When should I start planning road trip?

Long term road trip planning?

• Me and some friends plan to take a road trip, right after graduation! 4-6 people, probably one car maybe 2. We are planning, saving and getting everything ready now, 2years early so by the time we graduate we will have everything ready to leave within the next week. We are going to every stay in US and visit Canada. We plan to video dairy and scrapbook the whole trip, I am just asking for advice on things to take, what plans to make, how much money we will need to carry and how much we need to have saved in bank accounts. And roughly how long to plan the trip. If we start in VA which way should we go first? Should we make hotel reservations call ahead or just show upp? Thank you for your help and if you have any expierence in long road trips for Advice will be greatly appreciated!

• Answer:

  Plan on three people to a car, at most, unless you're driving something large like a conversion van or a Suburban. A long trip like that will make you get on each other's nerves. Two vehicles with three to a car and switching-off who rides with who would seem like a better idea. Take some tents. Staying at a KOA campground in a tent site or just camping out on BLM land out west is cheap to free. You can get maps or a program to run on a laptop from www.delorme.com which will show you where the state and federal lands are out west to avoid trespassing on private property when you camp. Tents are okay but you'll save time setting-up and breaking down camp by car-camping. A Honda Element would work well. You can always buy something and sell it when you get back and count the depreciation as a trip expense. I took a 57,000 mile road trip one year and spent a lot of hotel nights at Motel 6 and Super 8. Just get the guides they have at the front desk and you can see where to plan to stop for the day. You can call-ahead mid-day when you know about where you are going to stop for the night. That way you don't have to worry about it being sold-out when you get there. Cut down on your data costs by getting a mobile hot-spot from Verizon with unlimited data. You can wi-fi connect a half-dozen devices to it and only pay one bill instead of six. Go south first. Assuming you leave in May you'll still be able to hit Florida and the southwest before the life-sucking summer death-heat of July-September. In the far northern US and New England "summer" is really the 4th of July to Labor Day. Any earlier or later than that and you're taking too many chances with the weather. The mountain passes in the Sierras and Rockies and parts of Wyoming are frequently closed until mid-June. Ask ahead about what's open if you get there that early. Plan accordingly. Buy a National Parks Pass from the park service either online before you go or at the first park you go to. It's $80 but at $20 or more for a carload at some parks it pays for itself quickly. Plan extra time in northern California, northwestern Wyoming (Yellowstone and Tetons), the Black Hills in southwest South Dakota and northeast Wyoming (Devils Tower, Crazy Horse, Rushmore), and definitely a whole week across southern Utah (Zion NP, Bryce Canyon, Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, and Monument Valley). Drive Pikes peak or Mt. Evans in Colorado. make sure you drive I-70 between Denver and Utah (the bit through Glenwood Canyon is the crown jewel of the US Interstate Highway system). Try to see both the Coast Redwoods AND the Giant Sequoias in California. If you like history there's good Indian ruins at Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. The best caves are Carlsbad Caverns in NM and Mammoth Cave in KY. Drive the "Going-to-the-Sun Road" in Glacier NP and Beartooth Pass in WY/MT. Driving to Alaska is possible year-round but it's an *extremely* long side-trip and not cheap. Get a copy of "The Milepost" off Amazon. It's $25 or so but it has a good planning map in it and it will help you find all sorts of stuff to see on the way up. be sure you have a passport and an insurance card good for Canada from your car insurer. The costs will vary widely depending on how much gas you use and whether you camp or hotel-it every night. It can be intolerably cold for camping in high altitude areas out west even in June. For hitting all 50 states and parts of Canada at a reasonable pace I'd plan on 4-6 weeks. $10,000. That sounds like a lot but should be do-able between 5-6 people. Couple grand apiece. Staying in hotels and driving 300-500 miles every day I'd budget $200 per day per vehicle for gas, hotel, food, and incedentals.