5 Road Trip Essentials
Today I have Annie from The Free & Wild Blog guest posting. Annie and I started following each other on Instagram several months ago, I am not totally sure how it happened, but I think I followed her through the #MoreThanAFrame link-up. We started chatting and soon realized we had graduated from the same high school (shout out to the Mavericks!) Annie is a newlywed, loves to travel, and basically just adorable. I hope you enjoy her post today, be sure to check out everything else she talks about at The Free & Wild Blog!
I like to consider myself the road trip queen. It’s by far my FAVORITE way to travel. I love travel, but I really hate flying (Am I the only one that is freaked out by a 75 ton airplane defying gravity? Or getting patted down during a long security line? No thanks.) There’s nothing in the world like the open road, a full tank of gas, the windows down and seeing a different city every night. Last summer, my two best friends and I went on the ultimate college road trip. This summer, my husband and I just got back from our honeymoon road trip (It. Was. A. Blast.)
So in an effort to encourage you to invest in a road trip this summer, I figured I would share my top 5 essentials for a successful road trip.
1. Phone Charger
Between GPS, Instagram (admit it, you’re gonna want to gram pictures of your food you get along the way…) and Google, you’re going to run out of battery….fast. And believe me, you do NOT want to be stuck in the middle of Arizona desert with a dead cell phone battery and no GPS. I always bring two phone charger cords. One to bring into hotels with a wall plug, and one for the car. If your car has a USB port, sweet! If not, or if you’ll be staying somewhere without a wall charger (like our awesome treehouse we stayed at in Petaluma, CA on our honeymoon!), I would highly recommend that you try out Blink One Power Bank. It’s super easy to use and a must-have for me on my roadtrips!
2. Roadtrippers App
I never leave for a roadtrip, even if I’m just driving an hour in my own state, without checking Roadtrippers first. It’s an awesome app that helps you build an itinerary for your trip. You just type in your starting point and your destination. It will show you all the amazing things you could stop and see on your way. It tells you how long it will take you to get there and even how much gas money you’ll spend. The design is cool and extremely helpful. You never know what you’ll miss if you don’t check this app first.
3. Itinerary
I totally believe in having an adventurous, spontaneous spirit, but if you don’t have an itinerary, your whole trip could really turn into a disaster. I use the above-mentioned Roadtrippers app to help plan where we’ll stop along our way. I try to never drive more than 8 hours a day because I don’t want to not be able to stop and smell the roses along the way. My two best friends and I created a Google doc last summer that we planned what time we would leave in the morning, and what time we would arrive in our next city. We included any sights we wanted to see or any restaurants we knew we definitely wanted to check out. This helps give you just an idea of how your days are going to go. Believe me, no matter what your plans are going to get tweaked, so don’t feel like you’re too locked into your schedule. That’s the beauty of a roadtrip!
4. Journal + Pen
I can’t travel without a journal. There’s so many uses! I like to record how many miles we’ve driven, my first impressions of a place, where we ate, any funny mishaps along the way. I’ve looked over my journal from last summer’s roadtrip a billion times and it’s so fun to relive the memories of our trip! My mom bought me a roadtrip journal for our honeymoon road trip and let me tell you…that thing sure was amazing to have! I would definitely recommend this journal for anyone who loves road trips! I brought along another journal as well, because I wanted to have blank space to write down personal thoughts or musings, or doodles (I doodled so much on our honeymoon! To the point where my pen died on the plane home, and I had to borrow one from the flight attendant!)
5. Water bottle
This one may be the most important. It’s summer. It’s hot. You’re going to have long days. Don’t be silly….pack a water bottle! I really love my Nalgene, it’s easier to wash than a Camelback, and it can hold so much. Don’t be afraid of using tap water. Sometimes it may be your only option on the road, but honestly, it’s better than getting dehydrated. My Nalgene is my best friend on the road.
So there you go! Now get out there and get to exploring, my friend!
I hope you enjoyed this wonderful post by Annie as much as I did! If you would like to read more about her adventures as a newlywed and her traveling tales, you can find her here:
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