This year, we’re doing a three-week road trip with a giant loop across the United States, exploring 10+ National Parks and State Parks. This is our longest one yet, so here are some prep notes in case they can help you too. If you want more details, feel free to let me know.

I have a list of some travel products that I’ve found useful, so I hope this helps you too.

Itinerary Planning

• Make a list of key places that you want to go to. For this trip, we wanted to focus on exploring more National Parks, especially the more northern ones that we haven’t been to yet. Research each location by visiting their websites and watching recent YouTube videos about them.
• Figure out your route. I put all our key places into Google Maps to see where they are relative to each other and ordered them according to location to get a rough route. While you’re at it, save or “pin” each location to refer back to this easily. Save the route to your home screen or email it to yourself so you don’t have to retype them all next time.
• Adjust the initial route. See how long it says it’ll take to drive that route, and make sure it roughly fits the time you have. For now, plan to at least triple that time to account for sleeping and actual time at those locations since the time Maps gives you doesn’t account for anything besides driving straight through for 24 hours. Adjust as necessary.
• Fine-tune your plans. Zoom into the route area between each key location and see if there are any other sites along the way that you want to visit. They can range from quick roadside attractions, area-specific restaurants or points of interest, or other big attractions you may not have initially considered. Search for words like “attractions”, “roadside attractions”, “restaurants”, etc. Pin those too, and add them to your route list.
• As you continue fine-tuning your itinerary, keep checking that you’re still roughly within your trip timeframe and add/reduce locations as necessary. Once you accumulate more location points, you’ll probably have to split your Google map route into multiple maps. I also find it easier to start a spreadsheet listing all the locations. There are apps out there that can help you form itineraries too, but I haven’t found one that allows me to put all the details I want in one place, so I just use a spreadsheet.
• Once you have a fairly good list of locations, start mapping them to days. This is where my spreadsheet is especially helpful to me. For each location, list a start day/time and the amount of time (hours) you plan to spend there and have it calculate the end day/time. Don’t forget to add a “Drive to next location” entry between locations and use the Maps driving time there for the time spent doing that. Factor in how much driving you can realistically do daily, depending on how many people can take turns driving. Also, factor in rest stops, meal times, and possible traffic congestion. You’ll begin to see where you may want to end each day. Add entries for “At hotel”, so it factors in sleeping time and when you’ll start the next day in your calculations. If done correctly, the calculations should flow down so that the rest will auto-recalculate as you adjust times along the way.
• Fine-tune your final itinerary. Once you have everything mapped out with the day/times, you can see how they divide into what you’re doing on what day. Double-check the locations’ operating hours and ensure they’ll be open when you’re slated to be there. Adjust as necessary.
• Very important: factor in timezone changes if you’re crossing time zones in your drives. Add/subtract the time difference to your driving time entries where the crossover will happen. Check the operating hours of your locations and when you’ll be there.
• Book hotels or other lodging for each night. Once the itinerary is fairly defined by day, you can see where you’ll be at the end of each day and can research hotels for that location. I only booked for the first few days, and the popular or remote locations may fill up. I figured I’d see how the first few days go as far as sticking to the itinerary and can book the rest from the road in case anything changes. I also make sure to book hotels that can be canceled close to the arrival date in case of any changes. We usually stay at Best Westerns and Holiday Inn type places, and they usually let you cancel until the day before. Put reminders in your calendar for cancellation deadlines and enter your bookings in the spreadsheet so you remember where you booked.
• Book attraction tickets and make reservations. If any of the places you plan to go to require them, book tickets or reservations as necessary once you know when you’re going, or make sure they’re refundable.
• Since you’ll probably have so many bookings and reservations soon, I find it easier to screenshot all reservation screens with confirmation numbers plus move all confirmation emails into a specific folder in my phone so it’s easier to find them on the road. If any tickets need to be physically printed, do it now and pack them right away.
• Download offline maps. You never know how good the reception will be on the road. Download offline maps so you can still navigate when there is no reception.

