We all have plans to go on a road trip at least once a year. It’s a thrilling experience. Unfortunately it will start with a high note, but by then end, it might get enough frustrating that you might want to throw everyone out of the vehicle. Just so you don’t end up alone on the trip, here are a few tips:
- Do the maintenance of your vehicle before you start the trip. Have your tires checked, oils changed and alll fluids topped off. Halfway through the trip isn’t a good time to remeber that you need an oil change.
- Do not try to control the music tracks throughout the trip. No one wants to hear your pop collection throughout the trip. Decide ahead of time who gets to control the music. Either it’s one person with great music sense, or different people taking up the task at different parts of the trip.
- Preplan your stops in advance. If you want to go ahead with unplanned stops, then if you have a favourite, then one of your travel mates would have too.
- Decide on who is going to ride when. Some people are fine with driving through the whole trip, while some might feel like driving only few hours at a time. Discuss way ahead of time when someone is going to drive. Also if you are hesitant about someone else driving your car, then you would be driving almost all the way.
- Irrespective of how good you are with navigation, always spend some good amount on a GPS. Nothing like getting lost in the middle of nowhere. That too at some place where there is no signal. Better to have an offline map, or better a paper map.
- Add an additional 20-30% to the expected budget. No matter how meticulously you plan, you are bound to spend more than the budget. And some emergencies are sure to stetch your budget to a large extent.
- Avoid fast food while on the road. It might be difficult to find nutritious food along the way for the whole time, but try to avoid fast food as much as possible. It’s going to increase your calorific intake, making you feel nauseous, as well as may give you a bad stomach. And your enjoyment of the trip is going to go down the hill.
- Do not have very high expectations out of your trip. You might be visiting a place with high expectations from you saw on an Instagram reel, but when you reach there, it might be something else. Increase your expectations, and you are more likely to be disappointed.
Remember that trips are more likely to not go as planned. You might get a flat tyre a couple of times, roads might be closed, unplanned pit stops, or your hotel reservations might be cancelled too. Keep calm when something unplanned happens. Nothing more like yelling at your trip-partner in the heat of a moment, and you might be spending the rest of the trip in an awkward situation.
Stay calm and flexible and the trip will be a much better experience.