Road trip! Or as you’re more likely to say and/or hear it, “Rooooaaaaad triiiip!” As a car person, I’m comfortable saying we all long for the pleasures of a well-executed long-distance automobile journey, but one needn’t be a car person to appreciate the lure of the open road and the untold adventures that might be experienced between A and a distant B. Moving through time and space from a beginning to an end is the essence of storytelling, and who doesn’t love the feeling of living a story? It’s no wonder film and TV are rife with road trip riffs.
No doubt each of us has our own vision of the ideal road trip (not The Hitcher, I’m guessing), and that’s the topic of today’s Autopian Asks. What does your perfect road trip look like? Where are you going? How will you get there? How long is your ideal journey–and in what vehicle would you like to pile those miles? Or maybe you’re lucky enough to have already experienced some great road trip adventures–tell us about those!
To the comments!
Top shot main image: merla/adobe.stock.com
Movie poster images (clockwise from top left): Dreamworks; Warner Bros.; Universal; HBO Pictures; Searchlight Pictures
If money and time were not a concern, then start in Chicago and drive a 4×4 modern pickup truck on Route 66 (Take the Oatman route and get off I44 as often as possible to explore the old route road portions) to Santa Monica and they head up Route 1 to the red oaks before turning and burning home through the mountains – South Dakota and I80 back to Chi-Town.
A couple of years ago, when he finished high school, my son and I did a road trip in our ’19 Chevy Bolt: Cincinnati > St. Louis > Memphis > Jackson > New Orleans > Pensacola > Huntsville > Chattanooga > Cincinnati. It is entirely doable in a n EV, you just adjust your thinking around refueling and maybe remember that it’s about the journey as much as the destination. Incidentally, we were on the road when they announced the battery recall.
We had two rules – No Interstate highways, sample regional foods with a focus on BBQ. We stayed in hotels with free charging 7 out of 9 nights and in 2200 miles I spent about $50 on public charging.
The best BBQ we encountered was at the Pig & Pint in Jackson MS. It became the standard by which we measure all other BBQs. And I had crawfish etouffee in NOLA for the first time ever. We did a bayou cruise and he fell in love with a baby alligator we were allowed to handle. In St. Louis we ate in an awesome Irish pub with an outside patio. In Memphis we sat outside a bar on Beale St. and enjoyed live blues. Pensacola was the first time he’s been to a beach. In Chattanooga we rode a live coal-fired steam engine and watched a turntable in use. Between cities we watched the country change, met local people, got a taste for the world without the political animosity we were all experiencing online.
This was my ideal trip. I’d like to do something similar with my daughter now that she’s finished high school as well.
Drove from Massachusetts to Virginia with my dad towing my 1931 Austin for a car show. Used AAA maps (no GPS yet). Visited various relatives along the way, stayed in cheap motels, had a blast. Dad passed away not too long after so it remains a very special road trip.
I have already taken two of the most perfect road trips with my wife, once when we first met, and once after we were married:
1) Fly from Portland to Tucson to pick up her parents’ 1986 Vanagon Westfalia, to “help” them by driving it back to Portland for them. Spend a week on the road, plotting the trip exclusively around hot springs, and soak in a different version of “God’s hot tub” each day for seven straight days.
2) Use the occasion of a cross-country move to plot a once-in-a-lifetime Great American Road Trip. A 23′ travel trailer hooked to “Van Morrison,” a beefy Ford E350 Club Wagon XLT, loaded to the gills with as many of our belongings as we could, Beverly Hillbillies-style, on a two-month, 5500-mile journey that included as many of America’s great places as we could possibly hit: Grand Coulee Dam, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Wall Drug, Badlands National Park, the National Music Museum in Vermilion, SD, Graceland, the Jack Daniel’s distillery. The wife, the dog, the cat, the open road, and no timeline whatsoever. I’m glad we did it, because we will certainly never have another chance. If you ever get the chance, you better do something like it, too.
My favorite drive so far is CA-1 from Southern California to Carmel and back about 3 or 4 times a year in my Maserati GranCabrio. I typically take 1.5 days to do the drive going from south to north and stop between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo for a break. I do this because I like to be able to do CA-1 from a little before Big Sur up to the Carmel Highlands in daylight for the breathtaking vistas. This drive is like therapy for me. It just warms my heart.
Other drives I’ve enjoyed a lot:
CA-1 from Dana Point to a little past Newport Beach. The stretch a little south from Crystal Cove is just gorgeous.
