Hi guys. Welcome back to my channel. In today's video, I'm pleased to be partnering with Ford
UK to share with you my best road trip hacks. You guys seem to love my travel hacks, and
with summer coming up, you might be planning days out with the kids or going away to see
family, and you will find yourself in the car for hours or with kids to entertain. So
I'm going to show you how to make it more fun, less stressful, and less messy as well
so that your holiday starts as soon as you get in the car. I hope you really like this.
If you do, give it a thumbs up, and if you're new, don't forget to subscribe and let's jump
into it. So let's start out with trying to minimize
mess. This is a car seat cover that I'm going to put over my toddler's seat. You can also
get these in bigger sizes if you wanted to cover all of the backseats, and even the bigger
ones will have holes so that all of the seat belts still connect. But it will just save
your seat a little bit if a child throws any food or anything over the side of their car
seat. I also wanted to show you a really easy and
simple bin that you can have while you're on the road. If you take an old cereal container
like this, you can also line it with a plastic bag if you wanted to, but these containers
are great because they have a lid so that you can put rubbish into them. But then if
it was to slide around while you're on the road, it won't go everywhere.
I also really liked this idea. These are little like a doggy pickup bags. So you can get these
things that actually go on your lid, but they're really, really compact and you can have this
in the car and then just take a bag out when you need them. They're also biodegradable
and you can refill them as well. And it could also be used as a sick bag.
One of my children does get travel sick, so after years of having a bowl in the car, I
finally ordered some actual travel sickness bags on Amazon. You can get this on eBay as
well or other places. But if your child was sick, it's all contained and you can dispose
of it. So it's great to have a few of these on hand. And if your child does get travel
sickness as well, a great option is to download some audiobooks for them. Mine definitely
feels worse when they're looking at an iPad, but if you download a book for them, they
can have their headphones on, have a little bit of entertainment, but then also be looking
out the window at the horizon so they don't feel so sick.
For my next hack, I wanted to tell you about a really cool app that you can download if
you have a Ford car or you're considering getting a Ford car. I've partnered with them
on this video and I'm thrilled because they're a brand I love. I've had two Fords in my lifetime
and my very first car was a Ka. I saved up all my waitressing pennies for it.
But anyway, they have an amazing app now. It's really smart. It's called the FordPass.
You can download it. Link it to your vehicle. It takes minutes. But why I love it for a
road trip is before you even set out, from the comfort of your own home, you can check
your vehicle and things like how much fuel you have and if you need to think about getting
more. You can also check tire pressure, which I just think is amazing. I mean, how does
that even link up to an app is just really, really clever. You can also check how-to videos.
So if your oil needs changing and you're not sure how to do that, there are really clever
how-to videos on this app. But the biggest hack of all is that this car
has Wi-Fi and acts as a Wi-Fi hotspot. I can control it from the app and check if your
car has Wi-Fi as well. But this one, you can actually connect up to 10 different devices
to, which is incredible for a family like ours where we all want to be connected. Even
if I'm on the road, I can check on Instagram on Wi-Fi, I can even upload a video and just
carry on with life from my car while we're on the road. The kids as well, if they want
to watch YouTube videos or they have apps that require Wi-Fi, then you can have all
of that. Of course, if you don't, make sure you download some movies and some apps that
don't require it. But another feature that I really like on
the app and probably the one that I use the most is the find feature. You can find all
kinds of different places from the app if you need health or recreation, or the two
that I probably use the most are fuel, so where to find petrol, and parking as well.
So if we need petrol, I can just click on the fuel. It will show me all of the nearest
petro stations and directions as well. I can send them to the car, navigation the screen
that is actually in the car, and it will just tell us exactly how to get there. It's so
very simple. And same with parking. You can just click
on parking, see where all the nearest parking places are, and compare prices. So you can
see there one was £6, some are £1, but all of these ones were free. So then you can choose
which parking you want to go to. And again, you can just download directions, opening
hours, and everything, and send the directions to your car. And if once you've parked, you've
actually forgotten where you've parked it, I'm not going to lie, I've done that a few
times. This will actually lead you back to your car. It has your vehicle location and
it will direct you so that you can find your car again.
And the last feature I wanted to tell you about is if I ever get locked out of my car,
I can actually call Matts because he is also on the app. So if your partner is on it, they
can actually unlock the car for you from the app. They just have to press unlock, and similarly,
they can also lock the car. So if you ever think, "Have I locked it, have I not," this
can all be done from the app. There's loads of other things, but now I wanted
to talk to you about how to entertain the kids while you're on the road. This next product
is a great way of storing all the things that your children are going to need at arms' length
so that they can actually access it themselves. This just goes on the back of the chair in
front of them and you can load it up with anything they're going to play with. This
one even has a space for an iPad so they could watch a movie or play YouTube. You can also
put drinks, coloring books, coloring pens. That's a water magic book that my kids love.
Snacks as well are key for trips like this. Books, or maybe if they're a bit older, a
few games, or a crossword, something like this.
