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So, you want to go on a road trip? Whether it’s a group of your best buddies, a family adventure, a romantic escape, or a bonding experience/right of passage with one of your children, following a few simple road trip rules can make your travel experience exponentially better while ensuring a positive experience for all involved. Keep these essential rules in mind when planning your next road trip to create an experience that is ripe for success.
Plan for More Time than You Think You’ll Need
This may be the most important rule to adhere to when planning your road trip. Why is it so important? Because it allows you the opportunity to find new adventures along the way without feeling like you must sacrifice something critical to enjoy them. More importantly, it gives you the freedom to adjust your plans as you go if you discover that your original plans aren’t working for you. It’s all about flexibility. Even if you don’t need the extra time you put into your plan, having it in your schedule gives you the freedom to use it if it is needed.
The extra time built into your plan also allows for unexpected events, accidents, and emergencies. While we’ll discuss things you can do to prevent and address some emergencies on the road, it’s always wise to have a plan in place for the unexpected along the way.
Invest in Vehicle Maintenance and Safety Before Your Trip
There are many things you’ll need to check before your road trip. This includes obvious things like tire integrity, brakes, alignment, and the overall mechanical soundness of your vehicle. You might also consider upgrading safety or security features, like an F150 Tonneau Cover for your truck so that your luggage is secure, safe from the elements, and protected from prying eyes.
Also if you have a spare tire, make sure your spare is in good shape and ready to use in an emergency, and check your auto policy to see if roadside assistance is included (and the steps you need to take in order to use this service).
Bring Road Trip Friendly Snacks
Snacking on road trips is essential. There are a few important rules to remember when planning road trip snacks. The better you understand the importance of snacks on the road, the wiser choices you can make when planning, purchasing, and preparing snacks for your road trip.
- Sugar is a great stimulant to help you stay awake if you get sleepy while driving.
- Choose snacks that create little mess in the vehicle. Remember someone (likely you) has to clean up when the trip is over.
- Bring food that will be eaten. It’s great to be healthy, even wise, but a waste of money and effort to get food no one is going to eat (and may end up costing more as you turn to costly fast-food options or convenience store snacks).
- Choose foods that are easy to consume while driving. This is important for safety and to help prevent messes in your vehicle.
Also, remember the different tastes of fellow travelers. Make sure there is something in your snack bag that everyone is sure to love and appreciate.
Keep an Eye on Personal Safety for Travelers, Too
You might also want to consider upgrading your emergency roadside and first aid kits to ensure safety for people traveling with you. Make sure your emergency roadside kit includes blankets, bottled water, healthy snacks (in case of lengthy delays), flashlights, basic tools, flares, extra batteries, flat tire repair kits, battery charging cables, etc. You’ll also want to ensure your first aid kit has a variety of useful items such as aspirin, bandages, disinfecting wipes, antibacterial soap, anti-nausea medicine, scissors, rubber gloves, and similar items to treat various injuries that may occur on the road.
The goal is to ensure everyone on your road trip comes home in good physical condition as well. Making safety a priority might not be your first instinct, but it is a good one to cultivate in a world where so many unexpected things can happen.
Bring Along an Updated Physical Map
Far too often we rely on GPS to get from one place to the next. But the truth is, technology fails at the worst possible times. Having access to a paper map you keep in your vehicle can mean the difference between getting hopelessly lost and finding your way home before you run out of gas. Paper maps can also help you navigate around traffic nightmares, weather emergencies, and other issues that GPS programs have proven difficult to avoid in the heat of the moment and it’s always great to practice your map reading and navigation abilities.
Another reason to consider a physical map rather than your vehicle or phone’s GPS is that a map provides a much broader picture of what is around you such as mountains, rivers, state parks, historical sites, and other points of interest nearby that your GPS will not. GPS offers a limited view of the area around you and is intent on helping you reach a specific destination whereas maps open the doors for adventures that are near your location.
The most successful road trips are the ones where everyone gets to see and experience something new and exciting and grow closer to the other people traveling along for the adventure. These road trip rules will help.
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