Road Trip Entertainment in the 21st Century

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The first step in planning any road trip is a visit to the petrol station, where you load up on drinks, snacks, and CDs. You can’t have a road trip without new music. Before you leave, you top up the fuel tank and check fluid levels and tyre pressures.

That was how you prepared for a road trip in the 1990s. In the ’70s and ’80s, the storage medium was different, as was the music, but the vibe was the same. Before that, kids had to make do with license plate games and ‘I spy’ for entertainment. Some of them undoubtedly had to learn how to pee in mayonnaise jars because Dad refused to stop unless he desperately needed petrol. At the end of the journey, the back seat was a jumble of crisp and biscuit packets, detritus from fast food joints, broken crayons, and torn comics and colouring books.

Technology in the 21st century has changed the face of the modern day road trip. We have smartphones, tablets, and automobile entertainment systems. New cars are equipped with seven-inch wide 16:9 TFT-LCD digital high-resolution touch screens, Bluetooth, built-in CD/DVD players and USB ports capable of reading JPEG, MP3 and DivX.

Who needs I Spy when you can stream music videos, binge on box sets, and take in the latest blockbuster film by the time you get from London to Leeds. Just because the driver can’t get the full benefit from an impromptu StarTrek festival in the back seat doesn’t mean they can’t have fun, too. Games are also a great way to entertain yourself while on a road trip. They come in all sorts of genres and even if you prefer games where you can win money, you can always find something to suit your preferences.

Today’s road trip is no longer something to be endured while getting from A to B. Long distance car travel is a vacation in itself.

Categories: Cars