I-70 from Golden, CO to Aspen, CO. The mountains & scenery are just amazing. I recommend this drive in the summer time. Winter is fun too but a different vibe.
Independence Pass near Aspen, CO going through the continental divide. Similar to I-70 in that the mountains & scenery are just amazing but it also adds a bit of “spice” due to the tight lanes/road. Only issue is that the drive is slow due to traffic. I think the perfect car for this would be something like a Beck Spyder or Pursang Bugatti Type 35. Something that makes you feel like you are going fast when you’re only going 20-40.
The roads around Lake Tahoe especially near Emerald Bay. Just beautiful.
My family & I did a 5-week road trip in a rented Jeep Grand Cherokee from late May to early July 2020. I just loved all of it though I don’t think it is a trip that I can really recommend to others just due to duration. Route was Chicago->Vail CO->Aspen-> Zion National Park UT -> Hoover Dam/Lake Mead/Las Vegas -> San Diego -> Newport Beach CA -> Carmel CA -> Half Moon Bay -> San Francisco -> Napa -> Lake Tahoe -> Park City UT -> Moab UT -> Kansas City MO -> St Louis MO -> Springfield IL -> Chicago. Our mileage on the Jeep was a little over 7,000.
Later this year, I will be traveling to Majorca to try a route that Evo did on Youtube that they say could be their choice for best driving road in the world. Renting a 911 cabrio to do it. There are others I am planning on but this post is already too long.
This is going to sound deeply weird on a site like the Autopian, but I have issues consuming that much petroleum just for shits and giggles. It’s to the point where I’m second-guessing an eventual Miata purchase until I can get one that runs on electrons.
With that said, as much as I would like to road trip, I think I’d have to work around my brain’s issues first, either by finding a car that consumes as little fuel as possible (Toecutter Special when?) or by finding a road trip worthy EV. ID Buzz perhaps, down the West Coast, or around Scandinavia where charging stations are plentiful?
This is where someone would usually jump in and say “Just buy a Tesla” and (depending on the website) someone else will tell them to kick rocks.
Along a similar vein, I get much more out a road trip riding my bicycle as compared to tripping in the van. The van is great when the weather is cold, sloppy or snowy, but in summer and mild weather, the enjoyment of being immersed in the scenery on a bicycle is incomparable for me. On a bike, as a solo rider, when you stop to dine or shop or sightsee, people almost immediately interact with you…”where are you from? how many miles have you ridden? etc.”.
You don’t get the same response arriving in a motor vehicle, for some reason people or less inhibited interacting with a touring cyclist.
Best trip I ever did on bike was Pittsburgh, NYC,up Hudson, back across NY and home. I met up with this guy in NYC: https://www.markscotch.com/ who has crisscrossed the country by bike advocating for kidney donation (both he and his wife have donated). Road with him up the Hudson River valley, across NY state to Buffalo. Along the way he and his wife did media events getting the word out about kidney donation. We met with people needing kidneys, other donors hosted us, local newspaper reports, local TV news reporters, we road with a transplant surgeon and met great people all along the way, We parted ways at Buffalo and a road home to Pittsburgh while he continued riding home to Wisconsin.
That’s really cool! I could definitely be convinced to try that (albeit shorter distances than Pittsburgh to NYC).
Give me a CVT Versa for all I care. As long as I get to drive, and the destination is Vick’s Burger Shack, on Hwy2 in Sultan, Washington.
It’s an hour and a half slog of a drive that I make at least three times every summer.
The El Jefe burger alone is worth it, but there’s also good fries and milkshakes.
Head across the Trans-Canada Highway to Banff and Jasper, side trip into BC, then south through the rockies to hit up Bear Tooth Pass for a summer ski day, the keep on heading southwest to SLC and then down to the 4 corners area back up through Colorado and then a sprint home on I-70/35/80. Did this all in a Dodge Journey in 2 trips. However, I would love to do it in one shot, Grand Tour style, with a bunch of car/ski people. In some fun driving machine, like an older BMW Alpina (yeah right) or some kind of Mercedes wagon with a turbo diesel. But really just a Jeep Cherokee would be pleasant enough (4.0 5 speed stick only). Feel free to toss out some other touring cars that would make sense or that Jeremy Clarkson would approve of. Even though I would rather have Richard Hammond in my car.
