Our first family road trip: 2-days on the road with toddlers!

I’ve always had a love for adventure and travel. Unfortunately, what with one thing or another, it hasn’t actually been something I’ve got to do much of! As a child I dreamed of being a lorry driver – I loved the idea of being out on the open road and driving up and down the country! It seemed a wonderful job, especially as I’m someone who is quite content in my own company. We didn’t holiday much growing up, and never out of the country, but the two times we did go somewhere, it was the journey there and back that stayed in my memory.

As the years passed and careers started becoming an important subject, I actually ended up doing an apprenticeship and getting a non driving job, but I still had a passion for driving. Looking back I wish I had done more with my free time and spent weekends living the “Instagram lifestyle” you see of many single ladies (the campervans and wilderness girls), but as we didn’t have social media so much back then, I didn’t even know such a life existed – or could even be lived! But this blog isn’t about regrets or what could have been! It’s never too late to change your life, and I am determined to start seeing more of the UK with my family now. With that in mind, I’m going to talk about our first ever family road trip…

I define a road trip as a trip to somewhere we don’t usually go… we have family spread around the country, all about 3.5 – 4.5 hours away, but I personally consider our first road trip as the surprise trip we did for my husband, back in 2018!

My husband is a huge whisky fan, with a real taste for GlenDronach. That year we decided to surprise him with a trip to the distillery, the first of what would become a ‘family tradition’ as we further explored the beautiful Scottish Highlands and countryside!

Now the first part was easy, my parents live in the Borders, so it was just a few days visiting them as far as he was concerned. Then my Dad suggested a spontaneous trip up the East coast – again, this is nothing to make my husband suspicious. My Dad is always coming out with ideas of places to go and suggesting random days out spontaneously, so everyone took it in their stride when we got up at the crack of dawn. Most importantly, the husband didn’t notice when I snidily snuck an overnight bag into the back of the car!

It was the beginning of April, and the weather was bitter and still trying to snow. This was the furthest North any of us had ever gone (in our family of four, that is), and the countryside soon started turning whiter as we reached the Highlands. It was a 200 mile journey from my parents to the distillery, and of course with small children, ours were 18 months and almost 4 at the time, it was carefully planned to ensure we had plenty of stops for the toilet, to stretch our legs and to eat! After all of that, naturally I was very relieved when I saw the snow barriers on the A9 were still open!

I think my husband started to guess what was going on as we closed in on the location and signs for various distilleries started popping up! We’d booked the tour for the last tour of the day, to ensure we had plenty of time to travel up. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant/cafe near the Dalwhinnie Distillery – The Snack Shack – it was a brilliant “halfway” point, and to this day, it’s still remembered as the Cafe with the cow outside! As a side note, when we came past on a road trip in 2022, it was closed down, and the cow outside had gone (it was a life size cow statue, and a hit with children). Being nosey, I’ve taken a look at Google again, and it appears to have reopened, so I’m sure we will visit again on a future road trip! Unfortunately, I can’t find any photos of the cow, though I’m sure I took some!

The Distillery tour was a roaring success with my husband, and became the first of many as we’ve travelled across various places in Scotland – which I’m sure will get mentioned as I reminisce over some of the past trips taken “up North”. That night, we stopped at a nearby hotel, as no one fancied the long drive back (least of all the children who had lots of energy to burn!). After a filling breakfast, we started our journey back South again. Over our breakfasts, we had discussed some stops along the way, again to break up the journey and allow us to stretch our legs. As we had nothing booked in, this meant we could stop as long as we wanted, or take extra breaks, without fretting about arriving anywhere for a particular time!

The longest break, and probably the only one really worth mentioning, was that of our stop at Strathspey Railway. Our boys (and to be fair, us parents and the grandparents too!) all love trains! Steam trains especially … and here along the route home, without having to make a special detour, we found Broomhill Station!

The journey was approximately 45 minutes each way, which was plenty enough with little legs who had been couped up in cars for 2 days. Once we had arrived at Aviemore, we headed into the town to take a look around the shops and grab some lunch. If you are into steam trains, it’s well worth the visit, and, much like the distillery tours, steam train journeys have become almost a ritual that we have to do them when we come across them! We had a lovely trip along here, and it was a great way to break up the journey. Perhaps a re-visit idea in the near future…?

After this, we headed home, with another stop in Edinburgh for some tea, and a solid drive back with soundly sleeping children to the Borders, where we stayed overnight with my parents again. It was a brilliant two days, and whilst I was initially nervous at what the journey would entail with small children in tow, on a route I didn’t know (toilet and food stops especially) it actually turned out so much smoother than I had anticipated! The thing is, once you’re past Edinburgh, the roads are much quieter, and there are quite a few places you can pull into if you need to for those “I need a wee and I need it now” moments. Although only a 4 hour journey, with the required stops, it took us much longer, but I think it made for a more pleasant adventure – I dont like rushing! We had packed a few snacks and toys for the children, although I try to refrain from snacks in the car if I can help it – on the one or two occasions we have given in, the youngest has nearly always been sick (and we are now equipped with sick bags!). The children were mostly content, though, which was great, and they were still young enough that they fell asleep for long parts of the journey – which rarely happens these days!

So, would I do this again? Absolutely! In fact, just over a year later, we decided to head even FURTHER North…

Have you taken a journey up here? Where are your favourite stops? I’d love to hear from you!