Tips & Tricks | How to Start Planning
As I am in the midst of planning my second big road trip of the year (more on that soon), I've found myself taking stock of my methods and processes of planning a successful, streamlined road trip. I know a lot of people who can fly by the seat of their pants on trips. I am NOT that kind of person. I definitely have room for spontaneity and flexibility, but setting out on a big, expensive trip without a tentative plan would stress me the fuck out. I like structure and I like to be prepared! Here are the top five things I do when planning a big trip.
Pick Your Destination
Duh, right? It's easy to plan when you have one destination in mind. It minimizes the number of things you need to research. But on a big road trip like the ones that we like to do, our "destination" could cover a huge portion of a state. What I usually do is pick a general location to focus on - west Texas, southern/central California, New England, etc. Once I have the general location pinned down, I then pick my top locations that we can't miss while we are there. For California, I knew that no matter what, Yosemite would be on our list. For west Texas, I knew Big Bend would be a stopping point. Simple enough, right? This will help to frame the rest of your road trip as you build around your 'must sees'.
Create a Budget
Where you go and what you do all depends on how much money you're willing to spend. Personally, I like to feel guilt free and within budget when I spend $80 in gift shops. I also prefer to not spend my money eating out at restaurants all the time while traveling. All of your preferences will be very personal and you have to decide what is important to you in a trip and what you are willing to shell out money for! You want to be able to enjoy the things that you enjoy, so budget appropriately!
For me, my big trip budget is generally about $1,200. That varies depending on if we are flying to a location, renting a car, how long we are traveling for, etc. Also, I should clarify that $1,000 generally covers from the actual start of the trip to the end of the trip. Since I am a planner, all of my lodging/camping costs are spread out in the months prior to the trip as I make my reservations and pay ahead of time. As I do that, I just ensure that those fit in with my standard monthly budget allotted for travel. Total for a trip with airfare and car rental, I'm generally looking at at least $2,000, but about half of that is budgeted into each month prior to the trip as I make my reservations ahead of time and the other half I save up for and have on hand for the trip for food, gas, souvenirs, etc.
Note: I realize I am really fucking privileged to be able to spend money on traveling like this. But also please know that I am a single parent on one income and I work hard to save and budget so that I can do these things because travel is important to me. 100% of the time I will pick spending money on travel over spending money on stuff. And the beauty of outdoor focused travel is that it will just about always be cheaper than a trip to Disneyland.
Do Some Research on Surrounding Areas
Okay, so once I know where I am going and how much money I want to spend, I start to look at areas around my primary, must see destinations. A lot of this involves me looking at maps of National Parks to see what is close by. If I know I want to visit Yosemite, what else is 'nearby' (I use that term somewhat loosely) to visit? For us, it was Sequoia/King's Canyon, Death Valley, and Joshua Tree. We wanted to pack Channel Islands in, as well, but it didn't work out in our planning for that trip. New Mexico - I knew we wanted to go to White Sands, so we looked at other sites in the general area and added two BLM sites to our route. Utah - we knew we'd be heading south to Zion to see an old friend, so we hopped on down to Grand Canyon and then to Page, AZ as we headed over to Moab. You get the point. If you need any help or advice on how to find things, don't hesitate to holler at me!
Build Your Route
Alright, we're making good progress. Now we have a list of places that we would like to visit. It's time to put them all together into a route. I think this is my favorite part of the process. Finding the best route and order of destinations is like a puzzle to me. Here are the main things that I look at as I am trying to piece together my destinations:
Where am I starting from?
How far am I willing to drive in one day? (For us, our general rule is no more than six hours per day. Kids + sitting in a car for extended periods of time = no bueno.)
Where am I ending? Same place as I started?
How flexible am I with my destinations? If one that was on my list just isn't working with the flow of the route, am I willing to drop it or swap it out for something else?
Create Tentative Itineraries
Woohoo! You now have your road trip set and you know where you're going and when. The biggest hurdle is over. Now, it's time to do a little more research on those places. I like to look up different hikes and make a list of ones that fit with our distance capabilities. Are there any iconic scenic drives that you can take? Guided tours you'd like to do? Restaurants you'd like to eat at? These lists are not set in stone, merely just some notes of things that you may want to do. You can solidify them further as the trip gets closer if you'd like. I like to leave them tentative, though, to give room for other things that may pop up, delays in travel, etc. Additionally, I like to have Plan B's set up in the event that a first come, first served campground is full or something happens to be closed while we are there.
So, those are the basics of how I approach planning a trip! I usually keep a word document that lists my destinations for each day and the tentative itineraries. That makes it easy to copy and paste if I need to rearrange some things. And seriously, if you need help planning your road trip, get with me. I love this kind of shit. It combines my love of travel and the outdoors with my love of spreadsheets, lists, and my Type A personality.