I’ve been thinking about taking a road trip this summer or next summer. Any other road-trippers out there? If so, Does anyone have any idea what’s reasonable in a day in terms of travel in terms of stopping to do things/traveling? College me drove 20 hours straight to Florida multiple times… Adult me says nope, no way. I need breaks. 
I’m basically trying to figure out how far west I can reasonably go and make it back here in like 8 total days.
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where are you starting from? What do you like to do? Nature? Other things?
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I echo the “where are you starting from” and “what do you like” questions.
In 2018 I took my family on a 55-day around the country RV trip. I found my plans to be extremely accurate for what was a reasonable amount of time to drive vs hang out and sight see.
I used MS Streets and Trips software (now discontinued). It was clunky, but it did what I wanted well. But for a shorter trip, Google maps is adequate. Just test your drives from location to location using the feature that lets you predict traffic and drive durations based on day and time.
Some basic ideas I used (I’m assuming you’re driving with the family Including teens):
- don’t plan for 8 hours of driving in a day unless it’s right at the beginning when you’re still fresh
- I aimed for 4-5 hours of driving on average (and generally maxed out at 6) and found really great sites along the route using Google Maps.
- stay at places with highly reviewed pools
- for museums and sites, read the reviews to see how much time people recommend spending
Let me know if you have specific questions.
I will say this… New Orleans might be a good destination for an 8 day trip depending on where you live. It’s not just bars for adults. Both kids really liked NO and they were 12 & 13 at the time. Great food and lots to do/see.
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We’ve done a lot of road trips, but it is hard to make suggestions without knowing what your goal is.
H and I drove from CA to MD shortly after we were engaged. We had three weeks to make the trip so planned it based on things/places we wanted to see. Our route was anything but direct b/c we had a lot of time and zig zagged through the states in order to do the things we wanted. It also depends on how much time you want to spend at different places. For some people, a quick stop at a particular place just to see it might be fine, but for others, they might want to actually stay longer and explore further.
We’ve done the “drive straight thru” just stopping for bathroom/food breaks because the destination was more important on a particular trip than the journey. But we have also driven places where the journey was as important as the destination.
I grew up taking road trips with my family. It’s something we have done with our own kids as well and have been very memorable.
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We’ve taken a bunch of road trips since Covid. My favorite kind (to maximize site seeing) are maybe 4 hours of driving/day and the rest of the time visiting. If we are trying to get to a final destination, we’ll do a max of 8 hours/day otherwise we feel crippled coming out of the car.
I agree with you, @momofboiler1 - although we have done as much as 15 straight through on the way home:(
I’d love to hear about specific trips people have liked if you want to share. Love all the travel threads lately!
We drove all around Lake Michigan last year. We started in the Chicago area; first stop was in Saugatuck, MI; second stop Traverse City; third stop Mackinac Island; fourth stop Munising; fifth stop Thunder Bay; last stop Door County, WI.
We did the trip over 12 days last Fall. We did a ton of hiking and kayaking at the state parks and along the lake fronts, visited a bunch of vineyards, waterfalls and light houses, and ate a lot ; )
It far exceeded my expectations!
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Last fall we drove to Maine. Cranked out 9 hours to get there and then drive 2-3 hours every other day or so and hopped up the Msine coast. Then cranked out the miles home.
We also did a 3 week road trip through OR, WA, MT and ID. during covid. We flew to Portland and drove a big loop. We drove anywhere from 2-7 hours at a time but always stayed at least 2 nights in every location. It’s too tiring for us to check in/out of hotels every day.
We did many road trips as my 3 boys were growing up. They’re some of my best memories (even with the occasional arguing). Longest was a 14 day trip in 2014 from SC to Prince Edward Island (and back). Stayed more than one night in Boston area (visit family), Bar Harbor, ME and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Another was 10 days SC to Niagara Falls, Toronto, through Detroit to Cedar Point amusement park. Really depends on where you want to stop for a while on the way how long you can go in a day so you need to map it out pretty well ahead of time. In general we’d have a day or two mostly driving (8-12 hours) especially at the beginning and end and others with 3 or so hour spurts broken up by stopping for meals, sightseeing, etc. We also tried to be low budget and liked to eat a larger lunch since lunch was usually cheaper. We tried to find locally favorite places to try. Breakfast was at the hotel and we’d sometimes stop at a grocery store near the hotel and everyone would buy their own “dinner” food. The kids loved that. I miss those days.