My dad has an E28 Alpina (B7Turbo) and it would be great for long trips because it’s gears are so tall. Definitely meant for the autobahn. I also lived in Jasper for a year, and that part of the country is gorgeous for trips.
Dude I would love to have a crack at that thing going across Nebraska or Saskatchewon at night. I don’t know why but I always had a thing for the Alpina BMWs but kind of an impossible burger for a middle midwesterner. Banff/Jasper/Yoho are just stunning.
Since our travels to odd corners of Oregon involve biking or hiking a Toyota HiAce Cruising Cabin is looking good for the combination of good dirt road capability, reasonable price and the ability to cook lunch and take a nap. This would extend to several national parks in the West as either week long vacations or an extended tour from say Bryce Canyon to Glacier by way of Arches, and a chunk of Eastern Oregon.
Phoenix, AZ to Cordova, AK in a Dodge truck with a 100 gallon tank installed in the bed. Fill up in Phoenix and don’t fill up again until Butte. Ditch the cast off my arm in Radium Hot Springs. Run up through Banff and Jasper to check out the wildlife that’s everywhere. Get into Cordova, go just out of town to throw down the sleeping bag and take a nap, and wake to a moose and her calf and then a very large brown bear walking down the road
.
Oh wait, did that. I guess now that the highway’s paved, I’d do the same trip in an M5 staying at hotels rather than trading off sleeping in the right hand seat of the Dodge. It would have to be a magic M5, though, that wouldn’t break down 50 miles from the closest town to the north and 50 miles from the closest town to the south. Like the Dodge did.
Good stock photo at the top. However! If you look backwards while driving with your favorite pair of aviators that you ever owned in your life, your forever pair of aviators, you will lose those aviators. You will lose those aviators perhaps twice before the lesson sinks in.
On the question? Maybe something like “Travels With Charlie” or “Blue Highways.” I like people as much as places
Anchorage Alaska south to Cabo San Lucas Baja in a nicely outfitted 4X4 Sprinter. Coastal routes where possible
Driving all the way around Iceland in a manual Jimny. What more could one want from life?
This might be handy for U.S. backroads enthusiasts:
https://opposite-lock.com/topic/12190/u-s-adventure-trails
From Gardiner , NY to Morgan VT , population 667. Home of Seymour Lake. We do the trip in a 2019 Ram. Once you get past Brattelboro it’s pretty much empty highway @ 85 while getting a very comfortable 21 MPG . Vermont summers are spectacular but don’t tell anybody , it’s our little secret .
Everyone is talking about nice, leisurely drives across the country to see national parks and the world’s largest tin foil ball. Not me! I’m going to see a large part of the country in the quickest way possible by doing a Cannonball Run from New York City’s Red Ball Garage to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach! And I’m going to do it the best way possible, in a Lamborghini Countach !
You’re on!
I was thinking more like Atlanta to Texarkana and back in 28 hours in a 1977 Trans Am SE, but still, I like the cut of your jib, old chap. But important question: do you have the Lycra jumpsuit and the great boobs to be able to properly pull it off?
A repeat of our honeymoon! 8 months on the road starting at the LA Olympics, and travelling 20k miles across the US and Canada. We did it in a ’76 VW camper bus boondocking as much as possible. As we are a bit older (duh) we’d would like to travel in a sprinter-scale camper of some sort. Since we took thousands of photos, I’d love to repeat the path and provide photos of -then- versus -now- places we went. I also mailed a lot of intended destinations and receive flyers, brochures, and pamphlets to plan our trip, and I still have that stuff! I’d love to go back to those places, compare the media material from -then- and compare it to -now-. And then auction off the media to benefit those locations.
I do a lot of day trips in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I wake up stupid early because of work anyway, so being on the road by 5 is easy. Catch the sunrise from some mountain near the WV border, then decide whether it’ll be east or west today. Two-number highways through unincorporated areas. Find a local diner mid-morning and ask people at the next table what’s good there-and what the local attractions are. Tour a fish-hatchery, or stop at an historic church and see what the oldest legible headstone is dated.
Sometimes I have a seriously jagged road I found on Google maps as a destination-other times I just go whichever way my dog turns his head. Either one can be great-or disappointing. It beats sitting in front of the babble-box, anyway. I find early mornings on backroads deep in the mountains to be a fine and private place.
