Jonathan Van Ness Reveals His Top 6 Tips For A Fabulous Summer Road Trip – EXCLUSIVE
It's almost officially summertime, which means one thing for wanderlusters everywhere: It's road trip season. Whether you're cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway, going on an Atlantic adventure, or joining the big leagues of drivers with a full-blown cross-country road trip, it can be difficult to plan everything out just right. Well, don't worry, because Jonathan Van Ness has some tips for a fabulous summer road trip that are sure to make your vacation a smashing success.
The first step to a fabulous road trip is a fabulous car to drive. It's absolutely necessary to pack up the trunk with all the summer essentials and roll down the windows as you explore the open road. But what if you don't have a trunk to pack or windows to roll down? Well, that's why Van Ness has partnered with the Getaround app to help people instantly rent cars. The app is making car rental a lot more accessible by offering cars for as cheap as a few dollars an hour, and allowing people to access the entire rental process through their phones. As Getaround launches in more and more places, Van Ness is helping the app launch a new campaign that calls attention to its mission of helping people easily rent cars.
"It’s this international campaign that they’re doing and it’s called It’s Go Time," Van Ness tells Elite Daily. "And it’s a new logo and it’s cute new branding and it allows for the life quality enhancement that car ownership brings to more people, which I love."
Once you have your car all lined up, you can hit the road with Van Ness' seven fabulous road trip tips.
1. Get A Car That Matches Your Mood
Van Ness explains that you should be able to get whatever car fits your mood or needs, depending on the day.
"Let’s say you want to have a cute, like, perky car for when you’re gonna on a little baby date," Van Ness describes, "but then let’s say you need to go pick out, like, a bunch of clothes for, like, your press week next week and you have to have a clothing rack, you need a RAV-4 that time. But then if you were gonna have your whole family in town from, like, Michigan then you would need to get one of those gigantic Suburbans like the good old-fashioned 25-hundred ton one that my mom had when I was little. You just never know what you’re gonna need."
The good thing about Getaround is that it lets you switch up your car day to day.
2. Make A Killer Playlist
Road trips and radio sing-alongs go together like sunglasses and a sunny day, so of course you've got to make a perfect soundtrack to set the tone for your trip. "I totally love a good music moment," Van Ness says. "Anything from, like, Aretha Franklin to Kim Petras I love. I love everybody."
3. Keep Up Your Beauty Routine, Even On The Road
Van Ness stress the importance of maintaining your self-care routine, even if you're outside of your normal environment. One way to do that is make sure you bring all your products with you. Van Ness explains, "Make sure you have your travel sizes for your serums and you’re moisturizers so if you are on your little summer vacation you can take your normal things that you wear at home. [I love] the empty travel sizes and you can just pour whatever you want in there."
4. Take Care Of Your Skin
Summertime means lots of time in the sun, and if you're in a car all day then the sun will be shining down on you the whole time. "For summer we definitely know we got to have sunscreen," Van Ness says. "And I also think, like, having physical barriers to sun exposure is great too, like, if you want to have, like, a little sun umbrella or, like, a big floppy hat if you’re, like, beachy."
5. While You're On the Road, Focus On The Road
Among his friends (namely the other members of Queer Eye's Fab Five) Van Ness has a reputation for being a less-than-perfect driver. But, he says that couldn't be farther from the truth. "[They think I'm not a good driver] because I’m always doing 10 things at once but not when I’m driving," Van Ness explains.
"I’m not a distracted driver, but I just think that because I’m typically writing standup material as I’m writing a book as I’m coloring someone’s hair when I’m not on the road, they just think I’m gonna be that girl that’s doing 10 things at once. But I’m very good at delegating as a driver." Bringing friends along on a road trip just adds to the fun, but it can also help keep everyone safe since they can help in the car while you keep your eyes on the road.
6. Protect The Earth While You Explore It
The more people ride share instead of purchasing and using their own cars, the fewer carbon emissions on the road. "The kind of thing that moved me is that for every car that is car-shared, it takes eight to 10 cars off the road," Van Ness says. That's a whole lot of cars off the road, and a whole lot of fun road trips you can plan.
