SFO to St Louis

Hello, trying to plan for a winter road trip from San Francisco to St Louis. Picking up a new addition to our family. While this trip is for pleasure I do need to be there and back in 10 days. When should I go (January, February or March)? Best routes? Want to go the shortes/fastest way the first leg and through the south the second leg. What will the road conditions be like during this time? Sights to see, places to sleep and eat? Pet friendly places would be ideal. Any advice would be grateful. Thank you.

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

How much time are you hoping to spend in St. Louis? As it is, 10 days is not much time at all for this trip. To do the trip safely, you'll need 3.5 days each way - and that's before any additional stops or detours - and that's assuming you see good weather. In a best case situation, you'd have at most 3 days in St. Louis.

In this case, there actually isn't too much difference between the shortest route - I-80 to NE-2 to I-29 to I-70 and a more southern route, assuming you're talking about I-44 to I-40. The southern route here only adds about 100 miles, but if you're hoping to make any stops along the way, like a detour to the Grand Canyon, you'd need at least 4 or more days.

It's impossible to say what weather you might see, other than to note that both routes see plenty of winter weather. Since you're on a time crunch, I'd probably try to push your plans as late into March as you can go to reduce your risk of seeing snow or ice. Odds are, if you travel in Jan or Feb, you'd probably see at least some bad weather, either coming or going, although a late season storm wouldn't be out of the question in March on either route either.

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When should I go (January, February or March)? Best routes? Want to go the shortes/fastest way the first leg and through the south the second leg. What will the road conditions be like during this time? Sights to see, places to sleep and eat? Pet friendly places would be ideal. Any advice would be grateful. Thank you.

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Michael is correct in saying that this is a 3-1/2 day trip in each direction, no matter how you slice it, and using the routes he suggested. I would also agree with him on the timing - more likely to be better in March.

Places to sleep and eat, and pet friendly: My cousin raises and shows Bostons, and swears by Motel 6 and LaQuinta for their pet-friendly status. Often times, they grab food "to go" and bring it back to the motel room for dinner. For breakfast, most Motel 6's do not offer any sort of continental breakfast. However, depending on the outdoor temperature, you can either grab fast-food breakfast, or a quick breakfast at a sit-down place. Same with lunches, or you could carry snacks and sandwich makings in the car.


Donna