Coffee Break

How to Plan your Next Road Trip

If you’d like to pack as much variety and novelty into a single holiday as possible, then the classic road trip is a reliable option. You’ll move from place to place to place, eventually making your way back to the starting point via a long loop. Or, you might already have an end destination in mind, and you’d like to plan a few stops along the way.

Getting the best from your trip means doing a little preparation in advance. Let’s think about what that preparation should ideally look like.

Prepare the car

If your car is not fit for the trip, then you risk running into difficulty along the way. If you’re going to be taking a campervan or motorhome, then your checks will need to be that little bit more extensive.

If you have a service planned, then make sure that it’s carried out before you depart. In fact, you might look at arranging a service just for the purpose of this trip. Make sure that the tyres are adequately inflated, and that the tread depth is well above the legal minimum. If you need replacement tyres, then you can check the car’s manual to see what size is required. Swapping to a size that matches your model, such as BMW Series 1 tyres, will help you extract more performance from the vehicle.

Choose your Destinations

Once you know that your vehicle is fit for purpose, you can begin to think about where you’ll be travelling. Work out how long you intend to stay at each location. In some cases, you might have enough there to keep you occupied for an entire day; in others, you might be rushing around to get everything done. There might also be a limit to the total time you can spend on the road.

Once you have decided where you’ll be staying, and for how long, you can start to book your accommodation. Where you stay will largely depend on how much money you have available.

Set a budget

If you aren’t on top of your spending from the start, then you risk having it run out of control. Set out your total budget and divide it between the various areas of spending. This way, you won’t suffer from financial stress after you get back from your trip.

Organise drivers

Finally, it’s worth thinking about how you’ll be dividing the driving duty. Driver fatigue is a problem that needs to be proactively managed. Moreover, you might not want to put all of the work onto the shoulders of one person. Get everyone insured to drive the car, and swap around every so often. Build regular rest stops into your travel itinerary, too.