(upbeat music)
- 19 road trip tips.
I'm Chris, this is topper.
This is Yellow Productions.
We do travel guides that are fun, informative, entertaining,
and we I've taken road trips all around the world.
And so in this video, we're gonna be sharing with you
some of things we've learned on our road trips
to make your next road trip the perfect one.
Let's start with tip number one.
My number one tip for a perfect road trip is to plan ahead.
And yes, I know that some of the allure of a road trip
is the freedom of the open road, you don't have tickets,
you don't have time, you can go anywhere,
you can stay anywhere.
And so I'm not telling you that you need to plan everything.
But what I am telling you is you should plan
where you're going to spend the night
and generally where you're going to have your meals,
lunch and dinner.
And I personally like to plan my whole road trip out.
If it's a week long road trip, before I go,
I like to have all of my hotels booked or if I was camping,
I'd want all of my camp grounds located in book
so that I know these are the places
I'm gonna sleep at night.
'Cause if you don't book your hotels,
well then, you might end up sleeping
in the Walmart parking lot in your car
because that's the only place available.
Also, taking a look at general areas for meals,
you don't have to pick out specific restaurants,
but at least looking at areas say, ah,
this is a town that looks like it has food,
because otherwise you might find yourself driving
and find that there are no restaurants
for hours on your drive.
And you find that you are then very hungry.
In relation to planning where you're gonna sleep
and what you're gonna eat,
you should plan out your route.
I like to use Google maps to plan out my route.
That's a great way to tell what the driving time is.
I would recommend though,
that you add about 20% to that driving time,
because you never know when there's gonna be traffic,
a detour or construction,
that's gonna make that route take a bit longer
and chances are your sightseeing
and so you'll want to stop,
smell the flowers, check out the view.
So it'll take you longer to drive it.
Assuming you're doing a road trip the right way,
it's about the journey and not about the destination.
When you're road tripping.
Tip number two,
this is almost the opposite of tip number one,
which is why I moved over here to talk about it
on the other side of the camera.
I just told you that successful road trips involve planning,
but also don't plan too much.
I find a big mistake of first time roadtrippers
is detailing out their itinerary hour by hour,
minute by minute,
we're gonna go here,
we're gonna eat here, at 11:34 we're gonna do this.
Don't do that.
Don't pack so much in your trip.
You know, for a road trip, you wanna put in
kind of a couple main things that you want to see.
And then you actually want the journey
to be what you experience.
If you see something on the side of the road,
you want time built into your schedule to say,
hey, let's just pull off and see what that is.
So if you've done a leg of a drive
and that drive is two hours, you know what?
Maybe allocate four hours on that schedule
and say, we're just gonna turn off.
We're gonna find a cafe,
we're gonna find a little hike
and that's just what we're gonna do today.
And by 6 PM we'll be at our destination.
Tip number three is choose the correct vehicle.
So depending upon what your road trip is,
depending upon what kind of roads you'll be driving on,
you will want a different type of vehicle.
If you're just doing a whole bunch
of free wheel road driving then a Sedan might be quite fine.
By the way,
if you're looking at this car in the background
and you're like, Chris, is that your car?
Is that the yellow car?
That is the yellow car.
And by the way,
if you haven't heard the story about this yellow car
where that came from and how the name Yellow Productions
came from as a channel from that car, well, stay tuned
I'll tell you that at the end of the 19 tips.
But some trips, you might not need a Sedan.
You might need an SUV because you might need a bigger car.
You might be traveling on dirt roads,
so you might need four wheel drive.
One of the biggest mistakes
I see people make on road trips
is trying to take Sedans cars
that were not meant to go off-road
and taking them off-road.
So make sure you're prepared with the right vehicle.
You should also think about,
do you wanna take your vehicle
or do you want to take a rental vehicle?
Is your vehicle old?
Is your vehicle prone to breaking down?
Well, rent one.
We've often rented cars for road trips
from rental car places that are in our home city.
And finally, if you are taking your car,
please get it serviced,
get it checked up before you go on the road,
you wanna make sure that all the bells and whistles
and thingamabobs are working are okay.
Tip number four,
get a roadside assistance plan in the U S that could be A.
Outside of the U S it could be something else,
perhaps something you get through a Rental Car Company
or a different auto club,
or even something you get through a premium credit card.
When your car breaks down,
not yet, when, you will want to have the phone number handy
so that you can call roadside assistance
if your car is broken.
If you're a really handy person,
well, then in that case, carry around tools,
carry around your thing, fix it yourself.
I am not a handy person.
And so in that case, I like to have AAA,
I like to have my chase Sapphire preferred number handy
so that if something happens to my car,
I've got a flat tire,
or I need a jump, I know who to call.
Now I told you I'm not handy,
but the one thing I always carry in my car,
when I go on road trips
is a cigarette lighter powered tire inflator.
The number one thing that happens on trips
as your tires get low or a nail gets in it.
And if you can just give your tire enough air to get you
to a tire store, that'll help out quite a bit
and you won't need a tow.
So consider getting one of these
if you don't for your own car.
Tip number five, you'll need maps.
