How many families still do road trips? (best, drivers, gas)
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OUr family vacations are almost always road trips. We absolutely love them. We see a lot of things, we have ablast while driving (excpet when we drive all night), just stop wherever we feel like it or see something interesting. It forces us to focus our attention on each other. We sing, talk, play games, watch movies together, laugh a lot. It is just a blast and it brings everyone closer to each other.
We much prefer a road trip to a week at a beach, or in one hotel, or at an amusment park/area, probably even more than a week of camping. However any given road trip will often involve a beach, an amusment park and/or some camping and hotels. It is not cheap, but on a person per day basis, not bad (I think last year's 11 day trip through the Northwest cost about $3200 for 7 people. That is $42 per person per day. Seems cheap to me. That does not count the trinkets, clothing, or other things they bought with their money.
This year we home to take 12 days and travel down the East coast to the Florida Keys, up to Alabama, New Orleans, tennessee Mamoth caves and back to Michigan. 64 hours of driving. We will have to drive through the night once. Everyone is looking forward to it and scrambling to clear their schedules.
We may do some weekend camping or canoeing trips or even a beach or hotel type stay for a long weekend, but the "do one thing vacation" is not really interesting to us. We want road trips and variety. The challenges, discomfort, suprises and inconveniences are what usually lead to the most fun/memorable parts of our vacations.
Are we archaic abberations or do other familes love road trips as much?
Road trips are the best. My best road trip ever was 3 years ago when my wife and I took a weekend and went to Vegas. We took in a couple of old Route 66 sights in Texas on the way out as well as making a stop at the Grand Canyon. On the way back we took a helicopter ride over the Hoover Dam, checked out several Route 66 sights in Arizona, met some proudly drunk Indians in Winslow, AZ and had a blast. I had never been west of Albuquerque, and that was when I was 2 or 3, so the entire trip was new to me. I loved the desert landscape with snow-capped mountains in the distance.
We try to make a big trip once a year to see my grandparents and family in northern Indiana. It's an 1100 mile trip one-way. We take I-44 for most of the trip which, from Oklahoma City to St. Louis, parallels the path of Route 66, so we try to step off and take in a bit of Route 66 here and there along the way. We usually try to work in an amusement park or 2 on the trip, but this year the budget won't allow for that.
My dream vacations are road trips. I'd like to go to Cape Cod and grab the beginning of US-6 and follow it all the way to California. The Lincoln Highway is another I'd like to check out. My ultimate would be to head up to Chicago and follow Route 66 (the old road) all the way out to Santa Monica. I have it all mapped out already. From the end of Route 66, I'd head south to grab the beginning of the Pacific Coast Highway and follow it all the way up to Seattle. From there I would drive over to Yellowstone and then follow US-287 all the way back home. Someday...
OUr family vacations are almost always road trips. We absolutely love them. We see a lot of things, we have ablast while driving (excpet when we drive all night), just stop wherever we feel like it or see something interesting. It forces us to focus our attention on each other. We sing, talk, play games, watch movies together, laugh a lot. It is just a blast and it brings everyone closer to each other.
We much prefer a road trip to a week at a beach, or in one hotel, or at an amusment park/area, probably even more than a week of camping. However any given road trip will often involve a beach, an amusment park and/or some camping and hotels. It is not cheap, but on a person per day basis, not bad (I think last year's 11 day trip through the Northwest cost about $3200 for 7 people. That is $42 per person per day. Seems cheap to me. That does not count the trinkets, clothing, or other things they bought with their money.
This year we home to take 12 days and travel down the East coast to the Florida Keys, up to Alabama, New Orleans, tennessee Mamoth caves and back to Michigan. 64 hours of driving. We will have to drive through the night once. Everyone is looking forward to it and scrambling to clear their schedules.
We may do some weekend camping or canoeing trips or even a beach or hotel type stay for a long weekend, but the "do one thing vacation" is not really interesting to us. We want road trips and variety. The challenges, discomfort, suprises and inconveniences are what usually lead to the most fun/memorable parts of our vacations.
Are we archaic abberations or do other familes love road trips as much?
Road trips with three or more drivers are only good for trips under 1,000 miles , otherwise it becomes a sort of working " vacation that you need a vacation to recover from afterward"....
When I was a kid my Dad and I only traveled by road. The longest most memorable road trip was a month long summer vaction where we started at my Grandma's in Northern California and drove to Disney World in Florida. Along the way we stopped in Vegas, the Grand Canyon, the Four Corners, went rafting in Colorado, visited family in Texas and Lousiana, stayed with a friend for few days in Missouri, went to Nashville, and stayed another few days in Georgia with friends. Finally ending at Disney World. Along the way we met a lot of interesting people, even gave rides to a few hitchikers, and I have pictures where we stopped at each states "welcom to _______" sign. When we were done in Florida we had to drive back to Arizona but that was more "get home" oriented than is was leisurely driving/stopping.
I still love to drive, but if it's more than a one day drive my wife wants to fly...
But once we have kids, the roadtrips will be the only way. I don't want my kids to just see the destination, I want them to see everything in between as well. There are just too many interesting people and places to just fly over them.
We have two little girls, 6 and 4, and drive 2 days down to Captiva, FL and back again every year, and sometimes drive to Chicago. We love it! The girls do soooo great in the car. I have so many great memories of road trips with my parents. I am so blessed to have had that growing up, I can't wait to share more trips with my kids.
how much gas have you guys spent on these trips and what kinds of cars did you take? I mean is it worth going? (just wondering cuz I've always wanted to take one, and gas prices are stopping me)
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