5 Best Audio Books and Podcasts for Traveling in the Car with your Family

Traveling long distances in the car with your kids is never easy, but finding something that can entertain them, and something you can also stand to listen to.....possibly even enjoy will make it so much better.

Since our children have been born, we've always lived three and a half hours from my parents and 7 hours from my paternal grandparents. Car travel has always just been part of their lives. Three years ago we moved to Florida and really upped that challenge. Now we don't hesitate to jump in the car and drive to Tampa, or two and a half hours to Disney. This past Christmas with COVID still going strong we made the decision to drive the 22 hours back to Pennsylvania instead of flying. With all these extra hours in the car together and the kids getting older, we've had to up our entertainment game. We've found some truly terrible podcasts and discarded them after minutes and some very good ones, but these are our favorites.

In disputed order, our families favorite audiobooks, podcasts and stories for traveling.

#5 - Business Wars Podcast

We stumbled onto this podcast on our Christmas drive. While we first thought it would be more for the adults, we quickly found content that the whole family could enjoy. From Marvel vs DC to Hallmark vs Lifetime with Nike vs Adidas along the way. Our last episode was Barcardi vs Pernod Ricard and we learned some great history and why we really did have to try Havana Club Rum (it really does make a better Rum & Coke). Whatever the story is, David Brown thoroughly does his research and is an amazing storyteller. This podcast is available on Audible, Wondery, Luminary, Apple podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music

#4 - Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest

This Podcast has a great open sequence that grabs your attention. It makes the kids feel like they are listening to a scary story with each episode being rated a grim, grimmer or grimmest, The secret is, even the grimmest stories are made child appropriate. We all know that all of our childhood fairytales come from the Grim Borther's stories but what about the ones we never heard, or some of the weird twisted tales? Adam Gridwitz has a fun way of telling these stories and drawing kids in. Unlike some other kid podcasts, this one is one you will be able to stand and won't mind turning on and listening along with them. There are now 4 seasons of this podcast although you can't find all seasons on some platforms. Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest can be found on Apple, app.kidslisten.org, pinn.fm, youtube.com Amazon music, Audible, and Spotify

#3 - Pirates! Scoundrels Who shook the world

Our Children think of Jake and Gold Doubloons when they think of pirates; our generation thinks more of Johnny Depp and the Caribbean. The real history of pirates and privateering is a much different story than that. Scott McCormick uses character voices, laughter, and vivid imagery to tell the rich history of Black Beard, Chinese Pirates, and a history we never knew. This audio book kept us laughing from beginning to end. I won't give too much away but my favorite part was about a pirate woman and the duel. This audiobook is included in any audible subscription.

#2- Rivals! Frenemies Who Changed the World and Rivals 2

In Rivals! Scott McCormick has hit magic again. Each story is a 30 minute episode broken down into funny antidotes that keep kids and adults entertained and help the miles fly by. From Hamilton and Burr to The Discovery of Dinosaur Bones, with a bit of Tesla vs Edison along the way, these stories are told with dramatization, a little sarcasm and enough laughter to keep you moving down the road. Finding something we all enjoy was a task, and this was one of the first discoveries that got everyone to put down their own books, turn off the movie and do entertainment together.

#1 Harry Potter Books on Audible

It's no secret how popular the Harry Potter books are. Almost everyone has read them or knows someone that has. Listening to them with your family is just as great. The entire series (all 7 books) is about 116 hours worth of listening. I will be honest, we accomplished this tremendous feat over several years, doing one book at a time then watching the movie. We took breaks from the series after each book and enjoyed other things, but always came back to Hogwarts. Watching my kids fall in love with the story and become the latest generation obsessed with Harry Potter was an absolute joy for me, as was hearing things I'd forgotten, or picking up things I'd missed the first time around. We used Audible platform and enjoyed it greatly, but you can often rent audio books from your local library and they are also available on other platforms.

Listening is just as good as reading the book

While the order of most to least favorite may be different for us all, these are definitely the top 5 listens we recommend for any road trip with your family. While I didn't set out to recommend Audible so much (this is not a sponsored blog) it has been clear that audible has been a great platform for us to listen to most of our stories or podcast. The included content has been some of our favorite and it has helped me listen to books driving to and from work that I never would have had the time to read.

Find out for yourself at Audible.com and let us know some of your favorite family road trip listens!

-Alaina

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