Planning Summer Road Trips

[Kelly]

My sister and I are planning a road trip for this June. We live Indiana, we are going from home to Colorado (colorado springs and denver) and to California (san fransisco, LA, Hollywood, Coasta Mesa, etc.). We plan on going to vegas too. All by car. Both of us have never been to any of these places and the longest we've driven was 13 hours. We don't know what to expect or anything. Any tips? Advice? Anything would be great!

[Brian Smicklas]

Enjoy that! Im driving my jeep from LA to Miami in June..I'll also be in Vegas approx June 25. Sched some hotel/motel enroute to ensure showers. Camp to save cash, but you don't save any time that way, also not safe for two girls. Drive fast, you may not get ticks. Party in every city and wake up early for the special hungover drives. I can't wait for my trip. When's yours? good luck.

[PNW Judy]

Brian gives good advice except for this: re camping safety. It is very safe for girls to camp. I have camped many times by myself without a problem. I have also camped with just other women, with just me and my kids (even when they were quite small), etc. As long as you follow some common-sense guidelines, camping for a woman along or with just another woman is perfectly fine.

I would suggest that you camp in public or private campgrounds and avoid staying in remote locations like you might find on NFS/BLM lands. Any private campground should always be quite safe. Just avoid the rundown campgrounds that sometimes provide permanent camping sites to transients. But any nicer campground, especially like KOA-style ones, should be just fine.

National/State/County parks are usually safe to camp in as well. IN those types of areas, I would suggest that you camp near other tent campers and not in a remote or secluded campsite. You might be friendly with any families camping near you. If they have met you, they are more likely to help keep an eye on you or help if something did happen and you needed help. Or you can find the campground host and ask if you can camp near them. These people are always very helpful and will be glad to keep an eye on you as well.

But I really wouldn't sweat it.

I also disagree with Brian on the saving money issue. I'm doing a roadtrip with some friends this summer. There's five cars of us going in a caravan. None of these folks camp. The hotels they are staying in run from $35-70/nite and the total lodging they will pay for this 10-day trip is about $500. I'm camping and paying from $10-22/nite. My total lodging costs are going to be about $150. That's a $350 savings over just 10 days.

[Anhphuong]

Me and my brother plan to take a road trip from San Diego, CA to Boston, Ma. Any suggest for us like where to stop for fun, how to avoid traffic and hot weather? Thank you very much