USA road trips

[Sweeney_Todd]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin Pie

Washington and Oregon down to San Francisco (yes I know that’s in California!).

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DITTO - the Pacific coastline from Oregon into California is absolutely beautiful. After a few days in SF we drove to Reno, then Lake Tahoe, then down to Lone Pine before crossing Death Valley to LV.

Car & hotels: New England in the fall; Boston, through Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut and north through Vermont, east through New Hampshire and Maine, then back to Boston.

May-June in an RV : Vancouver to Lake Louise, north through the Icefields Parkway to Jasper, east to Edmonton, south to Calgary, west to Banff, then through Radium Hot Springs towards Whistler and back to Vancouver.

May-June in an RV: Toronto, north shore of Lake Superior to Thunder Bay, drop down into Minnesota, drive south through Wisconsin, touch Iowa, then drive east through Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, then hug the south shore of Lake Erie towards Buffalo and Niagara, then back to Toronto.

October in an RV: LV to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, then towards Flagstaff and Sedona, east to Albuquerque, south through the White Sands national monument towards El Paso, west towards Tombstone, north through Tucson to Scottsdale, west to Yuma, north to Laughlin, then north again to the Hoover Dam before heading back to LV.

October in a car: Washington DC to Annapolis, further east then south through Delaware, south through Maryland and into Virginia through the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel route, west through Virginia, south a little on the Blue Ridge Parkway, then north through a little bit of West Virginia and the Shenandoah NP, and back towards DC

September in an RV: From LV, north through St George, then Zion NP and Bryce Canyon, south to the North Rim, east through Marble Canyon and Monument Valley towards Four Corners, then to Mesa Verde NP. South to Santa Fe, then west through Albuquerque and Scottsdale towards Joshua Tree NP, then north through Laughlin and back to LV.

This March & April we should have hired an RV out of Orlando, then driven north to the pan handle and Fort Pickens, north to Montgomery, west through Mississippi to Memphis, then north towards the Land of the Lakes, east through part of Kentucky and a fair bit of Tennessee to Pigeon Forge, then through the Smokey Mountains into North Carolina, then east towards Charleston in SC, and south through Georgia and into Florida, follow the coast as far as Daytona Beach and then back to Orlando.
Hopefully, we may get to do that next year.

In the pipeline after that trip is a one way hire from Seattle to Denver, taking in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana (Yellowstone NP), then the Dakotas and Nebraska.
We also want to return to Vancouver and the Canadian Rockies.

[anji]

We love our road trips!

My favourite trip was Seattle to San Francisco. We had such a great time and the scenery was fabulous, including unexpected snow at Crater Lake. Seattle - Portland - Columbia River Gorge - Dunsmuir - Napa Valley - San Francisco

Last year was New England in May : Boston - Bar Harbour - White Mountains - Stowe - Green Mountains - Mystic - Cape Cod - Boston. Again, a wonderful trip.

Both of the above are in my trip reports in my signature )

We've done Texas : Dallas - Fort Worth - Austin - San Antonio - Rockport (for a wedding) - Austin - Dallas. I didn't do a report of this one I'm afraid.
Also San Francisco to LA Palm Springs, Death Valley and Vegas. Plus several round Florida trips.

This year our intention is Vancouver - Vancouver Island - Olympic National Park - Astoria - Portland - Seattle and train back to Vancouver. Booked for September and have fingers crossed!

[folkie]

We've done two US road trips, we tend to avoid big cities, the only one we've gone to from choice is Boston, which we really liked. Vegas is my personal idea of hell Instead we mostly head for the great outdoors, and go hiking whenever we can.

Last April we did:

LA > Death Valley > Rhyolite > Valley of Fire > Zion > Page (Horseshoe Bend & Antelope Canyon) > Marble Canyon > Grand Canyon South Rim > Joshua Tree > LA

Not all of these were overnight stops, some were places we visited on the way. It was a real whistle-stop tour - we'd already spent two weeks in Long Beach filming for BattleBots so we had 10 days for the road trip afterwards. We really packed it in but it was brilliant.

A couple of years ago in May/June we did:

Boston > Brewster (Cape Cod) > Randolph (White Mountains) > Southwest Harbor (Mt Desert Island) then back to Boston for a flight to Ottawa to visit family.

We had at least three nights everywhere and absolutely loved it.

[MaMasher]

The next trip we’re planning is Memphis, Nashville, Smokey Mountains and Carolina’s.

