Updated on June 12, 2024
Road Trip Binder. Create a road trip binder to keep kids busy on long road trips or plane rides. Everything you need to keep them busy for hours!
I have shared quite a few of the components of our road trip binders we take along with us for long car trips. Today, I am going to share with you how the binder comes together, what I purchased store bought vs. printed out and created myself, as well as a couple of free printable cover pages you can use for your own road trip binders.

How to Create a Road Trip Binder
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Supplies needed:
- 3 ring binder, 1″ or larger
- binder pencil case
- dry erase markers
- crayons, colored pencils, and/or markers
- page protectors
- I spy printable photos
- 4 x 6 page protectors
- solid colored construction paper and/or white copy paper
- coloring book pages
- stickers
- cling and play reusable sticker activity scene
- road trip game printables
- 3 hole punch (optional)
To start with I purchased solid colored 3 ring binders for each child. I chose different colors so we could tell them apart. I would suggest a 1″ or larger binder for this project. I also chose a binder with a plastic cover so that I could insert my printable cover page I created.

I added a binder pencil case that includes dry erase markers and some crayons.

The dry erase markers I chose have the erasers built right into the tip. I include these markers because I slip a lot of the printable pages into plastic page protectors. You can write on these with the dry erase markers and it wipes right off, so the kids can use the pages again and again.
I started by adding my I Spy printable photo pages. These are simply I spy photos I created at home using items we had around the house – mostly my kids toys.

I included some blank copy paper and pages torn out of coloring books for my kids to draw and color on. I punched them with my 3 hole punch and added them to the binder. If you didn’t want to punch holes in these you could add them to a page protector and add that to the binder, as well.

I also included sheets of stickers for them to use on these pages as well. I slipped all the stickers into a page protector to keep them all together.

Next, I added in two road trip games – a license plate game and a scavenger hunt. The license plate printable has a license plate from each of the 50 states. It works the best on longer trips, but I have been pleasantly suprised by the amount of license plates we have found on short trips as well.

The scavenger hunt is on the back. It is geared towards the southwestern states, but would still work in other states as well. As you see each item you mark it off your sheet. Download your own road trip printable worksheets. These work well to put into a page protector and use with the dry erase markers.
I found these fun re-usable vinyl sticker storyboards at Walmart. Here are similar ones I found online. These are great for the kids to use over and over again to display different scenes.

Again, for this one, I punched the edge with my 3 hole punch. You can still open it all the way in the binder and the kids have an easier time keeping track of it.

The extra vinyl pieces are in a page protector in the back of the binder.

I am sure we will continue adding to this binder. I plan to make a new set of I Spy pages to replace these once the kids are bored with them. I also will be adding printable word searches for my son now that he is getting older.
I printed out the binder cover sheets, wrote the kid’s names on them and slipped them into the covers of the binders.


Download Fire Road Trip Binder Cover | Car and Trailer Road Trip Binder Cover (for personal use only)

These binders are great, don’t take up much space and can keep the kids occupied for hours on a road trip!
What other items would you add to your road trip binder?
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Linking up here: Pink Cake Plate | The Shabby Nest
Brenae Klugkist says
I will totally do this for my families trip across Canada this summer! Thank you so much!
Laura Silva says
Brenae,
It is a great way to keep the kids busy. I find lots of little things to put in there to keep them updated from Dollar Tree and in the Dollar Spot at Target. Have a fun trip. It sounds like it will be a great adventure!
Laura
Kayla says
This was a cute project. My family is planning to have a road trip. My husband is now looking up some trailer for our trip.
Laura Silva says
Thank you Kayla! Have a fun trip.
Laura
Laura says
Last summer I traveled along with the family I nanny for on a cruise to Alaska. I laminated a bunch of printed games- hang man, battleship ( yes, there is a printable version!), dot game, word searches, and coloring sheets. This way they could be used over and over again with the Crayola washable wipe-away markers ( they come in thick and skinny sizes). I also purchased unlined 5X7 index cards and stickers from the dollar store ( check the office section too for hole punch saver stickers and filing dots) and let them draw with the twistable colored pencils. This saved us a lot of drama at mealtimes when the kiddos were done eating but the adults weren’t. I kept them and still pull them out at places where we have to wait for something (think car repair shop/ in the car waiting for a sibling’s activity to end).
Laura Silva says
Laura,
Thanks so much for sharing your ideas! These all sound great. We actually keep our binders in the car year round, but before long trips, I try to add something new that we didn’t have in there before.
Have a wonderful week,
Laura