Pointers for Planning Your Next Road Trip

Have you been itching to hit the open highway and escape to somewhere new? With Summer approaching, what better time than now to plan that road trip you’ve been looking forward to. With the year that was 2020, many of us have put off that family vacation, weekend getaway, or adventure with friends. No matter what the reason, planning a road trip can be daunting and time consuming. Over the past 6-8 months a friend and I have been planning a five week road trip across the western U.S. and below I have listed a few of my pointers if you too decide to plan that long awaited trip.

The first step is to ask yourself why you want to road trip in the first place and figure out a general idea of where you want to go.

What are your interests and hobbies? Do you enjoy more attractions or natural wonders? Consider your time frame and travel budget (gas mileage, hotels, food). How are you going to get to your destination (rent vs drive your own vehicle)? Who is going?

After you have a general idea of where you want to go or what you want to do, now it’s time to plan that route.

Get inspired by exploring potential destinations on Instagram, Pinterest, Travel blogs and Reddit to get ideas and suggestions. I also like to google the major cities along a potential route as well as nearby attractions. Utilize google maps and plan out the start and finish destination. Google maps allows you to add multiple stops along the route which can help you plan out your trip including any stops along the way from point A to point B. Once you have put in all the stops of where you want to go, next you want to not only look at things to do in your destination city or stop but also the surrounding areas. Often you will find a lot of things to do off the beaten path or you may find an extremely rare or interesting attraction that isn’t too far off your original path and can adjust your route accordingly to include all of the other attractions and points of interests that you have found from all your research.

Now it’s time to book your accommodations.

Once you have tweaked your routes and figured out all the places that seem interesting and you want to include on your trip, you now need to plan out where you are staying. This is where google maps is helpful. You can estimate your travel time along your route and try to pinpoint an area you want to stop each night along your route and look for hotels, motels, or airbnb near that point. I would recommend booking ahead when possible especially if you are staying the night at a popular tourist hot spot or any place where lodging is at a premium. Also, with a lot of places opening back up post covid shutdowns, I have noticed prices increasing over the past few months compared to when we first began booking our hotels for our trip so I would recommend booking early if and when possible.

Now that you have planned out your route and have an idea where you will be staying each night, you can now get on to the fun part! Planning out all those attractions you want to see and do each day.

By now you probably have an idea of the major points of interest you want to see but this is the time to now dive deep into each location and see what all there is to do in that location. Social media and hashtags are a great way to find unique experiences or interesting things to do. Travel blogs like this one are also one of the best ways to discover lesser known secrets in many cities or locations. What are your must sees? What are things that look interesting or you would like to check out but maybe could do without if you don’t have the time? What about if the weather does not cooperate? Do you have back up plans? This is your opportunity to list out your must dos, your maybe dos, and your backup plans dependent on weather or any other unforeseen circumstances, or just in case you get to that destination and something is closed or traffic delays your arrival time and puts you behind schedule. If hiking, like we plan on doing a lot at many of the National Parks across the west, look into how long each hike is, how difficult are they, prioritize the hike or hikes you want to do cuz you won’t have time to likely do them all depending on how long you are at each park. What about food? Are you going to pack lunches for your hikes or grab a quick breakfast at the hotel before you head out for the day or do you plan on going out to eat for most of your meals? I’d recommend looking ahead at suggested restaurants, bars, and diners in the area and have a few in mind so that when you arrive that day to your next destination you’re not wasting valuable time looking for somewhere to eat. This too will help with budgeting along the way. If you can plan ahead and find a few spots for food while planning your trip you can have a good idea of what the bill may be at the end rather than walking into a restaurant spur of the moment only to realize after sitting down that it is a bit pricey.

Once you have all those attractions and destinations in the books, next you want to keep a log of the costs of all those attractions.

Do you need to reserve tickets ahead of time? Many National Parks now require day passes or shuttle tickets, etc.. Be sure to look into all of those things ahead of time so you aren’t thrown a curve ball when you arrive at that destination and realize something you were so excited to do or see is sold out or only taking pre-reserved tickets.

Add up the costs of your attractions, hotels, and estimated gas mileage so you have an idea of where your total trip cost stands. Don’t forget to factor in food, drinks (if planning nights out), souvenirs, and any other potential “miscellaneous” costs associated with your trip.

Now that you have an idea of the total cost, is it in your budget? If it’s under budget Great Job! If it’s over budget see if there is anything you can cut out that may not be absolutely necessary… 1 less attraction here and there, or replace something that might have an admission fee with a free museum or extra day of hiking; Maybe pack your meals when possible instead of planning on going out to eat (take advantage of those free breakfasts at hotels); Are there other accommodations that could be cheaper than your original hotel booking?; Worst case scenario: pick up an extra shift here or there or cut out that coffee each morning, cook at home for a few weeks instead of eating out, find ways to save some extra cash leading up to your adventure.

Now that you’ve planned out your trip the last thing left to do is make a list of what you need to take along for the ride. Start creating a packing list so that when the day comes you don’t leave anything behind. To read more about packing pointers and other road trip planning necessities, check out our related posts below..