Road Trip Packing List: What You Actually Need
Most packing lists are long because length looks thorough, not because you need forty items. What you actually need divides into things that are hard to buy on the road, things that make the car livable, and things that matter only if something goes wrong.
This is that list, grouped in the order you'll pack it, with a note on the handful of items people regret leaving behind.
Updated 2026-07-30
Documents and money
- Driving licence, and an International Driving Permit if you're outside your licence's home region — some rental counters and most police stops want it.
- Rental agreement and insurance details, saved offline as well as printed.
- Vehicle documents if it's your own car: registration, insurance, and breakdown-cover number.
- A second payment card kept somewhere other than your wallet, and a small amount of local cash for tolls and rural car parks.
- Booking confirmations downloaded, not just emailed — signal fails at the least convenient moment.
Check what your destination legally requires in the car. France, Spain and Italy each mandate items (high-vis vests within reach, warning triangles, spare bulbs in some cases) and fine you for their absence.
The car kit
- Phone mount and two charging cables — one always dies.
- 12V multi-port charger, so navigation and a camera can charge at once.
- Tyre pressure gauge, and a look at the spare (or the sealant kit) before you leave.
- Jump leads or a small lithium jump pack. The pack is worth the space if you're travelling anywhere remote.
- Torch, a roll of paper towel, wet wipes, and a bin bag. The last three are the difference between a tidy car on day six and a skip.
- Reusable water bottles, filled before every leg.
That is the whole kit. Anything beyond it is either specific to your trip or something you can buy at a supermarket in an hour if you turn out to need it.
Two additions earn their space on longer trips. A small dry bag keeps documents, a power bank and a spare key together and findable, which matters when four people are living out of one car. And a length of cord across the back seat is the cheapest drying rack you will ever own — wet swimwear on day three is otherwise a permanent condition.
Pack the boot in reverse order of need: the overnight bag last so it comes out first, the cool bag where you can reach it without unloading, and anything you will not touch until the return flight at the bottom. Repacking a car every morning is the tax people forget when they plan seven single-night stops.
Comfort — the part that decides how day five feels
- Sunglasses for whoever drives, plus a spare pair. Glare is a genuine safety issue on afternoon westward drives.
- A cushion or two for the back seat, and a blanket that doubles as a picnic rug.
- Downloaded music, podcasts and maps — all three, before you leave the house.
- Layers rather than a coat: cars are warm, viewpoints are not.
- Motion-sickness remedies if anyone in the car is prone, especially for mountain routes.
Food and the cool bag
A cool bag is the single highest-value item on this list. It turns a motorway service station into a choice rather than a necessity, and a good roadside lunch is often the best meal of the day.
- Cool bag with two freezer blocks, refrozen at accommodation with a freezer.
- A knife, a small board and a couple of plates. Market food is only useful if you can eat it.
- Snacks that survive heat: nuts, dried fruit, oatcakes. Chocolate does not.
- Coffee, if you care about coffee. Nothing about a road trip guarantees a decent one.
Seasonal extras
| Season | Add | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Summer | Sunshade, extra water, high-factor sun cream | Parked cars reach dangerous temperatures; desert routes need more water than you'd guess |
| Winter | Ice scraper, blanket, warm boots, chains where required | Alpine and mountain-pass routes legally require winter tyres or chains in season |
| Shoulder | Waterproof, a second pair of shoes | Wet feet on day two colours the rest of the trip |
If you're in a campervan or RV
- Levelling blocks, a water hose rated for drinking water, and an electrical adapter for the country you're in.
- Toilet chemicals and disposable gloves; a second waste container if the sites you're using are basic.
- A folding table and chairs — the pitch is your living room.
- Your rig's height written on a card on the dashboard. It sounds unnecessary until the first low bridge.
Travelling with children or a dog
Both change the packing list less than they change the pacing, but there are a handful of items that make the difference between a good day and a long one.
- For children: a sun blind on the rear window, a hard surface for drawing or eating, and a bag each that they control. Downloaded entertainment, not streamed — the dead zones are exactly where you need it.
- Sick bags kept somewhere reachable from the front seat. This is not pessimism, it is arithmetic across a week of mountain roads.
- For dogs: a proper harness or crate (loose dogs are dangerous and illegal in several countries), a collapsible bowl, and more water than you think.
- Never leave either in a parked car in summer. Plan stops at places you can all get out — this is a genuine constraint on where you eat, not an afterthought.
With children, plan a stop every 90 minutes and pick ones with somewhere to run. Two short breaks cost less time than one long meltdown.
The ten-minute check before you leave
- Tyre pressures, including the spare — the single most-skipped check and the most common roadside failure.
- Oil and screenwash. A dry screenwash bottle on a summer motorway is genuinely unsafe.
- Lights, all of them, with someone standing behind the car.
- Offline maps downloaded, and today's route screenshotted.
- Documents in the glovebox, not in a bag in the boot.
- A photo of the rental car's existing damage, from four corners, timestamped.
It takes ten minutes and prevents the two failure modes that actually ruin road trips: a flat on a rural road, and an argument at the rental return desk about a scratch that was already there.
What to leave at home
- Anything you'd pack 'in case'. On a road trip you can buy it, and the boot space is worth more.
- A separate outfit per day. Two changes and a laundry stop beats a suitcase you repack every morning.
- A dedicated satnav, unless your vehicle is oversized — your phone with offline maps is better.
- The second camera body. It stays in the bag.
Questions, answered
- What should you not forget on a road trip?
- The things that are hard to buy on the road: your licence and insurance documents, offline maps, a phone mount, and any country-mandated safety equipment. Everything else is available at the next supermarket.
- Do I need an International Driving Permit?
- It depends on your licence and where you're driving — many countries require one alongside a foreign licence, and rental desks can refuse without it. Check the specific country's rule before you travel; it is a cheap piece of paper and impossible to obtain once you've arrived.
- What food is best to bring on a road trip?
- Things that tolerate heat and don't need cutlery: nuts, dried fruit, oatcakes, hard fruit. A cool bag extends the range to cheese, sandwiches and anything you pick up at a market, which is where the good roadside lunches come from.
- How much should I pack for a week-long road trip?
- Two changes of clothes plus what you're wearing, and one laundry stop. Boot space matters more than wardrobe on a trip where you unpack every night.
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