justafigment27
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2015
I grew up road tripping and swore I was never going to do one as an adult. But when my youngest expressed interest in seeing Old Faithful, we decided to plan a road trip with our kids from Michigan to Yellowstone. We dubbed it the “Great American Road Trip” and I had a great time planning the thing. We tried to incorporate as many states as we could into the trip, but also didn’t want to move every single day, so we planned 3 stops where we stayed in the same place for 3 nights. It looked like this:
Day 1 - MI to Minneapolis
Day 2 - Minneapolis
Day 3 - Minneapolis
Day 4 - Minneapolis to Bismarck, ND
Day 5 - Bismarck to Billings, MT
Day 6 - Billings to Yellowstone
Day 7 - Yellowstone
Day 8 - Yellowstone
Day 9 - Yellowstone to Cody, WY
Day 10 - Cody to Keystone, SD
Day 11 - Keystone
Day 12 - Keystone
Day 13 - Keystone to Sioux Falls, SD
Day 14 - Sioux Falls to Davenport, IA
Day 15 - Davenport to Michigan
We saw all sorts of stuff and stopped for hokey tourist trap stuff as well as gorgeous natural wonders. We had at least one planned stop every single day we were on the road and then more detailed plans for our 3 major stops. We were super tired when we got home, but also very satisfied with the adventure we had ...
We took a road trip from Michigan to the Grand Canyon the following summer. We followed the general path of Route 66 (spent very little time actually on Route 66, but went through IL, MO, OK, TX, NM) on the way there and then went up through Utah, Colorado and Kansas on the way back. That trip was nowhere near as fun ... part of it was probably the circumstances since we were trying to make lemonade out of lemons (booked & planned the whole thing three days out as a last minute replacement trip for one that had to be cancelled), but it just felt like way too much driving over the course of two weeks IMO. Would have been much better for a 3 week trip or as a shorter loop trip where we flew into Las Vegas and toured from there or something. We had two stops where we spent 2 nights (Grand Canyon & Zion), but only spent one night everywhere else and that was just too much driving and switching hotels to keep me happy. Plus it was like 9 million degrees for a big part of that trip and that was just exhausting. We had planned for 2 nights in Colorado Springs to see some sights on the route home, but we’re so worn out & cranky at that point that we scrapped that plan and basically just drove straight through Colorado and cut the trip short.
So, I don’t know. If you are looking at the two weeks as a break from normal and want a bit of an adventure, a road trip with lots of stops might be fun. If your looking at it as less of an adventure and more of a vacation, then I think I’d fly somehwere close to the park(s) that interests you the most and maybe do a shorter but more focused trip?
Day 1 - MI to Minneapolis
Day 2 - Minneapolis
Day 3 - Minneapolis
Day 4 - Minneapolis to Bismarck, ND
Day 5 - Bismarck to Billings, MT
Day 6 - Billings to Yellowstone
Day 7 - Yellowstone
Day 8 - Yellowstone
Day 9 - Yellowstone to Cody, WY
Day 10 - Cody to Keystone, SD
Day 11 - Keystone
Day 12 - Keystone
Day 13 - Keystone to Sioux Falls, SD
Day 14 - Sioux Falls to Davenport, IA
Day 15 - Davenport to Michigan
We saw all sorts of stuff and stopped for hokey tourist trap stuff as well as gorgeous natural wonders. We had at least one planned stop every single day we were on the road and then more detailed plans for our 3 major stops. We were super tired when we got home, but also very satisfied with the adventure we had ...
We took a road trip from Michigan to the Grand Canyon the following summer. We followed the general path of Route 66 (spent very little time actually on Route 66, but went through IL, MO, OK, TX, NM) on the way there and then went up through Utah, Colorado and Kansas on the way back. That trip was nowhere near as fun ... part of it was probably the circumstances since we were trying to make lemonade out of lemons (booked & planned the whole thing three days out as a last minute replacement trip for one that had to be cancelled), but it just felt like way too much driving over the course of two weeks IMO. Would have been much better for a 3 week trip or as a shorter loop trip where we flew into Las Vegas and toured from there or something. We had two stops where we spent 2 nights (Grand Canyon & Zion), but only spent one night everywhere else and that was just too much driving and switching hotels to keep me happy. Plus it was like 9 million degrees for a big part of that trip and that was just exhausting. We had planned for 2 nights in Colorado Springs to see some sights on the route home, but we’re so worn out & cranky at that point that we scrapped that plan and basically just drove straight through Colorado and cut the trip short.
So, I don’t know. If you are looking at the two weeks as a break from normal and want a bit of an adventure, a road trip with lots of stops might be fun. If your looking at it as less of an adventure and more of a vacation, then I think I’d fly somehwere close to the park(s) that interests you the most and maybe do a shorter but more focused trip?