If you were to look for advice on preparing for a road trip, almost everything you’d find would be focusing towards the driver. There are plenty of tips for staying alert during a long drive and ensuring a vehicle is in good condition, but relatively little regarding how you should plan for a long road trip if you’re the passenger – until now. Read on for all the preparation tips you need if there’s a long drive in your future, but you’re not going to be the one behind the wheel…

Make sure you have plenty of entertainment options available

While you will inevitably want to talk to the driver during your journey, it’s essential to have other options you can use when the driver needs to focus solely on the road ahead or just to keep you both sane. Thankfully, there are plenty of options that can help you achieve this. If you’re a fan of reading, you can download a number of novels in preparation (my kindle and I are inseparable); if you’re a fan of Final Fantasy, you can plan to play the classic video game in your mobile device while on the move; if you’re a music fan, you can take a pair of earphones and vanish into your own world for a while – and so on.

As well as your primary choice for entertainment, it’s helpful to have a secondary choice also – just in case you feel a change may be beneficial, or you run out of your primary options.

Have motion sickness remedies to hand

Even if you do not usually suffer from motion sickness, it’s helpful to have a few remedies to hand just in case. Long drives can be exhausting, and you may find that you encounter conditions – such as flashing lights when driving at night or super curvy roads- that make motion sickness more likely.

There are a variety of motion sickness remedies to consider, including natural and over-the-counter medication; if you’re not sure which may be suitable for you, a pharmacist will likely be able to guide you further or you can read my guide.

Ensure you’ll be able to sleep comfortably if you’re tired

Even with plenty of distraction and stunning scenery to enjoy, it’s highly likely that you will become tired at some point during the trip. Given this likelihood, it’s worth investigating the options that will allow you to sleep comfortably in the passenger seat.

By far the most important consideration in regards to this is neck support; the last thing you want is to wake up feeling worse than when you fell asleep. It may be wise to invest in a pillow designed to make in-car sleeping comfortable to help prevent any neck pain as a result of a quick nap. In addition, think about leg room; if you want to sleep comfortably, you’ll probably need to push your seat back, so plan to pack the car carefully to ensure you’ll have room to do this.

Hopefully the tips above should help to ensure that your road trip experience as a passenger is as smooth and enjoyable as it can possibly be – enjoy!

Trip Essentials