Your Complete Guide to Planning a Road Trip

So you want to plan a road trip?

Maybe you’ve never been on a road trip or spent a night camping.

Or maybe you grew up doing family road trips. You’ve been on so many, but now you’re all grown up and have no idea how to plan one yourself.

Or maybe you planned a road trip once and it ended up being an absolute cluster, so you’re looking for some guidance this time around.

No matter how little or how much experience you have with road trips, camping, planning, and everything in between, this complete guide will help you plan your road trip.

1. Plan your route

To choose the general route of your trip, start by making a list of all the cool places on your mind.

Don’t put any pressure on logistics or try to choose places near each other, truly just start writing down some cool places.

Make a brain-dump-style list of places you’ve seen photos of on social media, National Parks you’ve heard about, places on your bucket list, hikes you’ve heard about, etc. It can look like this:

Sick places to see:

• Arches National Park
• Horseshoe Bend
• The Maroon Bells
• Death Valley National Park
• Joshua Tree
• Pacific Coast Highway
• Angel’s Landing hike
• somewhere with sand dunes
• Black Canyon of the Gunninson
• somewhere with wildflowers!

Once you have your list, organize your ideas into states. Do some research on your more open-ended ideas and keep adding places you come across. Don’t worry about the logistics yet.

Utah:

• Arches National Park
• Canyonlands National Park
• Dead Horse Point State Park
• Capitol Reef National Park
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Zion National Park (Angel’s Landing hike)
• Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

Arizona:

• Horseshoe Bend
• Grand Canyon National Park

Colorado:

• Black Canyon of the Gunninson National Park
• The Maroon Bells
  • Incredible wildflowers in late June-early August
• Great Sand Dunes National Park
• Colorado National Monument

California:

• Death Valley National Park
  • Wildflowers in spring
  • Mesquite Sand Dunes
• Joshua Tree
• Pacific Coast Highway
• Alabama Hills
• Sequioa National Park

This is your road trip bucket list. Keep adding places as you think of them.

Now it’s time to look at the logistics to make your actual route/ itinerary.

Some things to think about:

• How much driving you want to do
• Do you want to be constantly on the go or do you want plenty of time to take it slow and fully explore a place?
• Where your starting point is
• The weather/climate for each place and the time of year you are going

Use your Maps app to see which places are near each other. Plugin different locations to see the driving time between and start messing around with potential routes.

I planned my last road trip because I wanted to go to Death Valley. I live in Colorado, so I knew Death Valley would be my furthest destination and I worked backward from there.

I looked at the general route I would have to take to get there and made a list of the cool places along the way. After some time messing around with potential routes and looking at the drive times between places, this is the route I decided on:

ROUTE

• home to Capitol Reef:
  • 7 hour 30 minute drive
• Capitol Reef to Bryce Canyon:
  • 2 hour 15 minute drive
• Bryce Canyon to Valley of Fire:
  • 3 hour 30 minute drive
• Valley of Fire to Red Rocks:
  • 1 hour drive
• Red Rocks to Death Valley:
  • 2 hour drive
• Death Valley to Zion:
  • 4 hour 30 minute drive
• Zion to Coral Pink Sand Dunes:
  • 35 minute drive
• Coral Pink Sand Dunes to Horseshoe Bend:
  • 2 hour drive
• Horseshoe Bend to Monument Valley:
  • 2 hour drive
• Monument Valley to Moab:
  • 2 hour drive
• Moab to home:
  • 6 hour drive

You can make your route as planned out or loose as you want. Personally, I like keeping my itinerary pretty brief and flexible so I’m free to add and change things as I go.

We ended up adding many little stops and State Parks along the way. We also decided to skip Zion due to weather and ended up staying the night in Littlefield, Arizona instead.

That’s the beauty of road trips. It is so easy to change things as you go, but I promise having a route planned out ahead of time will save you so much stress.

2. Find campsites

Now that you have your route, you need to decide where you will be sleeping.

Some things to think about:

• Will you sleep in a tent or vehicle such as an RV, van, or back of your car?
• How many nights will your trip be?
• Do you want to spend multiple nights in one place, or do you just want to keep moving?

Download the app iOverlander. This is the dream app for road trips, it shows everything you could possibly need and it works all over the world!

iOverlander is where I find all of my FREE campsites. Once you decide which areas you want to spend the night in, use the app to find free campsites there.

It’s super easy to use. Just go onto the map and set the filter to show you only free campsites. Then zoom in to the areas you are going to and start clicking on some of those green dots. You can read a description of the campsite, see what services are available there, and read reviews and pictures people have posted. Scroll down to the bottom to copy the coordinates.

I would recommend writing down a few options for each area. This way, you have backups in case a campsite doesn’t live up to the photos or it doesn’t feel right when you get there.

Tip: the app works even when you don’t have service. You can look at campsites and your location will still show up on the map so you can find them. The only thing that doesn’t load without service is pictures.

Similarly, Apple and Google Maps will give directions without service, as long as you plug in the destination while you have service.

To avoid getting lost when you lose service, choose your campsites ahead of time and plug in the location while you have service. I always take a screenshot of the directions just in case.

Here is where we slept for the route I put above:

• Night 1: Utah- Near Capitol Reef
  • N 38º27.133′, W 110º50.284′
• Night 2: Nevada- Near Valley of Fire
  • N 36º28.813′, W 114º27.190′
• Night 3: California- Death Valley National Park
  • N 36º24.344′, W 116º45.739′
• Night 4: Arizona- Lifflefield, the little corner between Nevada and Utah
  • N 36º57.400′, W 113º48.094′
• Night 5: Utah
  • I am not going to share this campsite because it lies on Navajo land. After I stayed here, I was informed by a user on Tik Tok that it is disrespectful to camp here. I was unaware of this beforehand, and it was a really good reminder to always research a site/area before staying there.

