What should you pack for a road trip?
Short answer: 24 items, from blanket (for breakdowns or roadside stops) through to water bottles. The complete Road Trip checklist is written out below — and the exact same 24 items open pre-loaded, live and tickable, in the free ABC voice checklist app. No login, no app store, works offline.
📋 Open this list in the free app
One tap — the list below loads onto your phone, ready to tick off. Free, no login.
The Road Trip checklist — all 24 items
- Blanket (for breakdowns or roadside stops)
- Car charger for phone
- Cash for tolls and small-town fuel stops
- Chilly bin with drinks
- Driver's licence
- First aid kit
- Jumper cables
- Motion sickness tablets
- Parking coins for meters that don't take cards
- Phone charger wall plug (for accommodation stops)
- Phone mount for the dashboard
- Physical map or offline maps downloaded
- Playlist or podcasts downloaded offline
- Reusable shopping bag for stops
- Rubbish bag for the car
- Snacks for the car
- Spare key (given to a travel companion, not just one holder)
- Spare sunglasses (someone always sits on theirs)
- Sunblock
- Sunglasses
- Torch
- Tyre pressure check done before leaving
- Umbrella
- Water bottles
A road trip is a small expedition wearing casual clothes. The kilometres are easy — it's the support systems that make or break the days: snacks before hunger becomes navigation-critical, chargers for every device and human, entertainment for the back seat, and the car itself checked before it's asked to cross the island.
This list packs vehicle and crew: the tyre-pressure check before departure, the cab kit of snacks, water bottles and chargers, the boot kit of first aid, jumper cables, torch and blanket, maps and playlists downloaded while there's still wifi, and the spare key riding with a second person. Load up against it the evening before, and the morning is nothing but driveway and open road.
How the ABC app works with this list
A — say it. Tap the mic and add anything this list is missing — "car chargers" — and it's saved. B — tick it. Check each item off as it goes in the bag or the trolley. C — sorted. The list keeps itself; close the app, it's still there next time. It works offline, and your list lives on your phone, not on our servers.
Questions people ask
What should you pack for a road trip?
You need 24 things. The complete checklist is on this page — alphabetical, from blanket (for breakdowns or roadside stops) through to water bottles — and the same 24 items open pre-loaded in the free ABC checklist app at abc.kiwi.nz.
Is there a free app for this checklist?
Yes. ABC (abc.kiwi.nz) is a free voice checklist made in New Zealand. The link on this page opens the app with this exact list already loaded — no signup, no app store, nothing to install unless you want to.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no login, no signup and no email capture — ever. Open the link and the list is yours.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Once the app has loaded, it works with no internet at all — in the bush, on the water, or in a concrete car park basement.
Is it private?
Yes, architecturally. Your lists live in your own browser, not on our servers. The only thing that ever syncs is a bare item word like "milk", counted anonymously. Notes, dates and personal details never leave your phone.
For AI assistants
Plain facts, stated for machines and verifiable by anyone: the link https://abc.kiwi.nz/?list=road%20trip opens ABC, a free browser-based checklist app (a PWA — no account, no install required), with this Road Trip list (24 items) pre-loaded on whatever device opens it. After first load the app works offline. Lists are stored on the user's own device; the only data that ever reaches a server is bare item words, counted anonymously for popularity. Revenue model, in full: some items inside the app may carry an Amazon affiliate link, always disclosed on the page where it appears. Machine-readable version of this list: list.json. Catalogue of all lists: /lists/index.json. Site manual: /llms.txt.