Driving Tips

Hitting the road on your next trip? Whether you’re heading to Grandma’s with the kids or hitting Route 66 for a cross-country jaunt, don’t leave home without our tried and tested driving tips. Read on to learn more about avoiding traffic, saving money, and staying safe (and staying awake!) on your next road trip.

1. Before beginning a long drive, always get enough sleep and eat something before you go. Highly caffeinated beverages are not necessarily the best way to stay awake while driving. While initially you will feel more alert, the effects can recede with time, and your attention may wander although you remain awake.

2. Pull over and take breaks every couple of hours, even if you don’t feel sleepy. Grab a snack, get some fresh air, and stretch your legs by walking around. If you need to, take a quick nap.

3. If you can, share the driving responsibilities with someone else. This will allow you to keep an eye on each other while driving and also enable you to nap without losing time. If you’re driving alone, turn on the radio or put on some music, and keep your window cracked open. You may also want to refrain from using your cruise control if you’re driving alone at night — having to concentrate on maintaining your speed can help you stay awake.

4. If you do have to pull over — pull off the road. Never park on the shoulder or in the breakdown lane for any reason except an emergency.

5. Know the laws along your route concerning cell phone use while driving. While it may be legal in one place, it may be illegal in another, and ignorance is not typically an acceptable excuse for a violation. Here’s a handy chart of cell phone laws by state (keep in mind that this information can change at any time). However, even if it’s legal to talk on a cell phone where you’re going, it’s usually safest to use a hands-free device.

6. If you don’t know this one, shame on you. Never drink any alcohol before your trip. While you may not become intoxicated from one beer, you will become sleepy.

7. Keep an eye on the skies, and if you can, plan a route around inclement weather. A minor detour could actually wind up saving you major time.

8. Search the Web for traffic update sites and listen to radio traffic alerts, especially when approaching major cities. All-news stations on the AM dial are often your best bet. For more on cell phone directions, traffic reports and other useful travel information, check out Road Trip Resources.

9. You should plan out your exact route before you even leave the house — but bring along a map just in case. While many folks like to print directions from Mapquest, Traveler’s Ed examines a few other options in Mapping on the Web.

10. If you are driving a rental vehicle, familiarize yourself with the car and all of its equipment (horn, brakes, hazard lights). For an amusing but true look at this issue, see The First 10 Minutes of Your Car Rental.

11. Lock all of your valuables (especially items that are clearly gifts) in the trunk or glove compartment and stow all luggage in the trunk.

12. Familiarize yourself with local traffic laws, which vary from state to state and especially overseas. Is it legal to make a right turn at a red light? What are the rules on yielding to pedestrians? For more on international car travel, see Renting a Car Abroad.

13. Before setting off on a long car trip, be sure your vehicle is in prime condition — that tires are properly inflated, that all fluids are at their proper levels and that you have a full tank of gas. (For particularly long road trips, you may want to have your mechanic do a more thorough check.)

14. Consider becoming a member of AAA or signing up for your car insurer’s roadside assistance program. You won’t regret it when your car breaks down on a lonely back road.

15. Keep costs down by conserving gas as you drive. Minimize sudden starts and stops, empty your car of all unnecessary weight, and slow down — it takes much less fuel to drive 55 miles an hour than it does to drive 70. For more ideas, see Save Gas and Money.

16. Don’t wait until your gas gauge is sitting on E to refuel. On an unfamiliar road, you never know when the next gas station will appear. As soon as you hit a quarter of a tank, start looking for a place to fill up.

17. When traveling with kids, be sure to stop often — not just for snacks and potty breaks, but also for fun. See a cool playground along the way? Pull over and throw a Frisbee around. You’ll also want to pack toys, books and music for the car — not to mention your motion sickness remedy of choice. For more ideas, see Family Car Travel.

18. Feeling munchy? Stock up on snacks and drinks at grocery stores rather than gas stations or convenience stores — you’ll get a wider and healthier selection, as well as better prices.

