ROAD TRIP!!!! Who doesn’t love the sound of that? Whether you are new to the RV lifestyle or a veteran RV road warrior, few things are more exciting than planning an escape from the everyday routines of life. But no matter where you are headed, a major cross-country trip requires planning and strategy.
Some people like to plan every aspect of their road trip while others are more of the free-spirit type. Regardless of your travel personality, every traveler should plan the basics of each trip before leaving home. We’ve put together these tips and tools to help you plan for your next cross-country road trip.
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Make A Plan
You may have been dreaming of this trip for years and know exactly where you want to go and what you want to see. If that’s the case, you can save time and money using a mapping tool or route planner like RouteXL or Roadtrippers.com and similar web-based tools for visiting multiple locations. These services calculate the best route along multiple destinations, finding sites of interest, and even helping you avoid construction zones. Some will even help you avoid RV-unfriendly obstacles like low clearance overpasses and bridges.
If you are looking for ideas for a great RV road trip, the internet can help you out there too. There is no shortage of resources online. Just Google America’s Top Ten RV Road Trips and check out the results. Or look at sites like www.myscenicdrives.com/road-trip-planner for ideas. Let your imagination do the rest. Once you’ve decided on the highlights of your trip, you can use a variety of RV travel apps and tools to plan the rest.
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Leave Plenty of Time
It’s important to plan but try not to over-plan. For many, the attraction of the RV lifestyle is the freedom to make your own schedule and not to be ruled by the clock. An overscheduled RV trip can be just as exhausting as a destination vacation if you aren’t careful. Leave yourself plenty of time to explore the unexpected gems you come across on the road without feeling like you are missing out on scheduled events. As cliché as it sounds, the joy really is often found in the journey, not the destination.
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Establish a Budget
While traveling by RV is arguably one of the least expensive vacations you can take, it still takes money. Just like you don’t want to be rushed through your road trip to the point of exhaustion, you don’t want to waste any time on your trip stressing about money if you can avoid it. Or worse, run out of money before you run out of road trip. A helpful RV road trip budget template is available at LiveYourRoadTripDream.com.
For RVers who don’t relish planning a long distance trip, there are services that will help you out. A couple of popular trip planning services include www.rvadventure-usa.com and www.tracks-trails.com.
At Ketelsen RV, we’ve done RV camping all over this country and we love to share our experience with our customers on the best RV road trips in America. If you have any questions, or if you’d like to take an RV for a test tow, call or stop by today and one of our RV experts will be happy to answer all your questions. Or, join our Ketelsen Camper Club and start enjoying the RV lifestyle with us in 2016.
