The Ultimate Guide to How to Plan a Road Trip

Be after a road trip can definitely feel daunting , especially if it ’ s a long one with many stop . But there are some fashion to make things easier . And seeing as we ’ ve done tons of road trip over the yr ( we enjoy them ! ) , we own lots of experience and advice to portion .

So hither ’ s our guide to how to plan a road trip ( without move crazy in the process ! ) .

Matter to consider when planning a road trip
- How much time act you make ?
- What ‘s your budget ?
- What ‘s your preferred pace ?
- Are there key things you ‘re despairing to see ?
- Would you favor to move accommodation or remove day trip ?
- Are you act a loop or starting and terminate in unlike places ?
- Intend about the weather
- What vehicle will you employ ?
- Are you travelling across border ?
How to design a road trip itinerary
- Map out all the stops you require to deal
- List the things you want to do and think about timings
- Research adjustment
- Crack out other mass ‘s itineraries !
- Use all the information above to craft your road
- Take your car
- Prepare your own car
- Do n’t add the car all over
- Get insurance

How much time do you have ?
What ‘s your budget ?
What ‘s your preferred pace ?
Are there key things you ‘re despairing to see ?
Would you prefer to move accommodation or take day trips ?
Are you doing a loop or starting and terminate in unlike home ?
Recall about the weather
What vehicle will you use ?
Are you travelling across borders ?

Map out all the stop you want to cover
List the matter you want to serve and believe about timing
Research accommodation
See out other people ‘s itineraries !
Use all the information above to craft your path
Pick out your car
Cook your own car
Do n’t make for the car everywhere
Get insurance

Affair to consider when design a road trip

How much time cause you have ?

Work out how much time you have for the road trip . Remember to factor in escape arrival/departure times if you ’ re get to wing to your starting destination . If you get in early or your flight plate exist late in the day , you ’ ll have extra day to work with .

What ’ s your budget ?

Another fairly obvious but essential consideration equal how much money you hold for the trip . Adjust a budget and leave a bit of wriggle room for unforeseen expenses along the room . Potential costs you ’ ll need to think include : car hire , flights , fuel , adjustment , meals , drinking , activity and spending money for souvenirs etc .

You have a luck of exemption on a road trip to observe price down , such as self-catering or eating at budget restaurant . Camping would also save you money , or you could stay in budget motels . But you too might not need to serve any of that , in which case you could shorten the road trip or reconsider region of your path if the budget isn ’ t looking high enough .

What ’ s your preferred pace ?

Everyone has different preferences and needs when it comes to pace a road trip . Some masses want to go rapidly , packing in as much as they maybe can and ticking off all the “ most dos ” .

While others will favor a more leisurely pace and won ’ t equal worried about seeing every final matter . Mobility , energy and personal preference will bring into this decision . And some other affair to believe about when it comes to yard exist :

How far are you comfortable push back each day ?
Are you travelling with kids who might not cost able to stand extra long drives/moving every day ?
Are there specific place you ’ d like to pass a day or two exploring ?
What ’ s more important to you : seeing everything quickly ? Or search a few position in item at the expense of seeing others ?
Would you like to lead some way for spontaneity and stopping at places that overhear your eye ?

I ’ ve do both fast-paced trips and leisurely one . For instance , our trip in Japan was pretty quick as it feel like a once-in-a-lifetime trip and we were happy to prevent up the quick step for 10 days . We exist also in our early thirties and travelling without kids . On the other hand , our road trips with kids tend to be slower , like the route we took in California . We do some single-night stays , but we balance them out with 2-3 dark stays in between , and we never push further than around 3 hours in a single day .

Personally , if I ’ m travelling for anything long than a 7-day road trip , I would definitely require to include some 2 or 3 night stays , only to break up the constant travel .

And I always advocate lead plenty of room for spontaneity , so you can discover hidden gems along the way .

Are there key things you ’ re desperate to see ?

Intend about the destination you ’ re travelling to and settle what your priorities exist , and whether or not it ’ s realistic to see them all in the timeframe and desired pace of your road trip . You might have to re-prioritise if the solution live no .

Regard how far aside the destinations live and possibly consider splitting the trip in pieces and doing the other section/s another time . For case , if you ’ re perform a New England road trip , you could concentrate on different nation or areas – perhaps doing Boston to Bar Harbor rather than the whole of New England .

We treat this more in the level below on mapping out your road trip .

Would you prefer to move adjustment or take day trip ?

This play into the pacing circumstance above . and will also depend slightly on your route/the location of the home you want to inflict . Some people hate to vary accommodation and would prefer to cause day trips from a single destination rather than vary accommodation each night . This generally involves more driving , but will evidently depend on your overall road and the location of the seat you ’ re visiting .

Personally , I ’ d take exchange adjustment over more driving , but it ’ s definitely a personal preference . And sometimes , require day trips makes sense in price of the path and cease up saving you time .

My advice would be to bear this circumstance in idea when planning your route and see if it cause sense to serve some destinations as day travel – either because it save you time , or because it suit you better .

Are you perform a loop or begin and ending in unlike places ?

Some road trip can be made into a loop well , so you begin and end in the same location . This can salvage you money with car hire as you win ’ t hold to pay a fee for dropping the car off in a different location . It sometimes reach it cheaper with escape also as proceeds flight , rather than multi-destination flight , cost sometimes cheaper ( this isn ’ t always the case , thus do play around with flight options ) .

However , sometimes it ’ s worth the extra money if your path can ’ t easy be made into a loop . For model , for our San Francisco to Seattle road trip , we trace a linear path along the coast , and would have have to extend the trip significantly to make back to San Francisco from Seattle ( it ’ s a 13-hour drive ) . For that trip , it cause much more sense to fly into Seattle and out of San Francisco .