19. On longer trips, keep napkins, plasticware and a small cooler handy for meals on the go. You’ll also want some spare change for tolls, as well as a first-aid kit, flashlight, pillow and blanket. Keep a set of jumper cables, a spare tire or donut, and extra fluids for the car (such as windshield wiper fluid) in your trunk.

20. This last tip should go without saying, but it’s important enough that we’ll say it anyway: Make sure everyone in the car buckles his or her seatbelt. Not only will it keep you safe, but in many places it’s also the law.

Related Links

Family Car Travel New Resources for Road Trippers Weekend Getaways Under $500 Write About Your Road Trip

 

Travel Games

ANIMAL VEGETABLE OR MINERAL (20 QUESTIONS)
recommended age 8 and above
Someone thinks of an object that falls under the category of animal,
mineral, or vegetable and then tells the other players which group it is in. The
players then take turns asking questions that can be answered with a YES or
NO. For example, if the object is a marble its made from glass so its mineral, and the questions might go…’Is it alive?’… ‘No’
‘Can I use it?’… ‘Yes’
‘Is it useful?’…’No’
‘is it small?’…’yes”
‘Can I play with it?’…’Yes’
‘Is it a marble?’ ‘Yes’
After 20 questions everyone has one last go and then its the next persons turn to choose something
MAKE UP A STORY
recommended age 8 and above
Someone starts with a sentence about absolutely anything…ie. PLAYER 1 Charlie was walking along the street when out of the corner of his eye he saw something that made his blood freeze. PLAYER 2 He saw an ice cream van and ran to order a 99. The next person has to follow on with their own sentence that may or may not be what player one had intended. We have had huge fun with this game where one child has been determined to make the story a horror whereas another child has wanted to make it a humor / romance…let the battle commence!
A to Z GAME
Fine for all children who know their alphabet
This is a game of speed and observation. Everyone looks around them and has to find the letters of the alphabet from A-Z in order. Only one person can have any one letter (if there is a P on a signpost only one person can have it) so there is a lot of shouting to stake the claim! Letters can be found on number plates, billboards, road signs, place names etc etc. although the letter Q is very tricky (bus stops often have QUEUE THIS SIDE for those with eagle eyes!)
The winner is the first to Z.
COUNTRIES
recommended age 8 and above
Someone starts by choosing a country ie. France. The next person must
name a country whose name begins with the last letter of the previously
named country. In this case the last letter of France is E, so the next person must name a country beginning with E, ie England then Denmark until someone gives up. This game could work with any subject from animals to pop stars!
NAME GAME
recommended age 6 and above
Choose a subject such as girls names and everyone has to give the name of a girl in alphabetical order ie Alyson, Betty, Carol etc. When you get to Z go back to A again. Players drop out as they can’t think of anything and the winner is the last one in.
ALPHABET MEMORY GAME
recommended age 8 and above
The first person starts with the letter A and says
‘A is for (choose a word beginning with A)
Player 2 then says ‘A is for (choose a word beginning with A)
B is for (choose a word beginning with B)
This continues down the alphabet until at Z the player needs to remember all the letters and the things attached to them from A-Z.
The winner is the last person to do it correctly.This is very good for your memory and you can make it more fun by using silly words like T is for mummies temper
COLOURED LORRIES
recommended age 2 and above
Each person chooses a color and this is then written on a piece of paper
next to your name. Mark 1 point next to your name each time you spot a car of your chosen color. The winner is the first to reach 25.
colored Lorries helps small children with their colors and attention levels.
PUB CRICKET
recommended age 8 and above
This works best when driving through towns. You have to look out for Pubs,
and look at what they are called. Then you score `runs’ by the number of legs
in the title ie. the ‘Green Dragon’ would score 2 runs, and the
‘Black Horse’ would score 4. Your innings is over when a pub name has no
legs for example `The Why Not’. The winner is whoever scores the most during
their innings.
CONNECTIONS
recommended age 4 and above
One person starts off with a single word eg. dog, the next
person has to say the first word they think of related to dog eg. animal, the next person the first word they think of connected to animal
eg donkey, and so on until you get completely stuck. You can also play this game by remembering the words that have gone before and if anyone repeats one they are out.
This is very good for lateral thinking
CHANGE A LETTER
recommended age 8 and above
The first person starts off with a single word (this game is easiest if you write it
down), the next person has to change one letter and make a different word,
and so on until no more words can be made. (For example, “James, Games,
Gates, Mates, Mites, Mines, Minus”)
SILLY MESSAGES
recommended age 6 and above
Take turns calling out five letters in any order, such as ‘E, H, A, S, and W.’ All
players write them down. Then everyone gets a few minutes (or a few miles)
to figure out a silly message about an animal using the letters to start words.
For example, with the letters above you could write ‘Emus have a silly walk’.
