Attractions

Road Trip – Explore Southern California

So you’re planning a road trip through southern California. You’ve booked a rental car, you’ve started planning your route, and now you’re looking for a bit more help with the planning. The team at Greenleaf Rent A Car loves helping our customers to get out and explore our beautiful state, so we’ve put together a few tips for you before you hit the road.

Packing Up Your Rental Car

Packing lightly isn’t always easy, but unobstructed views and more leg room are certainly appealing. That being said, you don’t want to have to stop every 20 minutes because you’ve forgotten the essentials. In addition to your personal effects, when settling into your rental van or car, a few must-have items include:

Camera
Sunglasses
Water bottles and snacks
Wet wipes and tissues
Chargers for your phone or other devices
Maps or road trip app loaded onto your devices
Music (what’s a road trip without an epic playlist?)
Books or magazines
Activity books, crayons, and a few quiet toys if you have kids in the car

Making a Plan

If you’re old-school, you’ll borrow some guidebooks from your local library, buy a paper map, and grab a highlighter to plan your route. If that’s not your style, make sure you load up your phone or devices with online map apps, GPS, and tourism apps that can help you plan your journey and find local attractions. Remember to leave room in your itinerary for unplanned stops and spontaneity along the way.

A few highlights we recommend near Carlsbad include:

visiting Legoland California
getting wet at Tamarack State Beach
golfing along the coast
tasting great beer at one of nine local breweries (at the end of the day when you won’t be driving, of course)

When it comes right down to it, we can offer plenty of vacation planning tips, but Southern California has so much to offer that all you really need to make your road trip amazing is a sense of adventure, a reliable vehicle, and good company. In addition to the standard car classes and minivans, our fleet of affordable and well-maintained vehicles includes SUVs, trucks, and even hybrid car rentals. Greenleaf has three convenient locations to serve Carlsbad, Escondido, and Temecula. Contact us today to make a reservation, or call (760) 547-2228 to reach our Carlsbad location.