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Hitting the road this summer? Check out our tips and tricks for packing Healthy Road Trip Snacks that are easy, affordable and nutritious! 

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Originally published June 2015 and updated May 2024

If you are like millions of other people this summer, you will be hitting the road for some sort of summer road trip. 

Whether you are only driving a few hours from home, or will be planning a multi-state excursion, road trip snacks are essential to surviving hours on end in the car!

And while it may be tempting and easy to roll through the drive through while on the open road or grab a handful of random convenience store snacks while making a pit stop, we prefer to pack most of our snacks and bring them with us.

Not only are snacks that we’ve made ourselves or stocked up in bulk at Costco more affordable, but we can choose options that are a little bit better for us as well. 

Also, if you have picky eaters, bringing your own snacks ensures you have something you know they will eat while traveling, which if you are a parent, know is essential! 🙂

When choosing our healthy snacks for road trips, we try to look for things that are low sodium, low in added sugars, have simple ingredient labels and will travel easily. 

For ease, many things like individual peanut butter packets or cups of hummus are super convenient and can be bought in bulk.

However, if you have time and energy, you can make some of these items at home and put them in small mason jars or food storage containers. If bringing reusable containers, we recommend washing immediately as soon as you arrive at your destination. 

In addition to including our list of favorite road trip snacks, we’ve included some helpful tips below for packing and traveling with homemade and store-bought road trip food.

These tips will ensure your food stays safe in a hot car and is as easily accessible and convenient as possible.

Whether you are a travel enthusiast or simply a family of five on the road to grandma’s, buckle up and pack your tastebuds for a summer road trip adventure!

Helpful Tips and Information:

Travel Tips for Storing Food and Snacks: 

With the summer months reaching record high temperatures, it is very important to keep food stored properly while traveling. Check out these food storage travel tips:

Refrigerated items: Store refrigerated items (lunch meat, yogurt, cheese, hard boiled eggs, fruit, pasta salad) in tightly sealed coolers. Use ice, frozen ice packs or freeze water bottles (that double as drinks as they melt), to help keep food at proper temperatures. If traveling long distances, stop for additional ice at gas stations and convenience stores. 

Refrigerated items should always remain at 40 degrees F or colder. If refrigerated items reach temperatures above 40 degrees F, don’t risk food borne illness and throw them out.

Non-refrigerated items: Snacks, such as cereals, nuts, pretzels, etc., should be stored in airtight containers or plastic food storage baggies. Even though these snacks do not require refrigeration, if stopping for long periods of time, plan to bring all food inside or place in a cooler.

Food for Camping Trips: If camping is part of your road trip adventure, take extra precautions and be mindful of bears and other animals. Never leave food out and unattended and make sure all food and coolers are tightly sealed. Store food at least 100 feet and downwind from your sleeping area. If staying in bear country, store food in approved bear boxes.

You can check out our tutorial for How to Plan Successful Camping Trip and Five Tips for Camp Cooking for more information about packing food for a camping trip. 

Road Trip Essentials: 

Best Coolers for Road Trips:

Yeti Tundra Cooler – Yes, a Yeti cooler is definitely an investment. But our honest unsponsored review is this is the best cooler we have ever had. It is small enough to fit in a standard car (along with other luggage and road trip essentials) yet fits more food than a picnic sized cooler/lunch box. Ice stays frozen longer than most coolers and it doesn’t leak! For a camping trip we would go with a cooler that is a bit bigger, but just for packing snacks on a long road trip, this is perfect.  

Small soft sided cooler – For a shorter road trip, or in addition to the Yeti, we like to bring a small soft sided cooler for use with frozen ice packs. This size cooler is perfect for keeping sandwiches, a couple of canned drinks or juice boxes, and fresh fruit or veggies cold.  

Ice Packs – We also keep 5-6 ice packs frozen in our freezer at all times for throwing into our soft sided cooler for not only road trips, but when we pack drinks or a lunch for a picnic or to bring to a outdoor summer concert.  

Best Food Storage Containers for Packing Road Trip Snacks:

A reusable stainless steel water bottle – many gas stations allow you to fill up a reusable water bottle for free with just water and ice, so packing our favorite reusable water bottle is a must! 

Grid Organizer Box – When traveling with children, pack a variety of snacks in plastic storage boxes with separate compartments. This is a fun way to allow each child to have their own custom snack pack! 

Memory Snack Tray – Alternatively this Memory Snack Tray really takes things to the next level and makes things super fun by turning snack time into an entertaining game! 