After you’ve taken turns reading
your messages, another person calls out a new set of letters.
LIST AND LOOK
all ages because you work as a team
Take turns naming animals you think you might see in the next 20 miles (or longer if you are on a motorway). Everyone makes the same list. For example,
you might put these on the list: baby in a car, bird of prey, a dragon on a pub sign, some cows, etc. The adult in the car decides if they are either too difficult or easy. The car then work together as a team and cross the animals off as you find them. Sometimes its easier for an adult to cross off the list especially with the under 5’s
The driver doesn’t help because he has to give each of the players a little treat for everything found on the list by the time you’ve covered in the given amount of miles.
WHEELS CRICKET
recommended age 6 and above
Each player has an innings. During your innings you have to spot vehicles
and count the wheels on them adding up as you go along. For example, if a
car passes, you get 4 points and if a bike passes, you get 2 points. If a
vehicle with 6 or more wheels passes, your innings is over and the next player
gets a go. The person with the most points at the end of the innings wins
‘I SPY’
recommended age 2 and above
The first player thinks of something they can see and says ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with…’ The winner is the first to guess correctly then its their turn. For smaller children it can be I spy a cat and the child looks for the cat. I spy some thing red and the child can find a red car.
CAR REGISTRATION NUMBERS
recommended age 6 and above
Make phrases with the car registration numbers e.g. WWW 435D could be Wierd Wooly Wombats.
CAR SNOOKER
recommended age 8 and above
You will need a paper and pencil for this to keep track of the score, its probably best if one person scores and everyone else plays (to avoid arguments). Starting with the player behind the driver the game starts after the first silver car. The player has to pot balls in order until the next silver car which ends his or her go. The winner is the person with the most points after the black has been potted at the end of the whole sequence (see a black car) after ‘potting’ all the other colors in order. (pink balls are a car with a caravan, brown balls are a white van)
The order of colors is: red 1 point, followed by any of the colors below (do this 15 times). yellow 2 points, green 3 points, brown 4 points, blue 5 points, pink 6 points, black 7 points. Hold on I haven’t finished yet! if you see two red cars behind each other, when you are doing the first bit of red followed by color, you loose 4 points and your go!
CATEGORIES
recommended age 6 and above
Decide on a category. Starting with the person behind the driver each player has to name something in that category. As each player cant think of something new they drop out of the game. The winner is the last person left. Categories can include: trees, flowers, animals, colors, etc
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
recommended for 2 players age 5 and above
Players count to three then make their hands into the shape of a rock (clenched fist) paper (flat hand) or scissors (hands clenched with index and middle finger stretched out into the shape of scissors). Rock smothers scissors but is smothered by paper, Paper smothers rock but is cut by scissors and Scissors cut paper but are smothered by rock. Winner is the best of three
THE SILENT GAME
any age
See who can stay quiet for the longest…the winner (the last person to make a noise) gets a treat.
A brilliant game for when things are getting fraud, if you’re lucky they might even fall asleep!!
RHUBARB
any age
You must only answer rhubarb to any question you are asked…ie ‘what do you like taking to bed with you’…answer rhubarb’ but if you laugh your turns over. Time each go and the one who stays in the longest is the winner. This can be played using the word of your choice. My children like playing it with the word poo, giving hours of hilarity, but I’m sure your kids are far more sensible!!
YES! NO! BLACK AND WHITE
any age
A version of the game above but you’re only allowed to say yes, no, black or white
HORSE
3 upwards
Dish out some jelly sweets (or sweets that don’t melt) between the players. If you see a horse you must yell ’sheep’. The last one to yell it gives one of their sweets to the person on their left…if they yell horse by mistake they give a sweet to the player on their right too. To make it more fun for older children, and adults! if you see a sheep you must yell ‘horse’ a caravan ‘bird’ a bird ‘caravan’ a police car ‘dog’ and a dog ‘police car’
COUNTING GAME
any age
Count a specific animal if you’re in the country people, cats or dogs if your in the town that you see on your side of the car. If you pass a graveyard on your side of the car, you go back to zero, but only if the opposing team calls out “your (cows, sheep, men etc) are buried!”. This game gets interesting when distraction tactics are used to either cause your opponent to miss the thing they are counting on their side of the road or to miss a graveyard on your side of the road. A white horse can count as 10 bonus points and a postbox can cancel out a graveyard like a get out of gaol free card (for this it is probably a good idea to have a piece of paper that the adults can issue out when a post box has been seen and surrendered when used to stop the points being taken off because of a graveyard) The team with the most points wins.

