The best Road trip snacks - All you need to know about road trip food • Daelmans Stroopwafels (2024)

In this article we cover everything you need to know about road trip snacks. We take a look at some of the best road trip snacks, give you road trip snack ideas, tips and much more. After reading there stand nothing in your way of having the best road trip you’ve ever had. Enjoy reading!

Table of contents

1. What is a road trip?
2. What do you need for a road trip?
3. Food for on the road trip
4. Food for on the road trip ideas
5. Top 10 best road trip snacks
6. Top 10 road trip snack ideas for kids
7. Top 5 healthy road trip snacks
8. Prepare road trip meals
9. On the go snack
10. Road trip snacks
11. How to plan a road trip?
12. Keep your food cool during a road trip
13. Road trip tips
14. Common road trip questions
15. Airplane snacks
16. The rules for airplane snacks
17. Bringing airplane snacks

What is a road trip?

First of all, we need to make clear that a road trip is not your ordinary trip to your work, home, or store. We consider a road trip a journey that takes at least a day, but often more. The definition of a road trip is ‘’ an extended trip in a motor vehicle’’.

What do you need for a road trip?

Food and drink along the highway are often far too expensive and not that tasty, of course there are some expectations here. A better option would be to stuff your car with great road trip snacks. This guide is made for a road trip that will take one day. If the road trip takes less than this, than you simply skip some stapps.

Preparing everything for a road trip is not hard, but due to the stress and nerves overlooking something is done very easy. Also keep in mind when you buy or make road trip snacks that the driver will be hungry to. So have at least some road trip snacks that can be easily eaten with one hand.

Sandwiches

When the plan is to start driving at the first light, there is a chance you don’t feel the need to get up even earlier to have a good breakfast. Spreading sandwiches, the night before will save you time in the morning and give you the opportunity to sleep that bit longer when the alarm rings. Who doesn’t like that?

Three sandwiches should be enough to get you through the day. Makes sure you go for a variety, you maybe not like the smell of tuna or salami in the morning. But after a few hours of driving, you’re probably happy that you have them with you. Also keep in mind that you don’t use any spreads that come of the sandwich easy, that will give a mess in your car. Sandwiches are not a road trip snack, but a delicious meal. So don’t forget them on your road trip list.

Snacks

A road trip can’t happen without road trip snacks. We will cover this topic in great depth. But first you need to know that’s important you bring salt as well as sweet snacks.

Salty snacks

The number one road trip snack on this list is potato chips. But also salted nuts are a great snack to eat, like salted peanuts. There are a lot of options when it comes to salt road trip snacks. In the rest of this article, we will discuss everything you need to know about road trip snacks.

Sweet snacks

A lot of people like chocolate, but that’s not a great snack to bring if you don’t have any cooling in the car. Better sweet road trip snacks are cookies, muffins, cake, or banana bread. Candy is also a great option when it comes to sweet road trip snacks. A great option is for example trail mix, but more about this later.

Water

It’s a fact a human can’t survive without water, so bring enough water with you. Sodas are an option as well, but water is healthier than soda. Depending on the amount of people that travel with you. It’s recommended to drink at least 1,5 to 2 liters of water a day. This little scheme will give you an overview of how many bottles of water you need for your road trip.

Food for on the road trip

We all can agree that a road trip is a real joy to do. But before the actual road trip takes place a lot of preparation needs to be done. An important part of a road trip is the food. There are a lot of road trip food items and road trip snacks out there. To make choosing the right road trip food as easy as possible we will explain everything you need to know about food for on the road trip.

We take a look at road trip food for in the cooler, easy road trip snacks and non-food items.

Food for on the road trip ideas

To help you out making choices for food on the road trip we made you a shopping list. This small list provides all the information you need road trip food and non-food items to have the road trip of your life. The worst thing that can happen is running out of supplies while you are having a wonderful time. To make sure this does not happen to you make sure to stick to the list of food for on the road trip.

Food for in the cooler

Some people take a cooler on the road trip and others not. It’s not for us to decide but we think a cooler can be extremely helpful during a road trip. A cooler allows you to take fresh road trip food items with you during a road trip. Below we made a concise list of products you need to take a look at if you consider taking a cooler with you.

