10 Travel Tips For A Great Road Trip

Traveling in Central America is not the same as traveling in any other part of the world so there are some things we should keep in mind, here are 10 of them:

1. This is a great and very important tip. Central America is not the best place to just pull over and wait for someone to help you out with your car if it breaks down for two reasons: As friendly as people is in these countries almost no one stops to help people on the side of the road because it's a quite common trick used by kidnappers and if someone does stop unless you speak Spanish no one will understand you. So take some time to check the engine before you go on a road trip.

2. I know that I recommend trying the traditional food of the places you are visiting. But I also recommend being careful about where you eat because no one wants to get sick in vacation. In Central America you will find street stands and small rustic restaurants, that I advice to stay away from, as well as some great well known restaurants. But if you are on the road what are the chances of finding a restaurant right when you get hungry? So my advice is to pack some food to save some time and money. This takes me to the next tip.

3. This one is a short silly tip that I find very useful. Eating in the car means garbage in the car afterwards. Plus I'm sure none of us would think of littering the beautiful Central American scenery. So take some garbage bags with you to avoid the mess.

4. If your air conditioner is on, the engine uses more gas so you have to spend a little more of money. So unless you're on the highway you should keep the windows open to get some fresh air and save money. But in this case I will have to recommend keeping the windows closed because of crime and you wouldn't want to be robbed as you wait for the traffic light to change to green.

5. Most Central American countries have highways and secondary more scenic roads. So to avoid a stressful ride along a crowded highway enjoy the beautiful scenarios that secondary roads offer.

6. Driving can be tiring and a bit stressful and if just one person does all the driving for hours it can cause an accident. Plus no one wants to spend the entire trip behind the wheel. Take turns when driving.

7. Remember to have some sunscreen on at all time because Central American countries are very close to the equator so the sun heat is very strong and you can get sunburned. Even when you are inside the car, it doesn't matter if the car has tinted windows.

8. In some Central American highways you might not find a gas station for long distances. So here comes a pretty obvious travel tip: don't wait until gas is on empty to start looking for a gas station.

9. When planning a road trip always take unexpected stops in to consideration. Because some highways or roads in Central America only have one track on each way. That can cause waiting in the traffic. Plus they are constantly being fixed so even if the highway has more than one track on each way you will find traffic jams.

10. To make sure you don't get lost always bring a real, actual, paper map to Central America, one that doesn't talk to you. GPS is great but they make mistakes, also in these developing countries roads and highways are always changing.