Tips for the Ultimate Road Trip

Road trips seem to be a lost art. With the world now more accessible than ever before, many people are opting to not take a road trip. It’s a shame really as there’s so much to see by car that simply can’t be seen by an airplane or fast moving train. A road trip through several states can be just as fun as visiting a foreign country. If you have been itching to hop in the car and drive off into the sunset, check our tips for the ultimate road trip.

Decide if you want to have a fixed itinerary with certain places in mind, or if you prefer to just see where the road takes you. Many people like to combine a vacation with both – a few places they know they want to see and the rest whatever calls to them along the way.

Famous Sights or Off The Beaten Path
Some of the more iconic sights like The Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore are frequently visited by those on a road trip. This has a lot to do with the fact that they are easy to find and visitors can spend at least a day or two exploring the area.  Now, you may just want to wing it while you are on your road trip and not visit a national landmark. That’s okay, but you should at least have a GPS handy and a map just in case you get lost or need some sort of guidance.

Let the Road Signs by Your Guide
One of my favorite things about road trips aren’t necessarily the actual destinations, but all the surprise finds along the way. Really, have you noticed how many cool things are on the side of the road that are used as ploys to draw travelers to a particular store or amusement park? For example, The Thing attraction has a billboard campaign that goes on for miles down Interstate 10 in Arizona. Many travelers can’t help but stop at the actual attraction after reading all of those signs. As you are venturing out on your road trip remember to allow for extra time so that you can stop at some of these places and take a few pictures along the way.

Figure Out Your Sleeping Arrangements
It’s always a good idea to figure out where you are going to sleep beforehand. Sure, there are a lot of hotels around, but you don’t want to find yourself in the middle of nowhere dozing off without a hotel in site. A neat app called restareas.appspot.com gives users a list of rest stops that are located along highways in the U.S. This can be pretty beneficial if you can’t find a hotel or just want to grab a quick nap in the car before hitting the road again. Just make sure that you park your car in a well-lit area. If you are visiting a National Park, there are limited hotels in these areas so we suggesting booking ahead of time to avoid disappointment.

Don’t Forget The Food
I don’t know about you, but when I go on road trips I tend to be extra hungry. This means that I need to pack a lot of snack in order to avoid having to stop at every gas station along the way. My favorite thing to do is to pack a cooler with everything in it from yogurt to sandwiches. I just throw some ice in there in the morning and change it out at the end of the day. It allows me to bring a variety of food with me and it easily fits on the floor in the backseat.

Pack Some Entertainment
There might be times where there isn’t much to look at out of the window and you need to entertain yourself. Before you go on your road trip, download some songs to your iPod or pack a few CD’s. If you will be a passenger on your road trip, bring along a portable DVD player to watch movies or a tablet that you can play games on.

Popular Road Trips
Not sure where to start, these are some of the most popular road trips in the U.S.:

1.   Salmon River Scenic Route – Stanley, Idaho, to Darby, Montana, on Idaho 75 and US 93
2.   Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island
3.   Silverado Trail – Napa to Calstoga
4.   Eureka, California to Coos Bay, Oregon
5.   Grand Canyon, Arizona to Moab, Utah
6.   Jackson, Wyoming to Glacier National Park, Montana
7.   Olympic Peninsula Loop, Washington
8.   Kohala Coast to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Big Island, Hawaii
9.   Zion National Park Loop, Utah
10 . Colombia River Scenic Highway, Oregon
11.  Route 66, Illinois to California
12.  Great River Road – Minnesota to Louisiana
13.  Pacific Coast Highway, San Luis Obispo to Monterey, California
14.  Alaska Highway 1 from Anchorage to Seward
15.  Wisconsin – Route 70 from Iron Mountain to Eagle River

Road trips are a great way to spend time with your loved ones. There are so many things to see and do throughout the U.S., why not hop in the car and go on a journey together?

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