America’s dream and favorite past time is not baseball, apple pie, or an ice-cold beer. It is the open road—the car barreling down the interstate at 80 miles an hour with good music, good company, and incredible views. It is pit stops in ghost towns, it is getting lost in an unfamiliar place, and it is rolling the windows down, feet up on the dashboard, with the sun beating on you and your friends as you cruise closer and closer to your destination. It feels like complete freedom, and it is an old-fashioned cross-country road trip.
Regardless if you have a destination in mind, if you want to make it about the journey, or if you are just along for the ride, road trips are hands-down the best means of transportation from Point A to Point B if you have a few extra days to kill, a fuel-efficient vehicle, and great friends who are willing to come along. When executed correctly, road trips can actually save you lots of money and allow you to take a step back from day-to-day monotony and have the time of your life.
My two roommates and I recently took a cross-country road trip to San Diego, California with three full driving days each way. We left Minneapolis and stopped in Rapid City, South Dakota, saw mountains for the first time in Wyoming and dipped down into Salt Lake City and the rest of Utah. We then drove through the desert, past Las Vegas and into California to our destination along the Pacific Ocean where we stayed for three days.
The return trip took us back through California and to the winding scenic drive along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, up to Colorado via Indian country and then into Durango. We took a hard right onto the scenic highway 50 and then bolted north towards Denver, back through Wyoming into Rapid City again (where my roommate’s family lives) and finally home to Minneapolis.
It was a wild ride, and an experience that I could never, ever forget. I learned some valuable things along the way that I will keep in mind for my next grand adventure on the road. Here are a few tips that will help anyone plan, prepare, and execute a fun and safe road trip that will leave you with the most incredible memories and a burning desire to get back on the road the next chance you get!
- Decide your objective
What is the purpose of your trip? Are you trying to get somewhere on a time crunch? Just trying to save money on airfare? Or are you really just out for a good time and whatever life throws at you? All of these questions to consider will dictate what you can and cannot accomplish on your trip.
My friends and I decided that we wanted to make the trip about the journey and not the destination, which allowed for a lot of freedom and flexibility in what we were able to do—so much that we made the decision to stay an extra day in San Diego simply by moving a few things around on the return trip. This brings me to my next tip:
- Don’t Over-Plan
While it is always nice to have an outline of where you are going, how you are getting there, and what you will be doing, the best part about a road trip is the spontaneity factor. If you have your expected departure and arrival times planned out down to the second, you leave no room for exploration, for error, or for those spur-of-the-moment photo ops in front of incredible scenic features or a quirky tourist attraction which will end up being some of the highlights of your trip. If you are a planner, just take a deep breath and enjoy the ride. With that said, it is still important you actually know where you are going, and the best way to do that is follow Tip #2.
- Assign a Navigator
Smart phones and GPS navigators are great when you are searching for a nearby restaurant or drug store, but using them on an extensive road trip can waste a lot of roaming data, and they also have a notorious reputation to glitch at the worst possible times. Be sure to bring along a trusty road atlas, such as the one by AAA, and use that as your primary navigation tool on the open road. More importantly than having an atlas, though, is having someone who knows how to use it. Someone might naturally assume this role or it might come down to drawing straws, but having a designated navigator who knows where you are going and how you are getting there can really make or break the journey. Smart phones and GPS’s can loose service or cause you to stray far from your intended path, so having a map-literate person to guide is crucial. And no, this person does not need to be the backseat driver or stay awake during all driving hours, but it is incredibly helpful and nerve-easing to be able to shout out the mile marker you just passed so that your navigator can point out exactly where you are on a map and how far you are from the next exit or the destination.
I assumed the role of navigator on our recent road trip, and found that it prevented a lot of potential conflict and confusion. It was also really fun being able to look at the map and choose scenic routes rather than major interstates, such as our little excursion east on highway 50 along the Arkansas River in Colorado; which was by far some of my favorite scenery during the entire trip.
- Pack Light
This will really depend on the size and volume of your vehicle, but if you can avoid playing Tetris every time you need to pop the trunk to get out your tripod, the trip will be much more hassle-free and you can focus on what really matters. As with any trip, bring only what you really need that you won’t be able to pick up along the way. There will always be a gas station and convenience store a few exits down the road, and a Target in every major town.
We made the mistake of bringing and entire tub of snacks and a collapsible cooler. This was incredibly unnecessary: most of the time we would just pick up food along the way anyways, and it was very inconvenient to have to move things around in the back to get to it. We also forgot to put ice in the cooler, completely defeating its purpose, so we ended up having to empty all of the food and travel around with the extra baggage of an empty cooler. The only food items you should bring if you are trying to pack light is a jug of water in case of emergencies and maybe a box of granola bars.
Another mistake that we made was bringing too many books, movies, and other things to pass the time in the car. I personally brought about eight books with me. I am an avid reader and knew I would be spending a lot of down time in the back seat, but I ended up only reading about one chapter before falling asleep or being completely distracted by the new surroundings out the window. My friend also brought almost an entire suitcase’s worth of homework and textbooks, which took up plenty of space in the trunk and were hardly ever used. If you have homework to work on, make copies of the textbook sections or other materials you need and try to condense them into a single binder. You will most likely be too exhausted from your driving shift, or like me, too distracted by the scenery, to ever whip out that Earnest Hemingway.
There are, however, several absolutely essential items that I would recommend bringing with that I will discus in a later post.
- Keep it cheap
There are countless ways you can reduce the cost of your trip. The most efficient and eco-friendly method is to take a fuel-efficient car, which can often limit you on space but will noticeably reduce the frequency of gas station stops, thus reducing the temptation to buy useless souvenirs and junk food from convenience stores.
Another method that we used to keep costs low was to stay at the absolute worst hotels we could find. I mean, we didn’t set out to stay in sketchy 2-star motels, but when we had been on the road for twelve hours all we needed was a place to rest our head for the night and maybe take a shower, our expectations were not very high. We never paid more that $50, and between the three of us it was about $16 per night.
We also paid a lot of attention to where locals were eating and asked many people along the way for recommendations. Most of the time, those places just have better, more authentic food and tend to be more inexpensive as well. The three of us are all serious self-proclaimed sushi connoisseurs, so we always paid attention to when local sushi bars or Japanese restaurants featured a happy hour, slashing the cost of an 8-piece rainbow roll in half.
The final and possibly most cost effective way to reduce costs is to bypass the typical tourist destinations that you could purchase a postcard for, and instead spend time getting to know the locals. Gather round a street performer for an impromptu jam session or take a walk along the pier and mingle with the diverse inhabitants you pass. Those spontaneous encounters will be the most cherished aspects of your trip; I know that in 50 years I am much more likely to remember the time a homeless man took a bite of my friend’s grilled cheese at Mission Beach than the roller coaster ride had we taken it.
There is no empirical answer for how to have a successful road trip, just remember to take advantage of the opportunity to be completely uninhibited and really experience your new surroundings—they will be fleeting and can pass you by in the blink of an eye. As long as your car is mechanically sound, you will reach your destination; but to really get the most out of the trip, focus on the present, the here, and the journey.
“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? – it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”
-Jack Kerouac, On the Road