Ideas And Tips For Preparing a Road Trip By Car

Over the past 20 years, we’ve taken many road trip by car, including along the West Coast, from Barcelona to Sarajevo, and across Germany starting from home.

Although the road trip by Ccr concept , popularized by American cinema and literature, involves a certain degree of improvisation, we would like to leave you here with a small list of tips to prepare your next road trip and make the adventure more fun and safe.

Documentation And Insurance Road Trip By Car

We’ll start with one of the most difficult and, at the same time, most important issues on road trip by car. We all like the idea of ​​going on a “crazy” trip, Thelma & Louise style, but I don’t think anyone wants to risk having a run-in with the police for not having the correct papers or getting into trouble for not having travel insurance. Some quick considerations in that regard:

• Take out travel insurance that has full coverage for your car .
• Check the expiration date of your driving license.
• Check the need to carry the International Insurance Certificate (previously called the Green Card) in the countries you travel through (you will not need it if you are an EU citizen traveling through the Schengen area or countries with a bilateral treaty).
• Check the need to obtain an international driving license (as in the previous case, it is not necessary in the EU). If you are going on a road trip through the United States, it is advisable to have one, although it is not mandatory in all countries.
• Carry your passportwith you, even if it is not strictly necessary, and digital copies of your most important documents, including ID, etc.
• Apply for the European Health Insurance Card if you are a Spanish citizen and you are going to travel around Europe. It is free and they send it to your home at no cost. If it does not arrive on time, you can take a digital receipt.

If you are going to travel with your own car, make sure that your vehicle inspection is up to date (or the equivalent mandatory inspection in your country). In addition, we recommend that you always do a complete check-up of the car, which usually includes changing fluids, changing wiper blades, checking brakes and tyres, etc. If you do not have a trusted garage, in Spain you can find garages everywhere such as Aurgi, Euromaster, Feu Vert, Midas, Norauto, etc. where they offer this service. If you are going to travel through hot areas, make sure that the air conditioning is charged and without leaks.

Take advantage of this time to wash the car inside and out , remove rubbish and make space by removing from the glove compartment and the sides those typical objects or papers that have been forgotten for years. We are very careless with the car, but the truth is that it is nice to go on a road trip by car clean, tidy and smelling of lavender. Finally, check that you have the emergency kit in the car (triangle, vests, flashlight, spare wheel, basic tools, etc.) and a small medical kit . And, speaking of the spare wheel, it would not be a bad idea to look for a tutorial to learn how to change it if necessary (it is quite easy).

Route planning

On our road trips we have always combined improvisation with planning. We like to have a general idea of ​​the route and leave the details for the day-to-day of the trip. As you know, there is a key tool in the preparation of any road trip: Google Maps . Its possibilities are endless and we do not always know how to take advantage of them. If you want to create a complex route, with different types of markers, drawing lines or polygons, plotting routes, using layers (to separate, for example, accommodations, restaurants, places to see…), etc., we recommend creating your map with the Google My Maps version . The result will be a very professional map, with only one drawback: it is not very practical in its mobile version.

If you want to keep things simple, just create a new list in Google Maps with the name of your trip and save key places to it. Lists are a much more limited option, but they are also easier to consult on your mobile and to share with your travel companions, who can also add their own markers. Google Maps is also very useful for finding points of interest, as it increasingly offers more filters for this purpose and reviews or photos from other users help you choose the best places. What’s more, if you’re worried about the type of road you’ll be traveling on, its condition, the places you’ll have to cross, etc., you can always use Google Street View or satellite view to visualize the route or parts of it.

Another resource that we frequently use to prepare our car trips is Google spreadsheets ( Notion is also very useful ). Once we have our route clear on the map, we like to visualize it in a spreadsheet with the following columns: date, day of the week, origin, morning plan, lunch, afternoon plan, dinner, destination, accommodation, km, budget. These fields can vary a lot from one trip to another, but the important thing is that they give us a rough idea of ​​the essentials. We usually use it as a paper roadmap (it will end up full of crossed out lines and notes in the margins).

As for our sources of inspiration and information, we don’t need to tell you that we use blogs like this one, social networks (we rely a lot on geolocated photos from Instagram and Pinterest boards), etc., but also more classic resources like brochures and maps from tourist offices (some are in PDF and others are even sent to your home for free), travel guides (Lonely Planet, Trotamundos, etc.) and even traditional maps .

