How to Navigate the Perfect Road Trip

Whether you were in Nashville for fall break and took some of our tips from our last article or traveled elsewhere, Elon is in the perfect spot for road-tripping. You can take a ride to Charlotte, Asheville, Charleston, Gatlinburg, Nashville and so many other cities in the South — depending on how long you are willing to drive for. Coming from personal experience of getting antsy in the car and counting down the hours, we at The Edge are here to provide you with the perfect guide on having the most magical road trip.

Once you have your directions up, let's start with the basics: creating the perfect playlist.

In our humble opinion, if you're going anywhere farther than two hours, then you definitely need a variety of tunes to keep your passengers engaged. We like to start off with some solid country tunes, taking songs like Luke Combs’s “When It Rains It Pours,” Morgan Wallen’s “Cover Me Up” or Chris Stapleton’s classic “Tennessee Whiskey'.” These songs are perfect to blast with the windows down with your friends.

If you feel like changing up the vibe a bit, adding some indie songs to the mix is always needed. We’ve been loving Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan recently; who doesn’t love blasting “Stick Season” on repeat? You can’t forget about Mt. Joy — every song in their album “Rearrange Us” is a must-listen.

If your friends are bugging you about switching up the vibe, take a listen to Drake's new album or some classic throwbacks like Bruno Mars and Queen Rhi Rhi.

Another way to pass time is listening to a podcast. We have been loving Alix Earle’s new release, “Hot Mess.” This podcast basically feels like you're sitting down with her on the couch, debriefing the night face-to-face. One of our other podcast favorites is “Crime Junkie.” This is perfect for those who love to be on the edge (no pun intended) of their seat and are not afraid of some unsolved mysteries.

If you feel like reconnecting with your inner child, print out some Mad Libs to keep your passengers entertained and laughing the entire trip! If you're in the mood to play more games, Twenty Questions is a fan favorite, and the classic “license plate game” is also a necessity.

Finally, and probably most importantly: snacks. And no, we aren’t talking about trail mix. We’ve been loving Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Bark, which satisfies your sweet tooth cravings during the long trip. Another favorite is Siete Chipotle BBQ Chips, which are the perfect combination of spicy and sweet (make sure you have water near you for this one). And if you are like us and absolutely love pickles, then you need Oh Snap’s bagged pickles, which are essentially made for pickle lovers on the road.

These are just a few of our suggestions on how to make the time pass and have the most amazing road trip. If you have any more playlist favorites or snack recommendations, let us know @theedgemag! :)