So when they say, "I'm bored," you can say, "Why don't you play with your books, or your
crossword, something in front of you." And then it just really easily clips on to the
chair in front of them at the top and then at the bottom as well. And it's nice and secure
and it's right there in front of them with everything they need in it. So when they want
a drink or they want a snack or a game, you don't have to reach back and give it to them.
It's right there in front of them for them to grab.
Another hack for little ones. If they can't quite reach the seat in front of them, then
you can get these little like shower caddies. I picked this up in my pound stretcher. It
was really, really cheap. They have suctions on the back and then you can fill them up
with a few little activities, or snacks, or a drink, something like that, and then you
can actually stick it to the window, which is right next to them. We tried this out with
Jackson and I was surprised that he just started reaching for the activity books and coloring
away. So it definitely works, and it's something you wouldn't just have to have for a road
trip. You could have them there all the time and put little drinks or snacks in there for
them to access. But I also saw this product which I thought
was quite cool. It's a play tray table. So again, for little ones. It sits on their lap,
and it gives them a space where they can play with little toys. You can load it up with
markers. It actually came with these whiteboard markers, and the tray itself is a whiteboard
so they can color on it, and then you can just erase it and start again. You can also
put snacks and drinks or anything you want them to have. It holds little toys really
well, as I said, and it also came with little activity sheets, dot to dots and coloring
and stuff that you can actually slide under and they can draw on. Or you could add a pen
if a child that was older and wanted to do homework.
And then it just goes across their lap. You do up the belt around their back, and it sits
there quite well. I was surprised at how long Jackson did sit with this on his lap and he
just played away. He was drawing. He even reached for the snacks. So it definitely does
work. And you don't have to just use it in the car. It works in the baggie or when we
got into the house he still wanted it. So we attached it to just a chair and it worked
really well. So this one was a good one. If you spend a lot of time in the car, this one
might be a good one for your kids. Travel Bingo is a hit with our kids as well,
and it's so simple to do this. I just printed it off online. I found it on Pinterest, saw
a link below the one that we've used, but it basically has different things on it that
the kids have to spot. The first one to spot an entire row or things can shout, "Bingo,"
and they win. I just put it into a plastic wallet like this, which I will also link,
give the kids a whiteboard marker, and then they can just go ahead and tick them off.
They really like this. Some things are really simple like finding an airplane or a tree,
something like that. But then the other things can be a bit more tricky. Of course, you could
tailor make this, but I just make my life easy and just print one off online and the
kids really enjoy it. Similarly, if you go on a specific route quite
often, it might be a nice idea to print off a map and stick it into a plastic wallet as
well, maybe with the route that you do and then your older children can tick off the
places as you go past them. Fraser really likes this. So he could tick off like we've
gone past Buckinghamshire, we've come past Birmingham, and it kind of shows them the
map and teaches them a bit of geography at the same time, and he really likes it.
After all that entertainment, your kids might be tired. So for little ones, make sure you
pack any comforters, blankets, or dummies, things like that. But also for the older ones,
pack them a blanket and a travel pillow as well. What I do is pack these under the chair
in front of them or at their feet so that they can reach them. You never know when they're
going to get tired, and it's nice and easy if you can access this for them or if they
can reach it themselves. It's also a good idea to take a first aid
kit with you and lots of cars actually have these in them. So it's worth checking before
you travel. You can pick these up pretty recently online as well. Or what I like to do is to
make my own with things that I know my family will normally use when we go away. So I'll
just use a clear vanity case that I picked up in Primark and fill it with a pain relief
for kids, allergy tablets because my kids suffer from allergies, wound wash, plasters,
antiseptic cream, paracetamol, that's for when I get a headache, a sling, barrier cream,
et cetera, load it all up and then you can put this into the boot of your car.
I actually put it into this really cool storage, which I found online. I love storage like
this in the back of our car because it brings it off of the surface, so it leaves more room
for luggage and buggies and all of that. It just hooks onto the seats in front of it and
then you still have all of that space. But for day to day things like the first aid kit,
I will put that into it. You could also put some water into it if you wanted to. And then
I always pack some nappies and wipes. This has come in so handy on days out before when
I've forgotten nappies. Same with bringing a towel with me as well. This is great for
if your kids decide to dive bomb a fountain when you're out, or also if you need like
an impromptu picnic as well. And then I always pack a change of clothes.
But what I do, because I have three quite close together, I will pack a change of clothes
for my middle son because if anyone got dirty or messy, those clothes will fit to anyone.
I'll also pack things that I don't mind sitting in the car like he doesn't wear that t-shirt
much so I'm fine with it. But yeah, it's all full up there and then you can see all of
that space. Another good thing to pack is something to
play with if you stop. Right, that is it for this video. I hope you enjoyed my road trip
hacks. If you have any of your own, please put them in the comments down below because
you guys always have the best ideas, and I would love for you to share them. And thank
you so much again to Ford UK for sponsoring this video. If you have a Ford car, I would
totally recommend downloading the FordPass app because we have loved using it. And I
will of course put all the links in the description down below for it. And thank you so much again
for watching and I'll see you in my next one. Bye guys.