Routing is probably the very first thing that everybody thinks about when they get ready for a trip. Why is that? Probably because you are already deciding where you want to go! You’re already knee deep into the planning cycle when discussing various destinations and figuring out how long it would take to get there. If you’re anything like me, you’ll immediately whip out your phone and type in glorious destinations such as Zion National Park or Jackson, Wyoming or Banff. Next, you find where it is on the map itself. Do you hit the button for directions? Don’t mind if I do…the app asks you where you started from, so you hit home and that’s when you see it…
1 day and 12 hours to destination!?!
The little break out just to the right of that unholy time says 2220 miles. What does that actually mean? Does it mean the trip is going to take you 36 hours? Or will it actually take you 5 days…or 10 days? How do you break this down for your actual planning purposes of getting to those amazing destinations?
Maybe we’ll go next year…..
You can overcome this!!!! That’s where rules of thumb and understanding your capabilities and your family capabilities really come in to play.
We all travel differently. For instance, I firmly believe that the trip itself is part of the actual fun of the overall journey. Even if I have to cover multiple states in a minimum amount of time that journey still allows my family to experience different facets of the United States, Canada, or Mexico! Whether that’s on the highway or on Bindi’s Back Roads that fun relies on our travel mentality, which is using 60 miles an hour as our max speed. This supports our desired travel day as three hundred miles or 3 o’clock as the times that we would like to be done. In reality it’s normally 500 miles or 5 o’clock!
Desired…NOT required.
This is something to work out with your family if it’s more than just yourself. Even the solo traveler needs to have a standard to understand their route of travel and how many miles they are willing to do that day. Will you take breaks along the way or naps at a roadside rest stop? Will you find interim destinations on that day so that you can look at the scenery? Or find a a roadside attraction along something like that quirky route 66?
Regardless of what your travel style is, set it up and then access whatever your means of planning is going to be. If you’re super old-school, you’ll break out the paper Atlas. These are still available in multiple venues such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble…or even at your local truck stop. Even if you’re not going use these for your plan, they are still great tools to have while you’re on the trip to break out to your families and actually get a sense of the space of the country you’re in. More and more today families (and especially the kids) are growing up as children of the electronic age and haven’t looked at something like an atlas to truly understand the distances in the United States, Australia, or Europe. Bringing this into the equation will enhance the experience, helping everyone comprehend what is around them rather than just the black line from here to there.
For those electronic planners, the world is really your oyster in this day and age. From apps on your phone to desktop versions that can plan and print off your route and/or can synchronize with applications on your phone or your dedicated RV GPS, whatever solution you want or need is available for you… Depending on how much you want to spend. I’ve listed a few of those options underneath. At the end of the day however, each of these is a tool that provides data and mileage (and normally time) and then additional information in some shape, form, or fashion. All of this data becomes inputs for your overall planning scenario.
So what are your family planning factors? 30 minutes for a short stop? An hour for lunch? Are those good enough? Or are two hours for a break along the way going to be what you need? Regardless of what those true factors are, make sure you include them in your planning overall and add them to the time span actually behind the wheel. You’ll quickly be surprised at how this explains why those days used to take so long and you didn’t know why…
For those individuals who are ready to actually start planning that route and you don’t want to use a road trip Atlas the next step that you can actually do is get into some available apps to do some of your planning. In the following few sections of listed some trip planners which are made with the RV enthusiast in mind and each has advantages and disadvantages.
Google maps is a great starting point. It may be the only thing that you actually use. Especially if you are in a low profile camping vehicle and really don’t have to worry about anything overhead or gradient requirements along the way. Google Maps will give you access to the distance and the time depending on what your factors are with all kinds of stops and information along the way. The best thing about Google maps is the ability for you to switch from maps to satellite view and actually get information for that next truck stop or the Walmart at the next exit.
https://roadtrippers.com/rv-trip-planner/
Awesome little app that lays out things to see along the way (such as national park sites) in interesting icons. The web version will actually sync with the mobile app (road trippers plus) that you can also download from the App Store or the Android database.
Another awesome website planner that combines with the RV life app to take your preplanned routing in and roll with your RV safe GPS. This resource gives you instant access to over 20,000 data points along the way. The benefit I really enjoyed from the RV Trip Wizard is to put the specifications of your RV in to actually do fuel planning at the same time, giving you a better understanding of projected costs along the way for your trip. We used this information when we were planning out our initial route around the United States for full-time travel. Another plus I loved about this application was that you could export your trip and actually link it up with your Google or Ical folder so it would actually show up in your calendar application for the entire family to sync up.
https://truckerpath.com/trucker-path-app/
For those of you who are driving a diesel, these applications will help you along. You can enter your dimensions for your rig and the app will make sure that you have clearance to get into and out of those tight places and still access diesel along the way.
These are just a few of the applications that you can use. At the end of the day pick what works best for you and your family to really get the data that you need – then start building the trip of a lifetime!!!
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