Me and my cat Chiqa are moving out west! Any advice for ^this frucking trek^ would be awesome😵‍💫😅

I’m a UK national (early 30’s) living in Houston for the past 2 years. Having already seen most of Texas, I set out on a road-trip of the Western US. Rather than use an RV/ Camper- I wanted to enjoy the ‘feel’ of driving a car across America. Used my Chrysler 300. I had no firm plans besides needing to be in Sedona, AZ by a certain date. This is what I did:

Prep: To save costs- I removed the upper part of the back seat, and with a yoga mat, pillow, and a few blankets I could have a pretty comfortable sleeping platform for me across the trunk/back seat.) Every other night I would stay in a motel/ similar. Also took my car for a full service beforehand.

Day 1: Leave Houston early and eat as many miles as possible towards Roswell. Slept in car in town called Tatum.

Day 2: Planet Fitness membership allowed me to work out/shower. Town seems past its prime but the museum was still fun for the novelty. Drove onto Albuquerque. Night in motel

Day 3: Explore Albuquerque- as a Breaking Bad fan navigating all the sights and old town, museum was a blast. Drove to Gallop NM to stay in a reasonably cheap John Wayne/ western themed motel- highly recommend.

Day 4- Petrified National forest- was planning a hike but weather was very cold; but it’s still easy to navigate all the points of interest by car. Got caught in blizzard so forced to stop in hotel in Flagstaff (too cold for car).

Day 5: Drove to Williams, and took the Grand Railroad to the Grand Canyon Village- spent night in lodge (priciest stay but planned)

Day 6-9 Took train back to Williams, drove to Sedona. Few days in cheap motel. Decided to treat myself to hot air ballooning group. Spent time hiking, exploring (amazing trails)

Day 10: Drove to Las Vegas, stopped at Hoover Dam (drove over it just for the fun) cheap tour of power plant also worth doing)

Day 11-15: Stayed in Planet Hollywood; friends party celebrating. Didnt use car much. In hindsight could probably have found cheaper arrangement further from strip

Day 16: Drove towards Death Valley, stayed in cheap motel in Beatty, NV

Day 17: Death Valley, drive through was amazing, did a short hike but obviously need to be prepared for heat. Spent night in car in Bakersfield,

Day 18: Drove to San Francisco. Stayed in [Green Tortoise] hostel which is as cheap as you can get to be in the middle of downtown (35$/ night) and allowed good social vibe. Be prepared for traffic- parking at $30/day min.

Day 18-20: Classic SF tourist attractions, Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Warf, Coit tower, etc

Day 21: GF flew out to join me, did Redwood Forest and drove to Napa Valley. 2 nights in modest B&B (Blackbird Inn, great vibe and free wine/cheeseboards!)

Day 22: Vineyard tours (Castle de Amora and Sterling with a Gondolas- pricey but was GF’s wish list; worth it if you like that sort of thing)

Day 23: Drove to Lake Tahoe- a lot snowier than we expected, spent night in cheap motel in Incline Village. Beautiful snow forest trails to explore though

Day 24: Drove through to Reno (not worth more than an hour stop in my opinion) and onto Highway 50 ‘Loneliest Road in America’. Absolutely amazing scenery and almost NOTHING for 300 miles… wish I could share more pics. Spent night in hotel in town called Ely

Day 25: Drove north to Bonneville Salt Flats- again phenomenal scenery, almost zero other cars. Too wet to drive on salt flats this time of year but still surreal to go walk on. Night in hotel in Salt Lake City

Day 26. Explore some parks and trails

Day 27. GF flies home. Drive towards Grand Junction. Details TBC

Day 28-32. Make my way back to Houston… still figuring out stops and attractions but will figure out as I go along!

Will add more comments/ suggestions/ Q&A if this gets any interest :)

Hi road trippers. I saw some of the online tools here that people suggested for trip planning, but what I'm looking for is something that will allow me to simply go to a map and plot out a trip that is over, one that I just returned from. I did a 7,000 trek around much of the US and just want to save a visualization of the path I took. Anyone know of something that will allow me to just enter a bunch of points on a map in a sequence and have it draw the lines?

Hi! I'm planning my first ever road trip all by myself & I need advice!

I'm very excited but also very nervous as I've never been outside of Texas! I know, how crazy is that?!

I'm traveling because I have an internship in Michigan, but I have to bring my cello, so flying isn't an option, besides, I love traveling & since this will be my first time outside of Texas, I really want to soak it all in!

I'm planning on taking 2 - 3 days to get to Michigan so that I can take my time, see the sights, & just enjoy myself before my 3 month long internship.

So any advice for someone not only going across the country for the first time, but also leaving their home state for the first time?