Intend about the weather

When choosing your road trip location , think about the weather . Some road might be impassable at certain times of yr . For model , if your nerve is set on labor Iceland ’ s ring road , remember piece of it equal closed in winter . The same will go for many mountainous routes .

Because of changing conditions , it ’ s severe to pin show the exact day that a road will re-open , so if peculiar portion of your journey are weather-dependent , make sure you choose a time when you can equal comfortably sure that it ’ ll be possible .

What vehicle will you expend ?

First of all , is this a camper van or car form of journey ? And second , are you move to employ a car/van or employ your own one ? Obviously you can ’ t make for your own vehicle to far flung destinations , but it might cost an option for places near to plate .

Serve think how long it ’ ll remove to repel the vehicle back family from your last destination and if you make time for that . Sometimes it might run out good to hire a vehicle even though you could technically make for your own .

For instance , we ’ d like to drive to Italy , but merely have the time to drive one-way . For that trip , it cause a lot more sense for us to employ hire cars/other forms of ecstasy . In fact , that leads me to another important point…

Are you travelling across margin ?

If you ’ re travelling through more than one country , there live a few matter to study when it comes to car hire .

You normally can ’ t pick up a hire car in one country and turn back it to another , so you ’ ll need to cause certain you ’ re ending your journey in the same rural area your car hire started in . Another option is to switch car when switch nation , but this would exist an added hassle . Plus it ’ s commonly cheaper to hire a car for long , so this could pretend your costs .

In Europe , because the countries are so near to each early and the edge live often quite long , you might observe it more cost efficient to return back to the original country , but in a different location . For model , we did a great road trip through France , Switzerland and Italy , which started in north-eastern France and ended in Southern France .

How to design a road trip itinerary

Map out all the stop you want to cross

I enjoy this part of planning ! Map out all the spot you ’ re great to impose , bearing in idea the home you ’ ve identify as your priorities . I normally expend Google Maps , saving all the destinations to a list so I can visually see them all at once on the map . This helps to envision a possible route .

There are design tools like Road Trippers that you can use . It own a pretty interface than Google Maps , and useful additional tools , such as estimating fuel costs . But you cause make to pay a yearly fee to expend it . Have a drama with it and find what you guess . You ’ ll have $ 5 off if you ratify up with this link .

List the things you desire to cause and think about timings

Next list all the things you need to do in each destination and lend those to the map also . Remove note of the first step times and cause sure you factor those into your path . For model , we ’ ve make up caught out before when we ’ ve arrived at a museum simply to find it ’ s shut that day .

Likewise , there are some attraction that open later/earlier in the day – if you ’ re doing a road trip where you move every day , you might require to make sure you regard the afternoon ones on the day you arrive , and the dawn ones on the day you result .

Research accommodation

Another affair to think about is accommodation . Before totally locking down your route , make sure there ’ s accommodation available on the day/s you ’ re intending to equal thither . If your visit coincides with a bad case , you might observe the whole town book out ( it ’ s happen to us before ! ) .

This is especially significant if there cost specific places you ’ d like to stay on that form portion of the reason for your trip . This is often the suit for us as we prioritise peculiar places to stay .

Check out early people ’ s itineraries !

Obviously , I would allege this , but I genuinely recall it ’ s helpful to read about early people ’ s itineraries and expend them to inspire your trip ( or yet just imitate them altogether ) .

It ’ ll aid you to consider hidden elements that you might not have thought of before , such as result , fun road side stops , scenic road , and lesser know attractions . It also helps save time with your own planning .

Use all the information above to craft your route

Once you have all the information above , you can craft your last route . I expend Google Maps to map out the literal route and measure the journey sentence . And then I expend Notion to create an itinerary document , listing roughly what we ’ ll cause each day . You could just as easy use Google Docs for this . Cost certain to get out in a number of wriggle way for anything unexpected .

Select your car

If you ’ re traveling from place and using your own car , this be a moot degree . But if you demand to hire one , think cautiously about the size and manner you require . We once tried to salvage money by employ the small car potential , only to arrive and earn all our stuff didn ’ t fit inside ! Personally , I ’ d pay a little excess for a number more room , specially on long class road trip as it ’ s nice to have a moment of extra space and not have to play Tetris every time you carry up the car !

As well intend in front to the seat you ’ re visiting and whether or not you demand a 4×4 or a car with a high clearance .

We use Discover Car as we see they always receive the well lot .

Develop your own car

On the other hand , if you ’ re travelling in your own car , make certain it ’ s been full service and insured , and be set for travel . Don ’ t forget a extra tire !

Don ’ t bring the car everywhere

Simply because you ’ re on a road trip , it doesn ’ t mean you have to labor everywhere . Once you ’ re in a destination , you might get it easier/cheaper to park at your hotel and then require public transport . Sometimes parking , particularly in city or heavily touristed destinations , can equal really expensive .

Get insurance

Make sure you have universal travel insurance , plus insurance for your car hire . It ’ s commonly cheaper to buy a third-party insurance for the car kind of than buying it right away from the car hire party . This normally annoys them because I recall it ’ s commission-based , but you will almost definitely save money purchase it elsewhere . We use carhireexcess.com .

And for common travel insurance , we recommend True Traveller or Holiday Extras . True Traveller equal particularly useful because you can book it with them still when you ’ ve already started travelling , which cost strange .

Our road trip itineraries

Meet all our road trip itineraries hither . And don ’ t miss our guide to how to plan a road trip .

Australasia road trips :New Zealand North Island road trip | New Zealand South Island road trip