When it comes to packing for a road trip, it’s important to make sure you have allll the essentials.
The last thing you want to do is end up hundreds of miles from home, or even worse— in the middle of nowhere— realizing you forgot some very essential items.
Road trips are one of the best types of travel, but preparation is key.
If you’re heading out on a road trip soon, this guide is going to save you!
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In each category below, we’ve included some links to the products we personally use and would recommend!
Road Trip Essentials for Comfort
If you want to stay comfortable on your road trip, then set yourself up the right way. Here are the things we swear by when it’s time to hit the road!
A small pillow for car naps & extra comfort! We love our Avocado travel pillow and take it with us everywhere we go! It’s compact but sleeps like a normal pillow and you can adjust the amount of stuffing in it to your liking!
A travel blanket that folds up small for easy transporting. Here’s our recommendation.
A portable fan. Yes, most vehicles have sufficient A/C, but having a fan available can come in handy, trust us! This one’s our top pick.
Reusable cup/mug. At some point on your trip, you’ll likely be thirsty. Having a cup with you that you can use to grab water on a stop, or use to keep your coffee cold/hot longer is such a simple way to make these more comfortable and luxurious. For cold drinks, our fave cup lately has been our Owala Free Sip. For hot drinks, we love the Owala SmoothSip.
Travel beauty kit. We’ve learned that staying comfy on road trips is about anticipating your needs and preparing for them. Making a road trip beauty kit is one the best ways we’ve been able to do this for our road trip. We’ll be making a video soon with a walkthrough of how we build our road trip kit.
But here are a few things we put in ours:
- Bag to keep it all in (we store ours in the console area of the car)
- Tissues
- Chapstick
- Small sunscreen
- Floss
- Lotion
- Hand sanitizer
- Tweezers
- Hair ties
- Eye drops
- Small packet for medicines + we use these labels
- In ours we keep any meds we might need while in the car, like Dramamine, nausea medicine, pain reliever, etc.
- If needed: a few period supplies, just in case!
A cozy rug for the passenger princess. This is totally extra, but we learned on our very first long road trip that the passenger having the option to take off their shoes and have a soft rug is pure bliss and something so easy to obtain. We just got one of those super plush bathroom rugs like this and put it in the passenger floorboard for long trips!
Cooler with snacks. If you’re looking for ways to save money on road trips, packing a cooler can save you tons. Instead of having to pull off to find snacks or drinks, you have it with you!
Plus, depending on where you’re road tripping, there may come a time when you are in the absolute middle of nowhere with not a person or business in sight and you’re suddenly hungry (hello rural Nevada).
So having a cooler full of snacks is a huge must-do in our opinions!
And don’t forget the utensils, just in case!
Psstt.. traveling with pets? Check out our post on dog travel essentials so you know what to bring along for them too!
Road Trip Basic Must-haves
Sunglasses. Don’t forget these!
Phone charger or powerbank. You will most definitely need to charge your phone at some point along the way.
Phone mount. Not a requirement, but it definitely makes things easier. It gives you some place to put your phone when you’re driving, plus makes it much easier to view maps as you go! Here’s what we’ve used for years.
Aux cord (if needed). If you’re in a car that doesn’t have bluetooth, an aux cord is a must have!
Trash can. You’re going to have trash, so you should probably have somewhere to put it! Here’s our pick.
Road Trip Essentials for Safety/Just in Case
Don’t skip these things, they could save your life, or at least your sanity!
Air compressor. If your tire gets low, having an air compressor on hand is going to save you soo much time and stress. Having to find a gas station with an air compressor is so annoying. Getting to do it yourself is way better. Here’s a great option!
Tire gauge. This is cheap must-have for any car- road trip or not. But it can come in handy on road trips for sure! Here’s a simple one!
Ice scraper. If you’re heading to the beach, you can probably skip this one. But if there is ANY chance of hitting cold weather, make sure you have one of these. And take it a step further and get one like this that has the brush too!