Bento Lunch Box – For a full meal you could pack a custom Bento Lunch Box for each person. 

Wide Mouth 16 Ounce Mason Jars with Plastic Lids – We love bringing overnight oats, pasta salad, etc. in these glass wide mouth mason jars with plastic lids. The plastic lids are easy to get on and off but don’t leak.   

4 Ounce Mason Jars with Lids – These smaller mason jars are perfect for packing peanut butter, homemade hummus, ranch dressing, etc. for the road. 

Reusable Food Storage Baggies – Disposable plastic food storage baggies are super convenient for packing road trip snacks, however, if possible, we try to use reusable baggies. We LOVE the Stasher brand, but they tend to be pricy, so we recommend buying 1 or 2 of these here and there. To fill in at a more affordable price, we like these reusable food storage bags (as shown in the photo above) that come in a multi-pack with a variety of sizes! 

Trash: Don’t forget to bring small trash bags or plastic grocery bags to place any trash while traveling.

Paper Goods: Pack napkins/paper towels, plastic knives, forks and spoons and paper plates, if needed for stopping and enjoying your packed lunch at a rest stop.

Cleaning: Pack baby wipes and hand sanitizer for easy clean up.

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Healthy Road Trip Snacks:

Travel Breakfast Ideas:

• Hard boiled eggs 
• Muffins 
• Individual yogurt cups or frozen yogurt tubes 
• String cheese 
• Dry cereal 
• Beef jerky/beef sticks 
• Frozen breakfast sandwiches – Hitting the road first thing in the morning? Cook frozen breakfast sandwiches according to package directions and wrap in foil to keep warm for enjoying on the road. For a “better for you option” look for turkey sausage, egg whites, low sodium and low added sugar.
• Overnight oats

Travel Lunch and Dinner Ideas:

• Sandwiches 
  • Peanut butter and jelly
  • BLT Egg Salad Sandwiches 
  • Ham and Kale Coleslaw Sandwiches 
• Turkey Cranberry Wrap  
• Pasta salad 
• Jennifer Aniston Quinoa Salad – We like to portion this out into wide mouth quart mason jars with a tight-fitting lid and store in a color for a light and refreshing road trip lunch or dinner. 
• Thai Chopped Salad in a Jar 

Travel Snacks:

• Dried fruit (banana chips, raisins, dried pineapple, craisins) 
• Veggie chips
• Fresh fruit (blueberries, grapes, bananas, strawberries, oranges) 
• Apple slices – To keep apples from turning brown, core and slice apple. After slicing immediately rinse apple slices in cold running water for 30 seconds. Store rinsed apple slices in food storage containers. Rinsing the apples in cold water removes the starch that causes the sliced apple to turn brown.
• Fresh vegetables (cherry tomatoes, carrot and celery sticks, broccoli florets) 
• Individual fruit and applesauce pouches 
• Multigrain Chips 
• Multigrain crackers
• Pretzels 
• 100% Juice Fruit Snacks 
• Nuts – Raw nuts or these Cajun Spiced Mixed Nuts or Roasted Rosemary Cashews 
• Trail mix 
• Snack mix 
• Protein bars or granola bars
• Energy bites
• Seeds (pumpkin or sunflower)
• Popcorn
• Individual packs of hummus – serve with crackers, tortilla chips, fresh veggies, pretzels, pita chips
• Individual packs of guacamole – serve with crackers, tortilla chips, fresh veggies 
• Individual packs of peanut butter – serve with apple slices, crackers or celery sticks 

Travel Drinks:

• A reusable water bottle (many gas stations allow you to fill up a reusable water bottle for free with just ice and water) 
• Gallon water (for emergencies and if you are not able to refill your water bottle at a gas station)
• Sparkling water 
• Juice boxes made with 100% real juice
• Probiotic soda
• Shelf stable individual milk boxes

What snacks and tips would you add to this list? Please share in the comments below!

For more travel tips and tricks, check out some of our other travel guides!

10 Road Trip Games and Activities for Couples– Planning a summer road trip? Don’t get bored on the open road! Instead pass the time with these 10 Road Trip Games and Activities for Couples! 

The Ultimate Travel Guide to Best Restaurants in America – Planning an epic cross-country summer road trip or taking a quick family vacation for spring break? Then you have to check out this ultimate travel guide to the best restaurants in America featuring restaurant recommendations from bloggers all over the United States!