Welcome to Travel Tuesday! We’re coming to almost-the-end of my cross country road trip posts! Next week’s is a complete summary/breakdown of most of the places I went to, but I figured it might be helpful to go how to prepare for the actual road trip!
How To Prepare For a Cross Country Road Trip
(My car’s being a Disney princess! This bird decided to land and chill on my side mirror for a while — it was super cute!)
Make sure your car is in working order.
Check all the things! Is it making funny noises? Are you overdue for an oil change? How are your tires? (Having roadside assistance would be a good idea too! I got AAA roadside assistance for an affordable price – thankfully didn’t end up having to use it but definitely good to have just in case!)
Traveling alone or solo?
I did the majority of my trip alone but had a few friends who popped in for stretches of my trip! :] If you’re traveling with other people, make sure you are travel-compatible and/or decide on places you’d mutually like to visit! We threw everything onto shared spreadsheets to make life easier. I’ve gone over the pros + cons before here!
I was somewhat worried about drowsy driving so I planned my trip in such a way that the longest stretch (save for the Minnesota to South Dakota stretch of 11 hours between 2 people) would never be more than 4-6-ish hours at a time.
I didn’t travel with any pets, but this is Muffin on a separate adventure with me! If you’re traveling with a pet, especially be sure to schedule in pit stops for bathroom breaks + stay in pet-friendly housing!
Declutter your car + pack intentionally.
Alright, so I’m in no position to speak on this because the general state of my car apparently gives my partner anxiety ( :( ). But…do as I say, not as I do! Make sure you have space for the stuff you actually need and take out the non-essentials!
Clothes, food, emergency items, a first aid kit, and snacks are a must! I might have overdone it on the packed snacks and it led to me doing way shorter hikes in California due to concerns about bears murdering my car for said snacks.
Figure out how long you want your trip to be.
This will help you to prioritize your planning! I took my trip in between jobs back in 2019, so I had a good chunk of time to work with and ended up moseying my way back in ~2.5 months. (If I’d known what 2020 had in store for us, I would’ve extended by trip for another month at least…)
Pick the destinations you’d like to see and map your route to include these.
I had wayyy too many places I wanted to visit so I started with a spreadsheet with all my “must see” destinations and friends/family I wanted to visit and plotted the points for my trip accordingly. Full disclosure: I planned this whilst studying for boards, interviewing for jobs, and finishing up residency.
If I’d been thinking more clearly, I might have considered that maybe going north during the peak of summer might be a better idea than going through a whole lot of deserts while my AC was broken (oops).
You might want to check out these useful apps for planning your road trip! I’d previously written about/used Roadtrippers, but I recently found out about a new app called Truffl! Eric Om (the developer) says he plans to keep it free! :D Feel free to find/add me on there (user name = fairyburger!)
I retroactively put my road trip in and this is what it looks like!
It’s super easy to put together your itinerary and collaborate with friends if needed. I also like the social aspect of being able to browse + share others’ trips as well — might give you some inspiration for future trips! It’s harder to get time estimates though between locations since this app isn’t specifically designed for road trips, but still very helpful for planning!
Know what lodging you prefer + book some/all of these prior to your trip.
I’m partial to hostels, bumming with friends, and camping when possible (ah, pre-COVID life). I’ve made a lot of friends over the year who’ve since scattered across the country. My trip gave me a chance to visit a lot of them and I actually didn’t end up having to pay for any housing until I made it all the way to Chicago! If traveling with others, be sure to work out a compromise if you have different preferences.
I didn’t book all my lodging beforehand since there were still some if’s and maybe’s I was figuring out. I wasn’t particularly concerned because you can often find last-minute deals and at worst, I could just sleep in my car.
Give your itinerary to someone you know/trust.
Even if you don’t have all the destinations absolutely penned-in yet, having someone who knows your approximate whereabouts at different points of your road trip is super important! Make sure to check in with them periodically.
Be flexible!
Factor in some days for slow travel + spending more time in places you think you’ll really like! It’s nice to have a plan but at the end of the day, not everything can go according to plan. Be okay with rolling with the punches and you’ll have a much less stressful experience overall.
- Have you ever been on a cross country road trip?
- What tips would you share?
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Such a great article! Really wonderful advice and tips! Thanks!
Thank you for stopping by! <3!!
Where are you hiking in the daytime where the bears are snooping around? (I ask so I can watch out too!). I recall having to put everything including toothpaste into the bear proof containers and then sticking them in the metal boxes at the camp grounds. Fortunately never had any doors ripped down yet.
Do you have a pic of your camp setup?
I think it was out of paranoia more than anything else (due to all the signs in the parking lots saying that bears frequented the area) — this was in Sequoia/Kings Canyon + Yosemite National Park. :O Definitely very glad that no doors have been ripped open though!
I don’t have very many photos (aka I have one) of my setup at the moment but I’m hoping to do more camping this year, so hopefully that will change! The last photo in this post = my hammock camping setup! I didn’t do this on my road trip though due to mostly going through the desert, haha.
Farrah recently posted…How To Prepare For a Cross Country Road Trip
Some great thoughts I wouldn’t have thought of! We hope to do a big road trip and I’m sure I’ll think of this post when we decide whether we should head north or south, and at what time of year :)
Ooo, hope you have lots of fun! :]
So much great advice! Makes me wanna hit the open road!!
Thanks! I’d love to go on another one! *-*
Farrah recently posted…Cross Country National Park Road Trip
Great post Farrah!
You made me smile about the state of your car giving your partner anxiety! Our car gets like that occasionally (well, basically by the end of a road trip, when it’s full of hiking dirt as well as all out clothes/camping gear.)
I can’t really drive for more than 3 hours but my partner can drive about 5 hours…so we often take it in turns with me taking the early morning shift plus the almost there shift! It’s just…he also hates me driving past pretty mountains (apparently I swerve a bit when I get excited looking at the views!) So now we often take road trips a bit more slowly and add some hikes along the way.
Josy A recently posted…Snowshoeing to Alexander Falls
hahaha, totally understandable! I like to keep stuff I may need in my car in case it ever breaks down in the middle of the road and his car is perpetually pretty much empty, haha. :[ (Opposites attract? :P)
The “almost there” shift is the best! That sounds like a great compromise too, hehe. :]
Farrah recently posted…Cross Country National Park Road Trip
Thanks for sharing great tips on Cross Country Road Trip Farrah. I will make sure to Give my itinerary to someone i trust to keep me safe.
Anytime! That part’s definitely important, especially if you’re traveling alone!
Farrah recently posted…Cross Country National Park Road Trip