Airplanes and high-speed trains take us to our destination in a few hours, which can be very convenient when we need to cover long distances in a short time, but they also take some of the magic out of the journey.

The magic of the journey begins long before you leave, especially for children. So road trips are a unique experience that we should share with our children more often.

Good reasons to make more road trips with your family

Choose how the adventure will be from beginning to end, with a great margin for improvisation.

Whether you travel 100 or 500 kilometres, when you get behind the wheel you have complete control of the adventure. You decide where to stop and if you want to change the itinerary or take a detour to discover some special place, no problem.

In this way you will discover unexpected places that will give you pleasant surprises. In fact, the best thing about long road journeys is that each day they arrive with something different, new landscapes, other villages, attractions and different accommodations. Every day is an adventure in itself.

You won’t have to stick to a schedule

ne of the most stressful parts of family travel is the time of departure. No matter how well you plan it, there will always be last-minute details that delay you and a sense of urgency, especially if you travel with young children. That stress will take its toll on everyone and can get you off on the wrong foot.

Airplanes and trains won’t wait for you, but if you’re the one driving you can forget about strict timetables. A road trip will allow you to go at a slower pace from the beginning, so things will flow more naturally.

You can travel more often

If you don’t have to withdraw tickets and organize every detail in advance, you’ll probably be encouraged to travel more. All you need to do is get behind the wheel of the car and mark your destination. You can plan a weekend getaway at any time, decide at the last minute and set off for adventure.

Carry what you want

When traveling with children, packing can become an impossible mission, especially if there are baggage limitations. With car trips that won’t happen to you because you can take everything you need and even those things you take at the last minute “just in case”. You will be able to take the children’s toys, a folding highchair, the stroller…

You can rest when you feel like it.

Spending several hours on an airplane is not exactly the most enjoyable experience in the world, especially for children, who feel trapped at more than 35,000 feet without being able to breathe fresh air or barely move. On car trips you can decide when it’s time to make a stop, which will make the trip much more enjoyable and relaxing for everyone.

Stimulate child brain development

New experiences outside the usual environments, such as travel, enhance child brain development. The key is that these situations simultaneously activate two systems that are rarely combined in a family environment, the game system and the search system.

University of Washington psychologists explain that when both systems are activated through travel experiences, it enhances the development of frontal lobes, a part of the brain linked to cognitive processes, decision making, and the ability to set goals and solve problems.

In fact, there is a correlation between IQ and enriched environments that offer new experiences to children, so psychologists call them “brain fertilizers.

You can bond and solve problems together

In the car you can sing, play and laugh without disturbing anyone, is an experience that will allow you to be together and enjoy each other. These trips are also an excellent opportunity to solve problems together as you may have to face some setbacks, an opportunity for children to learn to deal with adversity without losing their calm and to learn to develop patience.

Of course, the level of comfort and performance of the car count a lot in making the journey comfortable and enjoyable. There are cars that are made for adventure, that encourage us to get behind the wheel and enjoy the road, such as the Nissan X-TRAIL, capable of facing the toughest conditions safely.