I love to travel. Earlier this summer, we took a rather long road trip covering over 4300 miles in the United States. We saw family and friends across the country. We hadn't done a road trip that kept us on the road for more than a few days, so this one taught us a lot. I wanted to share a few tips for road trip adventures and I hope you find them helpful on your next road trip.
A few ideas on what to eat:
- Bring a variety of snacks from things you like to those you rarely eat (BONUS: throw a few chip clips and/or rubber bands in the bag o' snacks to keep things from spilling or getting stale)
- Try healthy and crunchy snacks like carrots or apples
- Trail mix is one of my favorite road trip snacks, along with string cheese
A few suggestions on what to listen to:
- Audiobooks pass the time well since they're long
- Podcasts
- Mix cds or at least a variety of the types of cds
As time allows during travel, use the road trip as an excuse to meet blog friends in real life. I was fortunate enough to meet up with four other bloggers while we traveled: Laura of Along for the Ride, Christa of C. Jane Create, Sandy of Sandy a la Mode and Mandy of Mandipidy! You can read more about when I met them.
Find the free stuff! It pays to do your homework while planning a trip, but sometimes you're lucky enough to stumble upon free stuff too. When we were in Breckenridge for the day, we happened upon free gondola rides up the mountain. It wasn't something we had budgeted time-wise, but we couldn't pass up a chance to ride a gondola in the Rockies!
Map out your rest stops and snacks; you can do this on the go from your smartphone or ahead of time online. We don't eat fast food much, but our road trip was a great excuse to stop at places we don't normally go to, including those outside the region we live in. We made a point to stop at Sonic (mostly for the happy hour limeades), Caribou Coffee and DQ Chill 'n Grill (I ate my first chicken basket) since we don't have those nearby.
Have you been on a road trip lately?