How to Enjoy an Amazing Car Trip

Are you a last-minute packer? If you are planning a road trip and want to ensure that you enjoy it, you might want to change this habit. Ideally, you should start planning at least one week before the trip to ensure that nothing gets overlooked. 

When it comes to creating a road-trip checklist, you will want to cover these areas:

• Auto care
• Navigation
• Safety
• Play

Let us jump into the guidelines that can ensure you have a fantastic time. 

 

Have a Safety Plan

Safety comes first – no matter what. With a safety plan, you will be able to let go of your worries and truly enjoy your trip. Firstly, you will want to ensure your car is in order with maintenance. Perhaps it would be a great idea to take the car to a mechanic for a quick check to ensure it doesn’t break down in the middle of your road trip.

When it comes to safety, make sure to pack your first aid kit with you. Here are some of the items that you need to include in your aid kit:

• Adhesive bandages
• Antibiotic ointment
• Alcohol wipes
• Aspirin tablets

Of course, you cannot prepare for all emergency scenarios, which is why having the basics cover the bare scrapes without derailing the trip. Another car safety item that you cannot overlook is a blanket for travel and cold weather. If you are planning a road trip in the winter season, a blanket is a must-have for potential emergencies. 

Also, regarding car safety, make sure to carry cash with you all the time. You never know when you are in a situation where money is all that someone can take. So, make sure you have a little bit of cash on you for those times when you have to have it. 

More importantly, you will want to check your car to ensure that it stays safe on the road. If you do get into an accident, and it is not your fault, get in touch with the Barrera Law Group and get a lawyer on your side so that the professional attorney can ensure that you and your loved ones are compensated for the injuries, medical bills, and lost wages. 

Another note on safety: you should let a trusted neighbor or friend know how long you will be traveling so they can check your mail for you and turn on and off the lights while you are gone. It is an assuring thing to know that someone is keeping an eye on things for you while you are enjoying your road trip. 

 

Get the Navigation On

The next step is to download offline maps so you know where you are going and how you will reach your destination. If you have been on road trips before, you already know that there are times when you unexpectedly lose services while on the road. 

So, you will want to have your map ready before your trip. Google Maps has an option for you to do this on both Android and iOS, so don’t wait until it is too late. When it comes to saving directions ahead of time, you will also want to save written directions on your phone’s notes app.

Paper maps are also super handy if you lose service or your phone dies. Besides, it is fun to hold a paper map in your hand and mark the route. You can highlight the areas where you are staying and the roads that you are taking. This way, you will feel like a captain while getting a sense of how everything is connecting. 

Of course, Google Maps will tell you how to get from one point to another, but you have to decide yourself where you are going. You have to do your research in advance and see all the exciting places that you can find in between. 

 

Entertainment

When you plan a road trip, it is important to consider how you will spend your time in the car. This aspect can be just as important as what you do at your destination. So, don’t forget your phone charger and a backup, such as an external battery.

Vacations are a fantastic time to unplug and get away from everything – but – you might want to do that after you have safely arrived at your destination. Speaking of phones, if your car isn’t carplay or auto-compatible with Android and you rely on your phone for navigation, a phone holder is a must-have. 

You should be able to see your route and the road at the same time so you can reach your destination safely. For entertainment on the road trip, you will want to pre-download any music playlist or podcasts on your Wi-Fi network before you leave.

Perhaps you want to make two playlists for each trip—one to listen to when heading towards your destination and the other to listen to when you are heading back home. Having multiple playlists is a great way to introduce new music that you have been wanting to listen to. 

The different playlists will also help you build memories of other trips. So, whenever you hear a particular song, you will think about a specific journey because of the playlist. Of course, you also need a little alone time in the car, so you will want to pack your headphones as well. 

You can also play classic car games as a form of entertainment on your road trips. For instance, you can play “Top Five,” where you select a category and everyone in the car tells their top five versions of that thing. It can be anything, such as ice cream flavors or movies about space—or, if you are headed home, you might want to name the top five favorite things that happened on the trip. 

You can also play the license plate game, where you keep a running tally of every different state license plate you see on your trip.