15 Essential Road Trip Must Haves

Planning a road trip? Looking for some road trip essentials to make your trip more comfortable? Check out our list of 15 essential road trip must haves!

If you’ve been following us from the beginning, you’ve read all about our 7 Day Cross Country Road Trip from California to South Carolina earlier this year. It was an amazing experience and we learned ALOT about road tripping and each other on this crazy undertaking. Planning a road trip of this proportion is no small feat. In this day and age there are so many tools out there designed to make such an endeavour a little easier on everyone. Combining a little research with our previous road warrior experience, we came up with this list.

THE Road Trip Playlist

First and foremost, you’re going to want some tunes to help you along the drive. Especially when you are driving in and out of so many radio station zones, it’s handy to have satellite radio or a music app to ensure consistency and minimize dead zones. Check out our “Road Trippin” playlist on Spotify for a list of tunes that’ll keep you rollin’ right along.

Car Vent Cell Phone Holder

Unless you are going to be using a good old fashioned road map (which is completely admirable!) or a proper GPS unit, you may use your cell phone to guide you along the ride. Or maybe you want your phone at eye level to be able to answer calls or control your music. This super reasonably priced cell phone holder clips right onto your car vent and holds a variety of cell phone styles.

Sun Visor Glasses Holder

This double clip for your glasses comes in particularly handy for stowing away your nighttime driving glasses during the day. Once the sun sets, you can swap out your sunglasses. If you’re like us and lose your eyeballs regularly, these sturdy clips make keeping track of all your glasses a cinch!

Blind Spot Mirrors

Anyone who spends enough time on the road knows how pesky those blind spots can be. We invested in a pair of side view expanding mirrors that can simply be mounted to your side mirrors. Once attached, they can easily be pivoted to reflect your blind spot. Ultimately, they expand your comfort zone when spending hours to days on the road. Once in place, these little guys stay there. We are actually going on 3 years with our first pair!

Best Travel Mug!

This is hands down the best travel mug in it’s price range. It’s actually our go to for gifts and replacements! It is easy to clean and the leak free seals make travelling with a beverage a hassle free experience. They come in several colours and sizes. We don’t go anywhere without these mugs! **ROAD TRIPPING TIP: Having a travel mug along for the ride is a great way to minimize your ecological footprint by re-using it for all of your beverage needs. From gas station coffee stops to fresh spring water fill ups, we promise, you’ll get a lot of use out if it.

Caffeinated Cliff Bars

We all know the importance of snacks when planning a road trip. There are times when that long stretch between civilized stops seems to never end, so it’s always good to have food on hand. That being said, these bars are a fun two-fer in the event that you are also itching for a cup of coffee. And, they’re DELICIOUS! They can be found at most major grocery stores.

Binoculars

Odds are there are likely to be some scenic stops along your route and a good pair of binoculars can really bring out the features of a site. These 10×50, wide angle, light weight binoculars are very reasonably priced and will come in handy on many occasions. They come complete with lens caps, a bag and a strap!

Beginner DSLR Camera

We’ve always wanted to invest in a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera but we’re a little rough on electronics… That being said, this beginner, point and shoot with DSLR features is the best priced in it’s tier on the market. This powerful camera has 4K video capabilities, 60x zoom and takes up to 18.1 megapixel photos. Photo capture and editing is easy on the 3 inch LCD screen and it comes with a strap. Many of the photos loaded to our blog are from the camera if you are curious about photo quality.

Reasonably Priced Accessories: Here’s the case we bought for it and you’ll need a memory card to store all the stunning photos you capture on your road trip. It would be silly to risk running out of space, so why not pick up a reasonably priced 64GB card? These cards are waterproof, shockproof and x-ray proof so you should get lots of use out of it!

Headlamp (with red light)

While most cell phones have a flashlight built in, there’s something to be said about hands free lighting. This 160 lumen headlamp has 5 modes including a red-light for those who like to read in the car after hours. It is water resistant with adjustable strap and lamp. It runs on 3 AAA batteries (included).

Rooftop Cargo Carrier

This roof top carrier is one of the best selling ones on Amazon which is what initially caught our eye. We were able to increase our storage space by an extra 18 square feet with this on the roof. Now we’re sure you are looking at our vehicle and asking why we needed the extra storage space… The goal was to allow ourselves space inside the car to recline our seats at any time. The option to pull over and take a nap is a very useful one when undertaking such an epic drive. PLUS it provides a perfectly blank canvas for all those stickers you pick up along the drive 😉

Camp Stove

Another budget brilliant item to have packed up is a camp stove. This compact, easy to set up cooking center allows you to save some money and ‘eat in’ on the road. Complete with two independent burners and wind block panels, you can prepare a meal nearly anywhere! **ROAD TRIPPING TIPS: it’s a good idea to have a couple small propane tanks packed up as well, though they are pretty easy to find at most shops. Be sure to pack a pot and a pan, a cutting board and some reusable dishes to maximize on this efficient meal prep tool.

Kershaw Blade Trader

On that note, every good cook likes a sharp blade, but you can leave your knife block at home. With this nifty set, you can swap out which ever blade you need with an interchangeable handle. There’s a fillet, a saw, a bread, a carving and a cook’s blade included so you don’t need to concern yourself with choosing which knife to bring with you.

Mobicool Cooler

We absolutely LOVE our 34L Mobicool 12V power cooler! This German designed, electric, plug-in cooler is PERFECT for road tripping. Simply plug it into any of the cigarette lighter or outlets available in your vehicle, and voila! A mini-fridge ready to go anywhere you go! It’s even handy in the event you end up in a refrigerator-less hotel room (a common occurrence when budget traveling). The cooler keeps food cold for many hours unplugged and even has a heat option to keep food warm. We purchased ours at Canadian Tire.  Another place it is available to you ‘mericans (since you lack Canadian Tire in the US) is EBAY. 

First Aid Kit

There are so many out there, and while no two seem to be quite the same, they all provide similar basics. Check out this 299 piece kit for less than $15! Alternately, you can even build your own. Whatever you decide, it’s a perfect item to have in your car all the time, because you never know when you might need it. **ROAD TRIPPING TIP: It’s a good idea to top off your kit every 6 months and check the expiration dates on any drugs included with it.

If you decide to build your own, here are some of the basics you should be sure to include:

• Band-Aids of various sizes
• Antibiotic ointment
• Rubber gloves
• Rubbing alcohol or antiseptic wipes
• Hot/cold packs
• Medical Tape
• Gauze
• Tweezers
• Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug
• Allergy Pills

Swiss Army Card

We never leave home without this multi-tool! The Swiss Army Card features 10 tools in a credit card sized package, including a blade, ruler, tweezers and scissors. Kat’s owned one for about 20 years and it never fails to come in handy.

Thinking of doing some camping on your road trip? Check out these eco-friendly camping essentials to get you off on the right foot.

HAVE YOU EVER PLANNED A ROAD TRIP BEFORE? WHAT ARE YOUR IN CAR ‘MUST HAVES’ FOR LONG HOURS ON THE ROAD?