Hello, my partner and I are moving to Canada and want to have a memorable road trip from bay area to Toronto. These are our must do's before we leave USA - Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, Utah salt flats (recommended by many people). We also wanted to do Sequoia national park but it's very out of the way so may skip. This is our very first road trip. Please suggest scenic routes, tips for the trip, any other amazing places we can see on the way and shouldnt miss. Please also suggest gears and essentials. TIA.

We have around 15 days, starting around May 15th.

Current plan below - A. Utah salt flats B. Yellowstone national park C. Mt. Rushmore

Hello, me and my brother are 2 Romanians who will be roadtripping the Deep South in mid October and are looking for some recommendations.

We're gonna have OCT 10 - OCT 19/20 for availability and we want to experience authentic Southern culture and see some crazy things we can't see in Europe. For example, Talladega NASCAR , LA swamps and College Football in Alabama ( which I particularly wish tremendously we could do for the Tennessee game but it's out of question because tickets go well over 200$ )

We know it might not be enough but we're not gonna be around any time soon so we really wanna do something like this.

If you have any suggestions or recommend anything please let me know, this is our planned itinerary:

10 OCT - Land in Memphis, TN, early morning, stick around for the day. Bass Pro Pyramid, the assassination site of MLK and a whole lot of barbeque

11 , 12 OCT - Drive South through MS, through the Delta ( Clarksdale, Vicksburg ) and the Natchez strip. We wanna have fried catfish and meet locals in restaurants and bars and see the Mississippi river where it's beautiful, I see a lot of pictures of abandoned churches in the swamps there and it looks mysterious.

13, 14 OCT - Be in New Orleans, do all the New Orleans stuff

15, 16 OCT - Explore Rural LA, get Cajun food, do a swamp tour, visit a bunch of plantations ( Laura, Whitney), get accommodation somewhere rural

17 OCT - Drive to and spend the day around Mobile, AL, explore the region. I'm thinking learning something about Africatown and eating seafood

18 OCT - Drive North and stop at the KFC Buffet in Prattville for lunch ( seems interesting and tasty and a unique piece of history). Be in Talladega by evening for the tailgating parties ( I don't really know how they work but I've read they're as important as the race itself).

19 OCT - More tailgating in the morning, attend the race at noon. Be in Atlanta by night to fly out to Chicago.

This is vaguely what we've brought up.

Please share an opinion.

EDIT : I.E What needs more or less time?

Thanks

Which of the routes would be best to follow for an early October roadtrip? Recent weather has me skeptical of driving through the Midwest

Has anybody on here been to the Salton Sea in California? It is a weird, weird place. We just went there this past weekend. I need to find a documentary on this place because I understand it has a pretty incredible history.

Hope everyone’s doing well!

My mother and I are planning on renting a car in San Diego in June, staying there for a few days, then driving up to San Francisco for a few days. We want to drive up the PCH, but unfortunately, we are on a bit of a time crunch and can only stop off for one night on the way up the coast. I’m also aware that a section of CA-1 has seemingly been closed for a while now due to landslides, so we’d likely have to skip past that section anyways unless it reopens by June. I have a couple of questions:

Given our circumstances, what’s the best route to take that gives us the best of the PCH while still keeping timeliness in mind?

What would be the best stopping point for a one-night stay?

I know the logistics of this trip are tricky, but any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

This will be my first time ever driving more than 3hrs by myself. Any tips or am I just overthinking it? And which route to take?

My boyfriend and I are leaving on Good Friday to take a road trip to visit his parents in Myrtle Beach. We plan on stopping at a few places on the way there and the way back, and we will likely stop and stay the night somewhere mid drive. What are some must see's along the way ? We are open to alternate/scenic routes. We will have roughly 8 days to make it to MB and back to Detroit so we aren't in a big hurry to get there or go home. Thank you :)

Plan is to fly in and out of Las Vegas interested in

·       Sequoia National Park

·       Bryce Canyon

·       Grand Canyon North Rim

·       Lake Powell

·       Antelope Canyon

(been to Zion and Grand Canyon South Rim)

Looking for route suggestions and additions since the itinerary seems light

Plan to use Alltrails app to plan hiking.  Any other useful apps for accommodation etc.?

I checked ChatGPT - interested in real life feedback 😊

Will be doing a long, solo (my first of any sort) roadtrip before starting a graduate program in the fall. I have a budget of ~30 days and $2000. Note that the route is just what google maps sets automatically.

I'm looking for input on additional stops/specific highways to take along this path. General advice is appreciated. Also wondering how much is reasonable to budget per day on food and if its crazy to plan to sleep in my car (maybe on top with a camper) the entire way? Will I go crazy? Am I already?

Traveling from St. Louis to Maine in May. Looking for unique places to stay and do in between.

Hi all

Thanks in advance for the help.

I'm planning a summer move from Indiana to Arkansas for a job. I need advice on how to plan out the route to be able to make ~4 stops every 2 hours or so for bio breaks.

