As road trips are my favourite type of holiday then as a family, we have completed quite a few over the years, from camping trips around France and Germany, to road tripping in Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, the USA, and a short road trip in Oman. Each one offered a completely different experience and set of challenges from which we have learnt quite a bit, including about ourselves. In case it can be of use to you, here are some of things we have learnt from our road trips to date.
Logistics:
- The night before
To ensure that you catch your international flight, stay at the airport the night before to avoid any last-minute stressful dashes to the airport.
- After a long-haul flight
After a long haul flight, stay overnight at (or nearby) the airport to avoid driving when tired. Collect your hire car in the morning and set off on your road trip when you are refreshed – what you spend on the hotel, you will save on the car hire for your arrival night.
- Take time to acclimatise
If you have arrived at a destination after a long-haul flight, then book a couple of days there to start acclimatising to the local time zone, before heading off on your road trip.
- Connecting flights
Over, rather than under estimate, how long you need to make connecting flights. This is to ensure that you don’t get caught out, if your first flight arrives later than scheduled, or there is a long wait at baggage control for your luggage (if travelling with different airlines).
- Airport car parking
Book your airport parking and your flight separately, to avoid the situation whereby your flight times change but you are unable to contact the airport parking to change your drop off/collection times – this has happened to us!
- Book car ferries in advance
If your journey involves catching a car ferry (such as, on the San Juan Islands to Vancouver Island route), note that these routes can sell out in high season so book your car ferries early to avoid disappointment or hanging around at the ferry port for the next available space.
Hire cars:
- Book in advance
Don’t leave it to chance, always book your hire car before travelling to ensure that you can be allocated a car.
- Be warned that...
You can make the right booking, but you don’t always get the type of hire car that you booked!
- Boot space
Make sure that you book a car with boot space large enough for your luggage. We made this mistake in Florida when we booked a convertible but then had no room for the luggage, or the kids. Rookie error!
- Express pick-up is worth it
We discovered that using the Express Pick-up service can help you avoid long queues at the car hire desk which is particularly welcome after a long-haul flight when you are tired.
- You don’t need a hire car in the city
If you are arriving into a city for several days before embarking on your road trip, then you can use taxis and public transport to get around in the city, and delay picking up your hire car until you are leaving, which is more cost effective as don’t have to pay for parking it in town.
- Not all sat navs are equal
We have found big differences between the sat nav systems that we’ve used, but agree that WAZE has been the most reliable on our travels,
Take your time:
- Get the route plan right
Try not to drive for more than 2 hours without a rest or a sightseeing break. Look for points of interest suitable for pitstops along the way – to keep interest levels up, stretch legs and/or change drivers.
- Embrace unscheduled stops
If you see something that catches your eye, then pull over and take a closer look. Make time to stop and enjoy what you see on the way, even if unscheduled – you will often be rewarded.
- Don’t underestimate time to get to places
It rarely takes exactly the time predicted by GoogleMaps to get from A to B, due to traffic on the road, accidents, detours, unscheduled stops (toilet breaks and coffee stops), so always allow some slack time in your itinerary.
- Enjoy the journey
View the actual driving as part of the holiday experience if you are on a road trip. It’s amazing how the scenery can change from A to B and what you can notice by the side of the road.
Back up plans:
- Physical maps
It’s advisable to carry a physical road map to help you on that one time that the sat nav fails and you don’t have any connectivity. This happened to us in Canada when the hire car went into Valet Mode and the passcode to unlock it didn’t work. Alternatively download GoogleMaps for the areas you are visiting so that you can use this if needed.
- Phone chargers and plug converters
Make sure that you have ways of charging your phone (and other devices) on your road trip. Don’t forget your charging cables and buy plug converters for the country/countries you are visiting.
- Charged power bank
Take a fully charged power bank with you in your hand luggage to help keep everything charged on long days or travel, such as long-haul flights.
- Fill up at fuel stations
When we are road tripping, we tend to keep our fuel tank topped up more regularly than we would at home, particularly if we have a long drive ahead in more remote areas. Don’t leave it as long as normal to refuel.
- Local currency
For many destinations in the world, you can now pay for most things by card. However, this is not the case for everywhere, or every circumstance and so it helps to have some small amounts of local currency to hand. For example, in Costa Rica, we needed small amounts of currency to pay for the toll roads as cards weren’t accepted.
People and animals:
- Pay attention to animal warning signs
If there are signs by the side of the road warning you about the risks of animals in the road, then pay attention, as they really do run out into the road without warning. We narrowly avoided two fearless kangaroos in Australia, one in the daytime and one at dusk. Luckily no people or animals were harmed on this occasion!
- Know your strengths
As well as sharing the driving, it helps if you can work around each other’s strengths. For example, I am usually calmer than my husband driving in cities, but he is better at navigating and driving on busy motorways. So, we divide and conquer in that way.
- Feed your passengers
Don’t set off on your journey without some snacks and drinks in the car. However, try to pack a mixture of healthy and unhealthy snacks to ensure that you don’t end up with a car-load of sugar wired kids or teenagers!
- People will help you when needed
We have had direct experience of getting stuck in the Omani desert in the sand as the light was fading and panicking about how we were going to get back on track. Luckily a van of locals appeared (seemingly from nowhere) and helped tow us out and set us on our way. Thank you for the kindness of strangers.
It’s the things that happen along the way which make a road trip interesting, and help form the memories which you will take home with you. Learn from the things which don’t go according to plan wrong and let these experiences form part of your planned for the next trip. Embrace the journey and everything which you experience as part of that adventure.
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