The Great Indian Road Trip can become even greater when you tweak a few simple things about your approach.Heed our advice, grab a couple close friends, and get out there on the best trip of your lifetime.

Make a plan, but not a rigid one: If you’ve got a time limit (as most road trippers do), it’s smart to plot out which city you’ll sleep in each night before setting off the trip. Plan so your driving time is eight hours or less per day, but do not plan anything more than that. Then watch as your days become hilarious sagas of driving, wandering, and following your wild road trip passion.

Dont research your stops beforehand: Ahh expectation, the large crippler of many a road tripper’s happiness. On a road trip, your schedule has extra room, so you can afford to enter a new city with no prior knowledge of what you’ll find at any point. Being relatively clueless has some benefits: When you don’t know what to expect at a stop, you cannot possibly be let down by what you discover. And when you’re not bee-lining for the city’s most-visited tourist local places, you leave the door wide open for weird little discoveries… of the city’s true gems.

Practice making new friends: You can keep to yourself at home, but a road trip is not really the best time to do so. Chat up with your grocery store cashier. Ask the hotel staff for shopping suggestions. Be bold and simply join a Frisbee game at the park. Locals know their area best, and they can  lead you to the best activities once you break the ice.

Bring a real map and a sharpie: Google Maps is awesome for driving directions and travel, but it’s infinitely more fun to track your progress on a real, printed-out atlas. Trace your route on the map as you move along, then hang it in your bedroom or office to smile at every day.

 

Bring a CD: Yes, a real live CD. With 12 songs or even less that you’d be semi-comfortable hearing for two weeks straight. Stick it in the car’s CD changer in old-school style, and run through it every day without skipping tracks. It won’t seem like any big deal. But months later, when one of those special road trip songs comes on at the grocery store or in a bar, you’ll find yourself transported straight back to your trip in a way only a song could transport you.

 

Buy a 30 rack for the trunk: We’re not advocating any illegal activity, but it is always nice to have some beers in the trunk. You never know when a beautiful roadside sunset or especially scenic overlook will call up for a few brews.

 

Carry cash for tolls: Toll roads can pop up in the most bizarre of places, and their fares might be higher than you expect. Stock your center console with rupee notes so your mailbox won’t overflow with fines from the Department of Transportation when you get home (not that it’s ever happened to us).

 

Take pictures!: and not always just the Instagram kind. Road trips are prime fodder for beautiful scrapbooks and bulletin boards once you get back home.

If you are travelling in South India then you may find Best hotels in munnar. Happy road tripping, freeway pioneers!