Hi friends! As you may or may not know, I’d like to consider myself an expert on the modern day millennial’s road trip. I’ve taken four cross-country road trips in the last three years, and I feel like I’ve learned from experience pretty much everything you need to know to plan and carry out a successful road trip as a 20-something without children. Over the years I’ve developed a few road trip essentials that I know I absolutely must have to make sure my road trips are comfortable and go off without a hitch.
As I sit in isolation and hope to begin planning a corona-roadtrip of my own (when I can do so safely, of course), I wanted to share with y’all some of my favorite items from Amazon that I love to bring with me on any road trip, be it a few days or a full cross-country endeavor. I know these products have saved my ass more than once (sometimes quite literally) and I personally would never leave for a road trip without them!
Here are my Top 8 Amazon Road Trip Essentials
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I may receive a small commission if you shop through these links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting me through these links! For more information, check out thedisclaimer here.
1. Magnetic Phone Mount
I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what you think you’re capable of, you absolutely need a phone mount in your car. When driving cross-country, or literally anywhere you don’t know, you’re constantly going to have your GPS up, and you’re constantly going to need to be able to see the phone and see the road. Don’t trick yourself into thinking you can hold the phone in your hand or in your lap and you’ll be fine. You won’t be! Your charging cord is gonna get caught up and your phone is gonna slip out of your hands and next thing you know your head is between your knees trying to dig it up while you’re swerving into opposing traffic on a two-lane road. We hate to see it, so just get a phone mount!
I personally prefer these magnetic ones that you can slide into your air vents. If your vents aren’t positioned the best for this, try this dashboard version! Either way I’d definitely go with a magnetic one so you don’t have to fumble with clips or holders, and you can just grab your phone on and off super easily.
An added benefit of the phone mount? If you have a Ron Textall behind the wheel who can’t seem to keep his hands off his Instagram feed when he’s driving (rude), having the phone mounted where everyone can see it is a great accountability measure that keeps everyone safer in the car!
2. Neck Pillow
I’m fortunately one of those people who can sleep in pretty much any position, but at the bare minimum I like somewhere to lean my head. In the passenger seat, that’s not usually a problem, but on bumpy, unpaved roads it may be a little less comfortable than you’d prefer.
Enter the neck pillow. Gone are the days of the old beanbag half-moon. Neck pillow technology has advanced leaps and bounds and a road trip is the perfect place to take advantage of it. This neck pillow is made of a contoured memory foam that’s comfortable and supportive. You also have the benefit of enjoying it in the privacy of your car and not the embarrassing public forum of an airplane! It also comes with an eye shade and earplugs in case your driver is being particularly annoying!
3. Butt Pillow
Is the comfort meant to stop at the neck? I’m sorry but was I raised in a barn? We are all queens here and we deserve to be treated as such. You deserve a butt pillow.
So much of road tripping is literally just sitting down for an excruciating amount of time. And you really don’t realize how uncomfortable a car seat can be until you spend 14 hours in it without moving. Butt pillows are a game changer for the road trip world, folks, and I really don’t see enough people talking about them. They are in the top tier of road trip essentials, and your car trip is not complete without one. Treat yourself.
4. Car Power Inverter/Charger
Alright, we know I love to be hyperbolic on this blog but let me tell you I am about to be 100% serious with you. If you buy one of these road trip essentials from amazon, it needs to be this. This car charger/ac adapter is a GAME CHANGER, especially for people, like me, who spend much of their downtime in the car blogging, editing photos, or working online.
This little guy is super compact and plugs right into your dashboard. It has one AC outlet and two USB outlets, which are perfect for charging your laptop, drone, camera, and phone battery all at once. The USB ports charge my phone faster than any car charger I’ve ever used. It’s affordable, it’s reliable, doesn’t overheat or cause any problems, and it’s probably my holy grail road trip product. I first bought this when my ex and I went on our first road trip together, and the one thing I’m pissed about to this day is that I left it in his car when we broke up. I need to buy another immediately cause any time I’m in a car without it now I get mad that nothing charges as fast. It’s that good.
5. Travel Hammock
This one isn’t for the travel as much as it is for the destination. These hammocks come in about a billion different colors, are insanely compact, and come with tree straps, carabiners, and everything you need to hang out literally anywhere. They’re durable and I’ve found that they’re plenty big for two people. I love these for hanging in national parks just to take in the beauty, but they’d also be great even for a little stopover on a long drive just to relax and get out of the car a little bit. I can’t recommend this enough.
6. Emergency/First Aid Kit
I know we love to have fun here but sometimes you have to leave room for common sense, and this product is just that. If you’re traveling anywhere and you don’t already have an emergency/first aid kit in your car, you very much need to grab one. This one has a little bit of everything you hope you never need but will be glad if you do, like a seatbelt cutter, jumper cables, alcohol wipes, bandages, tools, a flashlight, and more. I know for a lot of people, especially if you grew up near the city and in the northeast like I did, it can be jarring how truly desolate some of the drives out west are. Growing up in an area where you never drove further than 5 miles before you saw another highway exit, gas station, or convenience store, it was a total shock to me when I found myself on my last half gallon of gas in the middle of nowhere, South Dakota with no other cars or people in sight. Being prepared for the unexpected can be the difference between the best road trip of your life and like.. the last one… so just make sure you have an emergency kit!
While you’re at it, make sure you or someone you’re traveling with is signed up with AAA. Not only can their roadside assistance be a lifesaver (take it from me, the girl who has blown more tires on deserted roads than anyone), but they also offer discounts on hotels and national parks!
7. Fuzzy Blanket
Ok one more comfort item and then I’m done. Something I think people really fail to consider, especially when driving cross country with another person, is that you’re going to have temperature differences. Aside from two people generally preferring different temperatures, there are going to be times in the day when the sun is beating down on the drivers side but the passenger side is in the shade. Instead of fighting over the AC and messing with the vents, just grab a blanket! This one is warm and fuzzy and has the added benefit of being textured enough to hide the stains from when you inevitably spill fast food on it at some point in the drive. It can also be worn as a modesty blanket skirt if you want to sit cross-legged in the passenger seat but you’re wearing a skirt or dress and don’t want to flash the world. Multipurpose!
8. Portable Speaker
Okay, one last thing and I know it’s kind of a wild card, but bring a bluetooth speaker. I’ve driven cross country in a moving van with my phone in a solo cup to boost the sound because I couldn’t connect my phone to the audio system in the car. I’ve driven in silence for hours because my aux cord broke or my bluetooth shorted out. The one thing you’re never going to want to be without on a road trip is sound. Whether it’s music, a podcast, an or the audio from an old episode of the office you’ve seen a thousand times, sound is one of the few road trip essentials you can’t compromise on. I strongly recommend bringing along a bluetooth speaker just in case the worst happens and you for some reason can’t use your car’s stereo system. Worst case scenario, you don’t need it — then you have a speaker to listen to music by the beach, in the forest, or wherever your trip takes you!
This particular speaker is my holy grail bluetooth speaker that I own and love. You definitely don’t need something this major, but if you’re in the market for a bluetooth speaker anyway, I highly recommend this one. The sound is perfect, it’s easy to use, and it’s waterproof!
Okay y’all, thanks for hanging in there. Those are my 8 road trip essentials you can get from Amazon. I hope this was helpful to you and you can pick them up before your next trip across the country!
)
