How to Master the Road Trip
- Ali Dobbs
- Jan 24, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 9, 2020
Pass up the boarding pass, pack liquids more than three ounces, and leave your laptop in your bag; we’re hitting the open road.
Road trips are like my religion. Hopping in the car, not having to worry about the weight of your bags or the amount of liquid in your toiletries and just driving. It allows you to be spontaneous, make your own rules, and create your own adventure at the drop of a hat.
A lot of people despise driving and would rather fork over a couple hundred bucks to go through the hassle of an airport, get on the plane, and get to their final destination. Which is completely valid, especially if it’s a long-distance location, but there is something just so much more special about taking in the sights as you go. Isn’t there an entire Miley Cyrus song about that? (If you are in fact not familiar with “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus from the Hannah Montana movie, just stop reading. I don’t want to associate with you anymore.)
Before you swear off road tripping, hear me out: the hassle of the airport sometimes just isn’t worth it. You have to get there so early, you have to cram everything you want to bring into neat, compact bags, you have to deal with security and security lines, the food and beverages are so expensive, and there’s definitely a warped sense of time. There comes a point where by the time you get through the airport, onto your plane, and arrive at your destination, you could have easily driven there.
I have thousands of miles under my belt as a road-tripper, both while being the pilot and the passenger. I’ve been up and down the East Coast: from New Jersey, I've been to South Carolina at least two dozen times, to North Carolina quite a bit, all the way to Miami, up to Maine, Cape Cod, Boston, and Vermont, plus upstate New York and more. Whew that’s a lot! And I keep doing it over and over again because road trips can be FUN!
1. Playlists are EVERYTHING.
Having something to listen to is absolutely crucial for any road trip. Curate a playlist, buy an audiobook, or download some podcasts (which seem to be a really big thing lately). Personally, I could listen to Taylor Swift’s entire discography for a whole 12 hour road trip but I fully understand that not everyone can do the same.
Spotify and Apple Music both have lots of pre-made playlists, some even made specifically for road trips that will satisfy everyone in the car. It’s definitely important to recognize the demographic you’re traveling with and try to play something that’s decent for everyone. Don’t play your heavy EDM in a car full of people who don’t even know what a rave is, and try to respect the wishes of that one friend who has a crusade against country music in order to be “edgy” and “cool”. Read the room.
My suggestion: Two Friends’ Big Booty Mixes. Each is an hour long mashup of dozens of popular songs that are exciting enough to keep everyone in the car entertained and different enough to not get too annoying. These are especially good for solo road trips since that’s when I feel the most at risk for getting sleepy.
2. Add Interesting Pit Stops to the Journey
Your stops don’t have to be solely for refueling, getting snacks, and braving a gas station bathroom. Make your road trip something to look forward to by adding fun and interesting stops along your route. On my way down to Miami I’ve stopped at Peach World right off the highway in Georgia a number of times, and have even ventured into Savannah to view a historic cemetery and some other cool landmarks. On my way back up from Miami, I stopped in St. Augustine and made a whole day out of exploring the city. In California, I stopped at a lighthouse, a Danish town, and tons of spots along the highway for beautiful photos.
Stopping along the way helps you get excited about the whole trip instead of being anxious and impatient about getting to the destination.
My suggestion: do your research beforehand, and use the app/website Roadtripper.com to find activities along the route. Depending on how much time you have, choose quicker stops that are not too far off your route, but if there’s a big item you want to see or spend a few hours doing, Roadtripper can help you plan your route accordingly.
3. Grab a Buddy!
Okay, I know it’s not always the easiest to find someone willing to travel with you, but it definitely can help the time pass. Or, on the contrary, you might always be traveling with your family or significant other, and you might be dreading it, but not anymore! Having a buddy, or even a big, loud, noisy family, can make the pit stops fun. You can all explore and experience the cute roadside fruit stands together, or gawk at the tacky South of the Border rest stop.
With a group or a partner, your car trip can automatically become a fun game of I-Spy, the License Plate Game, or a not-so-friendly debate on the Game of Thrones Finale. I travel alone a lot of the time, but when I have a friend we always find some gossip to spill or stories to share.
When I’m alone, I’m never really alone because I almost always go on road trips with my trusty companion, Millie. She sits in the front seat like a champ, keeping me entertained and focused at the same time. For my fellow Star Wars fans, Millie and I really are exactly like Chewbacca and Han Solo, except we’re a lot cuter (I even nick-named my car the Millenium Falcon). Whenever I have Millie as my copilot, I never feel like I’m ~flying Solo~ (do you see what I did there? Yeah I hate me too).
My suggestion: keep a stack of Trivial Pursuit cards in your car and take turns quizzing each other. There’s not really a need to keep points (unless you’re a super-competitive group), but I’ve always found that trivia is a great way to pass the time without being quite as annoying as a game of I-Spy on a highway where the only things to spot are trees and other cars.
4. Always Trust Waze.
I would love to be able to detail all of the examples where Waze has saved my ass, but I seriously cannot remember them all. If you aren’t familiar with this glorious app, it is quite possibly the best map/GPS around. It analyzes traffic data from other users to pinpoint police speed traps and tailor your route to avoid disaster whenever possible.
Sometimes it seems like it’s sending you a weird way, and you might think to yourself, “This is just a dumb app, it obviously doesn’t know the right way to get there”, so then you go the route you think is right and BOOM! You end up sitting in two hours of standstill traffic. Never. Doubt. Waze. It knows this planet far better than you do, I swear.
My suggestion: don’t just use it for lengthy trips. Check this app all the time and it’ll save you from being late to work because of that accident on the highway. It also has gas prices, so you can find the station around you with the cheapest price.
5. Split Up the Drive
On my way from Los Angeles to Sonoma, I decided to stop and spend the night near Monterey, which is somewhere I had always wanted to explore (Big Little Lies fans can relate!). I found a cute and super reasonable Airbnb in Pacific Grove (literally five minutes away from Monterey) and then I was able to spend the whole evening and the next morning soaking in the quaint towns. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip, and I would never have had enough time if I didn’t spend the night.
Making one of your pit stops into an overnight stay is also a great way to remove some of the stress from your travels. You won’t have to worry about getting too sleepy, or if you’ll be extremely late because of an accident on the highway. Now you’ll be able to say, “Oh, we only have to drive for 5 hours today!” and it will make it seem a lot more manageable.
My suggestion: don’t just pick some lousy, side-of-the-road motel in the middle of nowhere. If you can, choose a more exciting place to stay, where you know you’ll have activities to do or restaurants to try. No one will look forward to staying in a seedy hotel with no food options other than the vending machine, so go the extra mile and make it more fun.
There you have it folks. The best tips for making a car ride less dull and more of an adventure. Life is too short to spend hours sleeping on a plane or waiting in line for security at the airport. Life is a highway and it’s all about the climb (two song references in one! I’m good at this).
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