Hours, months, and years of wistfully staring at awe-inspiring destination pictures and listening to accounts of wanderlust have finally lead to the finalisation of a road trip to Manali with your friends.

But amidst all the excitement, have you made a checklist for your trip yet?

If not, you have come to the right place as we are here with a list of everything you will need to ensure that your trip is memorable and more importantly, safe.

A Quintessential Checklist for Road Trips – Everything You Might Need!

  1. Let’s Begin with Legalities

Before setting out on a road trip, the essentials you should begin with are –

  • Your driving license
  • Registration certificate of your car
  • Car insurance papers

This list might seem redundant as you would have carried these things anyway, but more often than not, the excitement of the trip can put such necessities off our mind.

2. A Glance at Your Car Insurance Policy

As you know, it is mandatory by law to purchase a car insurance policy. Hence, before setting out for the adventures that await you and your friends, check whether your car insurance policy is valid or whether you need to renew it.

And in case you have to renew it, consider purchasing a comprehensive car insurance policy so that you get compensated for any unforeseen incidents that your car might run into.

3. A Look at Your Car’s Needs

Before your trip commences, make sure that your car is road-ready.

Visit a garage and tell the mechanic about your road trip. The mechanic might engineer a few changes in your car to have it all ready for your trip and might also customise it for the destinations you’d be taking on.

This step is highly essential as you do not want anything to happen to your ride during the trip, thus dampening your merriment.

Also, carry these during the trip, just in case,  

  • Car’s manual
  • Emergency roadside kit – battery charger, car jack, window breaker, flashlights, coolant, triangle reflectors, and tool kit.
  • Spare tires

You should also carry fuel, but not in a plastic bottle! Carry extra fuel in a tightly sealed solid canister. Also, just to ensure your safety, don’t forget to carry a fire extinguisher.

4. Little Things that can Make a Huge Difference

Definitely carry these –

  • Toilet roll – We never know when nature might call!
  • Multiple water bottles – When exploring, hydration is a must. Also, please carry reusable bottles and don’t litter.
  • First-aid kit
  • Paper maps – We know it is the age of Google Maps; but lets’ face it, India is not so well-networked.
  • Snow shovel – In case you are travelling to or through areas prone to snowfall.
  • Umbrellas – Make sure that unpredictable rainfall does not get the better of you.

We often overlook these tiny details while planning a road trip. But, it is essentially the smaller components that result in a major difference.

5. Safeguard Your Phone with an Insurance Policy

It is easy to lose yourself in the fun of a trip leading to carelessness on your part. You might even accidentally drop your phone on an uneven surface and damage its screen. Hence, consider purchasing a mobile insurance policy to receive compensation in case anything happens to your phone’s screen.

6. Stay Comfortable

Carry these for your own comfort –

  • Blanket or sleeping bags – Because the merry conversation that accompanies us for the first few hours of a road trip dies down eventually and we all need a good nap to be back at our form.
  • Hand sanitisers – Don’t let germs be your fellow travellers.
  • Travel pillow – Because you do not want to strain your neck.
  • Extra footwear – Carrying just one pair is a risk you do not want to take on a road trip.
  • Shopping bags – Go green! Do not take plastic bags unnecessarily from shops.
  • Sunscreen – Only good memories back from your trip, no tan!
  • Toothbrush and toothpaste
  • Toiletries

A road trip involves hours of endless driving before you hit a stop. Hence, the importance of these essentials cannot be stressed upon enough.

7. Finally, Entertainment!

We have drummed about safety and comfort for too long. Now it is time to delve into the spirit of road trips, i.e. unadulterated entertainment.

  • Power banks – No one wants their phone to die in the middle of the trip.
  • Weekend’s jam – A playlist that you and your friends would merrily groove to.
  • Camera – Moments are fleeting and to capture them on a road trip is a must.

You can also carry a book or two for the times you tire yourselves out.

By Eddy

Eddy is the editorial columnist in Business Fundas, and oversees partner relationships. He posts articles of partners on various topics related to strategy, marketing, supply chain, technology management, social media, e-business, finance, economics and operations management. The articles posted are copyrighted under a Creative Commons unported license 4.0. To contact him, please direct your emails to [email protected].