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5 Ways To Get Ready For A Memorial Day Road Trip

This article is more than 10 years old.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up fast, and summer road trips are beckoning. That means you'd better start planning, and fast. While some travelers are bemoaning high prices for air fares, others are preparing to pack the car and jump behind the wheel.

Travel experts are hoping that after some difficult financial years, American travelers are ready to put staycations behind them, according to Bloomberg. Some are taking hints from the strengthening housing market, reasoning that as their home situations appear more stable, vacationers will feel safe venturing out.

Others hope that new attractions around the country, like Disney's Cars Land in Anaheim, Calif., will be enough to lure people out onto the road. Beyond the imaginary kind, perhaps you've bought a new car, and you want to give it a good workout.

For many families, summer is the only time that kids, parents and grandparents can travel together. With lots of light, it's also a safe time for a solo road trip. Weather tends to be less treacherous than in the winter, although heavy rains and severe storms can still cause trouble.

If you're planning to hit the road this Memorial Day, or looking past it to summer, here are five ways to get yourself and your car ready.

1) Plot your route. Lots of people dream about getting in the car and just driving away. But preparation will help you maximize fun and minimize hassles. A key part of planning your road trip is deciding just how much you want to drive each day. Are you a straight-through kind of driver, or do you like to pull off when a brown historic attraction sign catches your eye? If you'll have company on the trip, sit down well in advance and iron out the kinks in your driving styles. Nothing is worse than fighting or sulking when one person wants to stop and the other doesn't.

2) Who's in the car? Summer is a time when new parents take babies to visit relatives. It's also an ideal opportunity for seniors to caravan someplace. For those in between, long car trips can be pretty dull unless there's something to keep minds occupied. Consider the ages of everyone who'll be riding along, and prepare accordingly. Remember that while you might have a lot of stamina, others need frequent breaks. Three to four  hours is a good rule of thumb for bathroom and leg-stretching breaks. You may need to plan on a stop every two hours if there's a baby on board.

3) Reservations are protection. I rarely hit the road without knowing that I'll have a place to sleep when I arrive. Some people are more adventurous and don't like to commit to a destination. But if you're headed to a particularly popular spot, it pays to book rooms in advance. It's not a good idea to be tired, hot and wandering through an unfamiliar city. Also, if you book before you leave, print out the confirmations just in case the computer system is down at the hotel. A piece of paper can be more valuable than an email on a computer screen.

4) Your wheels or rental wheels? If you're planning to drive your own car, make sure it's in road ready shape. Now's the time to get that oil change, fill up the washer fluid, and check all five tires (including the spare) for pressure and tread. If you're leasing a car, you ought to calculate whether your road trip miles can fit comfortably in your annual limit. If not, consider renting wheels for a week or two.

5) On the menu. Culinary tourism is a huge market, and a number of people are heading for destinations like New Orleans, San Francisco and Chicago just to eat. If you have your heart set on a celebrity chef's restaurant, book a table before you leave. Even lesser known venues get filled up in the summer, and the plea, "we're from out of town" might not get you very far if everyone else has reserved and you haven't.

Check out the gallery for tips to get ready for your summer road trip.