My Best USA Road Trip Tips

Are you wondering where to start with planning an epic USA road trip? Well, we recently went on the best USA road trip for two months in September and October. The plan was to take our time driving across the country from Virginia to the western US and Oregon, then to Arizona.

My husband, Terry recently retired and since I work for myself as a travel blogger, my schedule is flexible. This was the first time we were able to travel for this long in one stretch and we were so excited to hit the road. We planned to spend time with our adult daughter in Texas and son in Oregon and we hoped to visit some other friends and family along the way too. Ultimately we circled back to Arizona (where we lived for 20 years) to figure out where we were going to settle from there.

The location of our specific stops somewhat dictated our route, so if you’re planning a USA road trip with no expectations of people or places to visit, then the sky’s the limit for where you can go. I’m working on writing much more content about the nuts and bolts of planning the best US road trip from start to finish, so if you’re interested in seeing more, be sure to sign up for my newsletter below.

Important FAQs for Your USA Road Trip Plan

Two-Month USA Road Trip Planning

The map below shows our entire USA road trip route. The planning and dates were fluid in some cases. We actually had to change plans at the last minute on the middle section of the route because of some changes with the folks we were trying to see. On a USA road trip this long, it’s always good to stay flexible, just in case.

You can find the details about the ultimate USA Road Trip full itinerary here. The first section of our USA road trip route in Southeast United States road trip is at this post. I’m working on posts in three general sections: Southeast, Southwest through Wyoming, and then the West.

Consider Travel Insurance

Another safeguard to consider is to buy travel insurance just in case there’s an emergency where you have to cancel all or part of your trip on short notice. You never know when you might have a health issue or car accident that interrupts your adventure. Or there may be family members who need your help when unexpected issues arise. My sister had a European trip planned and had to cancel the entire thing because of an unexpected serious illness with her husband.

There are many kinds of travel insurance. I recommend shopping for exactly what you need at “Insure My Trip”.

Be Flexible on Your Road Trip

We tried to leave a lot of flexibility so we could be spontaneous and make a few detours if we wanted. We’ve always dreamed about having the luxury of staying a little longer in one place if we really loved it. With the reality of vacations rarely being much longer than 2 weeks for our entire working lives, we never had a chance to do that before.

Even though two months seemed like a long time, we knew that with driving and sleeping time, it would go faster than we thought. One thing I’ve learned over all my years of USA road trips is that there is never enough time to see everything you want when you’re traveling.

Also, a little background…we lived in Arizona and California for nearly 40 years total and have done quite a few adventures in the Western states. The national parks and some of the stops that we’ve chosen are either ones that we haven’t been to or would like to visit again. Now that my husband is retired we expect to have plenty of time to get to other places that aren’t on these USA road trip maps later, so we were trying to stick somewhat close to the route you see on the maps.

Where to go on Your USA Road Trip?

Deciding on your stops will take some time for a USA road trip. Some people choose their beginning and end points and then calculate travel time to determine where their stops could/should be. Other people choose a region of the United States and then research cool places to go in that region. There are many ways to decide where to go on your great American road trip. I’ll be writing a separate post exclusively about that, so stay tuned.

For our road trip, we knew that we wanted to stop and see folks in at least 6 towns along the way, so we penciled those in first, then figured out what cool stuff was in somewhat close proximity to the route between our six “planned” stops. It’s on my Bucket List to visit every national park in the USA, so there were several that we added to our trip. As of today, I’ve visited more than 40 national parks out of 63, plus dozens of other NPS national monuments, and historic sites. You’ll see the list of our stops on the maps in this post. I’ll write in a lot more detail in the future about these.

Support Local Businesses on your road trip

One of the best parts of an American road trip is finding ways to avoid filling the pockets of big generic corporations and instead support local small businesses. A few things that we try to do are:

• Find locally owned hotels, inns, and vacation homes at your destination:
  • Booking.com allows you to narrow your search to places like Bed & Breakfasts, inns, farm stays, guest houses and more unique options
  • Vacation Rentals by Owner (VRBO) has vacation rentals listed by their owners. Each one is unique.
  • Historic Hotels of America is an amazing list of hotels with historical significance and beautiful architecture around the country. Sometimes you can even get a tour.
• We love to grab breakfast or at least pick up a coffee before we start our drive each day. I always prefer to buy local and many small biz coffee places even have drive-throughs now, if you need to get on the road quickly.
• It’s nice to have some unique options and ambiance to experience on your USA road trip. We try to avoid chain restaurants as much as possible because we can get fast food and chain restaurants at home. Do a quick search online to see what the can’t miss restaurants and cafes are. TripAdvisor is usually a good place to look for the top places in town. You can search by the type of cuisine too. Another layer of every road trip experience is getting a taste of the regional cuisine and if the weather’s nice for outdoor dining, be sure to do that too.
• Take some time to wander the local shops and pick up something special for yourself or folks at home. It will bring back fond memories after your road trip.

