3 important lessons my road trip taught me

Quick Read: Most of us travel to experience new things. Some of us would learn many new things along the way. And every trip and style, brings about a much bigger impact to your lifestyle that you can imagine. And in this post, I’m sharing the 3 things I learned on a road trip. Read on to find out more…

Traveling or taking a road trip not only heals our soul from the fatigue of the daily routines in most of our city lives, but it’s also a source of inspiration for many. Yet some of us are still constantly not satisfied or felt like something is missing in those trips.

Have you ever felt that way? Perhaps the cost? Travel style? Adventure-level?

Over the past few years, I’ve also gained my fair share of experiences that had helped shape my future travels. When you travel enough, it’s not easy to feel satisfied in the same way as you do when you first started.

It’s not because you got sick of traveling. It’s because you haven’t intimately realise what you’re traveling for, why you travel and how you want to travel.

But perhaps that’s a separate note for another day. Today, I would like to discuss on 3 major things I’ve learned during my trips. Note that these are just some of my learnings and opinions, and it’s still all subjected to personal preferences.

And maybe, these will become your starting point of discovering and exploring what your travel will look like in future.

Oh, before we continue, I just wanted to give a shout out to you for the continued support and reading of these free content, and please do subscribe to my blog if you haven’t already done so, as I continue sharing my adventures and useful travel tips with you.

Packing it right for mobility

Unlike in Singapore, where distances are much shorter and accessibility is a lesser issue, many other countries will require you to move around quite a fair bit more.

Dragging your luggages down the streets, climbing the stairs, lifting up the spiral stairways to your apartment are just some of the most common problems you might encounter.

Or unless… You’re always staying in hotel. Still… outskirts staycation will require a little more mobility.

I’ve been traveling a lot for quite some time now. Since then, I’ve been optimising the things we packed in, how we pack them and the sizes of our luggages and backpacks. Nowadays, we mostly only travel with necessity packed into 2x 16L backpacks and 1 half-filled 20” luggage, for 2 to go.

In most long distance travels, we would also carry luggages as well. Since long flights usually include 20-30kg luggages, why not? But for the most part, we always ensure our luggages are not oversized and completely filled.

That way, it allows us to buy things and souvenirs for ourselves, friends and families too. In this case, it would be 2 half-filled luggages and a hand-carry luggage for convenience.

Many times, we’re just like everyone else. Only that we try to optimise the way we pack and reduce duplicated/extra things we bring, to carry more experiences and values back home.

So what do you mean by packing it right and how do we go about doing it?

Actually, it’s something we all knew from the start. But for most, it’s easier said than done. And taking that first step is almost seemingly impossible.

Packing right, means packing light. Only the necessities, not the accessories.

Ever been to Bangkok for your shopping and eating needs? Remember the times where you said you want to bring as little as possible so you can stuff as much shopping rewards as possible?

Yeah, that’s how. You did it before, you just never realise it. Or… didn’t want to do it for other kind of trips.

Why not? There’s a clear purpose in your mind when you go Bangkok shopping – I need more space in my luggage. The same could’ve been applied to your other trips by thinking mobility.

If you guys have not yet read some of my itineraries, You probably should. Because in some of them, I’ve shared personal experiences of packing light for your trips. Check out my New Zealand itinerary note: https://graytravelnotes.com/trips/plan-a-14-days-road-trip-to-new-zealand-during-october/

I recalled our experience in Japan, where moving from one subway to another, is unlike Singapore. You had to exit station, climb stairs, tread across a distance, some traffic lights, then you reach another station. And you guessed it. I was lifting 2x luggages while my wife helped me with other bags, chasing for that train.

Hey, I used pack a lot too. That’s why I dare say it myself – when we travel far, with lots of walking, stairs and moving around, we hated the fact that we had to lug around heavy luggages.

Do you? Do you not? Yes, I’m sure you would hate that too.

You just have to realise that you suffer that immobility by your very own hands. Not because other countries had many stairs – ok, they do have more than us, but that’s not the point (because you’re ok with climbing mountains or Japan’s Fushimi Shrines) – but because you subjected yourself to heave your (maybe plus others’) luggages.

You ended up being so tired and frustrated.

Maybe… don’t do that?

P.S. I’ve shared a little more on packing light in a separate note here: https://graytravelnotes.com/opinions/why-learning-minimalism-is-important-to-our-traveling-too/. Have a look at this as well, pretty cool insights from a documentary that we can learn from for all our future travels.

What about bagging winter gears?

Yes, unfortunately, winter gears are bulky and many more pieces to bring per person. There’s only so much we can do to reduce but we can all be very sensible about it still. For example, refrain from making it a fashion show! (Yes, I hit the nail directly. Oops!)

You only need 1 piece of down coat, 1 piece of fleece jacket and 1 piece of winter pants. You don’t need to change colour, find matching patterns and what not. If you’re not an influencer or fashionista, do you really need to change everyday?

If the places you’re traveling is not utterly cold, sometimes you don’t even need a full gear winter clothing. In fact, some places we travel to only get as cold as 5 deg.

In such instances, we only brought the 2 most important clothing for cold weather and you’re already effectively protecting yourself while saving space on your luggage.

The only thing we ever wore in that temperature, was the fleece jacket. Our windbreaker had been in the trunk for the whole 14 days trip.

