Road Trip Vacations

[lovemygoofy]

Do you like road trip vacations? I am trying to decide about an early summer vacation (mid May) and I cannot make up my mind. I'm planning to take 2 or so weeks off of work. With the tempo of work in my office and my counterpart at work going out on maternity leave in June, I don't want to go out of country in case I need to return sooner.

My husband mentioned we haven't seen some of the big national parks and I love national parks. I'm debating flying into Denver and then up to Rocky Mountain National Park, over to Badlands in South Dakota and Mount Rushmore up to Billings, MT then down to Yellowstone and the Gran Tetons into Utah and back out of Denver. Whew that sounds and seems like so much!

So I'm trying to decide if I want to limit myself on such a trip by flying in and renting a car or do I want to drive from Indiana to all these neat places and have time to stop see and do especially with a couple weeks to do as we wish. I'm also not even sure I want to spend that much time in the car! It's a "good" bad problem to have when I can't make my mind up on a vacation.

Thoughts?

 

[low-key]

road trips are nice little get always, but its not a vacation unless you get on a plane

 

[dotfurio]

I like road trips. I think about 10 days is our limit, though. We went for 2 full weeks once and the whole family was pretty cranky by the end from always being together.
So far our road trips have originated from home, but I was considering one similar to yours and was also thinking of flying in closer and then renting a car so it's not so many days on the road.

 

[disneychrista]

All my trips are travel by car. I really dislike flying and the cost of it is pretty prohibitive on my limited vacation budget.

I am doing a trip up the Oregon Coast in mid-may. Doing 12 hours up & spending the next 4 days heading back home.

 

[Disney_Alli]

We drove from Ottawa down to Savannah, Georgia. We spent about 2.5 days in Savannah then drove down to WDW and spent 10 days there. On the return we stopped for a couple of nights in Asheville, NC to see the Biltmore Vanderbilt Estate... that was supposed be the end of it but we then drove to Sault Ste Marie, Ont for the weekend to attend my grandfather's internment and then back down to Ottawa. All in all we were gone 21 days I believe. We actually really enjoyed the trip (though when we unpacked at the hotel in the Sault I swear they thought we were moving in but we had 3 weeks of luggage and laundry and we needed the van completely empty as we were picking up my aunt and uncle when they flew in so yes it was a lot)

 

[Squirlz]

I really do, and we have a great road trip vehicle, but the fact is we have so many favorite destinations that we can't afford to spend days getting there! We'd rather fly in and fly out.

 

[luvsvacation]

We’re doing a similar trip this summer. Driving from the Midwest to Denver, then going to Arches, Monument Valley, Page Arizona, Grand Canyon, Zion, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Steamboat Colorado and back home. We have 17 days, and 3 of those will be long driving days. We really enjoy road trips.

Personally I’d drive to Colorado myself from Indiana, just make it one long driving day at the beginning and end. Use the money you’d spend on airfare and car rental to do several activities, whitewater rafting, rock climbing etc. However we did do what you are suggesting last year and it worked out great too, just had to plan our budget a bit differently to allow for the extra expense. We wanted to do a road trip of the Pacific Northwest and I wasn’t willing to spend an extra several days getting there and back. We flew to California, rented a car and traveled up the coast and back.

Whether you like road trips or not depends on you and your family. Some love them, some hate them. It’s really about what you consider a vacation. For some they want relaxation, flying to one location and staying there and enjoying it for a week. I’ve tried that it’s not for me, I enjoying seeing as many places as possible on a trip.

 

[Meriweather]

We do a road trip every year, but for us, it is pretty local, within a couple hours.
Last year was Bryce and Zion NP. This year will be Grand Canyon. I don't like to drive too long. Would rather drive and then stay.
Grand Canyon will be 3 nights

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Do you like road trip vacations? I am trying to decide about an early summer vacation (mid May) and I cannot make up my mind. I'm planning to take 2 or so weeks off of work. With the tempo of work in my office and my counterpart at work going out on maternity leave in June, I don't want to go out of country in case I need to return sooner.

