Before You Go On Your Next Road Trip, Make Sure You Have Taken Care Of These 5 Things!

Gone are the days when our vacations meant boarding a bus/train/flight to reach from point A to point B. An increasing number of people are taking road trips, and not just to travel from one city or state to the other but also to another country; The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway for instance, allows one to reach Thailand via a road trip! 

Personally, I have taken road trips in and around Maharashtra - to Panchgani, Lonavala, Pune, Mahabaleshwar, Goa and the sorts and aim to try longer routes soon. 

Here are some pointers to keep in mind before embarking on a road trip:

1. First Aid Kit 

It is very important to have the basic medicines for headaches, allergies, nausea caused due to motion sickness, etc. with you at all times.  It is also essential to carry bandaging and other supplies for minor injuries. Don’t forget to keep a scissor/swiss knife and torch handy as well. If there are any other medications you regularly take, keep those handy for the trip duration and extra too, you never know when you may extend your trip. And if there are kids traveling along, then their medications and snacks too.

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2. Route, navigation, designated drivers

Make sure you know the route you’re taking, the road situation, tolls, and have a navigation system in your car or on your phone. It’s a good idea to download the map offline (Google maps has this option) as many a times you do not get network on the go or in remote locations. Also it is always good to have at least 2 people driving for long trips so that one can rest while the other drives.

3. Car check-up and spare parts

Make sure to have serviced the car just before the trip and have anything that requires repairs, addressed. Carry spare tyres, tools to change tyres, water and cloth etc. to clean car when required and anything else that you can think of to make your car ready for the adventure! It wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep some contact numbers handy for garages on the route, emergency services on national highways, and so on.

4. Car Insurance 

Better to be safe than sorry they say. Hence make sure your car insurance is renewed. If it has expired, you can renew it online easily in a matter of clicks. You just need a few details handy like the city, car and variant and registration year and month.

In fact another thing you could do if you are a frequent road trip traveler, which not many are aware of; is get a third party car insurance online. Wonder what’s that? If someone else’s car gets damaged by you during an accident, you will be covered for that as well and won’t have to shell a huge amount to reimburse the third party. In fact having a third party car insurance is a requirement under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

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5. A good playlist and some fun people.

No road trip is complete without awesome music! Since we all use music streaming apps these days, make sure you have songs downloaded to play offline - or else again because of bad internet network, you might have to make do without music. Don’t forget to ensure  you have the aux cable or its alternative in place. Check out some playlists made specially for road trips! 

And last but the least, it is very important to embark with a positive attitude and fun people to have a trip that you can remember for life!