[Sreesh1009]

We all make numerous road trips throughout the year and try to take one whenever we get the opportunity to. What are your prerequisites for a perfect road trip?
The top few for me are:
1. Proper sleep the night before.
2. Minimum Traffic.
3. Cloudy Weather.

Do share yours!

[dileepcm]

Here is my list. This is based on trips done within Europe.
We just got back from a week long Austria trip last week and below pattern always works for me.

+Proper sleep - Very important for me. I make sure at-least to have 7 hours sleep when ever I got to do an early start.

• Early start (Usually we aim 5:00 for long trips)
• Clean car (windscreen included)
• Most bags loaded the previous day.
• Updated Tom tom (I use Waze in my phone as my primary app, Tom tom is always plugged in and ready to go as a backup)
• Tank full fuel + tire pressure checked + all documents double checked (I usually do it the previous day)
• Hot coffee in my flask.
• Get wife's preps and packing done the previous day. Usually very complex task.
• Get Baby (Mine is two years old) stuff prep and packed the previous day.

[turbo]

Good company, good roads, good music, and a reliable car.

[NaXal]

Everything else would be already ready for a bhpian, as car will always be in its prime shape, so is the experience of many other previous trips for a safe & enjoyable drive.

One thing that I think a long distance tourer must make sure, that's, switching the phone (work number) off.

That's the most disturbing & fun spoiling thing in any long drive or road trip.

[am1m]

Cars and bikes are much, much more reliable today. So all you need is a reliable companion or two! People who are happy to share the driving and don't have too many hangups (food, timings, needs everything planned and pre-booked!).

Impromptu road trips are the best!

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Sreesh1009

What are your prerequisites for a perfect road trip?

From my experiences, I would say it is almost impossible to decide what makes it a "perfect road trip". I have done roads trips solo, with family, with friends, in a large group (convoy), over a day, a couple of days, or sometimes a week. And through all those experiences, no single pattern has emerged to indicate what would be the ideal combination of parameters ("prerequisites" as you call it) that make the road trip a perfect one.

Instead, what I think is far more important is the love for driving and the attitude to enjoy whatever experiences you may face. That alone makes it a great road trip. I have gone on road trips where everything went wrong at the beginning (and sometime even during the trip), but we still managed to overcome those challenges and once we settled in the drive, it still turned out to be an amazing drive! In fact, some of my most "perfect drives" have had stories of facing challenges on the way and overcoming those. Those stories actually made that drive perfect!

One typical reason that results into a bad road trip is to chase predefined notions of experiences, and then when that does not happen, people get disappointed. Instead if one keeps minds open to experience new things and new experiences as they emerge through the road trip, that always makes it a great trip.

So I say keep your plans flexible, minds open, be willing to adapt, love the drive, and love whatever experiences you get and don't expect predefined experiences.

Sorry if this sounds a bit philosophical. But this is what I have learnt over last 25 year of road tripping.

Of course, in addition to this, you must do the usual things such as have a reliable car that is in top shape, must have researched your routes well and must have done the usual preparations. However, remember that these "mechanical preparations" are necessary but not sufficient to make a perfect road trip.

[FanaticOnWheels]

I recently did a 1200KM road trip, mainly due to safety concerns over taking a flight. I had to move back to my hometown. Considering the new normal, I think the below worked well for my trip:

1. Start when you're body & mind is most active. It might be 5AM/8AM/11AM. In my case, I started late, around 10AM. It makes a difference.
2. Pack home cooked food (Lemon Rice/Tomato Rice work/Theplas did their magic for me). They survive for quite some time too.
3. Tyre Pressure/Fuel/Fastag top-up: Do all of this a day in advance at least.
4. If you need to take a halt on the way, there are excellent hotels which have taken very good measures during COVID19. In my case, I halted at Lemon Tree. I was really impressed with their measures. I had taken my own pillows/blankets/bedsheets.
5. Have a spray type sanitizer (Colin bottle types)
6. If you're going to depend on maps, make sure you have an offline backup. In my case, my mobile suddenly lost network around 200KMs from my destination. It magically came back when I was 20KM away. It wasn't much of an issue for me though, as I majorly had to stick to the highway. But I would have been in trouble had it been 10KMs closer to the destination
7. I do agree with one of the posts on this thread - cars today are quite reliable. There were no niggles at all through the 1200KM journey.

[GTO]

Nice thread!

- A good car. Has to have a sorted engine + gearbox + suspension + brakes. I don't suffer badly engineered cars.

- Early start. I like to hit the road real early and beat the traffic. Nothing quite like an empty road with a good machine.

- Minimal number of stops. I prefer to stop once in 2 hours and hate it when passengers want to frequently stop for some reason or the other.

- Perfect destination. Most are fun, but at times, we have to go to boring places because of family / social commitments.

- Minimum of 65 - 75 km / hour average speed. Else, heavy traffic can really wear you down on long road-trips.

- Music. Is a must. It's a constant in life. I don't have a waking hour without music.

- Passengers who love road-trips (my family does!).

- Not overcrowding the cabin (4 is perfect for most sedans) or the boot.

- Great conversations & loads of laughs . But don't talk too much to me. I love to focus on the car & road.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by GTO

Nothing quite like an empty road with a good machine.

- Passengers who love road-trips (my family does!).

- Great conversations & loads of laughs .

You summarized it well GTO.

I will talk about what is not a perfect trip (normal run-of-the-mill types we do all the time) here:

- Crowded Highway where people are desperate to jostle for space in a hurry to escape from Armageddon perhaps. Mile long queue in the toll booth even with Fastag.