Packing

• Even though we have a car and are not limited to carry-on luggage like we usually are on planes (a bonus to driving vs flying somewhere), we didn’t want to have a whole trunk full of clothes either. We figured out two points in our trip where we would likely have the time and access to washing machines in hotels, so we decided to only pack about a week’s worth of clothes and do laundry along the way. Pack the type of clothes according to what you are doing on your trip and comfy clothes for the long driving days.
• Bring a portable laundry bag, a small amount of detergent, and a few fabric softener sheets if you plan to do laundry, so you don’t have to pay higher prices to buy them there.
• Since we’ll be traveling during a transitional time of year (late Fall), weatherwise, and going to different parts of the country with different weather, we also packed some layering pieces – sweatshirt, light jacket, raincoat, etc.
• Pack anything specific to whatever you plan to do, such as fancy clothes if planning fancy events, hiking gear if hiking, etc.
• Pack your daily toiletry items, but unless you’re always in remote areas, chances are you’ll pass a convenience store to buy common things like toothpaste, for example, so you don’t need to bring a ton either.
• Pack some first aid items, medication, and any other care items that may not be easy to get where you’re going. Bring your prescription meds, of course.
• Pack the necessary charging cords and plugs for all the gadgets you and your party will bring.
• Pack battery charger packs and cords for any daytime events you might be doing for a long time.
• Bring some cash and various credit cards. That way, if one gets flagged for suspicious charges since you won’t be in your usual area, you’ll still have other cards to use. If necessary, place a Travel Alert on those cards too.
• Remove unnecessary cards and items from your wallet or purse. Less stuff to potentially lose or get in the way.
• Pack any necessary location-specific cards (National Park pass, Annual Pass cards, membership cards, etc), passports or other ID cards if necessary, and driver’s licenses for everyone who intends to drive.
• Clear space on your phone. Since you’ll be downloading maps and music and hopefully taking tons of pics during your trip, save any old pictures and unnecessary docs to another drive and delete them from your phone to clear space.
• If you plan to bring other camera equipment, ensure they’re in good condition and make sure you know how to use them well. For example, don’t buy a fancy camera now if you do not know how to use it correctly and risk ending up with all bad pics.
• Bring postcard stamps and mailing addresses of anyone you want to send postcards to during your trip. I like to mail ourselves postcards along the way as our momentos.
• If young children are coming along, pack any necessary care, entertainment, and home items, like a favorite blanket if needed for sleeping at a hotel.
• Bring some reusable bags for shopping along the way. A lot of states now charge for shopping bags in stores.
• Bring an extra big bag for souvenirs and things you’re bound to accumulate during the trip. It’ll keep your car more organized, too, to have a big bag where you can put them all instead of a bunch of random small bags rolling around the trunk. You can also leave it in the car for things you don’t need to lug into the hotel each night.

Vehicle

• Make sure your car is in good driving condition for the amount of driving you’ll be doing, or consider renting a vehicle. If renting, make sure to get one with unlimited miles if you’ll be driving a lot.
• Bring car seats and other necessary car items if young children are coming along.
• Clean out any unnecessary junk.
• Bring a bag of disposable shopping bags for trash and other things you’ll end up needing bags for.
• Pack car snacks and drinks. Bring a little cooler-type bag to keep drinks and perishable foods cool during the day.
• Bring car tissues, napkins, hand sanitizers, disposable utensils, ziplocks, and even some small packs of condiments like ketchup, salt, etc. We usually get food to eat in the car as we drive and inevitably need more condiments, utensils, or napkins than what they usually give you. Bring a big ziplock to store them in and have it accessible in the snack bag to keep your car organized. You can put new ones in there as you accumulate more along the way so you don’t have them scattered around the car.
• If your trunk space is visible from windows, bring a dark sheet to cover your stuff so they’re not easily visible. Remember to not leave valuables alone and have things exposed since you’ll be driving around with everything in your trunk. Don’t look like a tourist.
• Bring enough phone charging cords for everyone, a phone holder, and any other navigation items. I like to bring enough cords to leave a set plugged into the car and a set in our luggage for charging in the hotel each night so we don’t have to keep moving cords around.
• Bring EZPass or whatever other toll payment system you have, plus some coins and small bills in case of cash-only tolls.
• Pack vehicle safety items – first aid kit, jumpstart cables, Fix-a-Flat, basic tools, etc.
• Download car entertainment. I like to download music and YouTube videos for the locations we’re going to so we can listen and learn about them during our drives there.
• Sign up for some gas station loyalty programs for some savings on gas along the way. We like Love’s, but all the major gas stations have them. Download gas apps like GasBuddy. They can help you find nearby gas stations and even show you their prices.
• If you have AAA, bring your card in case you run into car trouble during your trip. Make sure you have your vehicle insurance and registration cards, too.

Home

• Put in a mail hold.
• Plan for pet and plant care.
• Plan for lawn care and other necessary maintenance.
• Ask someone to keep an eye on your house, bring in unexpected deliveries, etc.
• Clear your answering machine and learn how to access it remotely to hear new messages.
• Pay ahead any bills that will be due when you’re away.
• Clear your fridge and trash of perishables.
• Turn up/down the thermostat.
• Turn off and unplug any unnecessary electronics.
• Set up timers for lights.
• Turn on your security systems and such.
• Close curtains, lock doors, etc.

Now, you should be ready to go! Excited?!?

As with all plans, it’s good to have a plan but also be ready to adjust and make changes as you go. Do some research and know what else is around for backups. Or, you may come across somewhere else that catches your eye and could be your trip’s surprise highlight, too.

If you want me to help plan your next trip, please contact me.

Let’s go explore!

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