Last road trip we did was from south Jersey to Canada. We left around 3am to be past north Jersey/NYC area before morning traffic. First real stop was Lake George, NY where we had breakfast and walked around a bit. Next real stop was just past Montreal at a park before our final stop north of Quebec City at an indoor water park/hotel. My D was about 11 at the time. After a couple nights there we had an AirBNB in the heart of Old Quebec and spent a few days enjoying that beautiful city. The drive home would be about 13 hours which was fine the first day but the last day I’m not attempting that! We took the route through Vermont and spent the night in Stowe and stopped at the little shops, got fresh apple cider donuts and Ben &Jerrys. Then made the final trek home. If we had more time there are a bunch of places on that route I would love to see. Part of what we chose to do was because of weather since it was early November, too cold for lots of outdoor activities but not cold enough for winter fun activities.
Sounds like a great trip- I’ve been to all of those places but never in one trip- Love how you took advantage of the state parks. We might need to try this- love to golf so think we could work that in.
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We live in PA. My thought is to go out towards ohio - see falling water, go to the rock and roll hall of fame, maybe catch a game at wrigley field if baseball is happening, and ideally make it to WI and MN. I’m not sure if that is doable or not. And then come back home a different route - maybe through michigan and NY. We like outdoorsy things and camping as well.
I like the thought of no more than 5-6 hours a day. I feel like that feels fair.
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Depending on where in Pennsylvania you’re starting, here’s one idea:
Cleveland, Sandusky (Cedar Point if you like amusement parks), South Bend (if you’d like to see Notre Dame), then Chicago (where you could spend a week easily), up to Milwaukee, ferry across to Muskegon, Lake Express - Lake Michigan Fast Ferry Shortcut - Schedule, Saugatuck, Greenfield Village outside Detroit, then to Niagara Falls if you feel like going through Canada, then home again.
Minnesota would probably be pushing it. But if you’re starting in western PA, that gives you a bit more flexibility.
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If you’re outdoorsy and in the Cleveland area consider Cuyahoga National Park for a hike before or after the R&R Hall of Fame. If you don’t like Sandusky/Cedar Point, take a ferry out to Kelly’s Island (more quiet and natural) or Put In Bay (rent a golf cart to get around the island and many, many watering holes - go in the daytime!). If you don’t care about South Bend, very fun beach areas near the Indiana Dunes or into Michigan, New Buffalo area. (Lake Michigan).
Go to cedar point. In addition to the terrific roller coasters, there are the most fabulous french fries…I think they still have those there. @abasket ?
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We took the entire family a few years ago and drove to South Dakota and did the Black Hills and then out to Yellowstone. We had a fabulous time!
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I haven’t been for years! Did it with my kids once and they were like “ok we did that, we’re Good now…”
But if you like roller coasters, YES. It’s just not an Abasket family destination ! So not sure about the fries - but they used to be legendary!
I’ll throw in another vote for Cedar Point (if you like amusement parks and roller coasters), and Cuyahoga National park and New Buffalo dunes!!!
And the Finger Lakes, on your way home. As for driving, I like to plan my hours based on what’s available and striking a balance. For example, last summer we drove from OH to CA, and the first 2 days we were fresh and it was just ‘grind it out’ drive as much as possible in a day through the midwestern states. On the third day we made it to Denver and started sightseeing and resting and exploring…because there were were more interesting places (to us) to go and see, and we couldn’t really handle those long days any more. Just balance out your long days with rests and fun, and realize that your capacity for the long drives will probably get lower and lower as the trip goes on!
I guess the other option is north to Canada Quebec City and east to Acadia NP. We usually drive 8-9 hrs a day and other days none and just site see and rest. You could camp in tents or use Air B&B. Mix it up.