 

Between Olympic national park

For some reason, when people elsewhere in the country refer to the Pacific Coast, particularly California, it’s apparent that they think it’s a land of kooks and crazies, an overbuilt suburban desert supporting only shopping malls, freeways, and body-obsessed airheads. All this may be true in small pockets, but the amazing thing about the Pacific Coast—from the dense green forests of western Washington to the gorgeous beaches of Southern California—is that it is still mostly wild, open, and astoundingly beautiful country, where you can drive for miles and miles and have the scenery all to yourself.

 

Starting at the northwest tip of the United States at Olympic National Park, and remaining within sight of the ocean almost all the way south to the Mexican border, this 1,500-mile, mostly two-lane route takes in everything from temperate rainforest to near-desert. Most of the Pacific Coast is in the public domain, freely if not always easily accessible, and protected from development within national, state, and local parks, which provide habitat for such rare creatures as mountain lions, condors, and gray whales.

 

Heading south, after the rough-and-tumble logging and fishing communities of Washington State, you cross the mouth of the Columbia River and follow the comparatively peaceful and quiet Oregon coastline, where recreation has by and large replaced industry, and where dozens of quaint and not-so-quaint communities line the ever-changing shoreline. At the midway point, you pass through the great redwood forests of Northern California, where the tallest and most majestic living things on earth line the “Avenue of the Giants,” home also to some of the best (meaning gloriously kitsch) remnants of the golden age of car-borne tourism: drive-through trees, drive-on trees, houses carved out of trees, and much more. The phenomenally beautiful coastline of Northern California is rivaled only by the incredible coast of Big Sur farther south, beyond which stretch the beachfronts of Southern California. The land of palm trees, beach boys, and surfer girls of popular lore really does exist, though only in the southernmost quarter of the state.

 

Along with the overwhelming scale of its natural beauty, the West Coast is remarkable for the abundance of well-preserved historic sites—most of which haven’t been torn down, built on, or even built around—that stand as vivid evocations of life on what was once the most distant frontier of the New World. While rarely as old as places on the East Coast, or as impressive as those in Europe, West Coast sites are quite diverse and include the Spanish colonial missions of California, Russian and English fur-trading outposts, and the place where Lewis and Clark first sighted the Pacific after their long slog across the continent.

 

Last but certainly not least are the energizing cities—Seattle in the north, San Francisco in the middle, and Los Angeles and San Diego to the south—which serve as gateways to (or civilized respites from) the landscapes in between them. Add to these the dozens of small and not-so-small towns along the coast, with alternating blue-collar ports and upscale vacation retreats, and you have a great range of food, drink, and accommodation options. Local cafés, seafood grills, and bijou restaurants abound, as do places to stay—from youth hostels in old lighthouses to roadside motels (including the world’s first, which still stands in lovely San Luis Obispo, California) to homespun B&B inns in old farmhouses.

 

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