Collaborative Post
It’s that time of the year! You may be planning for a road trip to finally visit family or just to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city while enjoying the holidays with your loved ones. As much as this creates room for bonding, you’ll need tips for a more pleasurable ride. From snacking to pit stops, here’s all you need for a smooth family road trip. Let’s get to it!
Have a Travel Itinerary
This sounds interesting! Have an itinerary that outlines all the fun activities for your trip. It should include scheduled stops and snack and game time. These road to-do lists create anticipation and excitement in kids. Also, avail your children the opportunity to pick at least one activity each day. Not only does this keep them engaged, but it also fosters co-operation amongst the kids as they’ll have to work together.
Use Google Map to map out your route. You can drive for three hours and stop for a meal for an hour at a roadside restaurant or book a hotel for the night. Make a tentative list of restaurants and hotels along the route where you and your family can enjoy the meal and comfort. Doing this will save you the hassle of staying in an uncomfortable room with a bad meal experience. Road trips will enable you to know new places, meet new people and experience new landscapes. Besides, they might make driving lessons more fun!
Leave Early
Leaving early in the morning is ideal for road trips. It gives room for hours of quiet driving as kids will still be sleeping, and the highways won’t be busy. You won’t have to drive for too long before dawn. There won’t be much pressure to arrive early at your destination, and you’ll have time for some spontaneous park visits. Guess what? An early ride indicates adventure for kids.
Embrace Games
Games are fun activities that will keep everyone engaged on long journeys. Play games that’ll involve everyone. You can play old favourites like 20 questions and the License Plate Game, whereby the family works together as a team to spot tags from all 50 states. Another game you can play is Would You Rather, but you’ll need to set some rules, so things don’t go awry.
Bring Some Entertainment
For more fun and enjoyable ride, infuse some entertainment. Have a built-in DVD/Entertainment System in your vehicle. Consider getting some movies that your kids haven’t seen or probably a new release. This creates an exciting experience for your children and keeps them enthralled for hours such that they won’t have to ask, “Are we there yet?” questions. Ensure you take along their favorite movies too.
Go Snacking
What’s a road trip without snacks? Take some family-friendly snacks that everyone will enjoy. These can include muffins (which can be taken for breakfast), dried cereals, peanut butter, jelly sandwiches, and fresh fruits. Furthermore, take bottled water, a first aid kit, and over-the-counter drugs. You can never tell when someone develops a headache or becomes stressed out. They’ll come in handy.
In addition, prepare for emergencies by having a backup communication device. As convenient as smartphones are, unfortunately, they can’t do much in remote areas with no mobile reception. The solution? Consider investing in old-school citizens band radios, or CB radios, for communication. They allow drivers to talk to each other over short distances, which can be pretty helpful during emergencies in hard-to-reach areas. And lastly, don’t forget to check which countries accept international driving permits and bring appropriate international driver’s permits when going on a road trip.
As much as we wish for safe road trips, no one can tell what lies ahead. It’s better to be safe than sorry, friends!
Happy travelling!
