Without a few summer picnics, summer would be just another boring and dangerous season, best spent indoors. Early morning or evening picnics can make your summer holidays fun and interesting. You may plan a picnic with your family or with a group of friends on a motorbike or in your personal cars.
While you are doing so, make sure you check this list of picnic essentials to help you with organising your open-air joyride and making sure it is free from troubles.
Choose a Beautiful Spot
Start by finding a picturesque spot for your picnic and consider half your work done. You should focus on choosing a place that has greenery, is relaxing and offers a view. It could be a local park, a spot by the beach or even your garden. You should check if the location is easily accessible and if it can accommodate the size of the group.
Pack a Picnic Basket
Imagine a picnic without good food. Hence, you need to carefully pack a picnic basket beforehand. You should be packing essential items like tumblers, spare cutlery, trash bags, portable speakers, and other items as necessary. Nothing annoys on a picnic more than the missing bag of paper napkins or plastic cutlery.
Carefully Select the Food
Yummy food is a must for any picnic, right? While your personal preferences shall play a big role in finalising the menu, you also need to factor in the opinion of every member and prepare a menu that offers something to everyone. If the gathering is huge, you could ask everyone to bring a dish each, making it collaborative, inexpensive and less-stressful for one person.
Create a foot-tapping playlist
Music can uplift the mood of any gathering and give it a party-like vibe. Hence, you should carry a music player and portable, weatherproof speakers to strike a chord with nature’s soundtrack by making a playlist of tunes that everyone knows, sings along, and would like to tap a foot on. However, if the plan to bring a music player fails, you can always use your smartphone or tablet instead.
Provide a selection of thirst-quenching beverages
Summers can have a dehydrating effect on you, and therefore, it is essential that you carefully stock up on some thirst-quenching drinks that ensure the guests at the picnic stay well-hydrated while dining and having fun outdoors. Also, carry water which is our basic necessity. You could add slices of cucumber or lemon to the water to give it a dash of flavour.
Have a plan to keep pests away
Uninvited guests like ants and flies can be a pain to deal with if they attack your picnic. Hence, you need to be prepared to deal with pests. It would be advisable to cover your food with mesh covers, sprinkle ant repellent talcum powder around your picnic basket, and so forth to keep your picnic free from pests and ensure that it is a good outing.
Keep everyone entertained by planning fun activities
It does not matter if your gathering mostly has youngsters or if it involves grown up kids. You need some fun activities to keep everyone engaged. The activities should be exciting enough that everyone participates, with total enthusiasm and do not let boredom take over, even for a single second. A game of football, tag, or sack race can be a start.
You could arrange board games, playing cards, interesting books and magazines to engage people who do not care so much about physical activity.
Be sure to get an ice box to keep your drinks and food chilled
If your plan involves serving salads, cold items, cheese, beverages, other dairy products, or any other perishable things, it would be beneficial to keep them in a portable ice box. These items should be separated beforehand and kept in the freezer or refrigerated until you are ready to leave for the picnic. Chilled drinks and desserts are sure to draw attention and make everyone happy in the summer heat.
Be sure to get motor insurance for your car
Long picnic drives can be easily derailed with a breakdown or accidents, even without a fault of yours. Motor insurance plans with road side assistance (RSA) and good number of networked garages will certainly make your experience hassle free. While networked garages can offer cashless repairs to your vehicle, RSA services can offer you quick repair without getting you off the track.
You do not want your picnic plans to get affected because your car broke down. Hence, the car insurance and road side assistance (RSA), which will protect your car against unforeseen circumstances.