3 families on their best-ever road trips

Road trips: such a classic part of family travel. But let's be honest: They can also be challenging, with feuds over Spotify, incessant bathroom stops, and queasy, whiny kiddos.

Meltdowns aside, family road trips can also be incredibly memorable and rewarding, as the three families below can attest. Here's how they made things work while whizzing around a few of the loveliest destinations on Earth, from the Riviera Maya to the Amalfi Coast.

Last summer, the best-selling author Jo Piazza embarked with her family of five on a monster two-state, 10-day-long road trip, hitting up Rocky Mountain National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Kicking off the round-trip journey in Denver, they picked up a rented camper van resembling a log cabin from Outdoorsy, an RV rental platform, at the airport.

“There’s really nothing like rolling into town in a log cabin on wheels with your windows down blaring ‘Sabotage’ to make someone’s day,” Piazza said.

Their first stop: Rocky Mountain National Park, which proved a big hit, thanks to easy trails and ranger-led activities. “We especially loved the trails around the tundra area because we were on the lookout for pikas, which my son is obsessed with,” she said.

After that was Dinosaur National Monument on the Colorado and Utah border for a few hours to break up the long drive. It’s home to tons of dinosaur fossils, which you can see in situ—a stop at the Quarry Exhibit Hall is a must to get a lay of the land and see over 1,500 bones. From there, it was onto three days in Moab, Utah, home to two national parks: Arches and Canyonlands. “Both of these would take days to explore for someone without kids,” Piazza said. “But we didn’t have the luxury of planning long hikes—our kids just won’t do it yet. So we considered these visits to be a preview.”

Instead of packing in the sights, Piazza and fam took a relatively leisurely approach, driving to picnic spots and posting up for a few hours so the kids could unwind and explore. They drove, rather than hiked, to the key scenic lookouts. But the trip was not without a lot of action, including a Moab Cowboy Country Offroad Adventures 4x4 tour that visited the Allosaurus footprints outside Arches—obviously a huge hit with the kids.

A couple of summers ago, the Philly-based travel agent Alexis Rich took a 10-day road trip through the Riviera Maya with her family, including her two kids (4 and 8 at the time).

The first stop on the itinerary was Holbox, where they left their rental car at the mainland port before ferrying to the island, where golf carts reign supreme. The highlight of their four-night stay was a trip to the semi-uninhabited, wildlife-filled island of Cabo Catoche, where they snorkeled and fished. (Rich thinks that excursion could be too long for younger kids, unless they're unusually patient.)

Next up was a three-night stay in Coba, known for its off-the-beaten path Maya ruins. Here they checked into Coqui Coqui, a boutique hotel near the impressive archaeological site. The first day included a visit to the Coba Ruins, where the family learned about the ancient Maya and the area’s modern Mayan communities. Then it was off to nearby Valladolid on a day trip for cenote dips.

The cenotes, in particular, were a hit. “We loved them all,” said Rich. “They're all inexpensive to visit; the ones off the side of the road that are near Coba and Valadolid were great because most of the time we had them all to ourselves.”

Regan Stephens, a journalist from Philadelphia, spent a month in Rome last summer with her husband and three daughters. After weeks exploring the city, they decided to take a road trip to Ascoli Piceno, three hours from Rome on Italy’s eastern side, where her great-grandparents were born and lived before moving to the United States.

The family rented a car in Rome, which they picked up at the central train station. (It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing, though. “We waited in line for about an hour and a half, and in that time two people were helped in front of us,” Stephens said. “If we had stayed, it would have been another two hours.” So they threw a Hail Mary and switched to a different rental car company.) Their first stop was Perugia’s Domus Volumnia, an inn set in an 18th-century villa where they spent an afternoon swimming in the outdoor pool and drinking spritzes. "[Our] two younger girls loved playing on the swing set in the owner's private backyard,” Stephens said.

They had breakfast by the hotel pool the following day, then set off for Ascoli Piceno. "The drive through the mountains was challenging, especially for our youngest daughter, who gets carsick in less twisty conditions,” said Stephens, admitting that the beautiful scenery made the drive worthwhile. They spent the day in Ascoli Piceno with Stephen’s local friend, enjoying the Ascolive Festival and eating plate after plate of meat-stuffed fried olives.

They spent the night in a suite at an ancient palace-turned-hotel Palazzo Guiderocchi and had traditional cake for breakfast before returning to Rome. "On the way back, we stopped at a gas station to fill up and stocked up on Italian road trip snacks like San Carlo tomato–flavored chips and Mulino Bianco cookies," she said.