My car is pretty good (but not great) on gas, I am expecting 2 stops if I drive it to within 1 gallon left in the tank before refilling, so I would need to make stops along the way to fill up as well.

Is there an app or online tool that can help me plan this out in advance?

Edit: thank you all for your comments. I am relatively new to long distance driving. I have not driven a lot, and this is officially my first truly long distance trip in my own car. Never had to drive more than 2 hours anywhere.

The previous trip was more impromptu, forced because of flight cancellations. I was not prepared for this trip at all. I was supposed to fly to Arkansas at 6 PM and had not had dinner thinking Id grab something when I landed in AR at around 10 CT. So I scrambled to get to a store to grab some redbulls in me for the drive when the drive was executed. I also then had to make trips to get dinner and get gas in the middle, and I am horrible at fiddling with navigation to take me to the nearest gas station while driving. Also, horrible at navigation in general. I can fogure out drives if I have a map and route showing, but if they go away I will miss my exit for sure.

That fiddling made me super nervous, which is why I posted this here to see if there was a better, safer way to plan this drive

We're doing this in a few months. Not really looking to sightsee, just trying to get there in a decent amount of time. Seems like the gps wants to take us through phoenix, el paso and down the southern route but I've read people like the i40 more. We will be searching for dog friendly hotels along the way as well.

At Nashville I can either go through Kentucky , Indiana and over through Chicago. Or I can go the western route through St Louis and up through Iowa. Which is the better choice?

going to head down to Fort Lauderdale on the 14th. Let me know if someone needs a ride.

At the end of next month I will be driving from Portland, Oregon to just south of Cleveland, Ohio and back and am torn on which car I should take. I'll be driving solo with minimal cargo.

Initially I was planning on using my dad's 2007 Acura RL which he gave to me after he stopped driving a year ago. The car is in excellent mechanical condition and only has 113,000 miles on it, tires that are only about two years old and a timing belt done five years and 20,000 miles ago. Benefits to taking this car are its larger fuel tank (which equals better driving range) and the fact that it's never done a massive trip like this in its entire life.

My other vehicle to choose from is my 2021 Mazda CX-5 Turbo with just over 30,000 miles on the odometer. The only downside to taking this vehicle is the fact that the tires are down to about 5/32nds and even though I trust them to get me there and back, my guess is they'd be pretty much worn by the time I got home. Major upsides to taking this car are the fact it's still under factory powertrain warranty, is slightly quieter than the Acura and has ventilated seats which are amazing on long trips.

I welcome any and all takes on this.

My family of four is going on a 25 day cross country trip in our mini van. We are trying to decide if we should by a soft shell or hard shell roof top storage and would appreciate people’s experience or recommendations with the two. Our funds are limited to a hard shell one would have to be some off brand (specific recs welcome). Thanks!

Idk if this is the right sub to ask, bc I’m not necessarily asking for specific routes. But what are your guys favorite/most exciting/most scenic/most anything spots you love to go to between Phoenix and Seattle

I’m planning a solo roadtrip between these cities for a new job, and have a lot of time to drive around in zig zags up the coast. So far I’m planning on going to Vegas, then Death Valley, Yosemite, San Fran, and driving up the coast on Calis Highway 1. After that idk

What places after, or between, those stops would you guys recommend? I’m up for anything. It can be scenic, night life involved, or just some random “worlds largest …”

Hi! Looking into driving around the US for 90 days and was wondering if it’s better to rent or buy a car (something like a sedan or something I could potentially sleep in)

I’m a non-citizen and under 25. I don’t have any car insurance or any experience in buying a car.

I’ll mostly be driving around the west. I was thinking of starting in NY and heading across the country, but if rental costs for one-way are significantly higher I would be okay with just sticking to the west coast.

I am able to use friends/family addresses in either NYC or LA to register the car. I have a friend able to drive me around to find a car if I choose the west coast.

Any input or direction on how to go about all this would be greatly appreciated!

The goal is also to be able to appreciate these places and not rush any of these destinations. Open to any other cool waterfall hikes in Oregon/NorCal. And is there anything Shasta-Trinity Forest I should see, and/or should I squeeze in Lassen Volcanic National park?

Should we take this route? (Either way, probably going to stop in Steinhatchee FL for some quick reds so may end up going a more westerly route and DEF do not want to go anywhere near Atlanta

Was thinking:

• Miami to Steinhatchee
• Steinhatchee to north Arkansas
• North Arkansas to Sioux Falls?
• Sioux Falls to Livingston MT (destination)

I am planning my vacation in June and I have the route planned. I am hoping for some interesting or fun places to sit, stop at, eat at, et. al along this route but also in New Orleans itself.

I am going to take I-65 from Indy to Nashville and hope on Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville, TN to Jackson, Mississippi, then I-55 down to New Orleans.

Happy to answer any questions as well.