‘Sometimes when the night is dying,
I take me out and I wander round
…I wander round’
tl:dr: You’ll likely be surprised at how much cool stuff is within a few hours drive of home. You just gotta look
The best roads trips are impulsive. No planning, no real destination, just a few good buddies, some great recreational pharmaceuticals, plenty of beer and bud. They like The REAL best of SNL are no longer spoken of or exist. You just hop into an available rig in our case a Cadillac Sedan Deville with Dead Head stickers, maybe a pair of underwear in your pocket and drive.And drive we went from Tallahassee to Texas fors Coors Lite not available in FLA at the time. Ended up getting tossed out of Gilleys. Went to a friends house to mellow and ended up having his female roommate come home from a date and making love to her date. Good times.
Points for a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac
I’m going to do the 127 Yard Sale https://www.127yardsale.com/ and the Natchez Trace Parkway https://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm all in one trip next summer. I bought a 66 Dodge A100 last year and have been sorting it out mechanically. Finished the suspension/brakes/steering. Fitted it out with an electric cooler, sound system, bed and sink. Got some mechanical (cooling) and minor electrical to do. 225 slant six and three on the tree!
RIP Barry Newman, AKA Kowalski in “The Vanishing Point.”
‘ And today, in a beautiful gesture made by beautiful people, in beautiful downtown Goldfield, this radio station was named KOWalski, in honor of the last American hero, to whom speed means freedom of the soul. The question is not when’s he gonna stop, but who is gonna stop him.’
It’s not safe to be tripping on the road.
Second that!
When you think it’s snowing —then you slow down a bit and realize it’s just the white lines on the road, it’s time to pull over.
The 80s were fun, but I definitely regret the very irresponsible things I did. Glad I didn’t kill anyone
Just watch out for the goddamn bats.
Ultimate road trip?
I’ve been on a road trip the past ten years in a self-converted 2007 Chevrolet Express cargo van. Mostly all over the western US with some Canada and Mexico as well. I love it.
I HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS WITH YOU, SWITZERLAND. Every. Single. TIME!!! I have ended up in that country, I have not gotten fondue. I’ve gotten fondue’s less silly cousin there, raclette, and it was delicious. I’ve had Alpkäse bought off the side of the road, said hi to the happy mountain cows and driven on numerous passes. I love the cows so much! I even stayed behind an extra day when I friend got hella sick atop Stelvio to make sure he was like, not gonna die. Nope. No fondue spots open at the base on en route back to the rest of the group. I had some great capuns. Very cheesy. But fondue? No! I have been blocked from the single most touristy of MOLTEN CHEESE dishes and it is TIME.
So, if I can finally get stable employment again (or not, this might be a “we’re kidnapping your car next year anyway” situation given How It’s Going), we’re thinking about sending my Lancer over in a container so it can tick doing the Nürburgring off its list. That being said, I need a detour. Slightly south. All the countries are like, tiny, man, and I won’t be dissuaded by a contract that says EU-only for a press car this time. I could do it. Drive some more Alpine passes, ???, fondue. No plans, no thoughts, just cheese. MELTY CHEESE.
Also, this idea is still PURE GOLD and I want to do it: https://forums.finalgear.com/threads/the-uk-rudetrip-concept-matt2ks-brain-dump.3556206/
Preferably either in something really fancy (Rolls me up, fam) or in a beater as rude as the UK Rudetrip’s place names.
“I have been blocked from the single most touristy of MOLTEN CHEESE dishes”
If you’re experiencing that much blockage, I recommend some fiber intake to cut the cheese effects.
Wrong kind of blockage, heh.
My wife and I will be driving from Seattle to Palmer, Alaska, to compete in the I-Threw-A-Rod Lemons Rally later this month:
https://24hoursoflemons.com/rally-details/?id=366
so yes, I suppose we really should figure out what we’ll be driving there and, with any luck, back.
Gosh, I’m so jealous of this one. I didn’t jump on it in time to get in before the event filled up, but then again, I probably shouldn’t buy an Altima just to chuck it off a cliff right now anyway.
Please ensure that at least one Altima meets its demise. Pretty please? I have a grudge.
I didn’t act quickly enough before it filled, either, but I was the first to respond when a team posted on the Lemons forum that they had to drop out.
Nice.
(Please destroy an Altima or two for me.)
Are you taking the famous Alcan highway up? Other than an Epic Road-trip Out West, that would be what I’d like to drive.
Ah, right, we should probably decide on a route fairly soon, too.