My Road Trip Essentials – 25 Things I Don’t Leave Home Without!
I love road trips.
Whenever someone says “road trip”, I’m there, ready to go.
Anytime.
Anywhere.
There’s just something about embarking on an adventure that gets the blood pumping.
Know what I’m talking about?
Heck, I get excited just looking at packing lists and pulling out my travel gear!
Is that strange? I think it probably is…but then that’s me -hodophile! (My new word for the day! Bahaha!)
Because we do travel a lot, I get tons of questions about what we bring and what’s on my “don’t leave home without” list.
And I thought I’d share my list with you too. Maybe you’ll find something you haven’t considered before. Or maybe you’ll find yourself saying, “Hey! We bring that!”
This road trip list is my go-to when our plan involves driving and staying in a hotel or VRBO/Airbnb type place at night. If we plan on camping, I use a different list altogether.
So here you go, if you’re curious about what to bring on a road trip, or looking for ideas…this is for you.
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The List…
Note: Everything I’ve listed here we use ourselves or, if it’s no longer available, I’ve tried to find a very similar item to provide as an example.
1. Road side emergency kit – Every vehicle should have one! You just never know when you’re going to need it. Especially if you plan on driving in more desolate areas.
Tip: We ALWAYS make sure our AAA Premier membership is up-to-date before leaving home -it’s paid for itself many times over in the past.
2. First Aid/Medicine Kit – I build my own but you can easily buy pre-packaged kits that have the basics.
3. Handheld car vacuum – Inevitably after a day or two of traveling, the floor of the car is ready for a deep clean. Crumbs, sand, dirt, wrappers…you name it, the floor seems to attract it. Using the vacuum once in a while and cleaning up makes getting back into the car on the fourth or fifth day a little easier.
4. Battery powered lights – These are awesome to stash in the car or in your bag for those times you need light to find those missing AirPods under the seat and the light on your phone just doesn’t cut it. They are incredibly bright and easy to use.
5. Road Atlas – Believe it or not, we’ve actually been places where we didn’t have cell coverage. So I always make sure we have a backup physical map just in case there’s no cell service and the phone with its downloaded map isn’t available. Worst case scenario yes, but it pays to be prepared! (And too, sometimes I think Siri likes to play games and send us down the wrong road on purpose…)
Electronics/Entertainment
6. Phone Charging Cables – I make sure we have several 6’ and 10’ with us because not everyone wants to be 3’ from the outlet.
7. Multi-Plug Power Strip – This road trip essential comes in handy not only in the car for everyone to plug into, but also in the hotel room where you only have one or two convenient outlets -if you’re lucky. This way phones, iWatches, iPads, Kindles and portable chargers get charged up each night.
8. Portable Charger – I always have one within reach because sometimes plugging my phone into the outlet just isn’t convenient or possible.
9. Power Inverter -This power inverter has become a must-have when traveling with portable phone chargers and laptops. I frequently use my laptop in the car and I can easily recharge on the go and not have to worry about my laptop battery dying.
10. Laptop/iPad/phone/Kindle – I make sure that what I’m bringing with me has movies and/or reading material downloaded before leaving home. It makes those long stretches of highway go by faster. If you prefer to read on a screen larger than your phone, the Kindle is a great option. I love how I can bring a huge selection of reading material with me but without the extra weight!
Personal Gear
11. Luggage – When on road trips where we’ve got everything crammed into the car like a real-life Tetris game, we’ve found that it’s easier if everyone has a soft-sided bag. I love my Mother Lode Travel Backpack from eBags but duffel bags and totes work well too. Trying to pack the trunk with several hard-sided suitcases just doesn’t work as well. With soft-sided bags, we are able to utilize every square inch much more efficiently.
In addition to luggage, everyone brings a backpack or tote bag with their personal items they want to be able to access while we’re driving. I usually bring this one I got a few years back from LUG and it has held up incredibly well! I love that I can switch from backpack to tote bag to cross-body so easily depending on my activity.
12. Headphones – Four years ago I broke down and treated myself to a pair of Bose Noise Cancelling headphones. Now, they are an ultimate road trip essential and I won’t leave home without them. They are amazingly comfortable, the sound is incredible and best of all, I can listen to whatever music or podcast I want without competing with, shall we say the “surrounding noises”. Hahaha.
13. Pillow – Never leave home without your favorite pillow if you have room to bring it! There’s nothing worse than waking up with a sore neck from bad hotel pillows. I use My Pillow and can’t recommend it enough! They make a small travel version that I highly recommend too. It’s great in the car, on the plane, or camping. But if you have room, bring the regular size!
14. Blanket – We keep the car pretty cool while we’re driving so car blankets are a must.
I love soft furry blankets and this one from Everlasting Comfort is AWESOME! Just the right size for the car and I also don’t have to worry about trying to stuff it in a carry-on.
It’s easy to throw in the wash and does’t show dirt. There’s just something so comforting having a blanket to cover with on long car rides.
Food/Drink/Miscellaneous
15. Stanley Classic Travel Press – if you’re like me and you love your coffee, you need this! After working as a paramedic for twenty-two years, I learned to tolerate gas station coffee…barely.
