benefits of a road trip? Please convince me!

[mjantz]

My DH is more about road trips than I am so when its his turn to plan (we alternate) that's what he comes up with. We're looking at the Grand Canyon as well. I think we'll take the Southern route (we're in TX) & head through NM & AZ on our way there & go north through CO on our way back.

I'll probably pick up a few new DVDs for the kids (we have a player) & maybe a new book or two (neither kid does well with reading in the car but they read before bed). They also have iPods & Nintendo DSs so I think they'll be very well entertained.

I'd say go for it & have fun. The journey is really part of the fun.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

OP, it all depends on the time you have and how much time you actually want to spend at the Grand Canyon.

Personally, I would drive straight through to get there and then leisurely go back. That way you can recoup at the GC from the drive. You will need 1 full day to recoup. Then if you are enjoying yourself you can stay longer or if you are done you can leave and see other sites.

We have done marathon trips without stopping except for a few catnaps in a rest area. We take turns driving every 2hrs give or take.

 

[Minnesota!]

Could you fly nonstop to another destination and then drive from there? A few years ago we flew nonstop from NH to Denver and then rented a car and drove to South Dakota (Mt Rushmore, Badlands) then off to Yellowstone and eventually ending up in Rocky Mountain National Park and flying home again out of Denver. It was much more expensive for us to fly into airports in SD or WY. We still did a lot of driving but saw so much more this way. I am hoping to start planning a similar trip that includes the grand canyon and other sites in the area.

This is what we are doing this summer. Flying to Denver and then going up to Yellowstone, Idaho, over to Salt Lake, and then back to Denver. It's almost $1000 cheaper to fly there/back and rent a car than drive a rental out there from here. (We wouldn't want to put the miles on our own vehicle).

 

[Wishing on a star]

I think some people are road trippers, and some are not....

I am of the former variety!

Personally, I would fly if at all possible.
But, if you could make an enjoyable road trip out of it, that would be great too.

Perhaps some decongestants would help your daughter?
Allergies could be an issue??? Zyrtec EVERY night... try it for a week and see if it helps????

We flew into Phoenix, stayed in a nice timeshare condo in beautiful Sedona (Red Rock Country) and did the Pink Jeep Tour, Slide Rock, etc...

Grand Canyon is a couple hours from there.
It was the most EXCELLENT trip!
The Grand Canyon is awesome.

 

[Inigo]

Our family has done two or three week roadtrips out west every summer, and they are the stuff from which memories are made. The kids are now 23 and almost 20, so we've gone on 16 of them over the years. (The 23 year old can't go anymore, and the youngest was in summer classes last summer, so she didn't go.)

We've been to just about every national park out west, and have loved the destination, but the drive has also been fun. I don't like just driving without stopping occasionally, so I always look for fun and odd things for short stops on the way. We've got pictures of us at all sorts of weird things. Some of the stops are just short stops for a brief rest, while other stops are longer. Go to Roadside America's website to find weird things to stop at. Each kid also got a map of their own so they look for things they wanted to stop to see.

We've been to lots of local festivals that we just happened upon and decided to stop. In some of those, it seemed we were the only non-locals, but we were welcomed.

When the kids were younger, we'd leave at life 2 in the morning with the kids asleep in the back so we could get through the boring areas quickly. By the time the kids woke up, we'd be a couple states out.

For the flyover states, I'd pop a new DVD into the laptop and let the kids watch a movie.

 

[Freyja]

I have driven many times to WDW with my family which is about an 18 hour drive. On the way there, we would split it up but on the way home, we would drive straight through.

In 2005, we drove across the country - from ocean to ocean. It was an amazing trip! This country is so beautiful and diverse, something that you could never see from an airplane.

If I were you, I would drive it and maybe add a few stops along the way.

Best of luck deciding what to do!

This has been our dream for a long time, since we LOVE road trips. Did you drive back or did you rent a car and drop it off at your end location and fly back?

One of our best holidays ever was when in 2004 we drove from Copenhagen Denmark, through Germany and Austria and to Prague in the Czech Republic, stayed there for a few days and then drove on to Croatia where we stayed for 10 days in Zagreb, Senj, Split and Dubrovnik. From Dubrovnik we drove through Bosnia and stayed for 2 days in Sarajevo before we drove to Hungary and stayed for a few days at Lake Balaton and in Budapest before heading back home to Denmark.

 

[MrsPete]

I loved the Grand Canyon, but I would not drive 26 hours JUST for it. I would only do such a road trip if I could add several other stops on the way.