My husband mentioned we haven't seen some of the big national parks and I love national parks. I'm debating flying into Denver and then up to Rocky Mountain National Park, over to Badlands in South Dakota and Mount Rushmore up to Billings, MT then down to Yellowstone and the Gran Tetons into Utah and back out of Denver. Whew that sounds and seems like so much!

So I'm trying to decide if I want to limit myself on such a trip by flying in and renting a car or do I want to drive from Indiana to all these neat places and have time to stop see and do especially with a couple weeks to do as we wish. I'm also not even sure I want to spend that much time in the car! It's a "good" bad problem to have when I can't make my mind up on a vacation.

Thoughts?

We love National Parks too and your trip sounds great! But in May you might have issues getting through from Yellowstone to Billings. We went in late June one year and Bear Tooth Pass was closed from Red Lodge, MT to Yellowstone up to 2 days before we arrived. So in your planning you will have to enter or leave Yellowstone through Gardiner, MT side (which is where Mammoth Hot Springs area is).

My recommendation if you have the time is just drive from Indiana. Part of the fun of a road trip is just being able to pack up your car and go. The hassle of flying is then gone. You could start by heading to Badlands (through WI/MN from Chicago) and do your route to Yellowstone next then down to Tetons and back through the other parks and home.

If you haven't already done so, by hitting all these parks picking up the National Parks Passport book would be a fun little souvenir. If you're not familiar with it, at each park you get a stamp with the date you were there (and the stamp has a park logo on it) and you stamp respective pages in the book.

 

[nkereina]

For us, we find a lot of time driving (and riding) is exhausting. We also have to waste days of vacation on the drive and recuperating from the drive. When flying, you can get there and home much quicker, which maximizes your vacation time. You also don't have to be as focused on the actual driving, the directions, etc. so its just more relaxing all around, IMO.

 

[tvguy]

We took a week in 2017 to drive down to Solvang and Santa Barbara. Spent a couple of nights in the Danish Village, ate our weight in pastries. spent a day in Santa Barbara, had a great fresh fish meal. went up to Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch and did some wine tasting.
We took a week in 2018 to drive up to Eureka, then up into Oregon to Grants Pass and Medford. Places I frequently went with my dad 55 years ago, he was a lumber sales man and made a lot of trips to the lumber mills there. Enjoyed nice coast scenery, the redwoods, the Trees of Mystery Park, ate at the cheese plant that makes Oregon's famous Rogue River Valley Blue Cheese, visited the roasting plant for our beloved Dutch Brothers coffee, tasted some Oregon wines.
We have been known to take a weekend trip or two, state parks.
Love road trips.
I should add we included our first trip to WDW in 2017, and our lord knows how many times visit to Disneyland in 2018,but we flew to those locations and our annual trek to Phoenix for Spring training, also flew there..

 

[Lilacs4Me]

Our last road trip took us south in 2016:

Chicago (area) to Nashville, stopped overnight. Continued to Alabama the next day. Stayed overnight, dropped DH off the next morning so he could coach a camp for 5 days. Took my (at the time) 13 and 11 year old to New Orleans, Stayed 3 days in NOLA. Drove to Gulf Shores AL, spent a couple days at the beach. Back to Tuscaloosa to pick up DH and spend the night in Birmingham. Started back north the next morning and headed to Louisville KY. Spent a day there, headed towards home the next morning. Stopped at a Triple D place in Indianapolis on the way home.

That was a fun trip! It was a lot of driving, and being in the back roads of Mississippi in the early morning fog with my GPS signal going in and out was scary lol, but I truly believe that the best place to see the country is through my windshield

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Love road trips! As for whether to drive ALL of it, that just depends on time/cost and whether or not you have things you want to see in between Indiana & Denver.

We have almost always driven all of it, but we did do a small road trip (with limited time) by flying into Reno, then driving to the coast & up into Oregon from there.

 

[aprilgail]

Do you like road trip vacations? I am trying to decide about an early summer vacation (mid May) and I cannot make up my mind. I'm planning to take 2 or so weeks off of work. With the tempo of work in my office and my counterpart at work going out on maternity leave in June, I don't want to go out of country in case I need to return sooner.