But with this travel French Press I don’t have to! It makes French Press coffee so easy and delicious!
I just carry an airtight container with my favorite flavored coffee and tada!
Most gas stations will have the option of getting hot water from one of the dispensers, making this road trip essential easy peasy.
16. Travel Electric Kettle – When you need to make your own hot water, you can’t go wrong with this baby!
It boils water in less than 3 minutes and folds up flat into its own carrying case.
So convenient for mornings in the hotel room where the coffee maker doesn’t look appealing or not available.
It’s also great for making oatmeal, rice, noodles, you name it.
17. Personal Hydro Cell Water Bottle – any water bottle will do, but Hydro Cell makes a great product and it comes with a straw and tons of color choices!
18. Trash bags – Always good to have on hand and makes cleaning trash out of the car much easier.
19. Hand wipes – Convenient for wiping up messes and stinky hands, especially after filling up the gas tank.
20. Kleenex tissue – Because who wants to blow their nose on anything else?
21. Paper towels – A must have for road trips -especially when making sandwiches and you get mayo everywhere!
22. Extra zip lock-type baggies – So many uses!
23. Packable Tote Bag – I love my Travelon tote bag! It folds up so easily when I’m not using it. And it holds so much!
It’s always good to have an extra carry bag for food items, souvenirs, or what have you. Especially as plastic bags tend to rip. This bag has held up well with lots of use over the past three years.
24. Coolers – Here’s my take on coolers. They are an ABSOLUTE road trip essential.
Having a cooler makes it a bit cheaper so you’re not having to buy food/snacks every few hours.
We bring snacks, fruit, salads and sandwich fixings. I feel better eating healthy food that I know and like. There’s nothing worse than eating something from a gas station or drive-thru and then feeling sick afterwards!
There’s a couple of options when it comes to your cooler set up.
Option 1: The hard-sided, hinged-top cooler where you find yourself having to drain the water and replace ice every so often.
And Option 2: Soft-sided coolers that are often a bit smaller, generally fit better in the car, and easier to access while driving down the road.
Option 3: The plug-in coolers that keep the contents cool without needing ice.
The first two we’ve used, the plug-in cooler I’ve seriously considered a few times but just haven’t taken the plunge. If you have one and like it (or don’t like it) leave a comment below because I would love to hear your opinions!
We normally go with option #2…the soft-sided coolers. We bring 2 of them -one for drinks, one for food.
This way we don’t worry about food getting squished by drink bottles or cans as the soft sided coolers generally don’t come with the divider tray.
We use the RTIC Soft Cooler. The zipper can be a little difficult at times because of the stiff material, but it’s durable and works amazingly well keeping food and drinks cold. The best part – it has never leaked on us!
Here’s my pro tip for ice in coolers… ready?
Dry bags.
Yep.
Dry bags.
I hate having to drain water out of the coolers and worry about water getting into the food containers/bags etc.
So, I had an epiphany one day and thought -we use dry bags when out fishing and kayaking, and they keep water out and stuff inside them dry. So why not fill them with ice to keep stuff outside the bag dry and the water/ice inside?
It works like a charm!
As long as you have a good quality dry bag and roll the top down tight and secure it.
We fill the dry bag (and a 10-15L is big enough for our cooler) with ice, secure the bag, and lay in on the bottom of the cooler and fit everything else on top.
This one from Earth Pak is a great option – durable and thick material that doesn’t leak.
This hack works well on several levels.
First, melting ice doesn’t infiltrate food containers and packaging.
Second, I don’t have to drain water out of the coolers anymore.
If necessary, just remove the dry bag, pour out the water, add more ice and secure again.
Honestly though, we found that after 12-18 hours there was still ice in the dry bag and the water was ice cold and the food was dry -that’s a win win!
And third – it’s a lot easier to fill a dry bag with ice from a hotel vending machine (and cheaper!) then having to buy bagged ice to refill the cooler, or dragging your cooler down the hotel hallway to the ice machine to refill….and who wants to do that?!
25. Paperwork – Printed confirmation numbers. For any reservations with confirmation numbers, I print out and bring a copy with us.
I do this just in case my phone gets lost and I need the reservation information – I have a backup.
This has actually come in handy when a hotel couldn’t locate our reservation and I was able to show them the paper copy rather than handing over my phone!
It’s also a good idea to keep copies of passports & drivers licenses in a locked file on your phone just in case something gets lost or stolen.
That’s it! That’s my 25 road trip essentials!
The things we don’t leave home without when taking a road trip. The list gets altered a bit depending on number of people we have and where we’re going but these are pretty much the basics.
I’m always on the lookout to see what other people think to bring on their trips. So if you have something on your “don’t leave home without” list that I didn’t mention here, leave a comment below – I’d love to hear from you!
If you’re interested in taking a road trip, you should check out my 7-day, 1500-mile road trip itinerary for the Pacific Coast Highway. You’ll find lots of tips and helpful information to help you plan your own awesome trip!
Happy exploring and embrace your inner dragonfly!
Looking for more travel tips? Check out these Top 10 Tips For Traveling Abroad and these 13 Best Insider’s Tips for Visiting Yellowstone National Park.