Mini first aid kit. Always a good idea to have this on-hand! Here’s a small one that’s easy to store in your console!
Pepper spray. It would be great if there wasn’t a need for this, but you can never be too prepared. Having this in the car gives us peace-of-mind at the very least. It’s an easy way to protect yourself should the need come up (hopefully it doesnt!). Here’s what we have.
Windshield shade. Having one of these gives you privacy if need, and helps keep your car cooler in sunny/hot conditions. Here’s a simple option, or you can check out WeatherTech which makes sunshades that fit your specific vehicle!
A flash light. This may come in veeerrrry handy! Here’s what we use.
Umbrella. Just in case! Here’s a cute one!
Seatbelt cutter & glass breaking tool. This is for genuine emergencies and definitely worth having. With it, you can cut the seatbelt and bust your windows in case you need to get out of the car in an emergency situation. We actually just bought this one!
Road safety kit. This road safety kit includes some of the other items mentioned in this list, so if you buy this, don’t buy the others unless you want two of everything! But having one kit where everything lives is a simple solution for road trip safety!
Road Trip Essentials for Efficiency
These items are things that, after countless road trips, we’ve found to be hugely beneficial.
Extra cash. Although we’re *almost* a cashless society, there are still some places that (surprisingly) don’t take card.
Cargo case. If you need some extra space in your vehicle, getting a cargo case for your luggage is the way to go. Our picks:
Well worth the investment: Thule Rooftop Hard Cargo Case
A great budget option: Keeper Rooftop Cargo Bag
Backseat organizer. This is especially handy if you’re traveling with kids or anyone will be riding in the backseat. But it can also be a great way to store some of the road trip essentials on this list! This organizer is a cheap way to stay sane on your road trip! Our favorite part is the cupholders!
Road Trip Essentials for Entertainment
We’ll be honest, most of our road trip entertainment is just admiring our surroundings and taking in the views. But for driving at night or trips we’ve made many times, we occasionally crave some extra entertainment. Here’s what we bring along for those moments.
Nintendo Switch
Having the option to play video games on the road is so nice for those boring parts of long drives, or even for having a bit of entertainment once we get to our destination. We bring our Switch OLED along in this case which lets us store a few games too!
Kindle
Having to pick which books you’re going to take on a trip is a reader’s nightmare. A Kindle has solved that problem for us. We LOVE our Kindles and they make road trip entertainment so easy!
Some games to play
Road trip games can be fun, even for adults. If you and your travel party are looking for plenty of ways to pass the time and keep the trip interesting, don’t skip the games! We will be adding some downloadable/printable road trip games to our shop soon!
Back of Car Road Trip Kit:
We call this our ‘back of the car’ kit because it’s full of useful things we might need, but not things that are so urgent that we’ll need them while driving (hopefully). They’re just things that are good to have on-hand in case the need for them comes up.
We have found that surprisingly, a diaper caddy works really well for this type of storage. The separate compartments make it great for storing different things and being able to easily find them when you need them.
Paper towels. Trust us on this.
Wet wipes. For wiping up the car, cleaning up spills, sanitizing your hands, and so much more.
A trash bag or two. We typically pack a few plastic sacks for our trash can, then have a couple big trash bags with us just in case we need them for anything!
Lint roller. If you’re traveling with pets, don’t leave home without this. It might come in handy even without pets!
Reusable bags. We come from the midwest where plastic grocery bags are (unfortunately) very much a thing. But in many states, especially out west, or many other countries, plastic bags are not an option (at least not a free option) in grocery stores or even clothing stores. So having a bag or two that you can use to pack up your groceries is a must. We love our Baggus for this! (they carry up to 50 lbs each but fold up super small)
And there you have it! All of the road trip essentials we wear by as two people who are very familiar with road tripping! We hope this list helps make your next road trip even better! 😊
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