How to Plan the Perfect Road Trip. Best Tips.

Most people love the idea of an epic road trip but hesitate at the idea of planning one. I’ve become seasoned in the art of road-tripping in recent years with a handful of 1-2 week road trips, and countless 3-4 day trips.

It can be overwhelming. Where do I go? What do I do? How much time do I need?

Here’s what I’ve learned…

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Road Trip Itinerary Do’s and Don’ts:

DO	DON’T
Have a main destination	Overbook your itinerary
Have a potential activities list	Rely too much on spur of the moment plans
Have a general route mapped out	Leave with no idea where you’re going
Research big stopping points/destinations	Go in completely unprepared (you’ll waste time)
Leave time for random exploration	Be forced to pass up cool stops b/c of time
Schedule rest breaks from driving	Exhaust yourself driving
Start booking the night’s accommodations early afternoon	Wait until after dark to start searching for a place to stay
Download all needed apps ahead of time	Hope phone service is good when you need to download

Get ready to ace your road trip with these handy do’s and don’ts! Take a cue from our adventures, what hit the bullseye, and what missed the mark when making a road trip itinerary…

“Jobs fill your pocket, but adventures fill your soul.”

Jamie Lyn Beatty

Our 10-Day Road Trip

Let’s step through one of our road trips and see what tips we can pull out of it to help YOU build a road trip itinerary.

Our initial idea for this adventure was a road trip to Yellowstone National Park. However, two weeks before the trip, flooding caused Yellowstone to shut down.

Unsure of how long the shutdown would last, we adjusted our plans. We needed a new cornerstone, a midpoint main destination for our trip. And so we chose The Grand Tetons.

A week before embarking on an adventure to the Grand Tetons, we settled on a 10-day road trip with a tiny house booked for nights 4 and 5.

“Adventure is out there”

up movie

On the activities idea list were Mt. Rushmore, horseback riding, and whitewater rafting. No other plans were set in stone, so we could go with the flow. We had a route roughly mapped out on our Roadtrippers app.

Road Trip Day 1

Packing for 10 days seemed impossible, but we managed to fit all we needed in the back of the car. Sioux Falls, SD was 9 hours away and was our goal destination for day 1. The general goal was driving in 3-4 hour spurts with random stops and activities along the way.

Our first stop was 3.5 hours away, in Kansas City, KS to drop off the dog, Penny. 3 hours later we used Atlas Obscura, to find a unique adventure. Atlas Obscura has always given us the most random and fun ideas for adventure.

After glancing at the options on Atlas Obscura, we easily settled on the Squirrel Cage Jail Museum in Council Bluffs, IA. It was a little difficult to find, and so weird, but highly recommended!

Our planned final destination of day 1, Sioux Falls, SD (the northeastern corner of our trip) was another 3 hours north of the Squirrel Cage Jail. We managed to arrive at the expected time and had plenty of time to explore the falls.

Although we had reached our driving goal for the day, we felt good and decided to keep going a few more hours down the road before stopping at a hotel for the night.

Here’s where we learned our first lesson of the road trip-

DON’T wait too late to find a place to sleep. It was late in the evening before we started deciding exactly where we would land for the night.

We used another app to book our hotel for the night (for points/rewards). We had trouble finding an affordable availability close to our route.

When finally found a room within budget, we didn’t double-check the exact location of the hotel and booked one slightly off course, in Winner, SD.

Pulling into the hotel at close to 11 pm, we were tired and cranky but so happy to have a warm shower and a bed.

“Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure.”

Bob Bitchin

Road Trip Day 2

Waking up on day 2, we were refreshed and ready to go! The day before we had decided to visit The Badlands National Park for the first half of the day, and Mt. Rushmore for the second half. Our Roadtrippers app showed this to be manageable for one day’s worth of driving.

The Badlands were an easy 3-hour drive west. We had not researched this park beforehand, so we didn’t have a plan or exact location to visit.

Our Badlands experience was just mindless driving, which led to rough roads, but a surplus of beauty.

This led to our 2nd lesson of the road trip-

Don’t go in completely unprepared. National Parks are HUGE. You should do research to make the most of your time and to ensure you don’t miss any must-see sights.

“There is no certainty; there is only adventure.”

Roberto Assagioli

Roaming around the Badlands was fun and beautiful, but a little research would have streamlined this trip, and looking back, kept us off some questionable roads.

Driving through the Badlands on rough roads leads us to our biggest obstacle on this road trip…. a broken-down car.

There are very few opportunities for stops (gas stations, food, etc.) through The Badlands. Luckily, we made it an hour down the road to Rapid City, SD, where we stopped for lunch while we created a game plan.

We soon discovered that no car rentals were available and no repair shops were open. Lesson: don’t break down on a Sunday.

