So You Want To Take A Road Trip?

A quick guide in traveling cross country alone or with people who may or may not be slightly inebriated.

When you have a driving license, the immediate prospect of driving across this green and pleasant land is a very attractive one. However, there are always a couple of important aspects of a road trip to take into consideration, what to take, where to go and most importantly, how the hell are we going to get there? So let’s take this step by step.

Step 1: What to take.

Of course you’ll be needing the basics, food, clothes etc. But there’re a couple of things I must stress from personal experience. Welly boots are your friends and saviors, as are emergency phone chargers and tinned fruit. While you may be tempted to stock up on junk food, the person who’s car it is may object when there’s monster munch poking every crevice (I am not endorsing any particular brand of crisps, I’m honestly indifferent to Monster munch). Also, if you decide to look into car leasing, that advice may still apply, being able to hire a new car is lovely, just as long as you don’t end up sitting in chocolate.

When talking about accommodation,camping would be the most fund friendly of options. That being said, make sure you’ve bought a tent that’s rugged and waterproof, while this Island of ours can be green and pleasant, it can also be a heartless beast who can flood your tent and blow away said tent leaving you standing in a field in your socks wondering where it all went wrong.

Speaking of embarrassment and regret, let’s talk about alcohol. We humans are prone to indulgence and excess but as many of us have learnt throughout life’s great highway; you can have too much of a good thing. So always remember to drink responsibly and on every night out or chilled night in, assign at least one person to be on the soda water (add some lime if you’re feeling adventurous).

Step 2: Where to go.

You can go anywhere! That’s the beauty of it. The idea of throwing caution to the wind and just going wherever the wind may guide you is an appealing image, and some devil may care attitude may add to the fun. On the other hand, the wind will provide sod all help when you’ve missed a crucial turning so make sure you at least have an A to Z and most camp sites will need some form of booking so work out your routes.

Step 3: How the hell are you getting there?

While we do have a fantastic transport network in the UK, the true freedom of driving makes it that much easier to head to whatever place takes you fancy. It’s important to know that whichever car you chose, it’s a good idea to have more than one person insured on the car, it may cost more but when emergencies occur, it could be mandatory. What’s great is that even if you or your friends don’t own a car, you can still drive! Car leasing these days is a valid option if you’re planning an excursion, as car leasing can be flexible and not even ludicrously expensive.

So those are just a few tips when planning one hell of a road trip, there are always aspects you can’t control: traffic, weather and your friends’ personal hygiene preferences but trust me, you won’t regret a thing.

 

Tags: Open Road, Recreation, roadtrip, Travel, Travelogues

Category: Car Lease, Car Purchase