My husband mentioned we haven't seen some of the big national parks and I love national parks. I'm debating flying into Denver and then up to Rocky Mountain National Park, over to Badlands in South Dakota and Mount Rushmore up to Billings, MT then down to Yellowstone and the Gran Tetons into Utah and back out of Denver. Whew that sounds and seems like so much!

So I'm trying to decide if I want to limit myself on such a trip by flying in and renting a car or do I want to drive from Indiana to all these neat places and have time to stop see and do especially with a couple weeks to do as we wish. I'm also not even sure I want to spend that much time in the car! It's a "good" bad problem to have when I can't make my mind up on a vacation.

Thoughts?

LOVE THEM! In 2015 my then 15 year old daughter and I took a 2 MONTH road trip around the US- started in NY and went up to Ohio,across through South Dakota (badlands, Rushmore etc), Yellowstone, Grant Tetons, Painted Hills in Oregon, California to a bunch of National parks, Vegas for a few days, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and cut up from Texas to Tennessee and West Virginia through PA back home. We stopped anywhere along the route that we thought looked interesting since we were not on any timetable.

Last year we flew from NY to Utah and then road tripped around the entire State of Utah but just for 2 weeks hitting all the National parks etc- we headed over to Vegas for 3 days and then around Arizona- we went to the very touristy 4 corners since it was something fun to do.

When my daughter was 2 1/2 she and I drove to Florida from NY, stopped along the way at different places since we had 2 full weeks,

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Love road trips! However right now I would definitely not plan on a trip focused on national parks. If the shutdown really will go on for months or years, then they will be closed. Even if they are reopened, they are getting trashed right now. A trip outside the USA would be a safer idea. Iceland is great for a road trip (after flying there). We drove the ring road and it was incredible.

ETA sorry, I didn't catch the part about not leaving the country!! Though I don't think it would be any harder to return from that kind of trip vs. a cross country road trip.

 

[jsmith]

Do you like road trip vacations? I am trying to decide about an early summer vacation (mid May) and I cannot make up my mind. I'm planning to take 2 or so weeks off of work. With the tempo of work in my office and my counterpart at work going out on maternity leave in June, I don't want to go out of country in case I need to return sooner.

My husband mentioned we haven't seen some of the big national parks and I love national parks. I'm debating flying into Denver and then up to Rocky Mountain National Park, over to Badlands in South Dakota and Mount Rushmore up to Billings, MT then down to Yellowstone and the Gran Tetons into Utah and back out of Denver. Whew that sounds and seems like so much!

So I'm trying to decide if I want to limit myself on such a trip by flying in and renting a car or do I want to drive from Indiana to all these neat places and have time to stop see and do especially with a couple weeks to do as we wish. I'm also not even sure I want to spend that much time in the car! It's a "good" bad problem to have when I can't make my mind up on a vacation.

Thoughts?

Okay -as a native of Cody,Wyoming I can tell you that this is way way to much to actually see and enjoy anything in 2 weeks. Shrink your target and you will have a great trip. If you are going to fly to Denver then Fly in, spend a couple of days to get adapted to the altitude. Then you can do Rocky Mountain and after that you have to make choices-drive up to the Black Hills, and do the Badlands, Black Hills, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower. Back to Denver and home. OR you can do Colorado-Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado National Monument, Mesa Verde, the Great Sand Dunes and maybe dip down to Santa Fe. Alternatively fly to Billings and do Yellowstone and Grand Tetons ( can also fly to Salt Lake for this). Its a not unreasonable drive from Indiana to somewhere in Wyoming for a Yellowstone Grand Teton tour. But remember that things in the West are far apart ( not as bad as Texas but you get the idea) and that traffic and speed limits in the parks will limit what you can cover in a day.

 

[HeatherC]

Love them! I drove cross country and back this past summer with my kids. We went from Massachusetts to California and back. We saw 11 National Parks and countless other sights over a six week period.

It was absolutely amazing and we would do it again in a heartbeat! We live in an amazing country and I wish everyone could do this.

My advice would be to pick maybe two or three parks at the most to see...especially if you really want to get out and really see them in all their majesty.. Otherwise, it becomes a drive by and everything will blur together.

