We have all fallen witness to the fact that road trips can be long, drawn out, and downright miserable if not executed properly. A summer vacation to Florida can go from awesome to terrible in a matter of minutes if you have to listen to your mother correct your father’s driving skills for first 100 miles of the trip. If you want to steer clear of the bad road trip, all you have to do is follow the five rules to planning an ultimate road trip.

Rule 1: Create the Ultimate Mix Tape or Playlist

When planning a road trip you need to prepare music that everyone in the vehicle will enjoy. So, before embarking, ask all the members in your party what music genres they like and what their favorite songs are. Try to make at least one CD/Tape/Playlist per person, for each day you plan on being in the vehicle. Finally, compile each with a variety of music that pleases everyone. (This rule may be more difficult than you think! So please take the time to plan this out perfectly!)

Rule 2: Add Some Fun!

Road trips can be dull, there is no denying that. The task of continuously driving is tedious, and with out proper ‘fun’ it can make your road trip stagnant. So in order to pump up your road trip’s fun level, look up some car games on the internet. Try to avoid car games that require singing because you want to avoid irritating the driver!  Be creative with this; come up with games that are yours and yours alone (this will help make future road trips more alluring because people will have something to look forward to).

Rule 3: Shotgun Rules…Very Important

A week, or so, before you leave on your road trip ask your party to list 5 to 10 shotgun calling rules. Put them together, print them out, and then distribute them to all members of the trip. The shotgun calling rules will fun, but more importantly, the rules should prevent all in car or parking lot brawls amongst your buddies.

Rule 4: Snacks, Snacks, Snacks

Choosing the right snacks is crucial when planning an ultimate road trip.  First, and foremost, make sure that you pack snacks that will not be irritating to others in the car. For example, do not pack any type of food with an obnoxious odor. If you pack chips, make you they stay between the bag and your mouth because creating a trail of crumbs throughout the car is a pain to the owner of the vehicle. Instead of potato chips try chocolate covered raisins or oatmeal bars with candies in them. Another thing to remember is: limit snacks to ones that will not cause members of your party to have to go to the bathroom a lot. Multiple ‘pit stop’ interruptions are not fun and a complete buzz kill.

Rule 5: Pay Attention to Traffic

Being stuck in a traffic jam is the worst! Make sure you print out directions (as well as an alternate route), grab a set of maps, and, if you have a GPS system, pre-program your destination. Every once in a while listen to local radio stations to check for road delays and traffic jams. If you hear about a traffic jam early enough you can check your maps and avoid sitting in hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic. Also, do not let everyone in the car attempt to be Christopher Columbus and offer his or her personal interpretation of how to get to your final landing place.  Everyone does NOT have a great sense of directions so make sure you figure out who to listen to and who to ignore in the event that you get lost.