We did a wonderful driving trip out west two summers ago and loved it. We flew to Las Vegas, rented a car and drove to the Grand Canyon, through Colorado, up to Mt Rushmore, and eventually back to Vegas. We were gone three weeks and saw so much.

One last note: If you want a cabin inside the national park ( which is the best choice) you are probably too late for this summer. Also, we visited the less popular North Rim rather than the South rim. I recommend it. It's less crowded and cooler. The cabin village looks like it's built of Legos. Do look into the (free) ranger led programs and the Junior Ranger program (for your daughter). We were there over July 4, and we had such a good time: The staff put on a little parade and then started a water fight among the guests that lasted a full hour. My girls would tell you it was one of their favorite parts of the three week trip.

 

[MrsPete]

One more thought: I think you need to decide whether a road trip is what you want -- don't do it to avoid flying. Do it because a road trip is what you want.


And try www.roadtripamerica.com

 

[tar heel]

We took a 5,000-mile+ road trip and consider it the best vacation of our lives. You can't picture the geographic diversity of this country by just flying over it. There is a lot to see between your house and the Grand Canyon. We went to the arch and saw a baseball game in St. Louis, visited the Cathedral of the Plains, spent five days at a family reunion in the Colorado Rockies, saw a baseball game in Denver, spent two days at Mesa Verde National Park, spent two days at the Grand Canyon, visited Four Corners, the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest, drove flat roads and tiny winding mountain roads, ate where the locals ate and experienced temperatures ranging from below freezing and snowing to 112.

My favorite part other than the reunion was the drive -- I was awestruck. My favorite stop was Mesa Verde National Park.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

One more thought: I think you need to decide whether a road trip is what you want -- don't do it to avoid flying. Do it because a road trip is what you want.


And try www.roadtripamerica.com

Cool site. I want to roadtrip the east coast, Niagra, and Nova Scotia.

 

[bjscheel]

I can't decide either- IF we go to Tennessee this summer, either we drive all the way (12 hours to Nashville, another 2-3 hours to Gatlinburg) or we drive 3 hours to an airport and take a 1.5 hour nonstop to Nashville (my DD12 is also paranoid about her ears and planes so we prefer just one descent). Then drive on to Gatlinburg after a day or so in Nashville. DD's also tend to get carsick...though we can usually prevent that with Motion Eaze. We really only want to take one week, and if you spend two days driving on each end, that is only 3 days at your desired destination.

Thing is, DH drives all day for a living, and he likes vacations where he doesn't have to drive a lot (and that is why he wants to go back to WDW again).

 

[MrsPete]

We took a 5,000-mile+ road trip and consider it the best vacation of our lives. You can't picture the geographic diversity of this country by just flying over it. There is a lot to see between your house and the Grand Canyon. We went to the arch and saw a baseball game in St. Louis, visited the Cathedral of the Plains, spent five days at a family reunion in the Colorado Rockies, saw a baseball game in Denver, spent two days at Mesa Verde National Park, spent two days at the Grand Canyon, visited Four Corners, the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest, drove flat roads and tiny winding mountain roads, ate where the locals ate and experienced temperatures ranging from below freezing and snowing to 112.

My favorite part other than the reunion was the drive -- I was awestruck. My favorite stop was Mesa Verde National Park.

We did a similar trip -- about 3/4 of the things you mentioned, we did. We were forced to buy sweatshirts because of a sudden cold snap in Yellowstone, and we just about died in the 117 temps in Las Vegas. No family reunion for us, though.

My favorite national park was Mesa Verde! It was incredible to imagine people living and thriving there.

 

[MrsPete]

I can't decide either- IF we go to Tennessee this summer, either we drive all the way (12 hours to Nashville, another 2-3 hours to Gatlinburg) or we drive 3 hours to an airport and take a 1.5 hour nonstop to Nashville (my DD12 is also paranoid about her ears and planes so we prefer just one descent). Then drive on to Gatlinburg after a day or so in Nashville. DD's also tend to get carsick...though we can usually prevent that with Motion Eaze. We really only want to take one week, and if you spend two days driving on each end, that is only 3 days at your desired destination.

Thing is, DH drives all day for a living, and he likes vacations where he doesn't have to drive a lot (and that is why he wants to go back to WDW again).

Consider taking candied ginger for the motion sickness. Buy it in the produce department at Harris Teeter, chop it into tiny bits and keep it in a small Tupperware container. It doesn't taste all that good, but it's also not so bad that the kids won't take it.

It works almost immediately, and I'd always rather take something like that rather than medicine.

I wish I'd known about this back when I was expecting and suffered so from morning sickness.