Venturing out of your home town for the holidays? Half the fun of a trip is the journey there, which is why we’re gearing you up with the Top 5 Road Trip Tips.
Perfect for families who want to keep arguments at bay, couples embarking on their first road trip together and friends excited to head out of town, we’ve got you covered!
Please ensure you keep up with all relevant government COVID-19 regulations and rules and partake in social distancing measures!
1) Leave the Highway
Whether you’re cruising down without another car in sight, or bumper to bumper in a traffic jam, the highway leading to your destination is very rarely picturesque or scenic, and chances are you want to keep driving without stopping so as to decrease your time on the road.
While getting to your destination is the ultimate goal, driving for hours on end without stopping takes away all the fun of a good road trip! While there may be nothing to see on the highway itself, chances are that taking a risk and turning down that little side road that piques your interest will lead you to discover something new, be it a cosy cafe waiting for you to collect some much needed caffeinated fuel for the road, a leafy park to stretch your legs in, or an interesting neighbourhood to take a quick gander at.
2) Get Your Hands On All the Snacks
As indisputably cliché as it sounds, It’s not a road trip without snacks. For this reason, and to avoid any hangry (that’s hungry and angry) passengers, you’ll want to stock up on plenty of snacks to chow down on during the journey.
Candy, chocolate and other sugary snacks are classic for on the road, however we recommend some savoury treats too (to keep any potential sugar rushes - and subsequent crashes - at bay). To get a variety, ask each passenger to pack a snack and share on the drive.
Feeling extra peckish? If it’s a long journey, get someone to be in charge of bringing sandwiches, someone else hot coffee and tea in thermoses, and someone else smaller bites to snack on throughout the drive.
3) Ditch Your GPS
While the beauty that is GPS often allows us to reach our destinations with little struggle, global positioning systems also sometimes choose the wrong route to follow (leading us down a road closed for roadworks), fail to work, or become so irritating that we have no choice but to switch off their robotic voice and use them manually.
If technology isn’t your forte (we don’t blame you) and you’d rather an actual human lead you to where you need to go, get someone to be the navigator, and get them to switch with others in the car every half hour or so.
As mundane as this sounds, opting for your passengers to tell you where to go proves more useful than a robotic GPS voice, saving you a potential future breakdown when you take a turn too early down a seemingly never ending highway in the opposite direction of your destination because you could have sworn that’s what the GPS said.
4) Explore Regional Towns on the Way
We get it, we get it. You’ve been driving for what feels like five hours now and you just want to arrive at your destination. There’s nothing to see along the way anyway, or is there? Depending on where you’re destination is, chances are you’re driving past multiple regional towns and areas just waiting for you to explore and take a break from the road.
Be it small village communities, quaint country villages or city outskirt towns, don’t give the small municipalities you’re driving past a miss. Instead, take a break and have a bite to eat, explore the town center for half an hour, and stretch your legs.
5) Create a Communal Playlist
Even the dullest, most painstakingly boring highway can be livened up with a stellar playlist. In fact, the fate of your road trip so heavily relies on your music that it should be carefully thought about and curated days in advance.
While you may believe your favourite tunes will bring the house (or car) down, keep in mind that everyone has their own music preferences, so create a communal Spotify playlist everyone can add to (even if this means your fourth Hamilton song is followed by an indie rock anthem from the early 90s that you hate).
And there you have it, out Top 5 Road Trip Tips!
With vacation looming, keep in mind that (as overused as it is) it truly is about the journey and not the destination, and that even the blandest of car journeys can be transformed into a fun road trip with friends, family or a partner.
