USEFUL TIPS FOR ROAD TRAVEL

To make the most of your road travel and make it a tad less stressful, there are a few useful tips to keep in mind. Jumia Travel, the leading online travel agency, shares 5 useful tips for road travel.

Let People Know Your Whereabouts
This is mainly a safety precaution. It is important to let friends or family know your whereabouts at every major point of your road travel, especially if it's a long road trip. In case anything of note happens, it is important to have people who know where you are and can raise an alarm where necessary. This is especially important when you're traveling alone.

Don't Carry Too Much Cash on You
This might seem like a no-brainer but a lot of people neglect this when traveling long distances by road. It is advisable to set aside some petty cash to settle one or two expenses along the way like buying snacks or food or settling toll gate fares, but never carry an unnecessarily large amount of cash on you for road travel. Debit cards should be substituted for large wads of cash, and your bags or anything that can be associated with large wads of cash should not be kept carelessly and conspicuously in your car, so you don't attract the wrong attention to yourself.

Try To Pack Light
Try as much as you can to pack light for road travel, so you don't have to pay too much extra cash for excess luggage or squeeze your things in your car with little room for yourself.

Have Entertainment Options
Especially if you're not the one driving, you should try to preload your phone with entertainment options to keep yourself gleefully occupied during the road trip. You can also bring along novels, mp3 players and other sources of entertainment (depending on your preference) to keep yourself entertained. Also, be sure to have a power outlet to plug into when your devices are running low on battery. A power pack can help with this if you're traveling by bus, while simply plugging your device into the available power outlet in a vehicle, is appropriate when traveling with your own vehicle.

Anticipate Likely Trouble Spots
This especially applies when you're traveling with your own vehicle. It is best to plan your road travel well, particularly the timing of your travel, so you can avoid certain trouble spots at rush hour. This can save you the stress of dealing with avoidable traffic situations and make your travel easier. Try to take likely trouble spots into consideration during your road travel and plan for either the best routes to use to avoid them or the best times of the day to ply the route that will make it easier for you.