An Epic Weekend Road Trip in 6 Simple Steps

Updated: April 10, 2024

Embarking on a road trip is an exciting adventure, but can be nerve-racking without a plan.

I am a planner. My boyfriend is not. After many road trips, we have learned to find the sweet spot in the middle: enough planning to give the trip some shape, but enough wiggle room for spontaneous adventure!

What is the right amount of planning? Stick around to learn our 6 simple steps to planning the perfect weekend road trip.

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1- Weekend Road Trip Timeline

Step #1 is figuring out how long we can travel. This depends on our jobs and kids’ schooling schedules. One night is easy. Two nights is doable. If we get lucky, we can pull off 3 nights or more.

3 nights is ideal since it gives us more driving time to get a little further away from home. (For our last road trip, we were able to plan a 3-night road trip, yaaaahhh!)

2- Weekend Road Trip Destination

The next step is deciding where we are going. We choose the furthest location possible to get to our cornerstone destination by morning 2 (of a 3-night road trip).

If there are 2 nights free, we usually refer to our Arkansas State Parks map, since we are currently on a mission to visit all 52 State Parks. If there are 3 nights or more, we search for National Parks.

For this trip, we had enough time to go further away from home. We decided on Mammoth Cave National Park, in Kentucky (a 10-hour drive).

“Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret.”

Oscar Wilde

3- Weekend Road Trip Cornerstones

For a more relaxed trip, we like to have a “cornerstone night” booked. This is one night secured in the middle of our trip for a bit of relaxation. For this trip, we pre-booked night 2 at a KOA campground.

Next, we decide on a cornerstone activity. This is the main attraction of our road trip. For this trip, our “cornerstone activity” is a cave tour at Mammoth Cave National Park.

We attempted to book our tickets in advance, but since our arrival was on a holiday weekend, they were completely booked.

We decided to roll the dice and bet on getting self-guided tour tickets when we arrived since they can’t be purchased in advance.

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4- Weekend Road Trip “Optional Activities”

We always make sure to have backup ideas in case the cornerstone activity falls through. Ideally, the cornerstone activity is pre-booked, but that isn’t always possible.

The “optional activities” list also comes in handy if you end up with free time. We don’t like to waste time trying to think of ideas and find activities to do once we are at our destination.

Our optional activities for this trip included another local cave tour and ziplining near Mammoth Cave. 

“There’s nowhere to go but everywhere…”

Jack Kerouac

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5- Weekend Road Trip Meal Plan

Stopping for meals can be time-consuming and costly. We make a meal plan for our trips and do our grocery shopping before we leave. If the trip is 3 days or less, we can pre-shop all groceries. If we are road-tripping longer than 3 days we must make additional grocery shopping stops.

We pack only the necessary equipment (air fryer, grill). We use our van’s microwave, fridge, and stovetop. Finding pretty places along the way to stop and cook our meals has become a favorite activity of ours! 

6- Pack and Take off on your Weekend Road Trip!

With practice, packing has become more streamlined. We take the least amount of items possible since there is limited space in the vehicle on a road trip.

Leggings and layers are a must! I always pack my favorite hiking backpack, a ball cap, and hiking boots. 

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This is how our trip turned out…

Day 1 of our Weekend Road Trip

With this trip, we left in the morning and drove 6.5 hours before deciding we needed an activity stop.

As we drove, we saw road signs for The Smooth Jazz on the River Festival at Fort Defiance State Park, in Cairo, Illinois, and decided that was a must. 

After exploring the festival, we continued driving for a couple of hours until dinner time. For dinner, we decided to find a nearby local city park. On our Roadtrippers app, we saw that Dawson Springs was just ahead and had a city park we could use.

As we were driving to the park, we were surprised to see them celebrating their annual “Dancing in the Streets” festival. This was the perfect place and time to enjoy a meal, and then roam around to meet some locals. 

Leaving Dawson Springs, we had the plan to boondock nearby. We were not lucky enough to find a good place to boondock for the night.

This trip was one of our earlier trips in the van before we had experience finding boondocking locations. Our cornerstone location at a KOA was only 2 more hours away, so we called and booked night 1 at the same location. 

Day 2 and 3 of our Weekend Road Trip

Since we arrived earlier than expected, day 2 had plenty of time for activities- starting with Mammoth Cave.

We managed to get self-guided tour tickets to explore the cave. This left plenty of time for hiking on some nearby trails within the park. 

Night 2 was relaxing since we were already on location and had a booking. We relaxed at the campsite and planned our day 3 activities.

Referencing our “optional activities” list, we planned and booked another cave tour, this time on a boat, at Lost River Cave and ziplining at Adventures of Mammoth Cave.

Both activities were excellent and are highly recommended! After finishing these activities, we started on our path home.

We drove 3 hours of the trip back before deciding to stay at Cub Creek Lake Campground at Natchez Trace State Park in Wildersville, TN (found on the Roadtrippers app).

The campsite was an easy booking at a beautiful location. 

Day 4 of our Weekend Road Trip

Driving back on day 4, we made use of the Roadtrippers app again to find sites along the way to explore.

We stopped at Centennial Park in Nashville, TN, and then found Broadway for some walking and roaming. Roadtrippers will allow you to “Search & Explore” by category: Sights & Attractions, The Great Outdoors, Activities & Experiences, etc.

2 hours further down the road we spotted a large Bass Pro Shop in Memphis, TN, and made that our last quick(ish) stop.

The final 5 hours were a straight drive to make it home in time to pick up the kids and settle in for the night so everyone was rested and ready for work and school the following day. 

Plan a Weekend Road Trip

Although shorter in time, these 3-4 day road trips can pack in a lot of fun activities and exploration with a little planning and use of the right apps (Roadtrippers, All Trails, and Atlas Obscura).

Although we stayed active and busy, there is something about playing in nature that relaxes and centers us! We hope our tips can help you plan your next trip.

Life is beautiful if you are on the road to somewhere.

Orhan Pamuk

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