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I want to do a road trip, and I want some help planning it. That means we need a road trip planning thread so I can ask! It seems like planning a road trip can be everything from ‘bathroom breaks planned out 6 months in advance’ to ‘get in the car, we’re going for a drive’. I’ve been a participant to both of those, and honestly they both have been a great time. Some of my favorite trips with friends have been pooling gas money and turning around when it’s half spent. Every trip is different and that’s what makes things interesting, so let’s look at some of the basics: When? Is this happening ten minutes from now or in two years? I’ve found that shorter, weekend-length camping trips can be done on short notice, but if you want to see some National Parks there are reservations a year or even 18 months in advance. If you’re planning a trip around school holidays you’ll also be better off planning ahead. Timing also affects location. I live in Alaska so I don’t plan road trips here during the winter - I plan warm weather stuff then. Conversely, I hear August in Death Valley can be a tad warm. This brings us to: Where? Is this trip based around a starting or ending point? If the goal is to see a specific attraction then everything else needs to be planned around that. Or, you could pick a starting point and see what’s available from there. This is the age old question, ‘is it about the journey or the destination?’ These are obviously not totally separate but it does influence the planning quite a bit. Lodging vs Routing? Now we’re getting into some finer detail. Do you plan the trip around available lodging, or do you plan where you’re staying around the route? If you’re traveling along the Interstate Highway System there are usually motels or pull-outs available where you can sleep without too much hassle, but if you’re getting out into the sticks you may want to plan ahead. Lodging: I, personally, plan my trips around where I’ll be sleeping. I usually want to know this in advance, though sometimes I’ll leave it at, say, ‘Spokane’ and figure out a hotel when I get close. For hotels I think everybody knows how to use an aggregator site to check options. Know that often, but not always, the hotels will make rooms available last-minute at a discount to fill the house. I find this option to be handy when looking around larger cities like the aforementioned Spokane example. It doesn’t work nearly as well in towns with one small motel who knows you’ll have to drive another hour to the next place. Camping is a whole different world. It can be anything from ‘sleeping in the car seat next to the idling truckers’ to luxurious motorhome travel. If you are doing either of those things you probably already know your requirements but for everyone else there’s a world of options. To start with, https://recreation.gov is a good place to look up reservable campgrounds around the USA. https://koa.com is another; KOA campgrounds are all private places that may have equipment minimums (not every place allows tents). There are apps which also help find places for ‘boondocking’ (camping outside of normal campgrounds, often/usually free of charge); if anyone has good suggestions I’d love to add them here. Some of the best places can only be found by asking a local when you get there; we were turned on to this spot by someone who lived nearby:  If I’m camping, I like to plan for a hotel once every 3-4 nights for bathing and laundry. Wet wipes will work for a while but there’s nothing quite like washing off road grime in the endless hot water of a hotel shower. Routing: I put this after lodging because I usually plan where I’ll sleep first, but they are intrinsically linked and a lot of people plan routing first. At this point I think everyone knows how to use Google or Apple Maps to find a route. That isn’t what this thread is about. This is about ROUTES. Anyone can pick an Interstate and cross the country, but what’s the fun in that? I try to plan my sleeping locations so that I have options day-to-day for where I’ll drive. I usually have backup options for weather or time. As an example, this spring I plotted a route over a mountain road. It’s technically open year ‘round, but when I got a ways up realized that the snow hadn’t melted enough to make an attempt with only one vehicle, so had to backtrack and take my secondary route. I still saw some neat stuff. Later on that same trip I had another mountain route picked and the weather *just barely* cooperated - the road was open that day only for 8 hours and then closed for another 2 weeks:  Note that route can also be vehicle-dependent. While a rental Camry may be the best off-road vehicle ever driven, I still don’t want to use one to explore the back reaches of Death Valley alone. Sometimes the vehicle dictates routes in other ways; you might be driving a new purchase home or you might be driving a shitbox that every cop is salivating to confiscate off the Interstate. A often-overlocked issue is vehicle size - there are entire highways that don’t allow vehicles with trailers. One last, and big, part of routing is how much to drive on any given day. If I’m doing a ‘journey’ trip I like to keep the driving below 6 hours per day. If I have a destination to get to I’ll plan for 8-10 hours of driving and take a few longer stops to stretch my legs. I’ve done 17 hours of driving in a day if that’s the requirement but it’s no fun at all. Attractions: This can be anything from Disneyland to the 2nd largest ball of yarn in Minnesota. The amount of neat stuff to see along the road is infinite! I really like checking Atlas