1. A reliable car - obviously
2. A road-trip Anthem - something fun and exciting to get you in a party mood! (Don’t forget other music too - you don’t want to get tired of your anthem within the 1st hour of your trip)
3. Cooler bag with water, drinks (wine, beer, whatever) - the driving part will get extremely tedious if you have to stop each time when you get thirsty. Also, you might have a room with a little balcony and killer view, so a cool bottle of something nice will be perfect to sip on while the sun sets. Finally - and not very pleasant - imagine your car breaks down in the middle of the desert (to prevent that, see tip no 1)
4. Power-/breakfast-bars: Hunger strikes at the oddest times
5. Emergency First-Aid kit - you never know when you might slip and fall down in front of the entire town, skulk away to your car with blood running down your foot, leaving your skin and pride behind on the pavement. (Damn you, you dodgy pavement in Carmel-by-the-sea!)
6. Map and/or GPS - I prefer to have both. The GPS system gets you to your venue easier/faster than an irritated, tired, view-watching navigator with a map, but having a map is a good thing, because you can see the whole area and perhaps find some other cool places that you should visit.
7. Something warm: ALWAYS take a coat, jacket or a sweater, because you can’t always rely on the 10-day weather forecast. I packed for a summer holiday, but it was still spring, so some mornings and evenings were quite chilly and I didn’t have anything warm. How I let that happen, goodness only knows. My mom taught me to pack for all seasons and occasions, so she would have a full sized suitcase for a weekend away. My grand-ma’s suitcase is always big enough to store a corpse in. Why did I not listen…why???
8. Stories - the road gets long, so hopefully you’ve got an arsenal of stories that the other person(s) have not yet heard or won‘t mind hearing again.
9. Swiss-army thingy-ma-jiggy - you never know when you need to cut/chop something
10. Sunblock and hat - the sun can get hectic - just because it isn’t boiling doesn’t mean that you are not burning and just because you can feel the cool breeze through your hair, does not mean that the sun isn’t doing spit-braai on your scalp…trust me…I had the painful red scalp to prove it.
11. Patience - with the road, other drivers, each other…basically, just remember that you are on holiday.
12. Flexibility - things don’t always work out as planned, so you need to be chilled and go with the flow
13. Fun! Seriously…don’t forget to have fun - make sure you stop at enough places to see and do some great things, because viewing everything from the seat of your car is not exactly the best way to have fun or to see the world.
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Perfect list! Must remember to follow to the letter!
ReplyDeleteWe always end up with NO music in the car and when the radio stations start getting fuzzy we're left to our terribly out-of-tune own devices!
(Stupid Carmel pavement! I completely twisted my ankle on our LAST NIGHT in Mexico and went limping home in tears, a first aid kit would've been useful!)