30 Mess-Free Snacks Every Road Trip Should Have

Picture this: You are driving through Kansas and suddenly hear a thunderous, deafening sound. After a moment of shock, you realize it is not the sound of your tires hitting the rumble strip but your stomach begging for food. You examine exit signs for the next 10 minutes and find nothing appealing. Suddenly, you remember you've got a cooler full of snacks in the back seat that can keep you going for days. Now, the only thing to worry about is not making a mess of your car while digging into your stash.

If you have kids in the back seat or borrowed the car from someone else, this concern of keeping a clean vehicle will resonate even more. That's why we've compiled a list of the best mess-free snacks for your next road trip. Recognizing that "mess-free" is a relative term that depends on who is eating, consider the habits of each passenger before adding these items to your grocery list. Note that the snacks on this list that require a spoon or any more than minimal attention are not recommended for anyone sitting in the driver's seat. 

Finally, you can keep your car mess-free while eating with a shower caddy. This hack helps to organize your treasure trove of snacks. In curating this guide, we have included vegan, vegetarian, meat-based, and allergy-friendly foods that kids and adults can enjoy. From childhood favorites to healthy alternatives, get ready to fill your cooler with mouthwatering and nourishing goodies. 

Beef jerky is a neat way to consume protein and have something satisfyingly chewy to chomp on while driving. You can even make your own at home with just a handful of ingredients. Many jerky brands are shelf-stable, so you won't need to worry about finding space in the cooler. Vegetarian options are becoming increasingly prevalent and are made from ingredients like mushrooms and seitan. Fruit jerky products like BEAR Fruit Rolls and That's It. Fruit Bars, both on Amazon, are also wonderful; think of them as the grown-up version of Fruit Roll-Ups.

For many people, fruit gummies (or fruit snacks) form an integral part of childhood memories. Easily packed in school lunches, these gummies have gotten an upgrade over the years. Today, you can find organic varieties, which are fantastic mess-free road trip snacks. Look for products like Black Forest Organic Gummy Bears, which can be purchased on Amazon, if not in the grocery store.

While some granola bars have the potential to create major messes in your car — think melted chocolate chips and oats strewn across the back seat — others are definitely safe to pack. Avoid dry, crunchy granola bars, as well as those that crumble easily, such as fig bars. Instead, hop on Amazon and opt for products with more chew, such as GoMacro Organic Vegan Protein Bars and CLIF BARs. If you are packing these snacks for children, purchase the kid-sized bars from these brands.

String cheese consists of mozzarella that has been stretched and heated to achieve a texture that is, for lack of a better word, stringy. One factor that makes this snack so road trip-worthy is that each stick of string cheese is individually packaged. While not so great for the environment, you might be willing to make an exception once in a while, especially when it keeps your car mess-free and means that everyone can get the protein they need. Because string cheese is a soft cheese, it should be refrigerated or kept in a cooler to avoid spoilage.

Full of fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and nutrients, you should keep a variety of fresh fruit on hand when you hit the road. The types you pack hinge on whether you'll use a cooler. If you will, make sure you know how to use sponges to keep your snacks cold while traveling. Berries such as blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries require refrigeration and typically offer the most antioxidants. 

Apples, bananas, and oranges do not require refrigeration, but you should pack them carefully to avoid potential bruising and lose them after they've rolled around in your trunk. Don't pack fruits with pits, such as cherries, unless you have an easy system for disposing of waste.

If you have a cooler, hard-boiled eggs are a great source of road trip protein. You can eat them plain or add them to salads and breakfast sandwiches purchased from fast food chains. Plastic-sealed hard-boiled eggs can be found at many grocery stores. Making them at home is nearly as easy, so long as you remember to set a timer after putting your eggs in the pot to boil. They can last as long as seven days when refrigerated. Grab extra packets of salt, pepper, and ketchup from fast food chains, gas station convenience stores, or hotel breakfast bars to season your eggs.

Chocolate bark can satisfy your sweet tooth while providing antioxidants, protein, and healthy fats. Products like barkTHINS Snacking Chocolates are widely available on Amazon and come with toppings like coconut, almonds, and pretzels. You can also make chocolate bark at home, allowing you to mix toppings and include a greater diversity of nuts and dried fruits. Pistachios and walnuts pair wonderfully with chocolate, as do dried blueberries and strawberries.

Don't be turned off by the smiling babies on pouches of fruit and vegetable purees. After all, they are smiling for a reason: Applesauce, mango pulp, and sweet potato puree are delicious! These pouches may be a natural choice if you have a baby or toddler strapped into the car seat, but you can also use them! 

Reusable pouches, such as haakaa Silicone Pouches on Amazon, are a smart investment if you prefer making purees. Just note that you will need a means of refrigeration. Since they are not vacuum sealed and typically contain no preservatives, homemade purees will only last a few days before spoiling.

