16 Best Audiobooks for Family Road Trips

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The best audiobooks for family road trips will keep every single member of the family happy on the drive. These children’s books are still fun for the adults to listen to and are perfect for connecting with kids on vacation.

The photo collage shows several audiobooks for family road trips.

We’ve been listening to audiobooks on our family road trips since my girls were still tiny enough to be strapped into car seats.

My husband and youngest daughter LOVE to listen to audiobooks all year round but my older daughter and I are more casual listeners.

Whenever we go on a family road trip, I always have a family-friendly audiobook loaded on my phone.

Sometimes we like to listen to music but we always have an audiobook to fall back on just in case!

Why Listening to an Audiobook is the Best Choice

My girls get car sick fairly easy so the classic parent fall back of plugging them into a tablet with headphones and a movie was never an option for us.

I’m actually not upset by this because:

  1. It means that I don’t have to hear them begging for tablet time for hours on end. They don’t even want it while we’re in the car.
  2. I feel that it is important to LOOK OUT THE WINDOW. That’s what travel is about–the journey! I think kids’ imaginations are activated from the boredom of staring out a window. I want them to see the changing countryside. I want them to see road side signs. I want them to get excited about seeing cows and horses in the pastures. I want them to look at where we are going.

Listening to an audiobook frees kids’ eyes up to enjoy the changing scenery out the window.

How to Pick the BEST Audiobook for a Family Road Trip

Dozens of vacations and family drives under our belt, I know what makes the best audiobooks for family road trips.

This list of road trip audiobooks is different than the best audiobooks for families that we listen to at home.

What makes them perfect for road trips comes down to these 3 things:

1. Must Be Good for ALL Ages

Consider the ages you’ll have in the car and pick your title appropriately. You’ll need a different book for little kids vs. tweens vs. teens.

However, if you only consider audiobooks for the kids, you’re forgetting one of the most important people in the car — the driver!

Be sure to pick a book that the driver will also find interesting because nothing is worse than being bored and risking falling asleep at the wheel!!

2. Action-Packed or Intriguing

You’ll be spending hours in the car and you’ll be able to listen to the audiobook for very long stretches at a time.

To help keep everyone from getting bored on the drive and to help make sure they all pay attention to the audiobook, try to pick a story that has one of these things:

  • An entertaining narrator that captivates
  • A suspenseful plotline
  • An action-packed story
  • A super funny book that gets everyone laughing
  • A thought-provoking classic you’ve always been interested in

3. Proven Popularity

There are new children’s audiobooks coming out every day. If your family is used to listening to audiobooks, you’re likely want something fresh.

However, if you’re introducing your family to the experience of listening to audiobooks on a drive, you’ll want a proven winner that has lots of super-high 5-star reviews.

The books on this list are widely popular for good reason and are a safe bet for your family trip.

Best Audiobooks for Family Road Trips

Taking the kids on a family vacation? Be sure to pack one of the best audiobooks for family road trips to keep everyone in the car entertained on the drive. These family-friendly books are perfect for both kids and adults to hold attention as you listen.

More Audiobooks for Road Trips

Looking for more great audiobooks for your road trip? Here are a few lists the teens or grown-ups in the car might like:

The photo collage shows several audiobook covers for family road trip books.

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