- Hotels always on the wrong side of the road you are driving

- Pot holes so deep, you are scared of drowning the entire car.

- Forget the cattle who migrate from Europe to Asia - it is the shepherds who you have to be wary of - for they may discuss critical world issues right on the road oblivious to the traffic jam.

- You are in a dilemma on who to believe about the route you have to take -your GPS or the man in uniform who insists that there is no road laid there from the time the Chola Emperors built their Big Temples.

[ABHI_1512]

According to me, there is nothing called a ‘perfect road trip’ but yes, there can be a ‘memorable road trip’ for sure. No matter how intricately you plan your road trip, there will be something that will pop up suddenly and without any notice. It can be anything, ranging from a mechanical failure of the vehicle, a bad tyre, possibility of a major traffic jam, some random incident on the road, so on and so forth.

Yes, we do take preparations of all kinds for a road trip and most of them have been listed above by fellow members here. For me, road trips means happiness. The freedom to see anything that interests you, the freedom to go anywhere that interests you being the prime movers. Good music accompanied by good companions who don’t fret over flimsy things, destinations which are less favoured by majority of people, getting to taste local food, mingling with the local people and getting to know about the culture and their lifestyles are some of the things, that according to me are recipes of a memorable road trip.

Finding out a nice little cafe or an eating place which serves some delightful pizzas or a great cup of coffee or some local thalis while on a road trip is what I enjoy. Getting to know like minded people on or during road trips is another thing that is immensely satisfying.

Taking back good memories and experiences from a road trip is what matters at the end of the day, at least I believe so

[Jeroen]

Obviously, some of the preparations will depend on how long and where to you might be going. And I could talk about that for hours.

It also depends a bit about with what purpose you set off. For me a road trip is about travelling, being on the road. It is not necessarily about going somewhere specific. It is about the experience on the road rather than getting somewhere. That is more coincidental.

For me the most important part is mind set / attitude of your fellow drivers/passengers and yourself. So picking your fellow drivers/passengers is the absolute most important pre-requisite for a perfect road trip. You need to be like minded on how to enjoy a road trip, what you expect or rather not expect a road trip to be.

You need to set out with a mindset of enjoying yourself and the company of those coming along, no matter what. Whatever you see, encounter you need to have the capacity to enjoy. So if the car breaks down, that is just another part of the whole adventure. If you get lost, same thing.

Some of you will have seen some of my road adventures in my classic Alfa Spider. If you go on a road trip with several cars / people, picking people with a similar attitude and driving style is crucial.

Jeroen

[mmxylorider]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

According to me, there is nothing called a ‘perfect road trip’ but yes, there can be a ‘memorable road trip’ for sure.

Rightly said. I've done a solo trip from Los Angeles to Austin (1500 miles) over 38 hours with overnight break of 12 hrs and stops in between. A boys trip to Dapoli in 2013 was fun. Multiple family trip in India are memorable.

IMO, A little bit of adventure and being not too particular about things will make it more enjoyable. A perfect trip is where you get back home in one piece with good memories.

[jeygani]

- A good car for me is must for a perfect road trip. Most of the preparation done previous day like car cleaning, fuel tank fill, tyres check and packing.

- Good sleep before the drive. A sound health is important for me to enjoy the drive.
For this reason I do not prefer early morning drives, as during the early morning hours I get a good sleep.
My general long drive trips are around 520km, which is to my hometown and I avoid night drives.

- I do not mind multiple number of stops for passengers, as I generally do not have any timelines for my drives. My enjoyment is on the drive and not reaching the destination on time.
If passengers are happy that aids in good atmosphere inside the car.

- Good roads adds to comfortable and relaxed drive.

- Music if passengers insist otherwise I am not a music lover. I prefer moderate conversation and more attention on road.

[jigar1791@gmail]

For a beginner on this forum, to be able to contribute few cents of his, here are some from what I have learnt over the years -

1. If it's an early morning start, a good night's sleep, atleast for about 5-6 hours

2. Sorted car, no known engine/any other bothersome issues. Issues, if any, need to be corrected 2 days before. The driver needs to know his car well to be able to ensure loyal and faithful companionship en-route

3. Good company, preferably with ones who enjoy road trippin', planned pit stops at known locations, to ensure peace of mind

4. Home cooked/ready to-eat meal (during these times).

5. No work pressure/unwanted office calls to attend - spoils the fun of being stressfree on the road

Like many of us must have experienced - the journey to a destination is far more memorable/enjoyable than the destination itself. And what better than a journey by road to a destination well known

[anshu1101]

For me a perfect road trip is one that ends with great memories. From my experience with road trips, howsoever meticulously you might plan it, something or the other always tends to go haywire. And in hindsight, those instances do add to the memories.

That being said, there a few things that I prefer.
1. A great car that puts a smile on your face every time you get in the driver's seat. My 7-year old VW Vento 1.6 Diesel has been doing a fabulous job on this front till date.
2. Good company, and preferably people who don't get cranky on long trips. I've had a few sour experiences on this front with people cribbing about wasting so much time driving, how taking a flight would have been so much better, blah, blah blah.
3. Good food on the way. Love the food in the dhabas.
4. Good conversations.
5. Good music, an absolute must.
6. A great destination.
7. Do not prefer taking too many stops on the way.
8. Good weather is an added bonus.

PS: The above are not necessarily ranked in my order of preference.