We get it, and we are not here to judge: Compulsive eating can be hard to avoid when all the miles start to look the same. When you feel like munching on something out of boredom, reach for crudités and hummus. Crisp, crunchy, and fresh, they will nourish you with the vitamins and minerals that other snacks might not provide. Pack a tub of thick hummus as an accompaniment. Thicker portions will limit messes, while drippy options will make a mess of your cooler.

Toaster waffles are effortless to heat at home and equally easy to prepare at a small hotel breakfast bar, as long as a toaster is available. Opt for sweeter or flavored varieties to forgo toppings. Evergreen Zucchini and Carrot Cake Waffles are a fun choice made with whole grains, and Banza Chocolate Chip Protein Waffles are suitable for those following a gluten-free diet. Both products are available on Amazon.

Dates are quick snacks that offer bursts of energy when you need it most (here's looking at you, late-night drivers). They will satisfy your sweet tooth and provide essential nutrients: fiber, potassium, copper, and antioxidants. If you don't pit dates ahead of time, you'll often reach for baby wipes to clean your sticky fingers. While wipes are one of the essential items for a road trip with toddlers (and anyone, for that matter), if you prepare dates properly, you won't need to use so many.

If you are packing pre-pitted dates, they will taste even better if you have nut butter with which to pair them. While you can dip dates into family-sized jars, individual squeeze pouches can make life on the road a bit easier. These come in varieties like peanut butter and almond butter. However, you can also branch out and try flavors like walnut butter, pecan butter, sunflower seed butter, tahini, and even pumpkin seed butter.

Compact and fun to eat, Babybel cheese comes in three flavors: original, monterey Jack, and white cheddar. Plus, now there is a vegan version made of coconut oil – it's similar to mozzarella. Purchase a variety pack so you can mix and match your cheeses according to the snacks you have on hand. For instance, the original cheese pairs wonderfully with sliced apples, while the white cheddar is an ideal match for grapes.

What is a road trip without crackers? While any sturdy variety will do, we recommend Wheat Thins. (Keep in mind that some pieces will likely turn into crumbly messes when you rummage through the snack bag.) Wheat Thins are small and satisfyingly crunchy and come in flavors like spicy sweet chili and sundried tomato and basil. Pack the aforementioned Babybel cheese wheels to accompany crackers of all kinds. If you have a long road trip ahead or are traveling with other people, consider purchasing a party-sized box of Wheat Thins on Amazon.

Yogurt is a beloved ingredient in cultures around the world. Among its benefits, it has high nutritional value, offering calcium, protein, and probiotics. There are several types to choose from, including Greek yogurt, French yogurt, and skyr. However, the variety you can drink is easiest for a road trip. Kefir, which is similar to yogurt and features a drinkable consistency, will also work beautifully.

Before you pack anything else, take a load off your shoulders by reducing the weight of fruits. Bottled smoothies are refreshing, nourishing, and a must-have item in your cooler for a mess-free road trip. Smoothies come in varieties like strawberry, banana, and mango and are ubiquitous at grocery stores and gas stations. If you prefer the shelf-stable variety, purchase Noka Superfood Smoothies on Amazon.

While large muffins can be messy to eat (especially those with streusel toppings), bite-sized varieties are much cleaner and easier to pop into your mouth while on the road. Several brands sell such muffins, including Abe's and Little Bites. Alternatively, use a mini muffin tin to make them yourself. You can transform any regular-sized muffin recipe to produce mini muffins by shortening the baking time. Start checking for doneness around the 10-minute mark.

Energy balls are bite-size snacks typically featuring ingredients like oats, nuts, dates, seeds, and perhaps chocolate chips or M&Ms. They can be seasoned with warm spices like cinnamon and cardamom. Hundreds of recipes exist for these sweet yet healthy treats, but if you are short on time, The GFB Coconut Cashew Protein Bites on Amazon is a store-bought alternative that will do nicely. They contain nourishing ingredients like pea protein and flaxseed.

The Indian version of peanut brittle is chikki. It is a cross between a dessert and a snack that will give you quick energy, satisfy your cravings for sugar, and even offer a little protein at the same time. The most common chikki variety pairs peanuts with jaggery (a type of unrefined sugar), though variations like flaxseed, date, sesame, and amaranth also exist. Chikki is not too difficult to make, though you can almost certainly buy it at your local Indian grocery store.

Even when your options for food are limited to gas stations and grocery stores, you still might find a bottled, ready-to-drink protein shake in their refrigerated sections. For a vegan option, purchase Ripple Plant-Based Protein Shakes on Amazon, which are conveniently shelf-stable and can be packed ahead of time. Otherwise, consider bringing protein powder, perhaps individually portioned, which you can mix with water.