• Boiled eggs
• Sandwiches
• Wraps
• Fruits
• Meat
• Salad

Easy road trip snacks

Everybody likes snacks, right? This is why we made a list of road trip snacks which provide a great energy boost. But keep in mind you’re on a road trip and not on a snack tour. Snack never should take the place a ‘’real’’ meals. Snacks are not particular healthy, but still important during a road trip – just eat them thoughtful.

• Chips
• Stroopwafels
• Pretzels
• Candybars
• Cupcakes
• Crackers

Non-food items

Like we mentioned food is an important part of your road trip, but also non-food items are indispensable. It is nit food for on the road trip, but you definitely going to need the non-food items.

• Cups (for coffee)
• Plastic plates
• Chopping board
• Plastic plates
• Tubs/containers
• Cutlery

Top 10 best road trip snacks

The top 10 best road trip snacks are great tasty and should definitely have a place in your vehicle. There are many more options like we mentioned before, but the top 10 best road trip snacks are listed below. This way you will bring the road trip experience to the next level. Because don’t forget eating road trip snacks in the car is a big part of the experience, so you need to get that right!

1. Beef jerky
2. Potato chips
3. Stroopwafel cookies
4. Cheese
5. popcorn
6. Crackers
7. Cupcakes
8. Pretzels
9. Trail mix
10. Candy bars

This list of the top 10 best road trip snacks will give you a good direction of road trip snacks you need to have a great road trip. This list contains salty and sweet road trip snacks so there will always be a road trip snack for everybody.

Top 10 road trip snacks ideas for kids

There are many roads trip snacks out there, but not all road trip snacks are suited for kids. When prepare the road trip snacks for multiple kids, we recommend making their own ‘’snack packs’’. In these packs you should pack a wide variety of road trip snacks for kids. Making snack packs is not only great for a road trip but also can come handy when going out for a view hour. Even more reasons to know which road trip snacks you need to buy.

If you’re looking for healthy road trip snacks or just easy road trip snacks, we’ve got you covered! We made a list of 10 road trip snacks that you should bring for your kids.

1. Dried apricots
2. Cereal bars
3. Carrot sticks
4. Rice crackers
5. Por pies
6. Granola bars
7. Mini muffins
8. Cheese strings
9. Banana bread
10. Toddler trail mix

Top 5 healthy road trip snacks

A lot of people immediately think of unhealthy road trip food when the word ‘’snack’’ is used. But there is also food for on the road trip that’s healthy. We made a list of five healthy road trip snacks below. These five healthy road trip snacks will taste great and might surprise you. Take a look at the list of health road trip snacks and let us know when we missed an important one.

1. String cheese

String cheese contains many nutrition’s that make string cheese healthy food for on the road trip. You can combine string cheese with slices of apple to get an even better taste. Cheese is also a great road trip snack.

2. Carrots

Another tasty food for on the road trip is carrots. A lot of people get bored during a road trip and start to eat. Instead of choosing for an unhealthy option like potato chips, carrots are a good option. Carrots offer an excellent value regarding nutrition’s which make them excellent for road trips.

3. Greek yogurt

Greek yogurt is full of proteins and will keep you full until the next meal. This will reduce the tendency to grab a quick unhealthy snack.

4. Dried fruits

We all know that fruit is healthy, so are dried fruits. The big advantages are that dried fruits don’t need any cooling which makes them great as a snack on a road trip.

5. Dark chocolate

Maybe this comes as a surprise, but dark chocolate is not unhealthy if you don’t eat the whole bar. Did you know dark chocolate increases brain function? This is why it’s good to eat some dark chocolate, also during a road trip.

Two extremely easy road trip meals

A road trip is not always all about driving through a fantastic landscape. A lot of people go for an adventure for example hiking of climbing mountains when they reach their destination. During a trip like this, food is also an important part. Grabbing back to road trip snacks will give you a quick energy burst, but they aren’t meals!

When you set up camp there is quite likely no delivery service. Or do you know a pizza delivery services that brings fresh pizza into the mountains? If you know, please tell us than we can order some pizza next time. But till then it’s important you bring your own road trip meals. Here are two useful tips for meals we can give you:

Wraps

Wraps are great to get all the nutrients you need. A big advantage of wraps is that they are so easy to prepare. You buy wraps in the store, and everybody can choose beforehand what they would like inside their wraps. This way everybody has something they like eating and preparing these wraps will take you just a few minutes at home. Wraps are also considerably small which makes them great as road trip meal.