Because of the circumstances, we were forced to spend night #2 in Rapid City. Although, we were not worried about the overall timeline, since nothing was booked until our room for nights 4 and 5. The wiggle room in our timeline was paying off.

“Man Plans, and God Laughs.” 

old Yiddish adage

After some thought and discussion, we decided to spend Sunday evening car shopping.

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Road Trip Day 3

Day 3 started in a new car, heading to Mt. Rushmore, just 30 minutes down the road. The night before we had decided to visit the nearby Crazy Horse Memorial as well, just 35 minutes from Mt. Rushmore.

Both stops went smoothly and left us time to begin the next long leg of our drive, 9 hours to Victor, ID by tomorrow night.

Road Trip Itinerary “DO”- Save time for exploring

We drove half of the 9-hour drive on day #3, with a couple of quick stops to explore local towns. This is where most of our best memories have been made- at the random adventure stops along the way!

Starting to plan for the night, we used our lesson from the previous night and booked our room for the night earlier in the day.

Road Trip Days 4 + 5

On day 4 we finally made it to our main destination, our cornerstone- Grand Teton National Park! The beauty of this area left me speechless. There is no need to book activities. You can drive for hours to stare at the scenery to stay completely enthralled. The second half of day 4 was spent just driving around and exploring the Tetons for hours.

We were grateful we had chosen to book a tiny home for 2 nights at this location! We didn’t have to worry about accommodations and had plenty of time to enjoy the location and soak in the scenery.

This evening we learned that a portion of Yellowstone National Park would be reopening, allowing entrance for certain license plate numbers.

As luck would have it, the temporary tags on the new car were a perfect match. Fate was on our side, so let’s roll!

So we pivoted our plans and day 5 was spent at Yellowstone, taking in the scenery and seeing Old Faithful.

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We almost bit off more than we could chew on days 4 and 5, our energy draining as we tried to squeeze every last drop of adventure out of our time in the area. But we wouldn’t have it any other way. We won’t get many opportunities to be in this gorgeous area again.

Road Trip Day 6

After a good night’s rest, it was time to leave our cornerstone destination and get back on the road. We had pre-planned (researched and booked) 2 activities for our return trip home.

Day 6 landed us in Alpine, WY, just an hour away for our first pre-booked activity- horseback riding!

After horseback riding in the mountings for half a day, we decided to drive most of the way to our next day’s adventure: whitewater rafting (8 hours away).

While driving to our next location, we encountered another obstacle. As we began searching for a place to stay for the night, we noticed EVERY hotel and motel in the area was booked. After making a few calls, we learned there was a convention in town that booked all hotels for miles around.

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“Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures.”

Lovelle Drachman

We opted to scout for local Airbnbs, but that opened up a whole new can of worms, given our patchy phone signals throughout the day.

We finally found a cute little Mexican restaurant (with wifi) to eat dinner at while we searched for a place to stay.

Fortunately, we found an availability not far down the road, in Hayden, Co. Although a bit pricier than we like, this place was a unique old feedmill that had been renovated into an Airbnb and cafe. We were disappointed that we didn’t have more time to spend there.

Road Trip Day 7

Starting the day in Hayden, CO, the 2.5-hour drive to Whitewater Rafting in Glenwood Springs, CO went smoothly. Although the skies were cloudy and rainy, and the air was chilly, the rafting was amazing.

After whitewater rafting for a half day, we used our Roadtrippers app to find a hotel that was close to our next day’s adventure (The Royal Gorge Bridge). We settled on Salida, CO with an easy booking for the night.

Road Trip Day 8

Staying in Salida put us at just an hour drive from our day 8 activity. We easily made it to The Royal Gorge Bridge and spent half a day exploring the area. After taking in the Royal Gorge, and with time to spare, we opened the Roadtrippers app and found The Manitou Cliff Dwellings, just an hour away.

After exploring the cave dwellings, we discovered the Cave of the Winds, just another hour down the road. With a full day of activities leaving us worn out, we retired early just a few hours down the road.

Road Trip Day 9

On the 9th day of our adventure, we braced ourselves for a marathon drive. Our sights were set on Kansas City, KS, where we’d reunite with Penny. With no exciting detours planned, we clocked 8 hours of solid driving before finally reaching Kansas City, where we rested for the night.

Typically we break the drive up with activities. But at this point, we were worn down and ready to get home into our comfy beds.

Day 10- Final Leg of the Road Trip Itinerary

Our last day of travel was a breeze, with a 4-hour drive back to NW Arkansas. While we were over the moon for our grand adventure and escapades, there’s no place like home.

We’ve already got our eyes set on the next road trip and plan to use all our newfound knowledge to explore the Northeast next year.

“Then one day, when you least expect it, the great adventure finds you.”

Ewan Mcgregor

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Road Trip Itinerary: Do’s and Don’ts

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Take a moment to visit…

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