Taking a road trip can be a great way to see the country around you and experience a culture that you otherwise would have flown right over had you taken a flight. However, driving cross country also requires that you spend more time planning and preparing for your adventure. So to help ensure that you’re able to have an enjoyable time on your journey, here are three tips for planning a cross-country road trip.
Do Some Research Before You Take Off
While you might like the idea of being spontaneous and simply taking off wherever the wind takes you, it’s a smart idea to do a little research and planning before you leave home on your trip. According to Melanie Radzicki McManus, a contributor to How Stuff Works, taking the time to research some attractions that will pop up along your way could help you not only have a more enjoyable trip but could also help to break your days up a bit. However, if you leave your stops just to chance or just what you happen to see as you’re driving along the road, you could miss out on some exciting experiences.
Try Not To Overschedule Yourself
Although we mentioned above that it’s worth it to do some research and planning about your trip before you leave, Ed Hewitt, a contributor to Smarter Travel, shares that it could be a mistake for you to take your planning too far and overschedule yourself. If something happens along the way, be it an accident on the freeway or a late start to your day, you don’t want to have the entire rest of your trip thrown off because of it. So while it can be helpful to have a general idea of where you want to go and when it’s also smart to give yourself a little bit of wiggle room, you’re not rushing past things you should enjoy.
Keep Someone Back Home In The Loop
When traveling across the country, regardless of what country you’re in, there’s a chance that you’ll go through some areas where you won’t have service on your cell phone. While this might not be an issue, if you do run into problems, it will help you if you have someone back home looking out for you. To accomplish this, Robert Schrader, a contributor to SkyScanner.com, advises that you keep someone back home in the loop about where you’re going and when you plan to get there. If they don’t hear from you by an appointed time, that person can contact the authorities so that someone can go out looking for you.
If you want to take a road trip across the country, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you successfully plan for this amazing adventure.