Going On A Road Trip? Read This Before You Go!

In recent years, as raising air plane prices, fluctuating exchange rates and an increasingly volatile international situation create widespread anxiety, more and more people are forgoing the tropical vacations and exotic foreign tours in favour of the good old-fashioned road trip. Whether it’s only to a neighbouring city for a week of fun, or a month long trip to every country reachable by land, road trips are quickly becoming the favourite new way to go on vacation.

Preparations beforehand

Before you head out for the open road however, do make sure you get your car checked and serviced thoroughly. It’s a pretty obvious thing to do — but it’s amazing how many people forget, or are so rushed that they don’t have time to check the car before they start driving. For more information on preparing your car for a road trip, click here.

Make sure your insurance is in order and sign up for membership of a breakdown and repair service such as AAA. Try and fill up the gas tank before you start packing — this way, the fumes have time to dissipate and won't bother your passenger. Its would also be nice if the car got a thorough cleaning, as you’ll feel better and more relaxed if you start the long drive in a clean car.

Planning the trip

Once you’ve made sure your car is ready for a long distance trip, then it’s time for planning said trip. There’s a lot of conflicting advice on whether or not to plan your route and book your hotel/motel rooms beforehand. On the one hand, planning your route and confirming all your reservations means there’s no nasty surprises when you arrive at your destination, but it can also take all the fun and spontaneity out of your journey. The amount of planning really depends on the individuals making the trip.

If you’re travelling with children, or anyone who gets car sick easily, it would probably be a good idea to plan your route so that you can take rest breaks every few hours, and to confirm your hotel reservations before you leave. If you’re travelling with children, you may also want to click here for some suggestions on making it a pleasant road trip. Otherwise, if you’re are willing to be a little more adventurous, then you can skip the planning stage and head straight for the open road.

Of course, this only really applies to destinations you’ve been to before, or even roughly know how to get to. If you’re going to a city, or country, unfamiliar to you, it would be a really good idea to plan your route, as there’s nothing quite like getting lost in a strange new environment to really spoil your day. To that end, do make sure you pick up detailed road maps and guide books to help keep you on the right path. Most importantly, the maps and guide books should be current, at least to the year. Don’t laugh — late in 2004, the international media carried a report of a Singaporean woman who got lost in Germany because she was using a decade old guide book. Free road maps can usually be found in tourism offices, and many hotels and motels provide free (but not too detailed) maps of their city and any nearby attractions. Incidentally, if you sign up for a breakdown and repair service such as AAA, you will usually also get free maps — put together with the towing service provided if anything were to happen, it’s well worth the cost of membership.
 

Holiday company

If you’re travelling alone, you’re pretty much free as a bird, but just remember to take a few precautions. Keep your doors locked at all times, especially when you’re in a traffic jam or waiting at the traffic lights, as you’ll be a sitting duck at these vulnerable moments. Some solo women travellers tie up their hair and wear a cap and sunglasses so they don’t look so obviously female (and thus, don’t stand out as targets). Some people prefer to drive at night to avoid the daytime heat and crowds, but remember to stay alert and pull over (somewhere well lighted and well trafficked) if you’re feeling sleepy.

Make sure someone you trust knows where you’re going and about what time you expect to reach your destination. Some road trippers have a ‘home base’ contact — a friend or family member they get in touch with by phone at regular intervals, in case something happens during the journey.

If you’re not travelling alone, you’ll also need to take your passengers into account, as setting out on a road trip with the wrong company is the best way of driving each other insane. Taking extra care in choosing your companions is the only way to avoid this. Of course, if you’re travelling with your family, you may want to skip this paragraph as you won’t have much choice in companions anyway.

If you can pick the company, make sure you can stand them for long, loooong periods of time — their personal, sleeping and eating habits, conversation, music preferences (control of the radio can be a touchy subject on a road trip) all make an impact on how enjoyable the trip will be. For more considerations on choosing a holiday companion, click here.
 

Budgeting and necessary items

Once you’ve settled on who’s coming along, you might want to settle on the budget for your road trip. This is probably the most flexible part of your trip, especially if everyone in the car pools resources and agrees to a set budget. Budgeting really depends on how you want to travel. If you’ll be staying in hotels every night, eating in restaurants for every meal, visiting attractions along the way and so on, you can expect to pay about $1000 per week, including fuel and other travelling expenses. If you’re travelling on the lean — staying in cheaper campsites, bringing your own food, not visiting so many attractions — you can probably get by on about $500 a week. If one person in the group has a credit card and is willing to swipe for some expenses, it can be a lifesaving backup in case an emergency crops up. Whether alone or with company, don’t forget to stash an emergency fund of $20 - $50 somewhere inconspicuous in your car — just enough to pay for parking or a full tank of gas, in case you lose your wallet or some other calamity occurs.

There are a number of items you should bring with you on a road trip, and the most indispensable is the hand phone. There are countless situations when it will come in handy, and its worth the effort to buy, borrow or rent one, if you don’t have one already. If you’re going to be travelling in another country, you should make sure your telephone plan includes international roaming, and that you have enough credit or cash to make at least a 20 min international phone call. You’ll also want to invest in a car charger (which uses power from the car cigarette lighter) to keep the phone charged and ready for use.

If you’re not too keen on eating in restaurants for every meal, which can be amazingly expensive, you can bring a cooler (also known as an icebox, an esky, a coleman) and stock it with drinks (the non alcoholic kind) snacks and even quick, ready made meals. This will save you money, time and frustration in the long run. Plus, a fresh, ice-cool drink during a long, boring drive is an excellent way of keeping yourself alert.

Below is a checklist of items you should consider bringing with you on a road trip. Do note that items such as knives may require some explaining if your car is checked while crossing the border into a country with strict entry laws, so its best to carry plastic utensils. Its also a good idea to carry a prescription and/or a written explanation of any medication in the language of the country(ies) you’re visiting.

And last but not least, remember to bring a long a sense of fun, a little patience and a big dose of adventurous spirit!

Article Information
First published 25 January 2005. This article is free for personal and commercial reproduction, with the following terms and conditions.