Sandwiches

All the advantages that go for the wraps, go for the sandwiches as well. Probably everybody has sandwiches at home, so there is no need to visit the store to prepare this road trip meal. You can also slice the sandwiches in little pieces so you can eat them during the road trip. This way you have a road trip snack that’s healthy and tasty.

Prepare your road trip meals

When you plan to go on a road trip, we advise to prepare road trip meals. We made a list of road trip food that you need to bring with you. But these are often road trip snacks and not sufficient meals. Preparing road trip meals beforehand will save you time during the road trip itself. Besides the time you safe you need to consider the possibility to prepare food for on the road trip when you’re on the road. You don’t have a completely design kitchen where microwaves, ovens, gas etc. is common.

Things you need to consider when you want to prepare meals during a road trip:

• Accessibility to facilities to prepare the food (heating)
• The ability to keep food cooled for a longer period of time
• Eating utensils (or utensils to prepare the food)

When you’re at home you probably don’t think much about the fact of keeping food cool. You just open the cooler or fridge, put the food in, and that’s it! The same goes for preparing food. You heat up the stove, grab a pan, grab the food, and eat when it’s ready. Or you open the draw and grab a quick road trip snack.

On the road this is all different. Of course, there are possibilities to prepare food during a road trip like a portable stove or maybe a barbeque. But why not save the trouble and prepare road trip food at home? This way you have sufficient road trip meals ready to go.

On the go snack

Eating snacks on the go done is by many people all over the world. But what is a good on the go snack? I think we can’t deny that there are many options regarding on the go snacks, but we think we found the best of all.

A on the go snack needs to meet a number of criteria to be a good snack. The following three criteria will make it easier to come to the right on the go snack. This also applies for people who search for great road trip snacks.

Go for small

We all know our bags (or backpacks) that are completely filled with everything we need for the day a laptop, notebook, pencils and much more. We then quickly notice we have little room left for food. Those two big sandwiches you made in the morning aren’t going to fit in the bag. So, choosing smaller food items will help you a great deal. Another advantage is that small food items way less.

Don’t take fragile foods

Fragile food is probably the worst thing you can choose. When fragile food crumbles down it will leave a mess in your bag. Besides that, crushed up food will take away your appetite rally fast. By choosing the right on the go snack this all can be prevented.

Choose non-perishable food

The big advantage of non-perishable food is the long shelf life. This type of food can also be kept out of the refrigerator which makes it a great on the go snack. Another advantage is when you don’t finish your snack you can eat it the next time.

Road trip snacks

The criteria we mentioned give a straightforward guideline that help you to choose the best on the go snack. But no worries, we made a list of four products that will fit the criteria perfectly. These on the go snacks are also often used as road trip snacks which make them great allrounders.

Nuts or trail mix

A good on the go snack is trail mix (or nuts). These on the go snacks are taken as a road trip snack and are therefore ideal as a on the go snack. Trail mix and nuts are easy to store and have a long shelf life. In general trail mix consists of nuts, dried fruits, and granola. If you prefer to add some sweetness candy will do the job perfectly. You can use for example marshmallow or M&M’s.

Protein bars

Other great on the go snacks are protein bars. We all know them form people in the gym, but they are also good as an on the go snack. They are filled with proteins and will provide you of an energy boost. Protein bars are not common as a road trip snack, but as a on the go snack, they’re perfect.

Cookies

Maybe one of the best on the go snacks are cookies. Cookies are eaten all over the world and are available in a lot of tastes and sizes. This makes it even harder to choose the right cookie as a on the go snack. The same problem goes for people who search for road trip snacks. A great cookie on the go and for a road trip is the Daelmans Stroopwafel. These cookies don’t require any cooling and has a long shelf life. This combination makes it a great snack…and not to mention the delicious taste.

Who is Daelmans?

We at Daelmans sell our Stroopwafels around the entire world. And when you sell to the whole world, the United States surely can’t be left out! That is why we also have a depot in the United States to make sure you will receive your cookies within eight business days. This way you can plan your trip and receive your road trip food snacks in an instant. So, order your cookies on our online store, or look for “Daelmans Stroopwafels” on amazon.

