8 Road Trip Safety Tips

Here are 8 road trip safety tips from a family who travels a lot! What to bring, what to do in case of an emergency, and how to prepare for a long road trip to stay safe along the way. Free checklist to ensure your car is ready and how to keep your kids busy along the way too.

Whether you’re planning another cross country road trip or preparing for your very first one, road trip safety is important. We have a family of 5 and ever since our youngest was 3 we started our road trip blog.

We’ve taken many trips from CA to AZ. That is about 5-7 hrs., short trips to Big Bear and back, but this Thanksgiving we went from CA to ID!! It was amazing!

We travel a lot and have had many oops, to avoid them here are our top 8 road trip safety tips we want to share.

• A roundtrip family road trip from the San Diego area to Boise (1,806 miles) was something we wanted to do for some time.
  • When the kids were off for a week we packed our clothes, boots / jackets, and took a vacation with teens, oh fun. 

We will start with packing. We travel light. Everyone gets a duffel bag and whatever fits in there is what they can take. Better yet each outfit can be put into gallon bags like this. Keep our packing checklist on hand for this.

If you’re staying with family or renting a home with a washer you don’t have to pack a lot. You can wear clothing again and again. The fewer bags you have the better as far as fitting in the car.

Making sure things are securely fastened in case of an accident is imporatnt too. We don’t want anything flying around.

If you’ve never taken a road trip and you’re traveling with kids you’ll want to prepare yourself with some road trip games for kids.

Make sure you pack a cooler with drinks, and a bag of snacks to minimize the amount of times you will hear “I’m hungry/thirsty”. Busy bags are even better.

Not to say that you shouldn’t stop, because you NEED to stretch and take a bathroom break. It does help immensely to be well stocked on goodies though.

If you’re just beginning to road trip with your family, you might want to plan a few shorter trips. Get them ready for longer ones. Here are 7 ways to take a cheap weekend trip to get you started.

Ok, on to our road trip safety tips…..

Road trip safety tips

1. Secure items in the back (especially your cooler, use a bungee cord or tie down so it doesn’t move around).
2. Check all fluid levels and tire pressure in your car before departing. Here is a printable road trip checklist so you don’t forget anything.
3. Check all brake lights and headlights (including brights) to ensure everything is working properly)
4. Carry chains with you if you are venturing into snow/ice country (better to be safe than sorry).
5. Carry a first aid kit in the car that has all necessary supplies in case of an emergency.
   1. and have doctor’s phone numbers for when your child gets sick

1. Plan on traveling during daylight hours to avoid dark highways that can be more dangerous.
2. Don’t use cruise control if you are driving in rain, sleet or snow. This can delay your reaction time.
3. Make sure you have some sort of road side assistance program available to you.

Last of all, make sure you have a smart home alarm system or security camera installed at your house. This will give you peace of mind too.

Of course you can’t plan for everything in life and accidents do happen but if you can prepare as much as possible before you leave you’ll be better off and feel more prepared.

Having road side assistance is huge. Especially if you’re traveling long distances. If you do not have a membership to a service such as this you’re still in luck!!

I love pay as you go type of services, especially if you are only planning on long trips every once and a while. Allstate Roadside Services offers one. It’s just a monthly fee for “just in case situations”. Triple A is popular too.