Though nuts, raisins, and M&Ms could end up all over the floor if you have kids, trail mix is generally considered a mess-free snack for adults. If chocolate is in your trail mix, just make sure it is not exposed to heat. The options are endless when it comes to recipes; try adding white chocolate chips, large coconut flakes, macadamia nuts, and dried pineapple for a delicious twist. Store-bought bags are also reliably tasty. To make snacking on trail mix easier, try upcycling an old coffee creamer jar.

If you know you will have access to a refrigerator or ice-filled cooler at night, overnight oats make for a fiber-rich, mess-free road trip snack. Before leaving home, grab a few glass jars and fill them halfway with oats, nuts, cinnamon, raisins, and perhaps a sweetener like brown sugar. Each night on the road, add water or milk to one of the jars and let the mixture soak overnight. The next day, enjoy it as either a breakfast or mid-day snack. Alternatively, buy a product like MUSH Overnight Oats on Amazon or the grocery store.

If you love overnight oats, chia pudding might also catch your fancy. Packed with vitamins and minerals, chia pudding is an especially great source of omega-3 fatty acids. The best chia puddings are made with milk, often coconut milk, so it can be a bit difficult to prepare this snack on the go. However, Amazon's Mamma Chia's Squeeze Packs of chia pudding are divine and come in flavors like raspberry, strawberry, and mango coconut. Some people dislike the texture of chia pudding, so do a taste test before adding these to your road trip grocery list.

You might have grown up with baked cheese crackers like Goldfish, Cheese Nips, and Cheez-Its. Addictive and nostalgic, they can be a wonderful savory road trip snack for kids and adults alike. Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies on Amazon and homemade cheese straws are equally appealing options. We'll leave it up to you to decide if your kids will make a mess of cheese crackers, but keeping kid's snacks organized in a repurposed tackle box can help.

If you love to munch on chips during a long drive but are worried about your tendency to devour a whole bag at once, try a product like Terra Vegetable Chips on Amazon. Sturdier and often larger than potato chips, they can include vegetables like sweet potatoes, beets, and carrots. They tend not to be as addictive, and you'll sneak in more vitamins and nutrients while keeping your car cleaner.

Popcorn can certainly help cure a case of the munchies during a long road trip. Microwaveable bags are space-efficient, and popping one into your hotel room's microwave each morning will be a breeze. The key is to choose popcorn varieties that are not coated in seasoning. Microwaveable bags generally only contain butter and salt, but tins or bags of pre-popped popcorn might contain other ingredients like caramel, cheese, and chocolate. 

Stick to the basics unless you want your steering wheel to be smudged with these messy additions. That doesn't mean you can't have any fun, though: Use popcorn to make a DIY necklace for your kids so they always have snacks handy.

Peanut butter-filled pretzels deserve a spot in your car on any road trip. They are less likely to crumble than regular pretzels or pretzel rods and arguably tastier. They are bite-sized and sure to satisfy your salty cravings. Some are even covered in chocolate. You can get a huge container of peanut butter-filled pretzels at Costco, but if you don't have a membership, the ones at Trader Joe's are also fantastic. 

Another heat-dependent road trip snack, yogurt or chocolate-covered pretzels can hit the spot when you need a sweet treat. Yogurt-covered pretzels are a bit complicated to make at home, so try a product on Amazon like Nature's Garden Yogurt Covered Pretzels instead. On the other hand, recipes for chocolate-covered pretzels are rather straightforward. Add sprinkles, sea salt, or mini M&Ms for more variety.

Several brands sell deconstructed parfaits you can pick up in grocery stores' refrigerator aisles. The granola is kept in a separate compartment from the yogurt to keep it from getting soggy. You might also find such parfaits at coffee shops and cafés. If you prefer to pack your own, consider investing in Felli On the Go Yogurt Parfait Snack Cups on Amazon, which serve the same purpose.

A childhood lunchbox staple, pudding cups are decadent, delicious, and satisfying, not to mention shelf-stable. It can be nice to indulge in these sweet treats every once in a while, but given that they are a tad notorious for being full of unnecessary ingredients, opt for a product like 365 Almondmilk Pudding Cups on Amazon. They have a shorter ingredient list and are suitable for vegans, gluten-free, and soy-free folks, too.

This list was made with kids and adults in mind. We placed special emphasis on snacks that can be eaten without utensils. However, we also included a few that require a spoon to increase the diversity of textures, flavors, and nutritional offerings. A number of dietary preferences and restrictions are accounted for in this list. Finally, while nutrition was not a primary factor in determining these items, we strove to suggest nostalgic lunchbox staples and more nourishing, health-focused products.