Being the adventurous travelers we are, one of our first big travels was an United States road trip! We spent a month traveling through the West coast; down the Pacific Coast Highway, through the redwood forest, and traversing Yellowstone. We will soon be posting our itineraries, suggestions, and the best parts of the trip. But for now, we want to help make your next road trip easier with a list of the Dos and Don’t of making the trek by land!
Do
- Bring an AUX cord, CDs, or something!
Road trips are long, and they will get boring fast if you have to keep changing the radio station in a desperate attempt to find something to listen to. Save yourself the headache and bring your own jams. We also found that Spotify was a great way to do a pre-road trip jam playlist. Check out our tips for other ways to fight travel boredom here! - Bring a friend
Don’t get me wrong, a solo road trip is a beautiful and awakening experience. However, I love going on road trips with people I love and can share the experience with (then again, we are a blogging travel couple, so what do I know?) - Find a podcast you like
The first time we ever listened to a podcast was on our road trip and it was life changing. It made time go by much faster, we learned some new information, and had something to discuss and feed our minds. - Download RoadTrippers
This app was a gift from the Heavens. You enter in the cities or places you want to go on your road trip and it provides you with hotels, restaurants, nature viewing spots, and my favorite was the off-beat attractions. Using this app helped give us the “traditional” road trip feel. We even got shirts at the World’s Largest Artichoke! - Always ask
Let’s role play for a second. You are driving through a State you have never been to before and you stop for gas. At this moment you realize you are hungry. Are you really just going to blindly make a decision about where to go eat instead of asking the people who LIVE in this town? Go make a new friend and ask for suggestions. I have never been let down by asking a local for their recommendations about anything.
Don’t
- Don’t try to save too much money
This one is fairly straightforward. If you spend too much time trying to save money and cut corners, you are going to miss out on some amazing opportunities. - Don’t take the interstate too often
While the interstate is faster and more straight lines, the old highways are usually more scenic and have more things to do roadside, like stores and attractions. - Don’t have a time frame
This one ties in with trying to save too much money. If you are trying to get somewhere at a specific time, you are going to miss out on all the things along the way. We had to get from Redwoods Park to Napa Valley in 6 hours in order to make our reservation…it was a 5 hour 45 minute drive. Needless to say, we did not get to stop and smell the roses. - Don’t judge a book by its cover
It is so easy to see a dingy roadside attraction and turn the other way. However, we have found those are usually the best. Go see the off-beat attractions, and you will be glad you did. - Don’t try to fit everything in
As travelers we want to see it all. During our road trip we wanted to go to every attraction, every national park but if we did we would have no time to appreciate what it is. As much we are want to see everything realize that quality always beats quantity.
Whatever you do make your trip uniquely you. What are your road trip guidelines that you try to follow?