Obscura for places, but even Wikipedia can be a good resource for sights. Sometimes you won’t even know what you’re looking for until you get there; I was driving through Yellowstone and just happened to pull up at a random spot at exactly the right time for this:  Other times you’ll plan things in advance and they turn out to be pretty dull: Atlas Obscura and teh internets had said there was an amazing sculpture of running horses along the Columbia Gorge, we planned a stop in advance and this was the view:  Not really that great. An important thing with attractions is to be flexible. Food! Road trip food should look like a child was let loose in the store with $100. Always. It’s the law  That said, aside from the basics like Doritos and jerky, I’ve found a few things really make the trip better. For starters, bring a cooler and some ice. I have a rotomolded cooler than checks well as luggage so I can use it away from home; it also lets me bring fragile souvenirs back. One big item for me that requires a cooler is kombucha or other live-culture probiotics like yogurt; keeping my system functioning properly on a road trip is a huge issue. Ginger snacks are great to head off motion sickness without drugs. Candied ginger or ginger chews are my go-to choices. I enjoy both so it doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything weird other than eating more candy than normal. Coffee is a very personal choice, but I have had great luck with Medaglia D'Oro instant espresso; it’s great for easy coffee on the road:  There are also French Press mugs that work great, but if I want to get moving quickly it’s a lot easier to add instant coffee to water heated in my Jetboil. Equipment: As mentioned above, I like to bring my Jetboil along. Having hot water available anywhere is super handy. Along the same lines, if I’m traveling and have the space I bring a 5-gallon water jug. You can refill it relatively easily and it saves a lot of single-use plastic. Lightweight sleeping bags or blankets are great for keeping A/C disputes to a minimum and should be a part of your emergency kit anyway. A first aid kit should always be in the car. Don’t forget your tools and/or AAA membership. Miscellaneous: Bring clothes appropriate for the season. Have cash. Print (or write) copies of reservations and other plans so you aren’t relying on batteries and cell signals. I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff so as we go along I’ll try to keep this post updated. Advent Horizon fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Sep 25, 2022 |
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Sep 25, 2022 01:14
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 09:29 |
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Okay, now I can ask my trip planning questions! We’d like to take a trip sometime in November or the first half of December. In the USA, ideally somewhere warm (though warmth is flexible). All our plans would be based around flying somewhere, renting a vehicle, and returning to the same airport (I’m not interested in doing a 1-way trip right now just for simplicity’s sale). Some thoughts that come to mind, in no particular order, are: 1. Las Vegas, drive to Death Valley or Zion. Do some exploring. Zion won’t be warm and Death Valley might still be mostly closed. 2. Palm Springs or San Diego, visit Joshua Tree, do some desert exploring, maybe visit the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. 3. Phoenix, drive up to Flagstaff and say hi to some friends, maybe go over to Monument Valley and see stuff that way? I don’t really know what’s available in the desert southwest with regard to road trip options. I would prefer to stick with motels for this trip since I know even the desert will be cold at night. I’m not wedded to the desert but it seems like a good way to avoid crowds.
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Sep 25, 2022 01:29
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I don’t actually hate jeeps, I just have a bad history of catching rental jeeps on fire. I’m up to 4 now. I think Phoenix is probably at the top of our list since we haven’t really done Arizona aide from Havasupai Falls. Seeing our friends in Flagstaff (who work at Lowell Observatory) would also be a plus. I hadn’t looked at that westerly route before, how would all this be affected by winter weather? I stead of jeeping, what about heading over a few hours into Monument Valley from Flagstaff?
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Sep 26, 2022 07:35
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Thanks for the great input everyone! I’m going to update the OP when I get a chance since there are some really great suggestions. My road trip - plane tickets are purchased and a Camry reserved. Flying into Phoenix on a Tuesday, arrive in the afternoon. Provision and hotel in Phoenix that night. A very preliminary plan: Wednesday- drive to Canyon de Chelly. Stay in Chinle. Thursday - drive to 4 corners, then Monument Valley. Stay in MV. Friday - drive to Flagstaff, see Glen Canyon Dam, Horseshoe Bend, and Antelope Canyon along the way. Saturday/Sunday - Flagstaff, visit our friends, probably side trips. Monday - Sedona? Tuesday - finish drive to Phoenix, make Harbor Freight and IKEA stops, get to airport about 5pm to fly home. We’d like to visit our friends on the weekend, other than that it’s all just ideas at this point. Might do that pie stop IOC mentioned, just need to figure out a route to do that and the good driving road.
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Sep 27, 2022 07:50
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