There’s no reason why you should bring more. Sadly, I also think everywhere else is just only getting hotter on non-winter days. And unless you’re really afraid of cold, even just the fleece jacket is enough.

Tip: A windbreaker and a fleece jacket are all you need. It isn’t the still air that is really that cold. It’s the wind. Preventing the wind from reaching you, and shielding away the remaining cold is more than enough in most instances.

Getting the right transport for your road trip

The other important lesson I learned during my first road trip, is transport. Ever since then, I’ve been preaching to everyone else who’s making a road trip on this very important lesson – Make sure you get yourself a decently good car.

By decently good car I don’t mean you must opt for luxury sedans or SUVs, nor do I mean a satisfactory common sedan. I meant real power and real control, 4 by 4 and powerful engines. Why? Well, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Foreign roads are… well, foreign. You never drove their roads before, you don’t know the condition of the roads, and you may never know what situation you might get yourself in.

A 4WD or AWD cars are an essential during winter and off-roads trips. They can help navigate away from dangerous encounters or tricky situation that you never foresee.

A powerful engine just means that you have a much more pleasant drive and the ability to climb steep slopes even with a heavier load in the car.

I recalled during one first road trip, we booked a very common sedan – the old Toyota Altis – for just $47 a day. I was so happy about it, but came to regret awfully much later. It was having great difficult climbing the steep slopes and navigating around the mountain drives. The stability had became questionable because of the road conditions too.

It’s not to say that you can’t go with cheaper options. It’s just to say that, through all my experiences now, I honestly would rather shell out more to ensure safety and pleasant drive.

After all, remember, the rented car is the only reason and purpose of your road trip. If it’s bad, half of your trip is already ruined.

And I cannot emphasise enough on how important it is on selecting the right car for your trip.

But all of these, is not just on you. Who and where you book it from, is equally important. Thankfully, we have a few established brands in providing worldwide access to car rentals easily.

And in most cases, I’ve come to trust Hertz a lot. Yes, they can be a tad bit more expensive in most of their options, but again, you don’t want your trip to be ruined by the one thing this entire trip is all about.

Hertz has many locations worldwide, granting accessibilities wherever you go. Even all the way in Alesund, Norway Hertz is just right around the corner for you. I trusted Hertz in delivering well-maintained vehicles and ensuring that what I need to get started on my trip, are all ready for me.

What’s even better is, there’s usually no further hidden costs when booking with Hertz. Insurance and waivers are already included most of the times.

Book your next car rental with Hertz: https://hertz.com.sg

Other brands such as Sixt, Europcars and Avis are pretty popular too. They are good as well so if you do run out of options with Hertz, it’s always good to know you have alternatives.

Making cooking the way of traveling

Cooking while traveling provides a complete different perspective and experience altogether. Especially when your trip is on the road most of the time. Additional consideration such as water and food supply while on the road, becomes crucial in how you plan your day ahead.

Part of the joy comes from actually visiting their local grocery stores and picking up the right ingredients for a convenient cook. It’s then you realise that we don’t have everything you had back home. A complicated cook wouldn’t work, neither does variety cooking works too.

It forces you to adopt creativity and quick-thinking towards cooking your meals. Remember, you’re only limited by your mind and not the tools in front of you.

It’s also always interesting to be able to observe the locals doing their daily routines and the selection of groceries they made for their meals. It almost seems like we’re part of that routine when we buy our ingredients.

Nowadays, our travels usually involve living more locally than just hotels and restaurants. Its part of the lifestyle we’d prefer.

Over a couple similar trips like this, had allowed us to create simple recipes that kind of worked almost everywhere around. But these recipes are simple enough that anyone would be able to pick it up easily.

Let me know down in the comments below if you would like to more about the different meals we cooked during our trips.

Thermal containers and bottles become an essential for these trips. Oh, perhaps this is the only other thing we’d to pack into our luggages. In some cases, we only brought two sets of it and if needed, we go on a local visit to the store and grab additional containers (these are usually cheap).

Containers like that are easy on the luggage, doesn’t weigh too much more but are able to bring about huge impact on your road trips. Without it, you probably need to hit a cafe or restaurant everyday. Not easy on your pocket, and not always easy to find in other countries.

Tip: If you’re going in summer periods, cook meals that can last longer and pack them into thermal containers. A road trip typically takes between 3 to 5 hours and a meal like that, will carry you all the way through till the next town. If you’re going in winter, it’s the same thing except, you can prepare more snacks and chips on the go. Opened packets generally don’t spoil at all because it’s cold. The meals you cook can be different as well for winter!

Remember, cooking and picnicking is a major part of a road trip experience. Otherwise, your road tripping is only but half fulfilled. Don’t you think so?

Last Thoughts

What I’ve shared above may seem like common things in our lives and for some, they may think it’s common sense. When it comes to a trip, we’re wired to think differently because we fear being unprepared. But that’s the thing. We can never be fully prepared.

Instead, a trip is only full of stories to tell when there’re challenges and adventures encountered along the way.

Embrace it and you may truly enjoy the adventure of wandering in foreign lands, outside your comfortable zones in Singapore.

These lessons are gained through experiences, much like everyone else. But the more those of us share, the more everyone can learn. And the more we learn, the greater the satisfaction of traveling and excitement for the next adventure will start firing from within.

What have you learned in your trips and what would you’ve done? Share your thoughts below in the comment section, let me hear them!

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