Road Trip Essentials

As I mentioned the other day, we took a trip to Georgia's coast this past weekend. Luckily, we live within a few hours drive of Tybee, so we were able to save some money by taking a little road trip in our car rather than flying or renting another car.

We're not strangers to road tripping. The hubby and I have traveled back and forth to Georgia on various occasions (which you can read more about here, here, here, here, and even here). We even took a recent road trip all the way to Connecticut. Not to mention the in-state road trips that we've taken to Navarre and St. Augustine.

With all of our time on the road, we've figured out what are our "must haves" for traveling. Obviously this is a short list. We pack a lot more than this. But these are the things that we make sure are in the cab of the car and not tucked away in our luggage in the trunk.

First of all, what road trip wouldn't be complete without a bag full of snacks? Seriously. 

Whenever we make a trip to the grocery store before a road trip, we make sure to pick up some of our favorite travel snacks. Our top choices? Sour gummy worms, regular gummy worms, breath mints, caramel apple lollipops, and swedish fish. Sometimes, if we know it will be a longer road trip, we pack some chips or crackers.

Also, before we hit the road, the hubby makes sure to program our trip into the GPS. I like to think my map-reading skills are amazing, but I know they're pretty rusty. Plus, if you're going out of state, it's hard to know what the quickest route will be. Hence, the GPS. For longer trips, we use our Garmin. But, once we get there, we rely on our cell phones to direct us to the local attractions.

Speaking of cell phones, those are another one of our "must haves." Besides the fact that they keep the passenger occupied with solitare, Instagram, and Facebook, it's also how we keep our families informed about where we are on the road. Even though we're both in our mid-twenties and have been living on our own for a few years now, our parents still like to be kept in the loop when we travel. So, whoever is sitting in the passenger seat (which is usually me) has the job of being the designated texter.

Another item in the back seat of the car is a cooler with drinks. We try not to take many pit stops on road trips, and when we do, it's usually only to rest areas or the gas station. So, rather than paying a lot of money on drinks/food from vending machines, we bring our own. On our recent trip to Tybee, we knew our hotel room would have a mini kitchen, so we packed lunch meat to make sandwiches all weekend. Made grabbing lunch easy and a whole lot cheaper!

The last item on our list of "must haves" is music. Usually we take Dan's iPod with us. Sometimes we just use the iHeart Radio app on our phones. If there is one thing we hate to listen to it's static on the radio. So, as we drive further away from home, and our favorite stations start to fade, we switch to the iPod. It's a whole lot easier than having to find a new radio station every half hour. Plus, we can guarantee that every song that comes on is a song that we like.

Dan relies on music a lot when he's driving to keep him awake - especially when I fall asleep and I'm not there to talk his ear off talk to.

Our list is pretty basic, but without any one of these things, our road trips just simply wouldn't be as fun. Tomorrow I'll be back with photos from our trip. But, until then, tell me what your road trip essentials are? Maybe its a pillow from home or a certain pair of shoes? Would love to hear about it!