We are not going to tell you what luggage you should take for your road trip , because that is something very personal and will depend a lot on your destination, but here we are going to give you some ideas of accessories or gadgets that can be useful for any car trip:

• Multi-port USB car charger. Especially useful if you are travelling with several people who need to keep their phones charged. Don’t forget to bring at least a cable to keep your phone charged at all times, especially if you are going to use it as a GPS.
• Smartphone holder – You may already have one in your car, but don’t forget to take it with you if you’re going on a road trip with a rental car, as it’s an extra that’s not usually included.
• Portable cooler or mini fridge. Fantastic solutions to keep your drinks cold at all times.
• Backseat Organizer– During a long trip, you run the risk of turning the back seats into real bottomless pits, where chocolate bars, maps, water bottles, chargers, etc. accumulate. Get yourself a seat organizer and hang it in the back to keep things tidy.
• Dashcam. These little cameras are installed on the dashboard or the interior mirror and allow you to record your entire trip, either for personal enjoyment or to provide evidence in the event of an incident (hopefully you use it for the former).
• Air compressor. If you’re traveling with an older car or suspect that your tires may be losing pressure, it’s a good idea to include a portable air compressor to inflate them if necessary.
• Power Inverter– In a modern car, charging small devices is usually not a problem, but if you need to charge laptops, cameras and such, you may need a special power adapter (it plugs into the cigarette lighter to use as a socket).
• Bluetooth Speaker– Bring this with you if you are not sure if your rental car will be compatible with your phone.
• Thermos or thermal mug. Don’t forget to bring the typical thermal mug for coffee, the canteen for cold water or whatever you need to keep liquids at the desired temperature.
• Parasol. You know, to keep the car from turning into a boiler.
• Sunscreen for car windows. If you are travelling with others, take pity on your passengers and equip your car with the typical sunscreens that stick to the windows with suction cups.
• Sleeping bag and tent 2 seconds. If you are going on a truly “crazy trip” don’t forget the sleeping bag and the typical Decathlon tent. It can save you more than one night. On our road trip through the United States we bought a complete camping package and we had to use it many times because we couldn’t find hotels on the route or we weren’t convinced by the prices. On the other hand, it is relatively easy to find campsites or free camping areas. In that case, if it is useful for your trip, we were able to sell everything in a pawn shop , more or less at half the price we had paid.

No matter how much you love driving and how good your companion’s conversation is, a road trip is bound to be full of boring moments. Music is a classic resource , so prepare your playlists in advance and organize the music on your MP3 player. Our suggestion is to bring thematic music, set in the country or region you are going to travel to: local music, national artists, soundtracks from films set in the area and things like that. If you want to get ideas for road trip songs , take a look at the post we linked to.

Our favorite way to train for a long car trip is podcasts . Download your favorites in advance to avoid surprises with coverage. Our recommendation here is to dive into the best history podcasts Again, if you can get episodes set in the history of your destination, so much the better. We learned a lot about the Mormons on our trip through Utah. You can search for podcasts on Ivoox , Spotify, Amazon Music, Podium Podcast. A very similar option is audiobooks , which can include narrative about the region you are visiting, historical disclosure, etc. Audible or Storytel are two of the best-known platforms.

Something we also really like are the games . If you drive, your options are somewhat limited, but you can always use your ingenuity to create word games, song games, etc., where you only need your voice. Your companions, on the other hand, could bring trivia or other games that don’t require too much effort.

One last suggestion: make a travel diary with your group . During long car trips, someone could write down the experiences of the previous day, describe the route, stick tickets and tickets on the pages, draw pictures, etc. If you drive, you won’t be able to contribute much, but you can add your comments and memories. When you get home, you can include a few photos. It will be a great keepsake for everyone!

Economic issues

One of the things we usually include in our travel plan (in Excel or similar) is a budget tab . Our calculations are rarely met, but they do give us a fairly approximate idea of ​​what we are going to spend and serve as a reference to keep ourselves within reasonable spending margins. The following fields cannot be missing in this spreadsheet: gasoline, tolls, meals, accommodation and visits (plus some tabs such as “shopping” or “others”).

If you are travelling in a group, we recommend that you use the Tricount app or a similar app to calculate overall expenses and easily settle debts . Each member of the group can use the app and add the expenses they make with their own money, including photos of the receipts or clarifications, if necessary. Once the trip is over, the app calculates how much each member owes and to whom they owe it.