7 Road Trip Essentials to Safely Travel During COVID
Planning a road trip used to be much simpler. You could literally pack up the car and start driving, only stopping when you got tired or needed to stretch your legs. Now, we need a few road trip essentials and a lot more preparation, no matter where we’re headed.
And with airline travel not likely to return to the glory days at least until the middle of 2021, even more people are turning to road trips as an alternative form of travel. Imagine it: you’re hitting the open road, enjoying the natural beauty of the world around you. Maybe you have your family in tow, maybe you’re rolling solo. However you’re taking your road trip, you’ll want to make sure you bring some road trip essentials.
Yes, how to take a road trip has changed, but the magic of a road trip experience has not. Be prepared with these seven items and you’ll have a fantastic time. (Note, some of these links are affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission should you purchase something after clicking on the link. It doesn’t affect the price you pay in any way, and I only link to products I use and recommend. Thanks for supporting the site!)
Nitrile Disposable Gloves
One aspect of just about every road trip? Stopping at a gas station. Unless your car has the best gas mileage the world has ever known, you’re likely going to need to fill up. With so many people touching the pumps, it’s a good idea to bring disposable gloves so you’re not touching all those germs.
Simply throw them on, pay with a credit card, use the pump as usual, and toss the gloves when you’re done. I like these gloves because they’re latex-free, and some people are allergic to latex. We’re trying to avoid germs here, not give other people a rash (or worse), so latex-free is the way to go.
Nuun Sport: Electrolyte Drink Tablets
When you spend hours in the car, particularly in hot climates, it’s a lot easier to experience dehydration. You can certainly guzzle water, but you’ll also need electrolytes to keep yourself hydrated. These help keep your vocal chords fresh for when you’re singing great road trip songs, too. My personal picks are “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness and “Sweet But Psycho” by Ava Max. Such jams.
And yes, you certainly drink something like Gatorade to get your electrolytes, but if you find those drinks to be too sweet, Nuun tablets are a great alternative. Put them in a bottle of water and get electrolytes you need to prevent cramping, maintain fluid balance, and aid in muscle performance. Each tablet contains 300 mg Sodium, 150 mg Potassium, 25 mg Magnesium, 13 mg Calcium, and 40 mg Chloride.
Alcohol-Free Hand Sanitizing Wipes
These handy wipes can clean just about any surface, killing 99.99% of bacteria. And you’ll certainly be encountering some heavily used ones along the way. Ideally, you won’t need to touch much on your road trip, but that’s not always the case. Wipe down things like your hotel door knob, desk surfaces, and everything in any bathroom you use.
These wipes are useful for disinfecting surfaces that you might come in contact with on a road trip during COVID but don’t use them on your skin. Even alcohol-free wipes won’t be effective and could lead to a reaction in certain people.
Disposable Face Masks
By now, you certainly have at least one go-to face mask that you like to wear. You can bring it along with you for a safe road trip during COVID, for sure. But if you’re planning to do any hiking or are spending a lot of time outdoors, your cloth mask can get sweaty — and stinky — in a hurry. For those jam-packed outdoor days, bring along some disposable masks, too.
These ones absorbed sweat pretty nicely and fit comfortably over your nose and mouth. I also like how thick the straps are that go over your ears, which allows you to wear them for a while without worry. When you’re done hiking for the day, treat ‘em like the disposable gloves and toss them in the garbage.
First Aid Kit
Whether you’re camping in the woods or driving between hotels, it’s good to be prepared. A solid first-aid kit should always come with you on long trips. This one has road trip essentials like bandages, gauze pads, scissors, an emergency blanket, tweezers, a tourniquet, whistle, and much more.
This kit is extra helpful because everything is marked. In some situations, you need aid immediately, and knowing where each item is located is important. You can also make your own kit with essentials, but the important thing is to keep it light and easily accessible. You’ll never know when you need to pull something out!
Selfie Ring Light and Tripod
Let’s be real: As cool as it is to travel and live in the moment, you also want some pictures to remember the trip. Sometimes, you won’t be in an area with great lighting, so a ring light is super helpful to have.
Even if you are in an area with good lighting, the coronavirus pandemic has changed the old road trip vacation method of stopping someone walking by and asking them to take your picture. Since you don’t want other people touching your gear, you can set up your phone on a tripod. This combo kit comes with a handy Bluetooth clicker, too, so you can easily take photos from afar.
AboveTEK Laptop Desk
Personally, I like to ditch my electronics during a road trip (except for GPS while traveling, since my sense of direction is questionable at best). But sometimes you still might need to bring a laptop with you. A laptop desk is nice because it reduces the number of surfaces your laptop has to touch.
This nifty lil’ desk has a lot of cool features. It’s got extendable legs and the desk can angle so you can use it in just about any position. I also like the little “catcher” at the end of the table, which can help if, say, a pen or something starts sliding down the table on a bumpy road or lap. And most importantly for road trip planning, it folds up nice and compactly. In certain cars, you can probably even fit this in the spot between your seat and the center console. It’s that sleek. Use it in the car, use it in the hotel room, or even use it at a national park if you want a lot of people to stare at you.
A road trip is still a great way to escape from being in the house all day every day. It does require additional preparation, though. With these road trip essentials on your side, you’ll be set up for a memorable trip. Now, the next question…where are we heading?