It also makes for a more relaxing trip if you aren’t packing and unpacking in a new place to stay every night. We loved when we had three nights in a place. It gave us time to check out the local sights and restaurants and we had time to actually relax a bit.

Have fun planning if you decide to go!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Okay -as a native of Cody,Wyoming I can tell you that this is way way to much to actually see and enjoy anything in 2 weeks. Shrink your target and you will have a great trip. If you are going to fly to Denver then Fly in, spend a couple of days to get adapted to the altitude. Then you can do Rocky Mountain and after that you have to make choices-drive up to the Black Hills, and do the Badlands, Black Hills, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower. Back to Denver and home. OR you can do Colorado-Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado National Monument, Mesa Verde, the Great Sand Dunes and maybe dip down to Santa Fe. Alternatively fly to Billings and do Yellowstone and Grand Tetons ( can also fly to Salt Lake for this). Its a not unreasonable drive from Indiana to somewhere in Wyoming for a Yellowstone Grand Teton tour. But remember that things in the West are far apart ( not as bad as Texas but you get the idea) and that traffic and speed limits in the parks will limit what you can cover in a day.

I think it depends on the family. I’ve made a pair of 10-day trips driving from just West Of STL that went as follows:

Trip 1
STL to CO Springs (left immediately) to Denver
Denver to Tetons & rafting
To Yellowstone & backpacking 8 miles into the wilderness
To Devils Tower to Rushmore to Black Hills
To home

Trip 2
STL to Co Springs, Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods
Gambling in Blackhawk
RMNP
To Devils Tower, Rushmore, Badlands
Home

With 6 extra days to play with & a jumping off point 800 miles from mine, I think OP’s plan is definitely doable.

Now, I would agree there’s plenty enough to see to make this 2 separate trips - 1 mostly CO, and 1 mostly WY/SD.

 

[jsmith]

I think it depends on the family. I’ve made a pair of 10-day trips driving from just West Of STL that went as follows:

Trip 1
STL to CO Springs (left immediately) to Denver
Denver to Tetons & rafting
To Yellowstone & backpacking 8 miles into the wilderness
To Devils Tower to Rushmore to Black Hills
To home

Trip 2
STL to Co Springs, Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods
Gambling in Blackhawk
RMNP
To Devils Tower, Rushmore, Badlands
Home

With 6 extra days to play with & a jumping off point 800 miles from mine, I think OP’s plan is definitely doable.

Now, I would agree there’s plenty enough to see to make this 2 separate trips - 1 mostly CO, and 1 mostly WY/SD.

As a native of Cody, who has family just West of STL and lives in Colorado Springs I stand by what I said-too much driving and not enough seeing. I am curious why you drove to CS and then immediately to Denver? Time to enjoy what yo have driven all those miles to see is important-as is flexibility of schedule if you want to stay somewhere longer-but as with all travel YMMV

Love road trips! However right now I would definitely not plan on a trip focused on national parks. If the shutdown really will go on for months or years, then they will be closed. Even if they are reopened, they are getting trashed right now. A trip outside the USA would be a safer idea. Iceland is great for a road trip (after flying there). We drove the ring road and it was incredible.

ETA sorry, I didn't catch the part about not leaving the country!! Though I don't think it would be any harder to return from that kind of trip vs. a cross country road trip.

Yeah TSA and CBP are heavily impacted by the nonsense in Washington-international travel is not actually a great option right at the moment.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

As a native of Cody, who has family just West of STL and lives in Colorado Springs I stand by what I said-too much driving and not enough seeing. I am curious why you drove to CS and then immediately to Denver? Time to enjoy what yo have driven all those miles to see is important-as is flexibility of schedule if you want to stay somewhere longer-but as with all travel YMMV


Yeah TSA and CBP are heavily impacted by the nonsense in Washington-international travel is not actually a great option right at the moment.

The plan was to go up Pikes Peak, but the road was closed due to a storm. We didn’t feel like using an entire extra day there as we’d both BTDT before.

I’ve actually made 3 failed attempts at Pikes Peak.
1) turned around within sight of the peak due to altitude sickness.
2) car trouble at 13,200
3) stormed out