This is a guide to help you plan an unforgettable week-long family vacation.
Where are you going?
Believe it or not, this is probably the hardest question to answer for our family. We want to see all of the United States, but we can’t do it all in one week. Depending on where you are located within the country will depend on how far you are able to get.
Pick a destination where you plan to end your road trip. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the road trip will end there, it just means that this will be your halfway point. It will be where you will turn around and head home, continuing your sightseeing along the way.
Here is a list of potential destinations for our next trip:
- Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
- Acadia National Park, Maine
- Key West, Florida
- Niagara Falls, New York
- Moab, Utah
How are you going to get there?
Once you figure out where you are going, you will need to decide how you will get there. This may seem like a dumb question, considering that we are talking about road trips, however, some places that you may want to go will not be doable if you drive from home.
For instance, Kevin really wants to go to Alaska, but it is too far from Mississippi for a week long trip. However, if we fly to Alaska and rent an overlanding vehicle from Alaska Overlander, we will have plenty of time to see the last frontier.
How long will it take you to get there, according to your GPS?
This is an unusual question, but it is a necessary question.
We would love to visit Yosemite National Park in California, however, it would take 30 hours of driving to get there. That would mean, 10 hours per day of driving, plus 2-4 hours per day for food and gas stops. It would take us 3 full days to get there and 3 full days to get back, without stopping and sightseeing. With this in mind, we would only have 1 full day in Yosemite. Though, I’m sure it is beautiful along the way, we would not get to stop and do any overlanding in the Mojave Desert, which we would be passing right through. We would also miss out on Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, too.
We have found that 20-22 hours of driving time is our maximum distance. It still takes us about 2-3 days, depending on how often we stop and how long we stay at each sightseeing location.
What do you want to see along the way?
A large portion of your trip planning goes into this step. Most of the time, we never get to all of the places on the list. This is usually due to poor planning on my part. I usually forget to factor in gas and potty stops, food stops, and traffic. The trick to avoiding those mishaps is to add 2 hours to your driving time per day.
There is one main app that I use for this part of the trip planning: Roadtrippers. This app is great, because you choose your destination, and it gives you all the cool things to see along the way. In addition to the app, I usually do my own research into cool things to see and do in each state we are driving through.
Where will you stay along the way?
This is where you will need to plan for hotel or camp stays along the way. For our Rocky Mountain National Park trip, we stayed in the famous Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. It was a hotel that I really did not want to miss, so I added it as part of our itinerary.
Here is another reason you want to plan where you will stay: during our last trip, I had not planned a hotel stay in Abilene, Texas. The fair was in town, and most of the hotels were completely booked. We could not find a hotel anywhere. We called a hotel that was about 10 minutes from us, and the woman said that if we were needing a room, we should book it then. Kevin figured that with 6 rooms at that hotel available, we would have plenty of time to get there and check in. Fortunately, we were able to get the last room available; five other rooms had been booked in less than 10 minutes.
When looking for dispersed campsites, I use the app, The Dyrt. The camping community is very helpful on this app; they give tips, directions, and reviews of the campsites and/or campgrounds. Roadtrippers also gives good information on campgrounds, but usually, there isn’t any information on dispersed camping locations.
Where will you eat?
Most people overlook this step. Kevin is one of those people that just plans as he goes. However, I am one of those that likes to see what quirky restaurants are out there. I check out their menus and reviews before making a decision about where to eat. My go-to app for finding restaurants is Foursquare. The problem that I have found, recently, is that more and more good restaurants are closing due to trouble finding employees. I can usually counteract this problem by Googling the restaurant and reading Yelp reviews.
When we were in Denver, Colorado, we found a cool gourmet hotdog restaurant, Biker Jim’s, near the stadium. The hotdogs were amazing. Kevin got the rattlesnake and rabbit hotdog, and I got the elk hotdog. They put cream cheese and caramelized onions on them, which was actually really good. We would have never found the place without doing a little restaurant research.
What will you need to take with you?
Packing light is a must for us, because we are usually doing camping and overlanding, and that takes up a lot of our space. With that being said we have to pack accordingly for that, too.
Weather
Make sure to continuously check the weather as you plan. I’ve learned over the last few years that weather predictions are not always accurate. Always have a backup plan, just in case.
Our trip to Escalante, Utah did not go well this last trip. We had planned to go overlanding and camp in the Escalante National Monument area, but for the two days that we were there, it stormed. It had shown on all the weather apps some rain, but we figured we could work around it. By the time we got to Escalante, there was flash flood warnings everywhere.
We were devastated, and the only backup plan I had was to get a hotel room, but the only ones I could find on my Hotels.com app were $300+ per night. We wound up driving 4 or 5 hours to Bluff, Utah, just north of the Valley of the Gods where we had planned to go for a couple of days and camp at least one night. There was a quicker route, however, it would have taken us down the shelf-road switchbacks of Moki Dugway in the dark and thunderstorms. Thankfully, we knew about that road and planned an alternate route.
Since rain had always been in the forecast, I packed our raincoats. I’m glad I packed them, even though I didn’t think we would need them.
Bathing
Sometimes, it is not necessary to bring shampoo, conditioner, soap, and body wash. Unless you have particular skin conditions or unruly hair, you can usually get away with the freebies at the hotels. They usually have courtesy hairdryers as well. Anyone who has ever stayed in a hotel knows this, but sometimes its good to be reminded of those things. My son and husband can usually get away with using the hotel freebies, but having curly hair, I just bring my shampoo and conditioner in small travel bottles.
If you are planning on camping, you may want to bring some single-use body wipes, just in case. We don’t typically stay in campgrounds, so body wipes are my friend. Dry shampoo is also a good alternative when bathing in the wild.
Only the Necessities
The most practical rule of thumb when packing is only bring the necessities. If you forget anything, remember that you will be passing by grocery stores, department stores, and convenience stores along the way.
If you are planning on camping on your road trip, check out my other blog post on compact camping gear. This list will help you save space when packing. Compact Primitive Camping Wish List
