I love going on road trips! There are so many adventures you can have on a road trip, because undoubtedly you will find something not mentioned anywhere, like a small town with great restaurants or something on the roadside that piques your interest. Most of us do have time constraints when it comes to vacations, but you can always find a half-hour or so to check out something new. I definitely advise planning your trip ahead of time so you will know where you can spare time between destinations. If you have the time, it is so much fun to veer a little off course and find new places.
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Packing
One of the best things about road trips is what you can pack. You can take full size bottles of toiletries, pack extra clothes, if those shoes don’t fit in the suitcase, you can put them on the backseat floor, and you can take drinks and snacks with you. You can bring a cooler with you, so you have cold drinks as you drive. We found that a rolling cooler works really well. The only drawback is that if you use it as a fridge in the hotel room, you will need to unpack it in the morning to dump out the water and put more ice in. But it does come in handy when your hotel room doesn’t have a fridge. Buying snacks ahead of time, saves money too! I also bring a box of tissue and roll of paper towels, we always seem to get the tissue box that has only a couple left in it, so I just bring my own. Since we usually make a couple quick stops to sleep on our way to our destination, I love that I can leave my big suitcase in the car and just bring in my overnight bag. I pack my pajamas in my overnight, then put the outfit for the next day on the top in my luggage and just grab that. It saves me from taking the big suitcase to every hotel. Once we get to our destination and are staying a couple of days, I bring in the big suitcase and repack for trip home
Landscapes & tourist stops
Another reason I love going on a road trip is seeing the countryside. I love taking pictures from the car, even though they don’t always come out perfect, as you can see. Still, it helps me preserve my memories from the trip.
I try so hard to remember all of the places we travel through which is why I do take pictures, but I’ve found that writing it down as we drive is a much better way to remember. I put little descriptions in a small notepad and then when we stop for the night, I expand on them. These notepads are great to keep in your vehicle so you can quickly get to them.
As mentioned earlier, you always seem to find something unique as you’re driving down the road. An example is Uranus, MO. Who would have thought that there would be a great fudge factory and cute little tourist attraction area in the middle of Missouri? It really was fun to stop here and only added about a half hour to our trip to Oklahoma. I would imagine that on almost every highway in America you will come across an exit that has some kind of tourist attraction. And I’m a sucker for tourist traps! But you will also find landmarks with historical significance, small towns that have interesting history and many other things of interest if you have time to stop. Check out the blue whale in Oklahoma here https://studio.youtube.com/video/OpJ4jTrsxJs/edit
More space
Another great thing about road trips is if you don’t load the vehicle up on your way there, then you have plenty of room to put all those great souvenirs and purchases you made. And if you’ve read my post about Santa Fe, you’ll know I love to shop!! This is a picture of shopping in Sedona. I love finding shopping areas like this to just wander around. You also don’t have to worry about how heavy your suitcase is or how many you’re taking. As I mentioned before you also don’t have to worry about the size of your luggage, etc. There’s just more room for extra things you can’t take on a plane.
Comfort
And lastly, what I love about road trips is the comfort. You can take your shoes off, have the air or heat at the temperature you want, and get a drink or snack when you feel like it. You can relax more and not worry about bothering other people. To me, it’s just a more relaxed way to travel.
Conclusion
For me, road trips are the way to go if you are going within a day’s travel time of your home or further if you have extra time. We usually have a destination in mind, then find new ways to get to it and a different way on the way home to see different scenery. Even if you just do a quick day trip, it’s always fun to discover new things and places. The comfort, control of trip and space makes a road trip much more relaxing for us. I hope you take the time to do this once in a while. If nothing else, it will give you memories to look back on. We love to travel and inspire others to do the same. Please read about our other adventures if you are looking for some inspiration for your next adventure. If you want to see some of our travel videos, click here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHd0t6kGqoLBGO9NhpaxrmQ