Blog it or Facebook it or Tweet it or … – Road trip tip

by Gadling Staff on

Let friends and family share in your road trip adventure by posting details along the way via your blog, Facebook, Twitter or other social media site. People at home are curious about your adventures, and seeing your update may trigger a memory or suggestion they have to improve your trip.

With a smartphone such as the Apple iPhone, Motorola Droid or Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, it’s a snap to post a status update of your trip or take and upload a photo or video of a roadside attraction. Smartphone Facebook apps and apps such as Bloglive make it easy to upload your content.

Of course, don’t do any of this while driving. Wait until you’re stopped, or have a passenger do the posting.

Stop to read the historical markers – Road trip tip

by Gadling Staff on

Every state has them — those roadside markers provided by the state historical society that highlights some piece of history that took place here, or some otherwise trivial piece of information about the journey through this area made by others.

Sometimes the markers explain a point of geology. Sometimes they provide insight to the name of a highway or region or valley or mountain. We’ve found the sites of shoot-outs with Bonnie & Clyde, of stage coach routes and of unbelievable natural disasters, and through each one have felt a little more in touch with the journey.

Post-It along the highway – Road trip tip

by Gadling Staff on

Memories can be preserved in many ways, and a family road trip is the perfect opportunity to capture those memories… with post-it notes!

Before leaving home, give each passenger a pad of post-its and a few colored pencils. Tell them to draw pictures or write about the things they see during the trip. They could draw a cool bird, a “Welcome to…” sign, or write about something they learned along the way. Encourage everyone to use all of their post-its.

When you return home, put the post-its into a scrapbook or make a colorful collage to display a collective memory of your family road trip.

More road trip apps for your phone – Road trip tip

by Gadling Staff on

The iPhone and other smart phone applications are making our lives simpler every day. Road trips are no exception. Before leaving on your next road trip, try these apps, all available on the App Store (warning: links open iTunes):

  1. Free WiFi Finder (free) helps you find strong and free WiFi hotspots on the road;
  2. Where To? ($2.99) helps find places of interest like museums and shopping centers and is great for unfamiliar places; the special ‘Surpise Me’ feature helps when you’re indecisive;
  3. Road Trip ($4.99) allows you to keep records of fuel prices, mileage, and travel expenses so you may graph them and export to a CSV file.

Related: Road trip tip: 6 useful iPhone apps for road trips

Load your car the night before – Road trip tip

by Gadling Staff on

How many times have we planned on leaving at 7 in the morning for a road trip only to find that we’re running two hours late before it’s even started?

With the exception of the cooler and (maybe) the kids, everything that’s needed — from luggage to GPS to toll transponder — can all be put into the car the night before.

If you cannot do this because you park your car in the street and not the garage, have everything you need right by the door so you can just grab and go the next morning. Remember: the fun part of the road trip start right after all the work finishes.