Road Trippin’ Tips

 

The summer after high school I was wanting to go out and experience new things. My friend and I had been jokingly talking about driving to Phoenix for months (my parents had a place there). So at the beginning of July, we decided to leave the following week, basically because why not.

The road trip took us 12 days and we started by driving down to Osoyoos in BC. We hit up Portland, Fort Bragg, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, San Diego and a few more quaint little towns in between, before finally making it to Phoenix. (I always say we drove to Mexico, because we stopped on the Mexican border, and it just sounds so much cooler, oops!)

I can honestly say that that road trip was one of the best trips I have ever taken. I learned so much about myself, and the experiences I had will quite literally stay with me for the rest of my life.

If you ever have the chance to go on a cross country road trip, take it. I pretty much guarantee, you will come home better than when you left.

Here are my first hand tips and tricks to surviving a huge road trip:

Power off: 

One of the biggest reasons my friend and I had such a great time together, despite living in a cramped car together for over a week, was that we were both engaged. It was a blessing in disguise that getting a roaming plan to the States would have cost me my first born, because having each other present in the moment to take in the beauty around us, as well as have conversations the entire time saved a lot of headaches.

Don’t plan too much:

Our trip was decided a few days in advance. No idea what to do or where to go. We ended up planning the specific cities we wanted to make sure to hit (ie San Fran, Portland, etc), by planning that out in our Triptik (Triptik tip.. tongue twister lol), but other than that, we really didn’t have any sort of clue, much less a plan, of what we wanted to do. That let us decide if we wanted extra time in a city or if we saw something cool we could make sure to do it.

Not planning anything caused a few headaches, but mostly great adventures. We ended up going to the carnival boardwalk in Santa Cruz and having a beach hopping day (it was AMAZING) because we didn’t have any plans not to.

Don’t cheap out

Coming straight out of high school and leaving on a massive adventure was expensive to say the least. But spending that extra money here and there was 100% worth it. We cheaped out on some things and overspent on others for sure; you just have to decide what is important to you.

Be adventurous 

Try something new! These are the things you are going to remember. Stop at that lighthouse 2 hours out of the way because you can. That’s the point of roadtrips!

Triptik

AMA’s Triptik was the reason we made it home alive. I’m dead serious (pun intended lol)! It is so helpful to have a paper map without with exactly the road, exits, and ramps that you need to be on. Especially with your phone out of service. They are free at AMA with a membership and it was honestly a life saver. Do NOT leave for your road trip without it.

Plus, your AMA membership is there to save you if you have any car malfunctions (Bonus!).

Here are a few pictures from the trip!

 

What are your best road trip tips?

Thanks for reading! xx Victoria