How to plan a road trip

The most important part of your road trip is of course the availability of a car. This is basically all you need to start a road trip. But we give you some tips to plan your road trip, so you don’t end up lost in the middle of the desert while you ran out of benzine. Sounds quite dramatic right? No worries we give you 6 steps that ensure a wonderful time on the road.

Step 1

Choose a destination. If it is your very first road trip, we recommend choosing a place that’s not too far away. For example, a city in your own country a couple of hours away. This way you will enjoy the drive to your destination and have the possibility to spend some time on your destination. Because the limited driving distance you will be back home safe within a day.

Step 2

Choose a route. A lot of people that are doing road trips like to take the scenic route to the chosen destination. For example, you can take back roads through mountains, fields, or anything else. This way it will take you a bit longer to reach your destination, but the view is ten times better than taking the highway. Besides, you often have the possibility to make a stop on the back roads, to take pictures or have a meal. This is often not possible on the highway.

Step 3

Consider your vehicle. Your vehicle is the most important part of the road trip. You need a reliable vehicle with enough space. It’s a fact that some cars are more suited for road trips that others. Especially when you go on a trip for multiple days or with multiple people.

Cars that are great for road trips are: sports cars, SUVs, and minivans. Cars that are less suited for road trips are large trucks, SUVs, and vans. Another important aspect is the gas mileage, something that shouldn’t be underestimated. Above all room is probably the most key factor because you will be spending several hours in the vehicle.

Step 4

Prevent mechanical issues. If the plan is to go on road trip for several days and over a long distance than you should let a mechanic check your vehicle. Some things you can do yourself are refreshing the oil, refilling windshield wiper fluid and make and check if all lights work. The last thing you want is get stranded due to mechanical issues.

Step 5

Plan your stops. It is reasonable but also recommendable to make a stop after every 2 to 3 hours of driving. You can take a look at the route you’re going to travel and pick out some interesting places to stop. For example, parcs, stores, restaurants etc. Remember, these stops are also pard of the road trip experience and definitely shouldn’t be neglected.

Step 6

Prepare your food. During a road trip you spend most of the time of the journey in your car. Of course, this is all part of the experience, that’s what makes a road trip a wonderful experience. But you shouldn’t neglect the importance of food. Road trip meals and road trip snacks are important to keep your energy level as high as possible and provide you of all the nutrients you need.

Pro tip: Get yourself a travel magazine for the area you’re going to travel. This way you can read everything about the area you visit and maybe tell you fellow passengers some interesting facts.

Keep your food and snacks cool during a road trip

The best way to transport food is with an electric cooler. A cooler makes it much easier to take healthy food with you – for example fresh fruits. But even when you don’t have the possibility to use an electric cooler there are possibilities to transport snacks or road trip food.

Cooler bag – easy to use

An easy way to transport food during a road trip and keep it cool for quite some time is by using a cooler bag. A cooler bag will isolate the cold and keep the heat outside. A great way to keep the food as cold as possible is by using ice packs. Note that it depends on the circ*mstance how long your food will stay cool on your road trip. The time ranges from 6 to 12 hours.

Regarding packing the cooler with ice packs for the road trip there is no good or wrong. There are three main ways to pack a cooler bag: ice packs on the bottom, on the top, in between the products. Either way has its pros and cons to keep your road trip food for a longer period of time.

Ice packs on the top: Will keep the food consistently cool. Cold air goes down and hot air goes up. The disadvantage is that the ice pack will melt faster because it’s more exposed to warm air when the cooling bag is opened.

Ice packs on the bottom: This way the ice packs will last longer. The food items on top will prevent warm air to reach the ice pack with preserve the cold. The disadvantage is that the food on top will not be as cold as the food on the bottom, directly on top of the ice packs.

Ice packs in between: This method will ensure all the food items will stay evenly cold. The only disadvantages are that a cooler bag isn’t that well isolated as a cooler, therefore there is a change that the heat from outside will work on the sides of the cooler and increase the temperature inside.

In short, every option to keep your road trip food or snacks cool has it’s advantages and disadvantages. However, a cooler with ice is probably one of the best options because it doesn’t require any power and keep the food cool for at least 10 days.

Cooler – for the long road trips

A cooler is one of the best options to go for when you’re on a road trip. When using ice packs or only ice a cooler will stay cool for 10 days. There is now power needed to cool, only ice will do the job for you!