We’ve did New York, Washington DC, Williamsburg, Blue Ridge Mountains, Pennsylvania back to New York

We have family in California so have did 3 trips. One San Francisco down the Pacific coast to Anaheim, then Vegas, back to LA.
Another started in LA, up Pacific coast, San Francisco, down to Anaheim, Vegas then San Diego
And another LA, Anaheim, San Diego then Vegas

All our trips are 3 weeks

We also have family in Seattle so future plans include Seattle down to San Francisco and Yosemite and we also want to do Nevada/Arizona/Colorado

[Johnnyp]

I’ve often thought of the Seaworld tour.

Start in San Diego, upto LA, across to Las Vegas, down to San Antonio, then across to Orlando with stops on the way obviously 😄

[lindasarahlou]

We have done
DC - Williamsburg - Smokey Mountains/Blue Ridge Parkway - Charlotte - Atlanta - Orlando, but the road trip was mainly a Rollercoaster trip other than the mountains and DC. Great trip with teenagers!

Toronto - Niagara - Sandusky - Toronto, again mostly for the Rollercoasters with other stuff thrown in to suit teenagers

LA - Grand Canyon - Page/Horseshoe/Antelope Canyon - Monument Valley - Moab/Arches - Bryce/Zion - Vegas - Death Valley - Yosemite - San Fran, without the teenagers and easily the best trip. Would return in a heartbeat to Utah and will definitely plan a trip in this area again to include Denver and maybe up to Yellowstone. It was just stunning.

Have a June trip planned for Vancouver - Lake Louise - Banff - Jasper - Whistler but that won't now take place - although I have to pay for the flights this week! Hopefully next year.

[skalexander]

I’ve been following this thread with interest, but I have a question which is going to sound really ignorant.

Many of you have done trips to Yellowstone, Utah, New England and the southern states. What did you fill your time with, apart from travelling? What is there to do? I appreciate there’s loads to see

[archibald]

Back in the days before internet research killed adventure, we did road trips by booking flights and a car, picking up a Rand McNally Road Atlas and a Motel 6 guide and driving. We had a rough plan of places/States to visit and a flight home. When we crossed into a new State (or sometimes even County) we'd stop at the welcome stations and ask for recommendations and pick up loads of leaflets. We ended up at some fabulous places - Sugar cane tour, historic houses, the Tabasco place and sometimes just drove up to random farms for a chat and see how they do things.

Now it's so easy to open trip advisor and click away,very different from early adventures, but still fun.

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by skalexander

I’ve been following this thread with interest, but I have a question which is going to sound really ignorant.

Many of you have done trips to Yellowstone, Utah, New England and the southern states. What did you fill your time with, apart from travelling? What is there to do? I appreciate there’s loads to see

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Not ignorant at all.
Take a read of Crispy A’s trip reports, they are fab at showing you what there is to see and do. They have covered a lot of States on their various road trips. Also Anji and Gunna.

In Utah you have the simply jaw dropping scenery of the various National Parks, I’ve not been yet but if the photos are anything to go by then I can’t wait.
If you did a Colorado/Wyoming trip there’s rodeos and ranch stays as well as Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Rockies NP’s.
New England there’s a lot of historical towns, beach towns, beautiful scenery everywhere. Acadia NP too. Lots of walks to be done, oh and Ben & Jerry’s factory in Vermont! I’ve probably missed tonnes of things out as these are off the top of my head. Everything I know I’ve read from the various reports in the General trip reports section.

For our Southern States road trip which we’re due to go on this August we start and end in Orlando but don’t actually visit there at all. We’ll have some beach time on Hilton Head Island as well as kayaking and Paddleboarding. We’ll also explore the historic towns of Savannah and hopefully Charleston.
We move up to the Smokies where we’ll do some hikes and bike riding within the NP itself, white water rafting, zip lining and the all important Dollywood for the coaster junkies in the family.
We then move down to Atlanta for a flying visit to go on a Walking Dead behind the scenes tour.
Our last stop is the panhandle of Florida for some more beach time but will be taking a mini road trip to New Orleans to have a quick city break for a night.

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by archibald

Back in the days before internet research killed adventure, we did road trips by booking flights and a car, picking up a Rand McNally Road Atlas and a Motel 6 guide and driving. We had a rough plan of places/States to visit and a flight home. When we crossed into a new State (or sometimes even County) we'd stop at the welcome stations and ask for recommendations and pick up loads of leaflets. We ended up at some fabulous places - Sugar cane tour, historic houses, the Tabasco place and sometimes just drove up to random farms for a chat and see how they do things.

Now it's so easy to open trip advisor and click away,very different from early adventures, but still fun.

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Even though I’m a complete planning junkie, that does sound like a lot of fun just winging it