Agency holidays are nice but what really gets your blood pumping is a road trip. There are no guides, no rules, and no deadlines, as you are your own travel agent. This offers the experience of a lifetime, something that mass tourism could never give you but a road trip doesn’t come without its flaws. There are many dangers on the road, from getting robbed to getting stranded. In order to make the road trip memorable, the following 6 will help you stay safe and smiling.
Leaving the credit card at home
Although a road trip might be exhilarating, you are going to have to get used to paying stuff all the time. Gas, food, tickets, and other costs are virtually unavoidable. Apart from enjoying the roadside scenery, you will experience a fair share of toll booths. Since you will often be miles away from the nearest ATM, it is not a wise choice to rely on your credit card to do the job. In fact, in small towns, businesses often accept cash only so be sure to have dollar bills on you. Things get even more complicated if you travel abroad, as you will have to exchange your money before setting off on the road trip.
Map up
A road trip by its very definition is a trip into the unknown. It will take you through unfamiliar landscapes where your only navigator is the car’s GPS and your sense of orientation. To aid the former, download road maps before the trip. While on the road, you might lose cellular signal or the internet might be bad so it wise to have the maps prepared on the phone. If you like using old-fashioned paper maps, then put them in the glove compartment just in case Google Maps fail.
Musing on music
The car’s stereo will not always be your best friend. Imagine if you’re driving through the wilderness and white noise is all you get. Furthermore, if you’re on a country road abroad and all you get are radio talk shows in a foreign language. These are reasons enough to have some of your music as a backup option. You can go old school and burn a CD or you can connect your USB stick or smartphone to the car’s speaker system.
Being prepared for all eventualities
While you’re on the road anything can happen. The mandatory first-aid kit will not be nearly enough to cover for all eventualities. What if your car gets stuck in snow or you run out of water in a desert region? Survival kit might prove to be a lifesaver, and you can find affordable ones on resourceful websites such as Drivrzone. They typically contain everything from dental floss to safety fuses. However, since no road trip is the same, the car survival kit should be chosen according to the specifications of that particular journey. Snow chains will be of little use if you’re driving through the Death Valley or a similarly arid region. But, you should pack some headlamps in case you need to do any exploring at night.
The early bird catches the worm
In order to stay safe on the road, it is highly recommendable that you drive during the daytime. Nighttime driving through an unfamiliar landscape can quickly turn into a disaster so avoid nocturnal forays. You want to get as much daylight as possible so start your journey as early as possible. Now, we are not suggesting that you get up at 5 AM but any time before 9 AM would be ideal to start the engine. You have probably planned to see a lot on your road trip but none of it will be doable if you don’t get up early enough. If you like to sleep in and don’t think that you could obey this simple rule, perhaps a road trip is not such a good idea. As an alternative, find a friend who’s an early bird and likes to make coffee.
Ah, those roads
Even if you have downloaded all the necessary maps, you can still encounter difficulties on the road. For once, the maps won’t tell you if a road is paved or not. Furthermore, you might need to go off-road in certain instances (a fallen tree) so take care of which vehicle you sit in. An SUV or Van such as available at sprinterrentalsusa.com is ideal for the occasion but you can sit in any car that is fully functional.
Before you embark on a road trip, apart from the weather, don’t forget to check if any of the major roads are due for closing. Even highways need repairs and new layers of asphalt, so account for these closures. What you cannot predict are traffic accidents and subsequent pileups. You have to be super easy going in order not to go berserk sitting for hours in a traffic jam on an interstate.
All in all, preparing well for the upcoming road trip will help that everything goes smoothly. The 6 tips we have listed here will hopefully help you prepare to the best of your abilities. No injuries, minimum delays, and max fun are the milestone of the perfect road trip.
