Your Pre-Travel Vehicle Checklist: Plan Ahead For Peace of Mind

If you’re planning on taking off for a vacation, and a vehicle like a car or truck is going to be your primary way of getting around, there are a number of things that you should pre-plan for both safety and peace of mind about your trip.

Five items that should be on your pre-travel checklist are going to include getting basic auto services done, making sure you have games and entertainment ready for your kids in the car, buying a car safety kit, having multiple maps or ways of determining directions to your destination, and you can even plan meals and snacks beforehand to take that stress of of your plate.

Basic Auto Services

Before you go anywhere on any kind of long drive, getting your basic auto services done is a must. This means things like checking your fluids, checking the battery status, making sure that your tires are inflated correctly, and checking all your lights are in good working order. This is one step you absolutely can’t skimp on, because no vacation is going to be fun if you end up with preventable car trouble occurring.

Games and Entertainment

If you have young kids, or ones that get restless easily, long drives can be extremely stressful. So, early in your planning, make sure that you have car games to play, or if you have a more modern setup, you can make sure that you take DVD’s with you that the children can watch to keep them occupied. Travel these days is much more pleasant for adults if you can figure out how to keep kids relatively calm and involved in some peacemaking gadgets.

Car Safety Kits

And if you haven’t already bought a car safety kit, before vacation is going to be the best time to do it. These kits often have basic first aid stuff in them, along with extra road-oriented stuff like flares, cones, and patch kits. They aren’t expensive, but they should be with you in your vehicle at all times. Also, it can be a great help to invest in a backup camera. They can be very useful when trying to fit into those small parking bays and when traveling, you don’t know where you’ll end up parking! Definitely a useful addition for bigger cars.

Maps and Backup Directions

Even if you’re totally confident in your GPS system, you should always have a backup plan when it comes to directions. This means buying a real, physical map and knowing the approximate lay of the land between where you’re leaving from and where you’re going to. Don’t take technology for granted.

Meal Planning

A final item for you to put on your pre-travel vehicle checklist would be your list of snacks or food that you want to take along, or perhaps even a general idea of meal planning so far as stopping along the way is concerned. The less you leave up to chance, the more smoothly the trip will go.