What is your best road trip travel tip for the summer of 2021?
To help you with your summer road trip plans, we asked business leaders and PR professionals this question for their best advice. From planning each stop to calling ahead for COVID hours, there are several ways you can prepare to ensure a smooth summer road trip.
Here are nine road trip travel tips for the summer of 2021:
- Plan Each Stop
- Remember to Bring Face Masks
- Wait Last Minute to Save Money
- Decide What Kind of Trip You’re Taking
- Get Your Car Maintenanced
- Camp on Public Land
- Bring Your Pup
- Reduce Meal Costs
- Call Ahead for COVID Hours
Plan Each Stop
With the vaccine rollout and the slow down of COVID, people miss being with their families and friends and are excited to start getting out this summer. While it might still be difficult to travel overseas, the convenience of hopping in an RV with your family is a great way to see some of your favorite landmarks while also spending quality time with your loved ones. This could make for the experience of a lifetime, but only if you plan ahead. To make this adventure a success, the best tip is to schedule and plan out every stop. Also, reach out ahead of time, so everyone is on the same page.
Randall Smalley, Cruise America
Remember to Bring Face Masks
While taking a road trip is one of the best social distancing travel options, be prepared for face-to-face interactions with your face masks and hand sanitizer. Most establishments require that masks be worn inside. The last thing you want is to arrive at a rest stop or a restaurant to grab a bite but can’t get in because you don’t have a face mask.
Rronniba Pemberton, Markitors
Wait Last Minute to Save Money
For hotel stays, I have often saved a lot of money by waiting to book until the afternoon where a lot of hotels lower their rates a lot, as getting a small revenue is better than no revenue at all. If you like flexibility and freedom, just go and explore. Then in the afternoon, one can drive, and another one can look on the phone and find a great deal nearby.
Henrik Jeppeson, Every Country in the World
Decide What Kind of Trip You’re Taking
When choosing where to visit for a road trip, decide whether your trip is more about the journey or the destination. Is it a trip on the road or a road trip? If the destination is the primary goal, make sure to bake in plenty of time to enjoy it. This usually means picking someplace that’s close enough to not spend all your time on the road. That said, if the road is your destination, you may not even need an endpoint. But you may need to do more planning since you’ll be stopping at multiple places along the way.
Chris Emery, Ordealist
Get Your Car Maintenanced
We are doing an Across America Road Trip, from San Diego, California, to Traverse City, Michigan, and back. Pre-trip planning includes making sure the vehicle is ready for action, including oil change with synthetic oil, new windshield wipers and fluid, new tires which are properly inflated, tire repair kit, working tire jack and lug wrench, tire compressor, good spare tire, and even a handheld GPS device in case we are in the middle of nowhere and need to contact someone in an emergency.
Michael Harlow, The Adventure Travelers
Camp on Public Land
Plan a route but leave room for spontaneity. Generally, summer road trips require lodging reservations months in advance, but if visiting national parks, there is another great option. Most western U.S. destinations, including national parks, are surrounded by public lands.
Free camping is often permitted on public land without reservations, so pack your tent and hit the road. Campsites can be found using either Bureau of Land Management dispersed camping maps or free crowdsourced apps like Campendium or iOverlander. By finding a few sites along your route, you can alter your pace based on what interests you along the road.
Kara Metcalf, Trying to Unwind
Bring Your Pup
2020 was a year of isolation, and for many of us, that meant working from home. Our beloved pets have grown accustomed to our presence and frequent interactions. Reports vary, showing adoption rates are up 10% to 30% as we have leaned on our pets to fill our social needs. As we finally near the opportunity to safely hit the open road again, we should not forget about the K9 members of our families. Taking your dog on a road trip rarely increases expenses but is sure to mean the world to your pooch. This can even prevent separation anxiety, which according to the AKC, now affects 14% of all dogs.
Mason Hunt, Savvy Doggo
Reduce Meal Costs
When you’re on the road, you’re likely to spend more on restaurant meals, but you can cut down on the cost by using gift cards creatively. First, you can purchase restaurant gift cards in bulk from a warehouse store like Costco. Since most of their offers are for restaurants that are located around the U.S., you can be confident knowing that you can find a location throughout your road trip.
For example, you can get 20% off $100 worth of gift cards to California Pizza Kitchen for just $80, and they have 250 locations in 32 U.S. Otherwise, research daily deals for restaurants based on your destination through Groupon or Living Social or by looking for discount gift cards through sites like Restaurant.com. You can also use the Coupon Cabin app to find dining deals and even earn cashback on your meals.
Andrea Woroch, Money-Saving Expert
Call Ahead for COVID Hours
If your family is used to doing spontaneous road trips over the summer, you may want to reconsider that approach this year. While some venues are fully operational, many are at reduced capacity or closed for good. If you don’t plan out an itinerary, you could miss out on coveted spots or plan an unnecessary stop to a location that isn’t open.
Put in the work beforehand to agree as a family where you want to go. Make your budget and see what’s feasible, then start calling places to see what’s open. You may need to book ahead of time, or they may have revised hours that aren’t reflected on their website. So many venues are awful about updating their pages, so don’t take their Google listing as the final word.
Rex Freiberger, The Call Of