And don't just rely on your cell phone service
to get you Google maps all the time.
If you are using Google maps on your phone to navigate,
then I recommend you download offline maps,
but sometimes your phone dies,
your phone goes in the water, something happens
to your phone.
If you're going on a serious road trip,
invest in some paper maps.
And if you don't wanna buy them, at least print them out
so you have a general idea of where you are,
but the great thing about actual paper maps,
the ones that you can unfold is just a really great way
to inspire detours.
You can take a look that map and say,
yay, you know what?
We're going this way,
but this road looks a lot more scenic
let's go ahead and take that one.
Now, if you are gonna be using your phone
as a primary source of navigation,
consider getting a cell phone mount for your car.
I really like these cell phone mounts from Pope ProClip.
They are made for specific phones.
You can get them at ProClip USA.
This is not sponsored.
I just like them.
If I'm traveling, then I use this one by IADI,
it's a suction cup one that you can stick on the dashboard.
This one works reasonably well,
but it's not as secure as the ProClip,
which is actually designed to hard mount into your car.
So this thing doesn't go anywhere.
One more note about those maps
don't assume that all roads on maps are actually paved.
Many of them are dirt roads just like this.
And if you end up on someplace
that seems a little too sketchy,
don't be afraid to turn back.
Turning back is much better than getting stuck.
Next tip is road trips can be kind of boring
on the open road.
Make sure you've got your entertainment ready.
Things like music, things like playlist.
And don't just rely on streaming solutions
because road tripping,
you might end up someplace with no internet access
so download your music to your phone.
Speaking of your phone and all those devices,
make sure you bring something
to actually charge your devices.
Cigarette lighter powered USB chargers.
I like ones from anchor, they come in two ports.
You can even get some that have four USB ports
if you've got lots of devices.
Tip number eight is about packing.
Consider bringing some day bags that are small
to bring up into your hotel room
and leaving your big luggage in the car.
Then you can take just a few things out that you need
before you go to the hotel.
And you don't have to log all your stuff every day
or to the campground or the Airbnb
or wherever you are staying.
The next tip is you never wanna have anything
showing in your car.
You don't want any bag showing
because thieves really love to break into cars
in road trips,
'cause they're pretty valuable.
I like to bring beach towels
that I can put some stuff in the trunk.
But if I've got some stuff on the back seat,
then I use it beach towels to just cover that stuff up.
Now there's not a bag.
Just looks like a beach towel and a bunch of junk
go into the beach.
Those picnic towels, picnic towels,
the beach towels can also be pretty useful
when you're going on a picnic.
Speaking of picnicking and snacks,
next tip is make sure you are prepared
for snacks and drinks.
I always like to carry a cooler on road trip.
Really helps to keep stuff cold.
If you're staying in hotels that have ice machines,
you can fill this up every night with ice,
you can bring it up to your room, have your cold drinks,
have your snacks in it bring plenty of whatever you like,
doritos, veggies, you know your thing,
and your drinks in here.
But it might be hard to get your drinks always
out of your cooler.
So to drive around and keep drinks hot or cold.
I like these cups by Tervis,
particularly because this one's yellow,
but what I like about these,
I like that I can put draw in it.
They don't unscrew and so it makes it really easy
to drink from this while you're driving,
keeps things cold for a long time,
keeps them hot for a long time, too.
Did I mentioned they come in yellow?
Tip number 11,
have your box of sanitary supplies.
I'm shooting this during the COVID-19 pandemic
and so sanitary supplies right now,
definitely some hand sanitizer,
you'll need that on a road trip, sanitize your hands.
If you can't wash them also a potpourri of masks, Chris,
I got like this whole mass box,
depending upon any situation I might wanna be the Pooh.
I might want my medical mask or haven't gone to someplace
really sketchy.
Then I've got my N95 mask.
I see many people just put their masks up
on the rear view mirror.
But I find that really annoying when I'm driving,
what just happened right there,
it can happen your mask can fly away.
And so it's good to have a few masks
just in case that happens.
You don't want your only mask to flown away.
And then your mask got lost and you can't go into a store
to buy a new mask.
Now, in addition to the mass box,
I typically carry a second box
that didn't make it with me in this car today,
but that has things like paper towels, utensils
if I'm gonna eat someplace,
I need utensils to eat in the car.
It'll also have a wet wipes in case there's a spill,
just the general basics of cleaning supplies
you might need, including a plastic bag for trash
'cause if something happens in your car
and you need to wipe that up and there's not a trashcan,
it's good to have a plastic bag to put that messy stuff in.
Tip number 12, carry a bag of small change coins and bills.
These are really useful for tolls
if you have to pay tolls useful for parking meters.
So pick this up before your trip.
And by the way, did I mentioned also
to carry a bag of plastic gloves really useful
if you're going to a sketchy gas station
or you need to do something
that you don't wanna get your hands dirty.
Tip number 13, if you're traveling internationally,
make sure to take a look at those requirements
on international country.
See if you need an international driving permit
in addition to your driver's license.
One country that requires this is Japan.
If you're going to Japan and you're a resident of the USA,
you need to get an international driver's permit
to go along with your driver's license.
