Philly to Bozeman MT

[chrisdm4]

Planing on doing a road trip this summer to Bozeman from philly. We have all these spots we would like to see like Yellowstone, Badlands, and the Tetons, but here is the catch. We only have 9 days to do this trip (one week and two weekends). I only have 10 days of vacation so time for a vacation is only five days to save room for weddings and whatever may come up. It takes 31 hours to drive out there. That is two and a half days of just driving. Do you guys think it is worth it to do this trip with just 9 days, or wait till I have more time off (four years from now)?

We are also thinking of doing Utah or Colorado instead of Montana. Thing about Montana is her uncle lives in Bozeman so we could stay there saving us a lot of money. We hiked every state in New England last year so we want to get out west to hike, though we will be back to ADK's and the white mountains to check off a couple more high peaks.

Any input would be great!

Thanks,
Chris

[Mark Sedenquist]

Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum!

Philly to Bozeman is four days driving 8-10 hours per day at the highest speed limit. No one unless they have a police escort and never, ever stop can drive 2200 miles in 2.5 days. So such a trip would require 8 days just in driving time (to and from). So.... I would suggest taking the 10 days and doing a hiking/driving holiday around the Smokey Mountains...

Mark

[Midwest Michael]

While a computer program might tell you that you can make that trip in 31 hours, that is only in a virtual world where that could even be close to reality. Online mapping programs assume you never hit traffic, never need to stop for fuel, never need to eat, never need a restroom, and never need to sleep.

Real world, these kinds of trips aren't measured in hours, they are measured in days, and there is no way you can safely drive between Philly and Yellowstone in 2.5 days. At the bare minimum, it is 3.5-4 days of hard driving each way.

With just 9 days available, you'd be spending 8 of them in the car, so I'd have to say this trip needs to wait until you have more time, or unless you are willing to do a fly and drive trip.

[Joe46]

As others have stated you just don't have the time to do this trip. Besides the Great Smokey's, you may also want to check out the New England states.