Do you want to plan an amazing road trip but aren’t sure where to go? There are 5 phases to planning an awesome road trip, and this post is part of my series on Planning Road Trips. It will help you decide where to go on your next road trip!

Where Are You Starting and Ending Your Road Trip?

First, you obviously need to take into consideration the places you’re starting and ending your road trip. Remember that not all road trips have to start and end in the place you live! For example, a couple of years ago, I flew out to Connecticut to meet my brother and we road tripped across the entire United States, ending in California, where I flew back home to Houston. The sky was (literally) the limit in that case!

If you don’t want to fly all over the country, though, you’re probably going to be starting and ending your road trip wherever you live, and it’s all the pieces in the middle that you need to figure out. Often, people will plan road trips to specific places (like major cities or National Parks), which will obviously mean your route needs to include these locations. Think about the places you’ve always wanted to go but just haven’t made it to. Why not make one of those the destination for your next road trip?

What Kind of Road Trip Would You Like to Take?

Road trips are not “one-size-fits-all.” This is both awesome, because you can do whatever you want to do, and also a bit daunting when you first start out, because there’s no clear “right” way to do it. If you just google “places to go on a road trip,” you’re going to get standard responses about National Parks or museums, but these might not be the ingredients needed to make YOUR perfect road trip.

Think about what YOU like to do. If you love art, for example, consider planning an art-themed road trip that goes through major cities with awesome art museums. Make stops at cities with “artsy” reputations like Marfa, TX or Santa Fe, NM. Visit places where your favorite artists grew up or worked in. Stop at coffee shops that feature local artists and buy a piece of art that you can hang up at home that will remind you of your trip. If you enjoy drawing, bring a sketch book and take “art breaks” from your drive, sketching vistas or local scenes.

That’s a MUCH different road trip than one that, say, a rock climber would plan and enjoy… but neither road trip is “right” or “wrong,” it’s just unique to the person planning it.

Need help thinking of ideas of road trip “themes” and itineraries? Click here for some suggestions!

How to Plan a Road Trip When You Don’t Have a Specific Destination in Mind

Let’s say you’re like me, and you want to plan a road trip that features a lot of hiking and coffee shops. Luckily, those are things that you can do in many different places in the country, so you’re not limited to a specific destination. Here are the things you should consider to help narrow the places you should go:

• How long will you be gone? A three-day road trip will allow much less driving and stops than a three-week one.
• How many days would you like to spend on the road? This will obviously determine how far you can go. If I’m planning a 6-day trip and I want to spend three days in the middle of the trip camping, I really only have 3 days to get wherever I’m going–this would mean I could really only consider places within 1.5 days’ distance from where I am.
• How long would you like to drive each day? While some people enjoy driving for 12-16 hours a day, I do not. I prefer to plan to drive 4-6 hours a day so I have time to stop and explore the places I’m driving through, and also so I’m not too sore once I’m done. This means that I generally only get 300-450 miles in each day (if I’m in Texas where the speed limit is often 75-80 mph) and 250-400 miles a day places where the speed limit is only 65mph.

Once you’ve thought about that, you probably have a general “radius” of places you’re able to consider for your next trip. So for me, a week-long road trip with reasonable days’ drives and 2-3 days of sight-seeing and exploration probably limits me to something like this:

For me, looking at this map, I can easily tell where there are places I haven’t explored yet or that I’ve heard good things about–for example, I’ve never even driven through Georgia and I’ve heard amazing things about Atlanta. A quick google search tells me that Atlanta is 11 h 17 min away, the perfect distance if I want to drive 5-6 hours a day for 2 days out there!

If you look at your “radius” and don’t see anything that interests you, you can always expand the circle, but this will mean either a longer trip, longer days, or less time sight-seeing and more time on the road.

So there you go! Now you can start figuring out where you want your next road trip to go! Do you have any other tips? – Lindsay