Boston to Vegas - Middle of March!

[MRoper18]

Hello everyone!

So this spring break my friends and I are planning a road trip to Vegas from our school in Boston. We will be leaving on a Thursday night, and returning the following Sunday, for a total trip time of 10 days. We would like to get to Vegas on the Monday or Sunday following the Thursday night that we leave. We will be checking out of the hotel in Vegas on a Friday morning and heading back. A quick review of Google Maps shows that we will be traveling through:

Mass
New York
Pennsylvania (briefly)
Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Iowa
Nebraska
Colorado
Utah
Las Vegas

So far we definitely want to see Niagara falls. On the way there we have a lot of time and plan on getting a hotel for 2 nights. We want to stop in Chicago one of the nights. We are looking for other cool stuff to do, like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon. We plan on hitting the Grand Canyon on the way back, but we really want to see some cool stuff on the way there.

Since we are all graduating at the end of the year and none of us have ever road tripped or seen the USA before we really want to see all of the big things that we can, IE Mount Rushmore, Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, etc...

I was hoping someone could give a list of some cool things to see on the way that aren't too far out of the way.


Some additional info:

There will be four of us.
None of us have really seen anything outside the North East.
We are really interested in touristy spots.

Thanks in advance!!

Mike

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Sorry, but you simply aren't giving anywhere near enough respect to the amount of time it takes to drive across this vast country.

10 days is barely enough time to drive from Boston to Las Vegas and back. It certainly isn't enough time to drive there, spend a few days in Vegas, and detour to a handful of other landmarks too.

Your looking at a 2800 mile trip, that jumps up over 3,000 miles each way if you stop at any one of the landmarks you say you want to stop and visit on the way out. Even doing that over 4 days each way would require you to be on the road for 13-14 hours a day, which is an exhausting pace that does not allow time for the stops you say you want to make. It would be tough to even do that safely, and I strongly suspect the memories you'd have from trying to drive at that pace wouldn't be the kinds of things you'd actually want to remember.

I'm sorry to be so pessimistic, but it sounds like you're looking at a number that Google maps is giving you, and not thinking at all about about what it would really take to make your trip happen. Since I doubt you really have more time to work with, I strongly advise to look at some destinations a little closer, or look at flying out to Vegas, and perhaps renting a car to explore places like the grand canyon and other areas nearby.

[MRoper18]

Hi Midwest Michael,

Thanks for the response!

Just to clear things up, we are all young (21-22) and we plan on driving through the night on 4 hours rotations. We have four people and we will take turns (2 sleep, 2 drive) and rotate teams every 8 hours. If each person does two driving shifts we should be fine I think. Being young we have no problem driving through the night, with two of us sleeping at a time. I don't have any experience with road trips, so if this seems unrealistic let me know.

Thanks again,
Mike

[Midwest Michael]

I don't have any experience with road trips, so if this seems unrealistic let me know.

You kind of answer your own question here, you've never done a roadtrip, yet you think just because you are young, you can do anything.

Being young certainly has some advantages, you'll have more energy and will be able to recover more quickly than someone older. You're also probably more used to be up at odd hours, and all of that helps - for a little while.

I'm still in my 20's and there are trips I did in College, that I probably couldn't do now (or would be smart enough not to try), but that's generally for one shot deals where I gave myself a chance to recover afterwards.

But after a while, the human body starts pushing back. You simply can't sleep as good in a car as you can in a bed. Plus, if you go this route, some one is going to have to be sleeping in the middle of the day. In the best case sincerio, you have to treat this like work, where the people who are not driving or navigating must be sleeping. If for any reason they can't fall asleep or stay asleep, you must abandon the plan.

The big problem with doing a trip with shift driving like this in your case, is that you don't have experience. You don't know your own limits, you don't know how well you'll be able to sleep sitting up, etc. If you don't treat this trip like work, you could very easily kill yourself or someone else on the road.

In any case, I'd think you'd want your Spring Break to be about fun, and the kind of pace and the kind of work you'd have to do to make this trip happen, really wouldn't be much fun. No matter what you do for a roadtrip, it will be a memorable time, but because you are trying to do so much with so little time, I can very easily see your trip turning into an experience that you remember, for all the wrong reasons.

[MRoper18]

Hi again,

Thanks for another helpful response. I suppose it would be unrealistic for someone to sleep in the middle of the day. I guess we will wind up just flying out there and renting a car for a few days to go see the grand canyon or something like that. If there is anything else in the area that you can recommend please let me know.

Thanks again,
Mike

[Midwest Michael]

Certainly, one of the great things about Vegas is that there are a lot of things that are just a short drive away.

Check out our daytrips article for more ideas. I will note that I'd recommend spending a night near the Grand Canyon (Williams has many cheap motel options) instead of trying to drive there and back in one day.