When using a cooler, it’s important that you pack your food as cold as possible. When you have the chance, it would be great to cool the cooler before you start packing it for a road trip. You can use ice packs or ice blocks (no ice cubes!) to cool the food during the trip.

Another important thing you shouldn’t forget is to drain the water of the cooler. Remaining water will make the other ice rocks melt faster. To prevent this from happening you need to drain the cooler a couple of times a day.

To wrap it up. The most important thing is to keep the cooler closed as much as possible. To do this you can pack your food in layers (think of what you need when). This ensures you don’t have to search, and you have the possibility to pack food at the bottom that needs to stay cold.

Road trip tips

we shared a lot of different types of food and some non-food items you should bring on your road trip. But we also would like to share some tips to may come in handy during your road trip.

• Check your car insurance when you go abroad
• Know the traffic rules
• Map out your route (at least the direction)
• Also have offline navigation possibilities
• Enjoy the road trip – that’s the best tip of all

Now you know everything you need to know about food for on the road trip. We wish you a great adventure and don’t forget the Stroopwafel cookies, they are great snack during your road trip.

Common road trip questions

There are a lot of questions that can rise when thinking of a road trip. We made a list of the most commonly asked questions about road trips.

How long of a drive is considered a road trip?

Every journey that takes longer than a day. It’s quite possible you have to travel a lot for your work but that’s not a road trip. Every journey that takes more than a day is considered a road trip.

What road trip means?

An extended trip in a motor vehicle. An extended trip means a trip for at least 2 weeks and sometimes 8 weeks. This depends on the type of journey and the person you ask. Generally spoken a road trip takes

How long is a road trip across America?

It takes 45 hours to drive from coast to coast. This can be divided in six 8-hour days. A road trip across all 50 states van be done in less than 124 hours. That’s with an average speed of 55mph, stops and driver swaps.

How often do I stop on a long road trip?

When driving for a long time you should stop every 2 hours and take a break for 15 minutes. This way you will get the needed rest and stay focused. Swapping drivers would be an option if you would like to continue the road trip.

How many hours should you drive a day?

It’s safe to drive 8 hours a day. It’s really good possible to stay focused for a period of 8 hours which makes it safe to drive. The most important thing is to stop driving if you feel tired, even under 8 hours of driving.

Airplane snacks

We wrote a lot about road trip snacks. But you can also do a road trip in a foreign country. Maybe you fly to another country or just another state. During the flight you of course would like to have to great airplane snacks. We did some research and came up with some airplane snacks that will change your flight experience.

The rules for airplane snacks

Bringing airplane snacks can be quite difficult duo to regulations regarding food. To make it even harder this is not the same for every country. Every country has it own rules. But to help you out in the search of airplane snacks we made a concise list of things you need to keep in mind:

1. Pack snacks with a long shelf life
2. Pack something that does not fall apart easily
3. Be considerate of other passengers and try to pack snacks that do not have a strong smell
4. Pack different snacks so that you have a choice when you are on the flight
5. Before you leave from home, check if there are rules about bringing food to your destination. Different countries have different rules.

Bringing airplane snacks

Bringing airplane snack with you on the plane are a fantastic way to keep your energy level up. This will make you feel better during and after the flight. But please keep in mind to check the rules of the country you travel to. Some airplane foods you need to consider are:

Trail mix

Trail mix is a great tasting and extremely easy snack. You can make it to your own whishes and it’s not the unhealthiest airplane snack out there. This is way trail mix is a well know snack and also often used as a road trip snack.

Potato chips

Potato chips is probably the most known snack out there. It’s eaten all over the world by young and old. That’s way potato chips definitely earn his spot on the airplane snacks list. Back in the day you only had the choice of natural and paprika chips, nowadays the choice is endless, so there always will be a flavor for you.

Stroopwafels

The last on the list are cookies called Stroopwafels. This cookie may not be as known as the two previous airplane snacks, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t that tasty. This cookie consists of two wafers with caramel syrup filling in between. A nice, sweet cookies that will blow your mind.

With all this information about road trip snacks and much more you are fully prepared for a great adventure. Don’t forget the most important thing you is to have fun! This is something that we didn’t punt on the list, but it’s definitely more important than road trip snacks, airplane snacks and basically everything else.

Then it only remains for us to wish you a great road trip.

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