Look for Awesome Farmers’ Markets and Artisan Markets

Another way to support the local economy is to shop at a local artisan or farmers’ market. I love a place where I can find a wide variety of food offerings, fresh produce, baked goods, other treats, and even unique artisans to support. Sometimes these places have live music that you can enjoy. We like to pick up fresh snacks for the trip at these places too.

Remember that many of the markets are only open one or two days a week, so you may need to search at several stops along the way to find one that coincides with your travel schedule. When you do it will be worth a visit. Of course, you’ll want to do searches for each area that you’ll be driving through but here’s a list of some of the best farmers’ markets in America in case you’ll be in any of these cities.

When I went on a week-long North Carolina road trip with my sisters we stopped at Optimist Hall in Charlotte (pictured above). This is an excellent example of an adaptive reuse project that turned a dilapidated old mill building into a community gathering place, food hall, and office space. They host free music and vendors serve everything from Asian street food to yummy Southern fried chicken sandwiches, plus a variety of other bars, eateries, and shops.

Find the Best Place for a Late Lunch or Early Dinner

One of the ways that we save money on our USA road trips is that we often eat just breakfast, then a late lunch or early dinner. This way we avoid the lunch and dinner crowds and stick to 2 meals a day, which is usually plenty. If we’re burning a bunch of energy we’ll grab a snack a few hours before or after our later meal.

Our afternoon meal usually lands between around 3 pm and 6 pm or so, depending on what’s happening the rest of the day. We look for fresh farm-to-table food or local/regional specialties. The goal is for reasonable prices with great quality. We’ll try to stick to a somewhat modest budget (but I still avoid fast-food chains). We splurge once in a while on a more pricey place if the food and/or location/ambiance is amazing. I LOVE alfresco (outdoor) dining, so if the weather is nice, I look for outdoor patios or places with a view. TripAdvisor is also a good source to find top restaurants at your destination.

Buy a Drink at a Local Watering Hole

If you haven’t traveled much in the USA, you may be astounded by all the craft breweries, wineries, cideries, meaderies, distilleries, etc. that you’ll find in out-of-the-way places. This seems to be one of the top local businesses that can thrive in both small towns and big cities.

As for wine regions in 2024, the United States has 273 American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in 34 of the 50 states. These regions include the most well-known areas in California, like Napa and Sonoma, plus other regions in Oregon, Washington, Virginia, and New York. Vintners are learning more and more about the science of growing grapes and making wine which is creating new wine regions even in places like Arizona, Idaho, and Wisconsin. Did you know that the Southwest Wine Center at Arizona’s Yavapai College provides a hands-on educational program covering from vineyard to bottle? You can even make a reservation to try out their award-winning wines at their tasting room in Clarkdale, AZ.

Since breweries are not tied as much to their growing location, you’ll find more than 9000 craft breweries in the United States with a wide range of brewing styles, flavors, and bitterness ratings. Here’s a fun unscientific list of a reader’s choice of the top 20 best beer cities in America to consider for your next USA road trip.

Do you love to try local wineries, craft breweries, fun cocktails, and even a wonderful infused lemonade on your road trips? It’s just another way to support the local economy and get a refreshing “taste” of the area.

Be on the Lookout for Historical Sites

Do you love history? We do! If you’re looking for lesser-known historical sites on your USA road trip, this post about “Where to find Info About U.S. Historical Travel” is a gold mine of information with dozens of great sources. I’m sure there are destinations you’ve never even heard of before that you can visit along the way.

Hot Springs National Park was one of our stops that incorporated a historical site as well as a national park.

Appreciate Art and Creativity

I love art and creativity. If you enjoy street art, architecture, art museums, artisans, art studios, or other creative destinations, be sure to add those to your road trip itinerary. You can often find info about creative spaces by searching for a city or state name and the word “art”.

I stumbled upon a wonderful street art walking tour in the small town of Abilene, Kansas on one of my road trips. You can find out more about it here.

Spend Time Exploring Nature

Who doesn’t love nature? I hope you’ll explore the amazing diversity of natural beauty across America, even if you’ve lived your life in the city and don’t quite get the attraction. Did you know that experiencing nature makes you stronger, smarter, healthier, happier, and more productive? Here’s a piece from the National Park Service with just some of the benefits of exploring the nature around you.

We visited seven different national parks on this two-month road trip and I would have loved to stop at more. If you’re thinking of visiting more than one national park you can find out about all the options for saving money on park entrance fees here.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of spending a bare minimum of two nights in or very close to each national park and preferably more. For most of the bigger parks, like Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Olympic, etc. I would recommend at least a week. Did you know that you’ll see many more animals around dusk and dawn than you will in the middle of the day? The day tour crowds are also gone in the mornings and evenings, which makes everything more enjoyable.

Now that you have tips for planning your USA road trip check out the list of places we visited on our two-month road trip across America.