The Grand Essentials Of Happiness

Road Trip Tips

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine

The best part of the road trip is actually preparing for the trip and the traveling itself; not the destination. When you take a road trip, it’s better to avoid driving along the highways for a long time. You can take local roads for a change. It actually helps you to bring the road trip spirit up. You will be more relaxed and enjoy the view while roaming. Both passengers and the driver will enjoy the break from highway. So it’s a good idea to figure out few exits and local roads as part of your trip.

You can stop at each cities along the way and take few minutes break; remember! Reaching the destination is not that important; traveling should be fun as well. You should plan the trip very well; otherwise you will be frustrated. Having a GPS helps a lot, but taking a city map or province map will come handy most of the time.

My friend and I planned to take a road trip to city of Ottawa from Toronto on one of the summer weekends. The distance between the two cities is almost 456 km and takes more than 5 hours of continuous driving with the speed of 100km/h. I made list of most interesting places that we wanted to visit in Ottawa. I wrote down the addresses for those place, map and hours of operation, contact information, admission and other specific details about the places of interest; and made a reservation at Holiday Inn a week earlier.

We left from Toronto around 7am, and we had coffee and a breakfast at 8:30 am. We hit the road earlier so then we can arrive earlier than getting burnt in the afternoon sun. We arrived around 1 pm and parked the car at a parking lot located in Metcalfe and Queen Street. Luckily parking is free on weekends.

We walked in the downtown area to find the places that we suppose to visit. It was a fun day. If you are one of those people who love to drive, you can go road trip with your family. You have control over your time and places where you want to go. If you take a bus or any other transportation, you don’t have any control over it.

Here are few tips that you need when you plan to take a road trip:

Preparing for the trip:

• Gather maps, brochures and guides of the itineraries; and make your hotel reservations 2/3 days earlier than the arrival.
• Always keep your phone, blackberry fully charged; keep the chargers with you in case of emergency.
• If it is a rental vehicle, understand the discount privileges. Are they charging for number of days that you are renting or are they charging you for how many kilometers you drive? If the deal is based on number of kilometers it is not a good idea for a road trip. ( when we rented a car, it was based on the number of kilometers and at the end we had to pay lot more than we expected, so keep that in mind)
• If it is your own vehicle, check to make sure everything is fine. Check your lights, signals, radio, fluid levels, belts, tire pressure, spare tire, wiper blades, and filters; and prepare an emergency road kit.
• People usually take candle, lighter, flashlight, blanket, First aid kit, some sort of cutting device in case of emergency, duct tape, tool kit, gloves, extra shoes, 2 gallons of water and towel as their emergency road kit.
• Take enough healthy snacks which needed while driving (fruits, carrots, cookies etc.); keep blanket and pillows for passengers; wear comfortable shoes and clothing; and take books that you like or song CDs that can uplift your spirit.
• Stop every couple of hours to relax and stretch.

Have a great summer road trip. Take every opportunity to explore the wonders of the world. Go out there and there is always lot to see. Collect your wonderful memories.

Remember! Our job in this world is to be happy and make others happy. Write your own experiences, don’t just read them from books.