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| A little planning can go a long way toward
making your road trip the adventure of your dreams. These eight
road-tested tips will help you head happily for the horizon. |
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- Identify your trip's purpose. Why are you taking this trip?
If you can answer that, you'll know how much planning will be required.
For example, if your answer is, "I want to hit the road and see
where it takes me in four days," you don't need much more than
a tank of gas to get going. On the other hand, an answer like, "I
want to take a week to drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, seeing
as many attractions as I can along the way" will require a fair
amount of advance planning to pull off.
- Know your style. Are you the type who has to have hotel reservations
to feel comfortable, or are you happy stopping at the nearest roadside
motel when the sun goes down? Do you like to have a detailed route plotted
out in advance, or do you like letting serendipity influence your route
once you hit the road? Pay attention not only to your preferences but
also those of your traveling companions. What might seem like freedom
to you may be terrifying to another. To a person who likes spontaneity,
a tightly scheduled road trip may feel stultifying.
- Get ideas and information from lots of sources.
Yes, it would be terrific if you could go to one Web site, enter your
start and finish points, click a button, and get back a perfectly planned
road trip package without paying a dime. Or would it? Aside from the
fact that point-and-click
road trip planners are still in their infancy, there is much to
be said for good old-fashioned research. Simply put, the more time and
interest you yourself put into planning your trip, the more you yourself
will get out of it when you actually hit the road. Where to start? Try
posting a query on our RoadTrip
Forum. You'll probably be amazed at the great tips and suggestions
you'll get in response. Use RoadTrip America as a starting point to
find maps, routes,
and attractions. Check out our
book recommendations for print resources.
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