What to pack in a summer emergency travel kit
What to pack in a summer emergency travel kit
You’ve checked your car’s tires, fluids and battery, filled up your gas tank and mapped out your route, but you’re never fully ready for a road trip until you’ve prepared an emergency travel kit.
With record-breaking heat across Arizona this summer, it’s especially important to be prepared in case you find yourself stranded in your car due to car troubles or road closures from a crash, brush fire or other conditions.
Before you embark on a road trip, make sure you pack a kit with the following essentials:
- Extra drinking water
- Healthy snacks
- Cellphone and charger
- Jumper cables
- Safety vest and/or flares
- Flashlight and batteries
- First aid kit and prescriptions
- Road map (you can print one here)
- A small tool kit
- Extra radiator water (especially in hot temperatures)
This is by no mean an exhaustive list of everything you may want to bring on your trip, but it should give you a good starting point for building a travel kit that works for you!
If you would like to take your kit a step further, you can opt for a small cooler with ice to keep your water and snacks cold, a blanket or towel in case you need to kneel on the hot ground and sun protection, such as sunglasses, sunscreen, a hat or umbrella.
And of course, it’s always a good idea to pack a little extra patience, a good playlist (we have a few on our Spotify page that we recommend) and the AZ511 app, which you can download for iPhone and Android.
Note: This kit is not meant to stay in your vehicle, it’s just meant to accompany you on your trip. However, there are things you can switch out if you want to make one to leave it in your car all summer, like a reusable metal water bottle instead of plastic, a solar powered flashlight instead of batteries, etc.