I have recently returned from a two week road trip down Highway One in California and am currently prepping the posts for all the places we visited. In the meantime I wanted to share a few tips I found useful for the trip.
There are plenty of blogs and websites out there with tips for preparing for a road-trip. However I found not all of it was relevant to me. I have to put together my tips which have found useful for travelling on the road abroad.
GOOGLE MAPS APP
When you're abroad you don't want to have to pay crazy charges for data and 4G connection. However most people rely on their phones for getting around places and directing them via maps.
There is a way around this without paying or 'bundles' or 'bolt-ons'.
Download the Google Maps App onto your phone and iPad before you leave and if you don't already have, set up a Google account.
Using your Google account, go to Maps and locate all the hotels, places, restaurants you want to visit. Once you find each one 'save' them. This leaves a star on their location.
Once you have saved all the locations that may be off interest, save and download the map. You can do this on both the iPad and the iPhone. However if you do it on the iPhone you have the added benefit of seeing your location. Even though you may have roaming off, it can still work out your location via other devices around you (I believe). However if you are in the wilderness and there isn't many people around, your location won't be shown.
PACKING
When travelling on a road-trip you may end stay only one or maybe two nights at different locations an unpacking and re-packing can get stressful. Ideally each evening you could work out what you'll want to wear out that evening and the following day and pack it all into a smaller bag rather than taking in your massive suitcase. However being this organised on holiday, never happens!
I found the MUJI garmen bags great in preventing complete chaos inside my suitcase. Two large bags, one for tops and jumpers and the second for trousers skirts and dress. Then a medium two sided bag for undies and also another for swimwear. Getting the two sided bags means you can put any dirty laundry in a separate compartment. Pure genius!
You can easily take the bags out of the case and into draws without any faff and vice versa.
RESTAURANTS
It is a lovely idea to play everything by ear and just to drop into fantastic restaurants as you find them in the evening. However any decent restaurant will usually be booked up a few days in advance plus on your first evening somewhere it's nice not to ave to think about where you can eat. By the following evening you may got a better feel for the place and may have spotted another place you want to go.
STOCK UP YOUR CAR
I makes sense to go to supermarket and buy both big and small bottles off water, a few bottles of beer and nibbles that don't need refrigeration at the beginning. You're in car, you might as well take advantage of it. So when you arrive at any given location you already have some basics at hand.
If you're heading out on a road-trip hope you have as much fun as we did!
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