3. Everything you need

Here is a list of everything you need for a road trip. Figure out what you already have, what you can borrow from friends’ stuff (bling bling money saver), and what you need to buy.

A Pure World backpack for all of your adventures.

If you are anything like me and are always looking for easy ways to make your adventures a little more sustainable, you need to shop at Pure World. These backpacks are hand-crafted in Nepal with 100% pure organic hemp. Click here to learn more about the brand.

Plus, the absolute hippie vibes of their products will go perfectly with your dirty feet and tangly hair after a few days on the road:)

Use code “peaceofliv” for 15% off your order.

National Parks Annual Pass

I cannot recommend this enough. This was by far the best purchase I’ve made.

For reference, one-time entry into most National Parks is around $30 per vehicle.

With the National Parks pass, you pay $80 to get into any National Park for a whole year!

Camping stuff you need:

Water jug

You need a water jug to keep your drinking water, water to do dishes, cook with, brush your teeth, etc.

I got this one because it was the biggest one I could find, which means I can go longer without filling it up.

It has a nice handle on top which makes it super easy to move. The spigot is nice because you can turn it “inside out” while driving. Just screw on the spigot so it faces inside of the water jug. This water jug is super high quality and I don’t think it would spill or break, but I still worry, so turning the spigot inside out gives me some peace of mind.

A Jet Boil is objectively the best investment you can make.

It is so easy to use. Essentially all you do is twist a couple of pieces together, add water, push a button, and in about two minutes you have boiling water.

It is also super small so it takes up very little packing space compared to bulky camping stoves and all the pots and pans you have to bring along for those.

With a jet boil, you end up saving so much money on food. Think ramen, mac and cheese, instant coffee, and anything else you can make with just boiling water.

Sleeping bag

Tip: It gets COLD at night when camping. There are some sleeping bags that are cheaper than others but don’t get a crumby sleeping bag because it’s the cheapest one. You will be cold and sad.

Amazon is a great place to compare different sleeping bags and brands at varying prices. Always read the reviews before buying one.

Sleeping pad

I use this foldable sleeping pad because I am lazy. Also, it’s much cheaper than the blow-up ones. The blow-up sleeping pads are generally more comfortable though.

Tent

Unless you’re sleeping in a car/RV/Van you need a tent.

Food:

The cheapest way to eat on a road trip is to shop at the dollar store and avoid eating out. Here are some of my go-to road trip foods:

• Peanut butter and jelly on a tortilla or bread
• Clif bars
• Pop tarts
• Canned foods

If you have a Jet Boil:

• Oatmeal
• Easy macs/instant mac & cheese
• Ramen
• Quinoa cups
• Instant coffee

Other random stuff that’s super easy to forget but you definitely need:

• Can opener. It’s major bummer when you have a can of beans and realize you forgot a can opener. Trust me.
• Silverware. Bring your own straight from your kitchen or save space and look super cool with this 3-in-1 combo.
• Plates, bowls, cups. Bring reusable plastic dinnerware or save space with this collapsible camping set.
• A camping mug. This is the classic mug for camping. It’s cheap and unbreakable.
• Bug spray
• Sunscreen
• Wet wipes. These will save you when you are covered in dirt and a few days out from a shower.
• Dishsoap. Save time and space with these dish washing sheets.
• Portable charger
• Lantern. I love this lantern. It’s a little blow up lantern so it’s super light and packable. Also, it’s solar powered, so no buying batteries or worrying it will run out of charge.
• A blanket to sit on. This one is similar to my adventure blanket which I have had forever and love bringing on all my adventures.
• A warm blanket for cold stargazing nights and chilly mornings making coffee and watching the sunrise.
• A pillow. Shockingly easy to forget.
• Jacket, hat, other warm clothes. Camping is cold at night. Even in summer and even in the desert when it’s hot during the day, the temperature drops at night.

4. Pack your car

You will probably have a lot of junk to stuff in your car.

I use a bunch of these packing cubes to organize all my small stuff. I put silverware in one; wet wipes, sunscreen, and bug spray in another; my portable charger, lantern, and other electronics in another; etc.

I use plastic storage bins to store all my food, and cloth storage bins to organize everything else.

5. Major safety tips

Share your location with a few friends and family on your phone. Send them your route as well and tell them where you will be and approximately when. You will more likely lose service at many points throughout your trip, so sharing your plans ahead of time will save everyone a boatload of stress.

Throughout your trip, update them often so they don’t worry. When plans change, let them know! If you’re about to lose service, tell them and give an approximate time for when you will have service again.

Like this:

“Hey! I’m heading towards my campsite now and probably won’t have service there. These are the coordinates of my campsite: N 36º57.400′, W 113º48.094′. I’m heading towards Horseshoe Bend tomorrow morning. I’ll text you when I get service.”

This way, they know exactly where you are and where you should be next. They can plug these two locations into Maps to see how far your drive is and about where you should be driving.

Check your car before you leave

A common (and justified) fear people have about road trips is that their car will break down. Give yourself some peace of mind and check your tires, fluids, and oil status before you leave.

6. Save money on gas

Download the app Gas Buddy. It’s a free app, and it shows you the gas prices at each gas station, making it super easy to find the cheapest gas.

Tip: plan ahead and look at the route you will take. There will be areas that are cheaper than others along your road trip, so plan ahead and fill up there before you get to the more expensive areas.

7. Hit the road

You did it, you planned out your road trip.

Now it’s time to get on the road and see all the places you’ve been dreaming about.

Have an incredible time and if you have any questions, comment below or contact me directly.

Oh, and make sure you download a ton of good music beforehand.