In planning a road trip, there are several key factors that need to be planned:
A- Where are the places you want to go? And how will you get to each? I start here for good reason. It’s key when you are planning because if you are driving straight from home, you can take more camping gear but if you are flying and then renting a car, you have limited yourself and must plan accordingly.
B- How long will it take you to get from destination to destination? In researching my trips, I check GPS and log the amount of time it takes to get from location to location. I then add an extra hour or so to that travel time. Why? Because stuff happens while on a road trip, things that GPS can’t warn you about. Take our Trip to the National parks in 2020, Route 70, a major Interstate highway was shut down because of forest fires raging on both sides of it. GPS didn’t show this. And even if you don’t have something this major, we all know having kids or family members along can throw wrenches into things. Someone invariably has o do an unplanned bathroom break (or 20) and someone gets hungry every 2 hours… like my son!
C- Where are the places you are staying overnight for each stop? Will it be a hotel or camping? Are you AirBnBing it? And how far in advance are you looking? Some places that are very seasonal will book everything a year in advance. National parks are like that with people securing their sleeping arrangements a year in advance, leaving last minute travelers without. The other caution I have learned is with AirBnB. While I love the service, I ran into an issue the first year I ever tried to use it and book around places we were traveling to. You need internet access to receive the check in details the day before. If you are doing a road trip to national parks, you won’t have this access, causing huge issues trying to get to your room that night. Ask for the information ahead of traveling and explain why, most will accommodate.
D- What are the key items you want to do when you get to each. Make sure you don’t overload yourself in your itinerary otherwise the road trip will seem more like work rather than a vacation. I know from experience! LOL My rule of thumb is to stick to 2-3 items per day if it’s tours and 1-2 items if its hikes. I keep it to just a small number per day because of the amount of time and distance to finish the tour or hike, also because you will end up doing more walking than you plan. The first day we spent in Zion National Park, we hiked well over 33,000 steps. By the end of that first day, my hips had divorced my body and I had to take 4 ibuprofens to ease the body aches the next day! LOL
E- Lastly- What tickets do you need to achieve everything? I mean besides plane tickets! LOL And are they seasonal? If you go to many National parks, there are certain roads that are open but during peak season, you will need to buy tickets for to drive on them and these can go on sale on dedicated days, selling out quite fast. Glacier and Zion being the first two that come to mind. The tickets are cheap, only like $2 but they move! You have to be logged into your account the first of the month 3 months in advance on recreation.gov, pick the correct ticket and be prepared to move fast. This is on top of buying the park pass. I always recommend getting the $80 multipark pass. It’s good for a year, and if you love parks like I do, it will save you money in the long run. Plus you’re supporting our parks, it’s a win win! Funny story: the last time I was trying to buy ‘Going to the Sun’ road tickets for our trip to Glacier fell in the middle of our trip to Italy. Not only did I have the pressure of being on the computer, logged in but I had to figure out what time to be on because of the time zone difference not just from my home town but from where I was currently traveling!
