Road Snacks!

[Zabnee]

My dear Fellow Canadian DISers, I need your help!

We leave in a little over 4 weeks for our trip, driving from Orillia to WDW. One vehicle is driving down the Wednesday morning and 'touring' on the way down. I'm not in that vehicle.

Our vehicle, with my DH and I, Uncle, DS8 & DS9, is leaving approximately 9pm on the Thursday Night for a driving Marathon down. We will stop for a couple of meals at least, but we want to avoid ending up with $25 extra every time we stop for gas, because "we're hungry!" Here's where I'm looking for assistance:

We're trying to start now, to grab Cheap & Easy snacks for in teh car - nothing too messy, that can't be vacuumed up. There are no allergies, and we are not a crunchy family. We are, however, borrowing the vehicle we're taking. (A Dodge truck just offers SO much more room than a Jeep Wrangler for such a long drive with 5 people!)

So. What's your family's must-have travel snack? What's your kids' favourites?

Thanks in advance, everyone!

 

[alc571]

OMG, I hear you on the Jeep Wrangler part! We had a hard enough trip driving from Oshawa to Detroit - cant imagine taking it to FL!

Our go-to snacks are things like granola bars, gummy snacks, "Favourites" chocolate bars, cheese & breadstick handy snacks, and the staple of every great road trip....Timbits! lol

 

[bfamily5]

When doing road trips we usually bring fruit and beef jerky. DH likes those small pepperoni sticks too.

 

[wiigirl]

When doing road trips we usually bring fruit and beef jerky. DH likes those small pepperoni sticks too.

x2 for beef jerky.

 

[iluveeyore]

Our favourites, even without kids, because they travel easy, aren't messy and don't melt, are fruit snacks, granola bars, cereal bars, rice krispie snacks (store bought, I'm too lazy), pretzels, and Twizzlers licorice. If I feel like something sweet, M&M peanuts are MY favourite All of this travels well, and is especially good for late nights/early mornings.

 

[Zabnee]

OMG, I hear you on the Jeep Wrangler part! We had a hard enough trip driving from Oshawa to Detroit - cant imagine taking it to FL!

Our go-to snacks are things like granola bars, gummy snacks, "Favourites" chocolate bars, cheese & breadstick handy snacks, and the staple of every great road trip....Timbits! lol

Glad I'm not alone on the Wangler thought. A great start to my shopping list, too. Thanks!

When doing road trips we usually bring fruit and beef jerky. DH likes those small pepperoni sticks too.

x2 for beef jerky.

Apples and bananas will definitely be on the list.. And Grapes! my kids are fruit-a-holics.. And YES! Thanks formetioning the jerkey, Iwould've totally forgotten about that! And with it so chewy, great way to help a driver stay awake

Our favourites, even without kids, because they travel easy, aren't messy and don't melt, are fruit snacks, granola bars, cereal bars, rice krispie snacks (store bought, I'm too lazy), pretzels, and Twizzlers licorice. If I feel like something sweet, M&M peanuts are MY favourite All of this travels well, and is especially good for late nights/early mornings.

Oooh, yes.. gotta have the Twizzlers, and M&M peanuts would be goooood!

Thanks for your help so far, everyone!

 

[photofreak]

Just be careful what foods you take that are questionable crossing the border. It also depends which crossing you do.... We have personally had food issues at the Bluewater Bridge whereas at the Peace Bridge we've had no issues. Apples are always allowed but citrus fruits, some meats are not.... We usually stop and gas up at a place stateside that has groceries and run in and grab stuff. And we always hit up their convenience bar eg: fruit salad, fresh made subs, nibbler trays, etc.... (But were also hauling our travel trailer too lol)
We're heading down in just over 5 weeks.... Halloween at Disney. Yay!

 

[The Lorax]

As OP's said Twizzlers are a must on any trip longer than 3 hours!! We frequently cross the border and usually buy our fresh fruit once stateside - easier than dealing with border guards.

We also like trail mix - the bag from Costco has a nice mix.

 

[krazy4crusing]

Definitely Twizzlers! We never eat them unless we are on a road trip. It's so funny that others have the same tradition!!! We pack a cooler bag with small drinks (avoiding the excessive washroom breaks), favourite cereal, Scooby gummies, pringles, mnms, funsize treats, nuts ie almonds, mixed nuts, candied pecans etc...

When we stop for gas (if it's a nice service center type) I will run in and buy grab and go cheese and crackers, hummus fruit cups etc... for a healthy snacks option.

We also pack a healthy lunch for the road on the first day ie egg salad sandwiches, PBnJs, pickles, carrots, cucumbers and dip. Its never an issue when we cross the border, we declare it all and they are fine. We never bring citrus or tropical fruit. The healthy lunch is great because all our snacks are just junk food.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We just drove to Orlando in August. We always pack all our food, snacks and drinks in a cooler. You mainly find McD's type food along the road and that just doesn't work for us when confined to the car for that long.

We bring....
sandwiches
fruit
veggies and hummus
cheese and crackers
hard boiled eggs
cookies or mini brownies
pretzels
trail mix
sour candies (good for the late night driving)
water
juice boxes

 

[souris]

We just drove to Orlando in August. We always pack all our food, snacks and drinks in a cooler. You mainly find McD's type food along the road and that just doesn't work for us when confined to the car for that long.

We bring....
sandwiches
fruit
veggies and hummus
cheese and crackers
hard boiled eggs
cookies or mini brownies
pretzels
trail mix
sour candies (good for the late night driving)
water
juice boxes

Can we cross the border with those? I've always stopped at a grocery store across the border since I assumed all the healthy snacks we couldn't bring.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Can we cross the border with those? I've always stopped at a grocery store across the border since I assumed all the healthy snacks we couldn't bring.

We were asked if we had food. When we said yes the guard only asked what fruit we had. We told him we had apples, grapes and bananas. He then asked if we had any tomatoes or citrus, which we did not and he let us go.

You can bring fruit and veggies as long as the origin sticker is still on them. As far as the sandwiches goes, meat is no longer an issue but if you are concerned you can make tuna or egg.

A Google search will find you the current list of banned items. The list changes often.

BTW, we cross into the US often and most of the time we have food. This was the first time we have been asked in the last 20yrs if we had food.

 

[alohamom]

I always make banana bread to take with us. It is moist enough to not be crumbly and it travels well if you re-cut it and put it in a rubbermaid container. I know this sounds like a lot of work but it is kind of a tradition that came out of using up the bananas before we left for vacation. You can bake it ahead of time and freeze it. Muffins are good too but can be a l=bit messy.

 

[souris]

We were asked if we had food. When we said yes the guard only asked what fruit we had. We told him we had apples, grapes and bananas. He then asked if we had any tomatoes or citrus, which we did not and he let us go.

You can bring fruit and veggies as long as the origin sticker is still on them. As far as the sandwiches goes, meat is no longer an issue but if you are concerned you can make tuna or egg.

A Google search will find you the current list of banned items. The list changes often.

BTW, we cross into the US often and most of the time we have food. This was the first time we have been asked in the last 20yrs if we had food.

I'll have to look at the list. We've once been asked for a peak in a cooler we were bringing. We had a Kindersurprise which was confiscated! Everything else was ok... But no fresh fruit, veggie or meats. Thank you for the info... Would be easier to make snacks at home.

 

[sk8jdgca]

I asked when I was crossing and was told-no kinder surprise, no lamb, no citrus, no vegetables- I had made a macaroni salad with peppers in it-he said don't do it again but it was ok this time- he joked about picking all the peppers out.

 

[souris]

So we are not allowed to bring Florida oranges back to Florida... Interesting