Photo credit: Niccola Pritchett
Planning a road trip with your best friends for spring break can be an exciting idea but proper execution of road trip etiquette is crucial.
Choose a smart car
Just because you own a car, doesn’t mean that it can handle a hot
long car ride. Decide with your friends whose car has the best fuel efficiency and is in good condition. Take it from me; I was on a spring break trip four years ago that ended in our driver’s transfer case falling out from under the Jeep on the freeway 20 miles outside of Beaver and we were stranded on the side of the road. Make sure to choose wisely!
Planned stops
Before you hit the road, talk among your group members and decide where the most logical stops are. It’s wise to ask friends who have done the same trip where their stops are.
An example would be with driving to southern California, St. George and Las Vegas are popular stopping points. With your stops, decide where you want to eat if you need a real meal. The drive-thru is your best friend when it comes to time. You definitely want to avoid a sit down restaurant. Save that for the trip itself!
Packing snacks
A great reason to fill up your gas tank right before you hit the freeway is running in the gas station and stocking up on supplies. From water, caffeine, candy and maybe some granola bars, you can buy whatever you and your friends’ hearts desire. This will help everyone in the car stay less hungry so you only need to get food at a gas station stop once.
Top it off
Some students may just want to get on the road and be fine with their tank being a quarter full but that ensures stopping more to fill up than is needed. Even if your trip is less than 5 hours, you want to get to your destination as quickly as possible, and extra stops can be avoided by topping off at the gas station.
Liquids
A clear theme that’s been established with doing a road trip right is the least amount of stops possible makes for a happier group. Of course we all like to stay hydrated and having water in the car is important, but everyone should try to minimize the amount of liquid they consume. If you have that friend that keeps on chugging, that means more frequent stops and adding a lot of unnecessary travel time to your itinerary. No one wants that.
Driver rotations
Regardless of who is driving the car, the longer the trip, the more rotations will be necessary between who is driving. Plan how many increments you all feel comfortable driving in and make sure everyone communicates if they are feeling too tired, safety is above all else.
If you choose to follow all of these steps your road trip will be smooth sailing and all your energy can be focused on the destination itself!
