Building a family road trip packing list is always difficult — you need to cover everything for your stay, plus everything to keep the kids occupied on the drive. You always end up forgetting something; you hope it's not the stuffy the baby needs to sleep.
With kids of different age groups, you have to pack different things; a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old need different clothes, toys, snacks, and you know the rest. There are tons of packing lists out there for any place you want to go, for any time of the year. The difference is that these lists aren't geared toward your family. They don't know if your kids have allergies or what kind of car you have.
Claude Projects can give you access to a "memory" of what you have, what medications you need to take with you, and what kind of car you have, so that you can pack appropriately. You'll add some basic instructions, and Claude Projects will use them every time you need to plan a road trip.
What you'll need
10 minutes
Step 1 – Create your Road Trip Planner Project
Download the Claude Desktop app, and go to Cowork. We'll need to create a new project; we'll start from scratch. Then name your project something like "Family Trip Planner." That's the basic setup for the entire project.
The key here is knowing that every time you start a chat session with Claude in this project folder, it will follow the instructions you've given it. This way, you update the instructions to reflect how your family changes or who is going on the trip, with specific details.
Step 2 – Write Your Family's Instructions
You should see a sidebar item called instructions. This is where we will write the instructions on how the project plans a trip. Here are a few things I've included in my instructions:
Kids' Ages: The age difference between a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old isn't just a few items. The 2-year-old still uses sleepers and needs a sound machine, while the 6-year-old goes through clothes so fast because they love to play in the mud.
Allergies or Medications: You never want to forget your medication or that you left the Allegra on the table counter while the windows are open during pollen season. These have their own category, so you can never forget them.
Your Car: Packing a sedan vs an SUV is two totally different things. If you have a roof rack, that opens up a ton more possibilities for what you can bring with you.
Your Gear: This category ropes in the stuff you already have. For each trip, you might need to purchase something specific for the destination you're going to. It's helpful if Claude already knows what you own, so it doesn't suggest purchases you should make.
Where You Stay: Do you typically camp? Maybe you have a cabin, or you're staying with a friend when you're going somewhere else. Maybe you stay in hotels or Airbnbs. Depending on where you stay, you need different things.
Output Format: How do you want Claude to format the list? Do you need different headers, or would you like to group things in a specific way?
Here is a template you can use:
You are a family road trip packing assistant. Here is our family's permanent context: