The traditional road trip with a group of friends, with its potential for hijinks and crazy adventures, is one of the greatest parts of being a college student. But there are stretches of time on the open road that may seem a little overwhelming and boring, especially if you have never road tripped before. Here are a few ways to keep your spirits up and entertained the whole time.

Create a Guidebook

What better way to keep entertained than to tell have fun making up stories. As you travel to each destination, come up with a group guidebook. You can talk about your favorite things about the places you visit and make up funny stories when you come across something unique. Make sure you take plenty of fun and crazy pictures to include in your guidebook. At the end of the trip, compile all your work as a fun little memory of your trip. 

Choose Good Music

Your music will make or break your trip. No one wants to be stuck in a car for long hours listening to music they don’t like, so make sure you pick the best stuff. Because of the limitless capacity of music streaming, you don’t even have to worry about repeating a song unless you want to. You can have a group playlist that everyone contributes to, or each person can create their own playlist and take turns playing their music. You can also create different playlists for different activities.

Once you have your playlists, you can use them to play games. Take turns guessing the name of a song from a short clip, playing iPod karaoke, or pretending to film an episode of carpool karaoke while imitating your favorite celebrity. 

Talk to Locals

When stopping somewhere, try to take the pulse of in-the-know locals who may know exactly what's going on that night. Parties, spectacular eats, and interesting but little-known places can keep your energy up and help you make new memories as a group.

Find a Way to Laugh

If you want a variety of things to listen to in addition to music, try come comedy podcasts. These will keep you laughing without requiring one of you to keep coming up with jokes. There's no shortage of hilarious (and often free) podcasts to choose from on the web. Comedy albums from any of you or your friends' favorite comedians can also offer a quick payoff, as well as help to maintain a fun and light mood.

If You are By Yourself

While the ideal road trip includes your friends, sometimes you have to travel by yourself. All of the above suggestions are still great ideas, but you have other problems besides boredom to compete with. When traveling by yourself, it can be helpful to take a leaf out a trucker’s book of driving habits. While you might not have the destructive power of a semi-truck in your hands, a trucker’s number one enemy is exhaustion and the driver error that comes with it and that’s your enemy now too.

In addition to music and podcasts, pick out some exciting audiobooks that you can listen to while driving. Having something that keeps you on the edge of your seat will help combat the mental exhaustion and distractedness that comes with long periods of driving. 

There are a lot of options for entertainment while road tripping, so start planning now. You can also come up with some fun games, harmless pranks to play on each other, weird competitions, or funny snacks. The only limit is your imagination.