How to Plan a Road Trip From Start to Finish

16.04.2024 - 22:05 / cntraveler.com / Samantha Brown

What’s more American than a road trip? Like blue jeans and apple pie, it's so embedded in the culture that travelers from around the world plan a road trip just to experience our open highways and byways. From the iconic Route 66 stretching across the heartland to the rugged beauty of the Pacific Coast Highway, the US has no shortage of scenic routes. What sets the American road trip apart is the sheer diversity of experiences on offer, from camping under a star-spangled sky to exploring epic parks like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. “Road trips offer an opportunity to venture out and connect with a multitude of people and experiences,” says Samantha Brown, the television host behind Samantha Brown’s Places to Love on PBS. At its most basic, Brown says, road tripping is about freedom.

We asked Brown and a slew of other travel experts to weigh in on planning the perfect route, finding good food and cheap gas, and keeping safety top of mind when hitting the open road. Below, see their best tips on how to plan a road trip so you're never lost, hungry, or bored.

The route is the heart and soul of any good road trip. And while there’s a time and place for spontaneous diversions, it’s always smart to head into a long drive with a game plan. To customize a trip with multiple waypoints, use Google Maps’ My Maps feature to create your itinerary. This allows you to add up to 10,000 places of interest, as well as driving directions. (If you use Google Maps without signing in, you’ll be capped at the number of stops you can add.) Veronica E. Garnett, founder of the Black Adventuristas travel group, plots her trips via Google Maps, then uses Waze to get driving directions with live traffic updates and potential road hazards, and TollGuru to calculate fees and see if it’s possible to avoid them altogether. (Note to app minimalists: Google Maps offers similar features.)

California's Highway 1 is as scenic as they come.

If you’re setting out in a recreational vehicle rented from Cruise America, Road Bear, or a peer-to-peer rental site like RVshare, which can deliver rental RVs right to your destination, be mindful of narrow roadways and other potential obstructions. Jason and Rae Miller, founders of the Getaway Couple and Nomadic News, used to travel the country in a fifth wheel travel trailer measuring 42 feet long, eight feet wide, and 13.5 feet tall. “That is right at the legal maximum size for driving on the interstate,” say the Millers, which meant they couldn’t just fire up Google Maps and go on their merry way, since some overpasses were too close to call. Instead, they would plug their destination into the RV LIFE app for turn-by-turn directions that routed them safely around unforeseen obstacles like