This is the second part in our Road Trip Food Packing series. Today we’ll cover packable dry snacks you can enjoy on the road or in your hotel, since all the business now a days have vending machines with these snacks, as you can get them easily from sites as royalvending.com.au/vending-machines-newcastle-and-central-coast/ and others. How can you save the most money on road trip snacks? What are the most popular road trip snacks? How can you keep your road trip snacks fresh? This article includes photos, examples and explanations.
I know this photo may come off as somewhat of a referendum on our food choices, but remember these are only examples, and these low gi snack are not designed to replace meals as much as fill in the gaps while you’re on the road.
Here are some of our top road trip snack picks: (click to enlarge)
Broken down details on these snacks, from left to right:
– Ritz: These crackers are already broken down into convenient sub-packets, so you can just grab a single column of them and gobble away. When you’re done, throw them in your door panel and as long as you eat them in a day or few, you’ll be fine regardless of temperature.
– Cheese Spritz: The kids love the aerosol cheese like nothing else. Careful with the ages of the kids because it can get crazy messy in a hurry, but it’s a quick source of nummy food.
– Cheese Dip: This isn’t as good for the car, but once you get to the hotel you can enjoy this dip thoroughly, and it adds a lot to the feeling of being full in ways that chips and crackers alone can’t.
– Potato Chips: Pick your flavor and your preference, but don’t buy those tiny packs. Get the cheapest batch of zip-lock bags you can find and divide them yourself. At far right in the picture you’ll see a zip-lock bag with a few cookies in it. That’s the right size for single-portions and you can put anything you can dream up in there without paying the outrageous prices typically associated with small portion baggies.
– Granola Bars (we chose Golden Graham Treat) : It doesn’t matter to us which brand you pick, but these quasi-candy bars are full of fiber and the calories you need to hold you over. We chose this brand because the picture looked tastiest, but choose based on your own personal tastes and budget. Remember, these things you pack are designed to save money, not just tack on a bunch of things in your car to worry about. If you get them chocolate-coated, be careful to keep them in cooler parts of your car, such as beneath the rest of your stuff in the trunk.
– Cereal: Dry cereal is a delicious treat for kids, especially if it’s sugar cereal. If you don’t let your kids go as far as Froot Loops, stick with Honey Nut Cheerios (or just regular Cheerios) and pack the little baggies accordingly. Pick your favorites, or your kids’ favorites, and bag them up in advance for great savings.
– Cheez-Its: Pick these or any other crackers you like, and put them in sealed bags in advance of your trip. A 100-count zip-lock style baggy box should only run a few dollars, meaning you’re paying only about 3-5 cents per bag. You can make your own little travel-size bags in mere minutes just by planning ahead.
– Cookies: Do the same thing again. Pick your favorite cookies in advance, bag them up and pack them along. You can also pack when you buy some cooking at the supermarket. Just let the staff know if you need a film folding wrapper, and they will help to pack everything. The added weight in terms of gas mileage for cookies, crackers and chips will be more than made up for in savings by not having to buy single-serving portions at gas stations and rest stops.
– Twinkies: These are bad for us, we all can agree to that, so it’s not advice so much as a suggestion. You know what you like and what you can stomach (for yourself and your kids) so decide accordingly. These are very cheap when you buy them by the box at a supermarket, especially when you compare it with the cost of buying them on the road.
Keep a bag of snacks up front with you, and replenish it from the trunk each day as needed. Don’t overload the car’s cabin because it will get miserable in a hurry if you can’t move around properly. You’re going to stop every few hours for bathroom, gas and scenic vista breaks, so use those opportunities to check your trunk for supplies without losing any time on the road.
Check out the rest of our Road Trip Packing series:
– Road Trip Food Packing Advice Summary
– Best Road Trip Beverages
– Best Road Trip Snack Foods
– Best Road Trip Cup o’ Foods
– Best Road Trip Microwaveable Foods
– Comprehensive Road Trip Packing Checklist
– Smart Things to Pack Before Your Road Trip