re: What would be the ideal 16 day road trip with your family (2 adults + 3 small kids) ?

We just returned yesterday from a 17 day road trip.

1: Gonzales, LA - Amarillo, TX: Drive
2: Amarillo - Casper, WY: Drive
3: Casper - Gardiner, MT: Drive, Also stopped and visited Little Bighorn Battlefield.
4-8: Yellowstone/Grand Teton NP: We drove down and stayed on night in Jackson Hole for visit to grand teton
9: Gardiner - West Glacier: Drive
10-13: Glacier National Park West/East: We stayed on both sides
14: St. Mary, MT - Devils Tower, Wy: Drive
15: Visit Devils Tower, Drive/Visit Mt Rushmore, Drive to Sioux Falls, SD
16: Sioux Falls - Memphis, TN: Drive
17: Memphis - Gonzales, LA: Drive

4,747 miles and 679 Gallons of Diesel Later we are home.

Family of 6 in an RV towing a suv. Kids - 16, 13, 7 & 4. We stayed in RV Parks Mostly, 2 nights in a hotel and ate 5 meals out the entire time. It was the most amazing trip ever.

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I'd like to go out west into some scenic territory. I'm considering flying to Colorado for a couple of days of camping, and then taking the Zephyr, with a stop at Utah, go to Lake Tahoe, then deep into California, and then flying back. The logistics of it probably doesn't make sense with 3 kids.

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Does your wife already camp and like it? Because unless she does, this vacation is probably more work than fun for her.

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The key to long car rides with kids is to plan the day ahead of time. Don't sleep in, let your kids watch Cartoons, and then jump in the car without eating breakfast. If you have a bit of time in the morning, get your kids some exercise asap. Get some good snacks, and plan food and bathroom stops. Force your kids to use the bathroom, nothing worse then loading everyone up and someone has to pee 20 mins down the road of an 8 hour day.

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For really long days, I try to depart early in the morning (3am or so). Those first 5 hours are pretty much free with kids, as they'll sleep the whole time. You've then knocked out a ton of your drive before they even wake up. Stop and picnic and have coffee and stretch legs, then back into the car. We knock out our drives to Santa Fe this way and get there shortly after noon... and it's awesome.

Now if you're roadtripping and driving every day or every other day, this isn't really possible. But it always blows me away how a 5 hour drive that we start mid morning feels longer than a 10 hour drive that we start at 3am.


I should add, my kids are road warriors and have been from an early age. We banged out the drive from Palm Beach, FL to Northwest Arkansas in a single session one year (22 hours, because we got stuck in Atlanta traffic.. never driving through Atlanta again if we ever do that drive again).