Traveling from New York to San Diego

[gzwick26]

My wife and I haven't seen much of our country. We're both school teachers and have the summer off. We have this idea of traveling cross country with our family. We'd like to take this trip with our family(4 children- ages 6,8,10,12). We will end up in San Diego and stay with family. From there, we'll fly back to New York. We have approx. 5 weeks to get from New York to San Diego. We'd like to see and do as much as possible, while making it fun for the children also. We plan to stay at hotels along the way. Obviously, we're at the very beginning of the planning stages. Anyone with any experience/ideas/suggestions? Thank you.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Well, there are several hints for traveling as a family here, but I think foremost are these two.

One: Get the kids involved. Sit down one (or several) night(s) with an atlas (for detail) and a wall map (for marking) of the US. Start marking the places that most or several people want to go. Pretty soon a pattern should develop whereby you can connect most (but sadly not all) of the dots, and that will be your route. If you assign each child a few of those spots to research, it will be up to them to find out what they can on the site and prepare a short (and age appropriate) summary of what everybody should be looking for so that you can make the most out of each visit. They can give their info in the form of a short talk as you are driving to the site or Mom and Dad can gather them all u beforehand and put them in a book which will also serve as a souvenir.

Second: Don't push it. Mom and Dad will be able to sit in a car for many more hours than the kids will. But to keep everybody happy, you should plan on stopping every few hours at smaller locations for a picnic lunch, short walk, or just to get out of the car and yell. If you break the trip up into several shorter drives with a worthwhile destination at the end of each small bit, the children will always be on a new adventure rather than just slogging down the Interstate hour after hour. And every so often, just take a day off and sit beside the motel pool.

Finally: National Parks are one of the best deals going. If you plan to visit 4 or more, buy a Golden Eagle Pass at the first one you come to. They're $80 and get you entrance (but not other fees) into all National Parks and Monuments for a year from purchase. And your children are all within the age range for the Junior Ranger program. Ask at each park. They'll get a set of activities that will help them get more out of the park, and a badge for each park where they successfully complete the tasks.

AZBuck

[gzwick26]

wow. Thank you for your help. I guess it makes sense to start the planning by choosing the routes and places we would like to see. Researching cities/states and starting that way. Has anyone done this trip and any must sees along the way?

[Southwest Dave]

We don't do "must sees" as one of the great things about the road trip is the freedom to go where you want, an individual thing based on your interests. With 5 weeks you have thousands of options and once you have done like Buck suggested and got some dots on the map with your "must sees", we can certainly help to fill in the gaps and make suggestions.

Many of mine would be found here, on the NPS pages and the interactive "find a park" map is a useful to get info on such places. Colorado, Utah and Arizona have some wonderful National parks and much, much more.

Once you have done some research, had a look around the RTA pages and got some dots on the map, drop by and we can offer some guidance.

Enjoy the planning, it's a great part of the adventure !

[gzwick26]

I will certainly do that. I'll research and get back to you if I can figure anything out:)

[Yeehaw]

Here's a site that will help you to find "special" places on your route other than the NP's www.roadsideamerica.com

[gzwick26]

Thank you very much. Any information is helpful to me. I've never done this before.

[RoadDog]

Don't forget to travel some on old Route 66 which runs along side the interstates the whole way.

Maybe take the Lincoln Highway part of the way as well. It runs from New York City and crosses Rout 66 in Illinois.

[gzwick26]

ok. I'm trying to figure out where to go and places to see. Then I guess I'll figure out the best route( with some help hopefully).