Packing for a 3 week Road Trip!

[1972]

Help!

We are off to the West Coast in August for almost 3 weeks.

Last year we did a week in the Canadian Rockies before a 7 night Alaskan cruise, so we packed all our cruise stuff in another case and didn't touch that until the night before the cruise.

But, 3 weeks living out of a suitcase with a teenaged daughter and a pre-teen daughter.

Any tips on how to pack/what to pack would be appreciated.

[Bozza]

Pants, socks, shorts and t-shirts. *

You can pay me in cider.

(* - plus bras for the girls)

[daytonababe]

Well I'm not great at this but with a 16 & 13 yr old we try to be a bit organised.

We try to have everything we need for the first few places in one case and so we don't need to open up all the bags.

Packing light is the key too and I try to do the laundry where possible , easier in some places than others though.
Next year we had 4 nights in LA so I'll wash the clothes on the last night and re-pack for Vegas.
Vegas hotels don't have laundry's but we've found a good launderette now so we'll do more washing before we leave there and head to Phoenix, then wash again before we leave Phoenix.

Means we don't need too many clothes , Previous trips we've gone 2 weeks without washing any clothes and it was ridiculous just how much stuff we needed to take.

Shoes are something I've really cracked down on, despite what she might say my DD does not need 3 pairs of flip flops, sandals, Nikes, Converse etc !

[Melbatb]

Packing cubes! That way you get keep the bags organised!

I agree with Daytonababe too about washing! I know it isn't everyone's idea of holiday fun but I don't have four weeks' worth of knickers 😜

[Guest]

Travel light try to coordinate so you can mix and match.

If there is a laundry in the hotel use it or track down s launderette they usually open very early and stay open late.

Use a bigger case to work out of and smaller case to take in and out of the hotels if you are on the move.

I often find there are a few pieces of clothing you are more comfortable in and tend to wear them more often. Is not like staying in 1 hotel seeing the same people and not wanting to be seen wearing the same clothes all the time.

You really can't under pack, holiday clothes are so much cheaper and plentiful out there. If we don't have it with us we just buy it there.

Alison

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Packing cubes! That way you get keep the bags organised!

I agree with Daytonababe too about washing! I know it isn't everyone's idea of holiday fun but I don't have four weeks' worth of knickers 😜

See more...

I'm not a fan of washing in holiday but it doesn't take long in hotels we usually do it at night , stick a couple of loads on and go in the pool or jacuzzi then we stick in the dryers whilst we all get showered and my husband fetches it back , no hassle really .


The proper laundrette we used in Vegas was fab huge machines we washed and dried everything in a hour .

[suei]

We're just back from a 2 1/2-week road trip (it was just 2 of us tho), & needed to pack warm clothes for potentially snowy weather (we didn't end up needing any of it!), as well as clothes for Florida sunshine. We travelled out with 2 medium-sized cases & 2 hand luggage bags, & always mix our clothes in the 2 cases for the outbound flight, just in case one of them goes missing! Then, when we arrive in the US, we sort everything into "his" & "hers" cases, & anything we'll use regularly like wash bag, sun creams, Kindle, iPad, chargers, etc goes into 1 of the hand luggage bags. This year, our other hand luggage bag had our coats, hats, gloves & neck pillows in it during the road trip, & got left in the car the whole time! We actually managed to pack lighter than we've done in the past for most of the rest of our clothes, so used our hotels' laundry facilities a few times, like Daytonababe, in the evenings. We've done it this way several times now, & it works for us!

[CrispyA]

Pack light! You can wash undies through in the shower and as other have said , you can do a wash at lots of hotels . Also - who cares if you wear clothes for more than one day - you don't know any of these people!

[mazzie]

will follow this with interest. This year I am going to North Carolina on my first ever road trip and after being used to a condo for a fortnight really dont know what to do about packing - I dont take that much anyway, but without the prospect of being able to wash I dont want to take extra.

[ali-s]

Originally Posted by suei

We're just back from a 2 1/2-week road trip (it was just 2 of us tho), & needed to pack warm clothes for potentially snowy weather (we didn't end up needing any of it!), as well as clothes for Florida sunshine. We travelled out with 2 medium-sized cases & 2 hand luggage bags, & always mix our clothes in the 2 cases for the outbound flight, just in case one of them goes missing! Then, when we arrive in the US, we sort everything into "his" & "hers" cases, & anything we'll use regularly like wash bag, sun creams, Kindle, iPad, chargers, etc goes into 1 of the hand luggage bags. This year, our other hand luggage bag had our coats, hats, gloves & neck pillows in it during the road trip, & got left in the car the whole time! We actually managed to pack lighter than we've done in the past for most of the rest of our clothes, so used our hotels' laundry facilities a few times, like Daytonababe, in the evenings. We've done it this way several times now, & it works for us!

See more...

That's an excellent idea moving all the regularly used and not needed stuff to separate bags. We will be doing 3 weeks, 7 locations with one cabin sized bag ( which we will check) plus one small back pack each. I will pack enough clothes for 7 days and hope to use laundry facilities every 5 days or so. I haven't started packing yet as I know from experience the theory is never so easy to put into practice