How to plan a long road trip when you have no clue
Planning a long road trip without a clear goal or destination can leave you feeling completely overwhelmed. It makes it difficult to know what to see or accomplish, leading travelers to wonder if the entire trip is just an experience you have to figure out on the fly.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Getting on the road early at 4 AM
- 2Packing lots of snacks and drinks
- 3Taking regular breaks every 2 to 4 hours
- 4Preparing playlists, audiobooks, and podcasts for entertainment
- 5tie wrap the fuck out of it and stay at 60mph
- 6Tie that up with some bungee cords
- 7Dont take the freeway, listen for noises, and tie up what you can
- 8Buying parts from online retailers like Amazon for fast shipping
- 9Paying dealership prices for maintenance services
- 10Performing DIY maintenance to save money
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I’m about to deploy and it was my only day off and wife needs the truck while I’m gone”source ↗
“dealer wanted $600 for spark plugs so I did it myself”source ↗
“I was trying to do all preventative maintenance before I leave”source ↗
“Our radiator core support seems to have broken and we are in a town 300 miles south of where we live in UT. We need to take I-15 home to immediately take this to our mechanic shop. Do we risk it or is there any fix I can do while here myself to try to secure it in place for the drive before I take it into the shop?”source ↗
“Also is it the end of the world that I didn’t put dielectric grease in the boot?”source ↗
“I was hesitant but… I needed them the next day and everywhere else was going to take a week to ship”source ↗
“Im going on my first roadtrip soon, unfortunately I thought I was going to have a different means of transportation but it didnt end up working out. This led to a 13 hr roadtrip with my partner! I need some advice on… pretty much everything, anything is appreciated.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 10How to do a long distance road trip with a cat and dog
- 6Is a week-long trip to Asia worth the jet lag?
- 5Do I need to do anything before leaving my car parked for months?
- 65How to plan a road trip itinerary without packing in too much driving
- 8How to plan your first international trip without missing anything
- 2How to pass the time on a long flight without sleeping pills