Starting tomorrow, Etsy Canada is heading out on a road trip – hitting 4 cities in 10 days! They’re filling a 30-foot custom AirStream trailer with incredible vintage and handmade goods and making stops in Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto. At each city there with be Etsy sellers, musicians, local food trucks and product giveaways! If you’re able to pop by, you’ll have the chance to mingle with some of your favourite sellers, find beautiful handmade one-of-a-kind treasures and see a free concert. Be sure to check out Etsy Canada’s Road Trip Page for the full program details.
It got me thinking about some of my road trip essentials from our Honeymoon Road Trip, as well as some of my favourite road trip finds on Etsy.
Music: When we’re on the road, it can be hard to find a good radio station…then you finally find one and you drive out of it’s range. That’s why we always load up our iPod with new music and some old favourites. We keep it in a case in the console and use an AUX cable to connect it to the radio. On the Honeymoon Road Trip, we had a steady soundtrack of Sam Cooke, The Drifters, and Alabama (obviously).
Cooler: It’s easy to get caught up in the fast food lifestyle when you’re on the road, so we try to switch it up with some quick healthier snack options in a small cooler in the back seat. Every few days we’d stop into a grocery store for things like carrot sticks, yogurt cups (grab plastic spoons from the deli counter!), lean cuts of lunch meat and cheese slices for mini roll-ups, bananas and apples, along with some treats too like chocolate, chips and pop. When we’d get to a hotel, everything was loaded into the fridge for the night and then we’d use the ice machine to fill up the cooler before we went on our way the next morning. It was great to be able to reach back and grab a snack when we wanted something, instead of spending time (and money) pulling over to scrounge for something to eat.
Sunglasses: After such a long winter, I swear that my eyes were not used to so much sun once we started heading down South. I was squinting like crazy! Sunglasses are a must, especially when they can be fun and funky like these retro inspired ones. Very Thelma & Louise!
Camera: You never know what you’ll see along the road, so I always have my camera ready to go. Otherwise you could miss a real gem, like the water tower in Florence, Ohio! After so many road trips and local trips, the strap is starting to become really beat up, so I would love to get a cute camera strap like this for our next trip.
Reliable Car: We both drive older cars and while they’re great for the regular day-to-day commute, a long road trip just might do them in. Also – neither of them have good A/C which is fine here when I’m just driving fifteen minutes to work, but is no bueno when you’re in traffic for hours. Thankfully Garrett’s parents have been nice to lend us their SUV for both the Honeymoon Road Trip and the Salem trip last fall. It’s so comfortable to drive, lots of room for souvenirs and has air conditioning – phew!
GPS & Maps: As much as I love a little off-the-map road tripping, you still need something to help you get from point A to point B. We usually borrow a GPS from my parents and then pick up some real maps as well. While I seriously love the GPS, we’ve been in situations where there hasn’t been satellite service or it can’t find the streets we’re on because they’re too new – and that’s when a good ol’ paper map comes in handy. If the car ever broke down, we also have a way to find our way to the next town too!
Journal: When I went on road trips as a kid, we always made journals of our journey – jotting down little notes and clippings of what we did each day. Garrett and I wanted to do the same thing for the honeymoon, with a little travel notebook for writing down all our adventures, with space for him to draw little doodles. It’ll be so great to revisit it in years to come.
Phone, Tablet or Laptop: When we’re traveling through the US, we’re technically going international – which means roaming charges. We were lucky to have a US SD card for my smartphone this trip to look things up, but in the past we’ve been reliant on wi-fi at hotels and restaurants. We also bring along Garrett’s iPad and/or my laptop so that we could look up cool places to check out at our next destination, email family to let them know we’ve arrived alive or just check in on the day-to-day stuff – although we try to stay unplugged as much as possible. We always make sure to pack our electronic devices in protective cases because bags get tossed around in the backseat or have other bags stacked on top.
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Do you have any must-have road trip items or tips? Share your road trip memory and/or vacation photos on Instagram or Twitter using the tag #etsyroadtrip for a chance to be highlighted on Etsy.com and/or Etsy’s social channels!
