Tips for Road Trip Success

Recently my family took a cross-country road trip. We had a lot of fun, but there were some bumps that could have been avoided. In order to help y’all prepare for your own trip, here are my tips for road trip success.

1. Plan, Plan, Plan

Learn from some of my mistakes. I have a tendency to do last-minute planning when it comes to our vacations. The only problem with this is that there may not be cell service where you’re going.

To avoid any stress—plan ahead. This seems obvious, but it also means thinking through all aspects of your trip:

1. Do the places you’re visiting have hours?
2. Do you know the routes you’ll take?
3. Are there any tolls or ferries? If ferries, do you need tickets? And check the times (including how early you have to be there before it loads)?
4. Don’t forget about food (see below).
5. Make sure you know the check-in and -out times of the places you’re staying.
6. What are the must-see/must-eat things in that area?
7. Gas stations along the route (you don’t want to get stuck without gas on your trip). And check the hours of the gas station.
8. Do you need cash?
9. Have a battery pack for your phone in case you need it. If you’re hiking, check in (and out) with ranger stations.
10. Always good to have a hard-copy map as a backup.

2. Let People Know

Especially being a military spouse, chances are you know other military spouses. And being a military family, you tend to move around a lot. It can be hard to keep up with where everyone is located. So if you tell people about your trip in advance, you might find more friends along the way.

We learned too late that we could have visited more people on our trip. When we posted photos on Facebook, we had friends reach out. Next time, I’ll reach out to people before we fully plan out our trip.

3. Bring Food

In life, things rarely go according to plan. Sometimes you wind up nowhere near food when you’re hungry. Or you simply want to get back to the hotel. Bringing food with you will save you in these situations. And if you do bring a cooler, don’t forget to refill the ice.

You should also bring food that travels well or is easy to eat while out and about. For our road trip, we packed peanut butter, snack bars (such as BelVita and Nature Valley), pretzels, and more. It was nice to be able to have a picnic along our way.

4. Fun Road Side Attractions

One of the things my husband really wanted to do on this road trip was see random things. For example, the world’s biggest ball of yarn, which we didn’t find. It was a lot of fun to look for these attractions. And we brought a polaroid camera with us for these photos specifically.

Check out Roadside America for random roadside attractions. They have attractions listed out by state. They also have a map of all of the attractions, sometimes with reviews and photos.

5. Be Open

As most of us know, things rarely go according to plan. Be ready for things to go wrong. This is where the planning comes in handy as well. If you have a plan A, B, and even C, it will help when you hit those bumps in the road.

And just because something doesn’t work out doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. This is something I’m still working on. I like having a plan and like when things go according to that plan. But some of the best trips are ones where we went with the flow.

6. Enjoy!

Hopefully, these tips will help you to enjoy your road trips even more! I’m ready to plan our next road trip. Have fun!