50 Best Family Vacation Songs for IG Reels & Stories

Best Songs for Family Vacation Reels and Stories

There’s a certain chaos to family trips that no travel brochure captures. Suitcases half-zipped, kids arguing in the backseat, someone swearing they packed the charger but never did. The air smells like sunscreen and road snacks, and the playlist matters almost as much as the destination. The right track can turn a cranky afternoon drive into something that feels lighter, like the soundtrack is smoothing the edges. And when it ends up on an IG reel, the vibe carries over in a way that photos never pull off.

Not every song in this mix is literally tied to vacations, but the energy clicks into place anyway. Some lean into the wide-open freedom of the highway, others push nostalgia into the corners of your head where it lingers all trip long. A lot of the best ones cut across genres so you end up with pop, rock, country, and R&B songs all tangled together in one shuffle. It works because family vacations rarely follow a neat script. Someone’s tired, someone’s hyped, someone’s blasting the volume too high, and that messy overlap is where the good memories sneak in.

The playlist works best when it mirrors the trip itself. A little loud, a little soft, a little offbeat, like snapshots that don’t line up until later. You’ll hear tracks that make a minivan feel cinematic, songs that sync with the swing of a hammock, or an anthem that suddenly makes airport layovers feel less grim. The kind of tunes that look good clipped over shaky footage of kids diving into hotel pools or relatives crammed into the same booth at a roadside diner. Here are the best family vacation songs for Instagram reels and stories.

1. 'Good Time' by Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen

2. 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams

3. 'I Gotta Feeling' by The Black Eyed Peas

4. 'Best Day of My Life' by American Authors

5. 'Paradise' by Coldplay

6. 'On Top of the World' by Imagine Dragons

7. 'Good Life' by OneRepublic

8. 'Come Away With Me' by Norah Jones

9. 'Sunday Best' by Surfaces

10. 'Here Comes the Sun' by The Beatles

11. 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen

12. 'Walking on Sunshine' by Katrina & The Waves

13. 'Roam' by The B-52's

14. 'Uptown Funk' by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars

15. 'Adventure of a Lifetime' by Coldplay

16. 'Shut Up and Drive' by Rihanna

17. 'Ocean Eyes' by Billie Eilish

18. 'A Sky Full of Stars' by Coldplay

19. 'Kokomo' by The Beach Boys

20. 'Better Together' by Jack Johnson

21. 'We Are Family' by Sister Sledge

22. 'Count on Me' by Bruno Mars

23. 'Unwritten' by Natasha Bedingfield

24. 'Life Is a Highway' by Tom Cochrane

25. 'Home' by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

26. 'Island in the Sun' by Weezer

27. 'Home' by Phillip Phillips

28. 'Follow The Sun' by Xavier Rudd

29. 'I'm a Believer' by The Monkees

30. 'The Boys of Summer' by Don Henley

31. 'Good Vibrations' by The Beach Boys

32. 'Summertime Magic' by Childish Gambino

33. 'Riptide' by Vance Joy

34. 'Golden' by Harry Styles

35. 'Blinding Lights' by The Weeknd

36. 'Sweet Home Alabama' by Lynyrd Skynyrd

37. 'September' by Earth, Wind & Fire

38. 'Walking in a Dream' by Empire of the Sun

39. 'Take My Breath Away' by Berlin

40. 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' by The Proclaimers

41. 'Sailing' by Christopher Cross

42. 'Mr. Blue Sky' by Electric Light Orchestra

43. 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley & The Wailers

44. 'Beautiful Day' by U2

45. 'Dancing in the Moonlight' by Toploader

46. 'Hey, Soul Sister' by Train

47. 'Here Comes The Sun' by The Beatles

48. 'Home for a Rest' by Spirit of the West

49. 'What a Wonderful World' by Louis Armstrong

50. 'Sweet Caroline' by Neil Diamond