Road trips in India fail in predictable ways, and almost none of them are about the car. They are about daylight, fuel, documents and the gap between what a map says a drive takes and what it takes.
This is the checklist we work through before any long drive, in the order it matters.
The one rule: drive in daylight
If you take nothing else from this, take this. Night driving on Indian highways carries a substantially higher risk: unlit stationary trucks, unmarked roadworks, oncoming high beams, livestock, and no easy help if something goes wrong.
Plan every day to finish before dark. In the hills, finish two hours before dark, because a landslide or a stuck truck can add hours with no warning and no way around.
This single constraint will reshape your itinerary more than any other, and it is the right constraint to be shaped by.
Work out the real drive time
Map estimates assume conditions you will not get. A realistic method:
- Plains highway: take the map estimate and add about a quarter.
- State highways and single-lane roads: add half.
- Hills: plan on roughly 25 to 30 km/h average, whatever the map says. Mountain roads in Himachal, Uttarakhand, the North East and the Ghats routinely take twice the predicted time.
- Then add fifteen minutes per hour for stops, food and photographs, because you will stop.
A 300 km hill day is a full day. People book them as half days constantly.
Documents, before you leave the driveway
- Driving licence, valid and physically with you.
- Registration certificate.
- Valid insurance.
- Valid pollution certificate.
- If it is not your car: written authorisation from the owner. This matters at state borders and at checkpoints.
Digital copies in the official government document app are accepted in place of physical documents in most situations, but carry physical copies as well, because network coverage at a checkpoint is not guaranteed.
Some hill states require permits for specific areas, particularly in the North East, Ladakh and parts of the border districts. Check the specific route, not the state, and arrange permits in advance.
The car, a week before
A week, not the night before, so there is time to fix what the check finds.
- Tyres, including pressure and tread and the spare. The spare is the one everybody forgets and it is the one you will need.
- Brakes, especially before hills. Descending is harder on brakes than climbing.
- Coolant and oil.
- All lights, including indicators and the rear fog.
- Wipers and washer fluid, which matter more than expected on dusty highways.
- Jack and tools, present and functional. Check you know where they are.
Fuel discipline
The rule: refuel at half a tank, not at a quarter. In the hills and the desert, refuel whenever you see a pump if you are below three-quarters.
Stretches in Spiti, Ladakh, the Rann and parts of the North East have very long gaps between pumps, and the one you were counting on can be out of stock. Know where the next one is before you pass one.
If you are driving an EV, plan the route around charging explicitly and assume at least one planned charger will be occupied or out of service. Carry the relevant apps and a backup plan for each leg.
What to carry
- Cash. Tolls mostly take FASTag, but small dhabas, parking and rural pumps are still cash-friendly. Check your FASTag balance before leaving.
- Water, more than you think, and some food that does not need refrigeration.
- A basic first aid kit and any personal medication in the cabin, not the boot.
- Phone mount and two charging cables. Cables fail.
- Offline maps downloaded for the whole route.
- A power bank.
- Warm layers if any part of the route is above about 2,000 metres, regardless of season.
- A torch that is not your phone.
On the road
Swap drivers every two to three hours if you have a second driver. If you do not, stop every two hours regardless of how you feel; fatigue on a monotonous highway arrives without announcing itself.
Use the horn the way it is used locally – as a position signal on blind hill corners, not as a complaint. On single-lane hill roads, the vehicle going uphill generally has right of way, and reversing to a passing place is a normal part of the drive.
Save the national emergency number and your insurer’s roadside assistance number offline before you go.
Booking, and the one thing to leave loose
Book the first night and the last night. Keep at least one middle night flexible if you can, because road trips are the format most likely to be disrupted by weather, closures and the discovery that you want another day somewhere.
And set a daily arrival target rather than a departure one. Leaving late is recoverable. Arriving after dark is the thing to avoid.