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A Collegiette’s Unofficial Guide to Road Tripping

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Minnesota chapter.

14 hours. Two days. Five girls. One car. Her Campus College Fashion Week. A few weeks ago, a group of Her Campus Minnesota members decided to make a weekend trip to Chicago to hang out with lovely ladies from across the Midwest that help make Her Campus possible. A major highlight of our little excursion was most definitely getting to know the other women on the team. Along the way we devised a road tripping “routine” that was just too great not to share. Here’s what you’ll need to have the best road trip ever. 

Classic road trip snacks

Coffee/tea, pop tarts, peach rings, water, popcorn, something with peanut butter, chocolate. You’re golden.

If you go the playlist route, give it some highs and lows

The highs are ideal for in-car dance parties while the lows facilitate some pretty great conversations.

If you go the radio route, enjoy the random switching of the stations

We went from Top 40s, to Spanish music, to some type of talk show, soft rock and all the way back to Top 40s. If you do end up jamming to Top 40s, 10/10 would recommend keeping a tally of how many times “Cheap Thrills” by Sia is played.

Seek out the best opportunities for selfies

That awkward statue of Paul Bunyan? Weird bear waving at a Kwik Trip? Hello, new profile picture.

Sleeping is all of a sudden a group activity

It seemed like after one of us fell asleep, the next would follow suit. Then the third person would go, and so on, until the entire car, aside from the driver, is asleep. But of course, when one of us wakes up, conversation is inevitable. Everyone is once again awake. The cycle continues.

Look for the cleanest bathrooms

It’s totally normal to Google which bathrooms are the cleanest throughout your route… Right?

Allow time for homework

Disclaimer: this one may or may not be sarcastic. But actually, if you decide, against all odds, that you must finish up that one paper, you’ve quite literally got a captive audience for peer editing. A three hour ride in between stops is the ideal place for a whole bunch of amazing ideas to surface.

At the end of a very, very long day of travel, you’ll find you’ve gained not only a lot of miles on your car, but some really great bonding time with your squad.