high-end cooler that will be great for camping and can take the wear and tear of consistent use, the Yeti Tundra 45 is your best bet. Yeti is the reigning champion of coolers and you can’t go wrong with anything you purchase from them.

Before you head out on your epic road trip, we suggest packing the night before. Alleviating as much stress as possible on the day you leave, especially when you’re doing a road trip with a toddler, is key to enjoying the road trip journey. We find that the night before, it’s best to:

  • Wash, cut, and peel all vegetables and fruit.
  • Pack up all non perishable food and supplies.
  • Prepare any road trip sandwiches you plan to eat.

Lastly, don’t forget to make sure all your tasty road trip snacks are within reaching distance in the car.

We hope you enjoyed our complete road trip food list. Happy road tripping!

**For more road trip inspiration follow us on Instagram. We travel… a lot.

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THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (9)
THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (10)
THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks (2024)

FAQs

THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOOD LIST: 50 Scrumptious Travel Snacks? ›

While potato chips were the road trip snack champion by a decent margin, there were quite a few other snacks that were the favorite of at least 2 states, including rice cakes, Combos, Sour Patch Kids, sunflower seeds, hummus, Flamin' Hot Cheetos, popcorn, and pork rinds.

What is the best food to take on a road trip? ›

Here are our top healthy snacks to take on a car trip.
  • Beef jerky. This long-lasting travel snack is packed full of protein, which is one of the best ways to satisfy your hunger. ...
  • Popcorn. ...
  • Hard-boiled eggs. ...
  • Protein bars. ...
  • String cheese. ...
  • Carrots. ...
  • Grapes. ...
  • Hummus and celery.

What is the number 1 snack food on road trips in the US? ›

While potato chips were the road trip snack champion by a decent margin, there were quite a few other snacks that were the favorite of at least 2 states, including rice cakes, Combos, Sour Patch Kids, sunflower seeds, hummus, Flamin' Hot Cheetos, popcorn, and pork rinds.

What food travels well in a suitcase? ›

Packaged Snacks

Good news for travelers who want to bring home interesting snacks from great food destinations around the world: as long as everything is sealed, you're good to go. Unopened snacks such as granola bars, nuts, chips, crackers, and cookies are safe in your carry-on or checked bag.

What are easy snacks to eat while driving? ›

While driving, food needs to be single bite, not greasy and able to be easily picked out of a cup or bag. So, cheese cubes, cut up fruit, small pieces of beef jerky, candy, etc.

What can I eat on the road instead of fast food? ›

Healthy Fast Food: For the Road
  • Water, low-fat milk, or 100% juice. But beware of the calories in drinks other than water, says Lichten. ...
  • Low-fat cheese sticks to go with rolls and fruit.
  • Tubes or cartons of yogurt.
  • Cut veggies or washed baby carrots and cherry tomatoes. ...
  • Sliced bananas, apples, grapes and pears.
Oct 1, 2009

What kind of food can you pack in checked luggage? ›

Checked Bags: Yes

Meat, seafood, vegetables and other non-liquid food items are permitted in both carry-on and checked bags. If the food is packed with ice or ice packs in a cooler or other container, the ice or ice packs must be completely frozen when brought through screening.

What is easy travel food to pack? ›

It is easier to carry some pre-packaged non-perishable food along with some homemade meals and snacks to bring along.
  1. 1. Fruits. Fruits are one of the ideal snacks to take on a road trip. ...
  2. Granola bars. ...
  3. Muffins. ...
  4. Crackers, pretzels, and crispbreads. ...
  5. Fruit and nut mixes. ...
  6. Yogurt. ...
  7. Hard-boiled eggs. ...
  8. Canned tuna.
Feb 24, 2022

Which food is best to carry while Travelling? ›

Look instead for options like:
  • Applesauce.
  • Low-fat Greek yogurt.
  • Hummus with veggies.
  • Fresh fruits.
  • Pre-cut veggies.
  • Oatmeal.
  • Single-serving bags of veggie chips.
  • Single-serving containers of tuna.
Oct 2, 2023

What are some good snacks? ›

Healthy Snacks
  • Apples (dried or cut into wedges), 1 medium or ¼ cup (35 grams)
  • Bananas, 1 medium.
  • Raisins, ¼ cup (35 grams)
  • Fruit leather (dried fruit puree) without added sugar.
  • Carrots (regular carrots cut into strips, or baby carrots ), 1 cup (130 grams)
  • Snap peas (the pods are edible), 1.5 cups (350 grams)
  • Nuts, 1 oz.

What vegetables to bring on a road trip? ›

Fruits and Vegetables, Prepackaged

Before your trip, cut fruits (like melon) and vegetables (like carrots and celery) then pack in cooler-ready containers. Blanch vegetables (like green beans and carrots) and then shock in an ice water bath for a vibrant color and better texture.

What is the best food to eat before a trip? ›

Brown rice, quinoa and chia seeds are all types of grains that can help you feel great before a flight. You can incorporate these in a majority of your meals, whether it is breakfast, lunch or dinner. Muesli bars also include these grains and some fruit, making them a snack that is easy to travel with!

What should I pack for a road trip? ›

Your Complete Guide for Road Trip Essentials: Comfort Items
  • Snacks. Need I say more? ...
  • Sunglasses. If you're traveling any distance, be sure to pack your sunglasses. ...
  • Blankets and Pillows. Packing blankets and pillows is essential for longer drives. ...
  • Water Bottles and Hydration. ...
  • Lip Ointment.
Mar 23, 2023

How to eat healthy when traveling by car? ›

Take healthy foods that travel well

Cottage cheese, vegetable sticks, yogurt, fruit, granola bars and nuts are great choices.

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