We do a lot of traveling and when we travel, we bring along our own snacks. When you’re traveling it’s important to look for foods and beverages that don’t need any type of refrigeration. In addition, you want foods that don’t melt in the heat, aren’t super messy to consume and ones that travel well in a backpack, piece of luggage or in a handbag.
When we travel, we pack a lot of high-protein snacks that give us the energy that we need and ones that fill us up until mealtime. Here are some of our favorite snacks to pack when we travel. The majority are high in protein with some kid-friendly choices mixed in.
Our Favorite Road Trip Snacks + Travel Tips!
Beef, Pork and Turkey Jerky
Lightly-Salted Cashews
Canister of Mixed Nuts
Peanut Butter and Crackers
Lightly-Salted Sunflower Seeds
Trail Mix
Granola
Seasoned Roasted Chickpeas
Lightly-Seasoned Pumpkin Seeds
Wheat Crackers (or your favorite type)
Protein Bars
Tuna and Crackers in Portable Snack Packs
Chicken Salad & Crackers in Portable Snack Packs
Prepackaged Cheese Sticks
Seasoned Low-Fat Popcorn
Raisins – Individual Snack Packs
Gummy Fruit Snacks (for the kids)
Fruit Roll-Ups (for the kids)
Goldfish Crackers (for the kids)
Pretzel Nuggets filled with Peanut Butter
Dried Fruit Mix
Pudding Cups & Jello Cups
Freeze-Dried Fruits
To go along with our snacks, we pack a lot of bottled water and if the kids are along, we will pack juice boxes, water and shelf-stable milk. Yes folks, you can now buy shelf-stable milk!
Extra Travel Tips:
- Open up your bottled waters and remove 1/2″ of water from the top of the bottle. Re-cap the bottle and place into your freezer. When you’re ready to travel, use the frozen water as ice packs in your cooler or lunch bag. As the day goes on…they thaw out slowly while keeping your other items nice and cool.
- Even if you’re taking a full-size cooler, you should also take a portable insulated lunch bag along with you. These lunch bags are great for when you’re out sight-seeing and only want to tote a few snacks & beverages along with you.
- Make sure you pack hand wipes! You can buy one large package of them for everyone to share or consider buying individual one-time-use packets.
- Place disposable butter knifes, forks, spoons and straws into a large zipper closure bag. This will keep everything together and can be disposed of when you return home. My mom likes to toss in toothpicks & dental floss into her bag too!
- Pack extra reusable plastic containers and/or extra zipper closure baggies. You can place left-overs inside them for later use.
Looking to buy some great-tasting Affordable Snack Foods 
* This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, we may or may not receive a small commission which helps to support this site. Thank you!
What kind of snacks do you like to pack when traveling? Got any tips to share? If so, leave your thoughts & tips in the blog’s comment form below.
What a comprehensive list of snacks to bring along. I am going to save this list and for our next road trip, I can just grab some of these items. We do already freeze our water bottles and always have some handy wipes in the car. Road trips are the best.
As much as I hate long drives, I might go just for some of those snacks, lol. Jerky, sunflower seeds, granola & pudding cups! I love it.
These would make great snacks for our road trips! I love to eat different types of nuts. The Lightly-Salted Cashews sound delicious!
I remember that when my family traveled we always had those little boxes of raisins and Planters mixed nuts.
I like having string cheese and crackers when I travel.
Boy, I want to go on a road trip with you guys! These are some great ideas and I have got to keep this snack list. I also thank you for the idea to pour out 1/2″ of water out of the bottled water and freeze them I am so going to do that.
These are great tips. My favorite is to freeze some bottles of water which have the dual purpose of keeping other things cool and thawing to be drunk later inthe day.