You can get those at your nearest AAA office
in the U S.
Tip number 14,
if you're traveling in the winter
and you're traveling in snow,
make sure you have snow supplies too.
In particular,
you will want an ice scraper to scrape your windshield.
Most rental car companies and cold places
will give those to you.
If you're going someplace,
really snowy consider getting a snow broom,
which is basically something
to take all the snow off your car
in the event that it's covered in it.
Tip number 15, let's talk about scheduling.
I like to schedule my drives so that they're in the day.
Daytime driving is the safest and it's easiest.
I like to leave my sleeping destination around 9 AM.
After rush hour,
you don't have a leisurely breakfast drive around.
And then I like to get to my destination by sunset,
get there and then do things in that destination
in the evening.
I particularly require myself to get to any destinations
by the time the drunks come out on the road,
'cause my mom always said
nothing good happens after midnight.
Also, if you're gonna be traversing big cities,
make sure that when you're going through those big cities,
isn't rush hour in those cities.
In the U S if you were going through Los Angeles,
that could be one hour during normal traffic times
or three hours if you hit that at 5 PM on a Friday night.
Tip number 16,
obey the rules of the road and whatever your destination is,
if you're going to a foreign country, look those up before.
And I also highly encourage you to drive the speed limit.
I know many of us might be speed demons
and likes to go pretty fast, including myself.
But when I'm someplace that I'm not familiar with
in a little place, that I might not even speak the language,
which even in the U S might be a different place
like being in the South,
where they speak in different accents.
I drive the speed limit because I don't wanna give them
any extra reasons to pull me over.
And that time getting pulled over,
it's just time away from your actual vacation.
Tip number 17,
fill up your gas frequently on road trips.
When my gas tank gets to about a half tank,
I usually like to fill it up again
because you never know when the next gas station is gonna be
and so if you're passing a decent gas station
that looks clean and it's relatively inexpensive,
stop there and fill it up, because you know, one's, there.
Also I'd encourage you to use the toilet frequently
and at least traveling in the U S,
I often prefer truck stops over gas stations.
I find truck stops in the U S
are actually these pretty big impressive places
that generally prioritize clean bathrooms.
In Europe, rest stops are actually pretty good.
You might often have to pay a dollar or something like that
to use them.
There you might be a Euro,
but make sure you use the toilet when you have the option,
because you also don't know
when the next toilet is gonna be.
Tip number 18, clean your car frequently.
You know road trips have a way
of making your car pretty dirty.
Make sure you clean it, not just on the outside,
but also at the inside.
Gas stations are pretty good places to do that.
Keep your windshield clean, dump out your trash.
Tip number 19 is to take exercise breaks.
You know, when you get to those stops,
you get to a rest stop, something like that.
You get to a little city,
you know, every couple of hours get out,
take a walk for 15 minutes, you're back
will thank you later.
Hey, (indistinct) do you know what time it is?
It's story time and it's time for us to tell the story
of what this yellow car has to do
with the Yellow Productions channel.
It's actually the inspiration for the channel name,
but this is not my first yellow car.
My first yellow car was actually a 1986 Honda,
a car that did not come in yellow.
It was originally silver, but when I was 16 years old,
I got into an accident with a drunk driver.
This drunk driver hit the side of my car
and my car was totaled.
But actually I was able to go to some cheep body shops
where they repaired the car,
but then they put on panels from two other cars.
So I had a silver car with a red door and a blue back panel
where I needed to get my car painted.
So I took my car to one day paint, a paint shop.
And when I was at this paint shop,
I was looking at the paint board saying,
what color should I paint my car?
And having just got into an accident with a drunk driver,
I said, yellow.
Yellow was the color of my car
and I loved that yellow car
because it was so easy to find in parking lots
in anywhere, I would never lose that car.
And so when I was buying a new car in 2004
is when I bought this car.
I specifically went on cars.com and I looked for yellow cars
and I saw there was one yellow Lexus IS300 that's right?
This is a yellow Lexus.
Lexus only made IS300 in yellow for two years,
2002 and 2003 and driving a yellow car around people
that I knew and my friends,
they would just start to call me yellow.
I would drive up and instead of people saying,
"Hey, Chris", they would say, "Hey, yellow."
And people call me yellow after a while.
And so then when I decided to start a YouTube channel,
I called it Yellow Productions.
When I went to register domain names, well, you know,
one W was taken so I put two Ws in there.
Eventually I decided that was a mistake
because if you type in two W's into YouTube,
well, YouTube thinks you misspelled it
and corrects it to one W.
So at some point later in the channel,
I renamed it to Yellow Productions with a single W
but that's why sometimes you see yellow productions
written with one W and sometimes you see it written
with two W's.
It's often on my older shirt this one,
one of my newer shirts.
And the last thing to know is we've got more videos.
If you enjoyed watching this one,
you might enjoy checking out some of our other excellent
travel videos.
You'll find videos up on the screen
or link subscription below.
As usual, I won't say goodbye because we'll see you
in the next video.
Oh, oops, that's the wrong way.
I want to go that way.