How to Plan a Road Trip to Fit Your Budget [7 Easy Steps]

As a couple, we’ve road tripped all over the United States, visiting 41 states and 28 national parks (so far!).

And you can’t do that without some kind of a plan!

A plan to prioritize your dream and make it happen, a plan to be able to afford it, a plan so that you know where to go during your road trip, and what to do when you get there.

Thankfully, I love making a good plan! I love the dreaming stage, the planning stage, and the execution stage.

And today we’re going to walk you through some of the planning that makes an awesome road trip come together!

How to Plan a Road Trip

This is a good spot to touch on two different styles of road trips.

Mile Wide, Inch Deep Road Trip:

Like we the road trip we planned in 2013 when we saw 13 National Parks and traveled just over 8,000 miles in a 6 week period.

This kind of road trip was perfect for us then. We got to SEE so much.

We had no problem with driving after dark most evenings, as we were only accommodating ourselves and a dog at that point.

We spent enough time at each national park to see the highlights and do a few hikes before moving on.

This road trip really helped us see much of the American West and pinpoint the places we want to return to.

The Loneliest Road in America, Hwy 50 in Nevada

Inch Wide, Mile Deep Road Trip:

Closer to the road trip we planned in 2017 when our daughter was 18 months old.

We sat still longer, spending some days not even leaving the campsite to explore elsewhere.

It was slow, enjoyable, less stressful, and really fun to do as a family. We certainly didn’t SEE as much, but we had time to DO more.

If you’re juggling mobile work hours and a kid or three, you might lean this way!

So! Before you get carried away in planning waaaaaay too many road trip destinations, really assess what you want your experience to be. Both kinds of road trips are great, just really different!

Onward! Here’s our step-by-step guide on how to plan a road trip!

1. Create Your Road Trip Bucket List

The first part of planning a road trip is deciding - where do you want to go?

Road trip planning and creating a bucket list

Think big and think small - places across the world and those only a few states away.

Maybe somewhere your grandma talked about. Maybe a visit to a family member, or revisiting a place you saw when you were a kid. Maybe somewhere you discovered through Instagram or Pinterest (both great for road trip inspiration!).

Sometimes putting your dream destinations on paper can give that little push needed to make something happen!

Patrick and I planned our first long road trip around seeing family members on the west coast, our second road trip around national parks west of the Mississippi, and our third road trip around national parks and big cities on the east coast and throughout the New England states.

Love national parks? Download and print our map and list of all the national parks in the United States to help in your road trip planning!

2. Plan How Much Time & Money You Need for Your Road Trip

After creating that dream road trip destination list, it’s time to get back to reality for a minute by thinking about time and money. Booooo!

Knowing how much time you can spend road tripping is usually the easier part to figure out!

But knowing how much a road trip will really cost is a bit harder.

We recommend creating a road trip budget with the following categories: Fuel, Food, Accommodations, Entertainment, & Other.

In our experience, about 40% of our road trip budget is consistently sucked up by fuel, while around 30% goes towards food, 10-15% towards entertainment, less than 10% towards our accommodations (read this to learn how to camp for free!), and around 10% on other random needs.

Of course, this varies greatly from family to family, depending largely on your accommodations (hotels, resorts, campgrounds, free camping), how many miles you travel each day and your average MPG, how often you go out to eat, and the type of entertainment you find while road tripping.

Check out this post for exact expense details on a recent four week road trip, which can help you compare and set a realistic road trip budget.

And for tips on stretching that money a little further, jump over to this post: 10 Budget Road Trip Tips: Cross Country Travel on the Cheap.

You’ll also want to have an emergency fund set aside too, outside of your road trip budget, in case of mechanical or health issues that could come up while you’re adventuring.

3. Narrow Your Road Trip Destination Based on Time and Money

Once you’ve got a good idea of how much a road trip might cost for you based on the way you plan to travel, look at your bucket list of dream destinations again.

If the place you most want to go is across the country, will you be able to drive there (more time spent but less money), or will you be able to fly there and then rent a vehicle (less time spent but more money)? Or do you need to temporarily eliminate that dream stop because you can’t currently afford the extra time to drive or extra money to fly?

Look through your bucket list with those things in mind, narrowing possible road trip destinations as you go.

Staying anchored in reality while still dreaming big can help you quickly see what road trip destinations are or aren’t possible yet.

4. Narrow Your Road Trip Destinations Based on Season

Don’t forget to consider the climate and seasons of the places you’re hoping to visit during your road trip!

Some natural attractions are only able to be seen during certain times of the year - like the northern lights, or waterfalls that depend on early spring snow melt.

Some places get so miserably hot during the summer that you may not be able to enjoy hiking.

Other places have a hurricane season, or permanent winter road closures due to snow and ice.

And of course, many places are only open during their tourist season, or have only limited attractions during off-season.

So check over your bucket list again, and consider any of those seasonal based conditions that could affect your road trip experience.

And then narrow that list down to your final destinations!

5. Can Your Road Trip Fuel Budget Get You That Far?

Once you have your estimate on the amount of money you can spend on fuel during your road trip, do some math to figure out how many miles down the road that amount of money can get you.

Or do the opposite - set your dream destination and figure out how much gas money you’d need to drive there. Use one of the formulas below.

You’ll need average fuel prices from the areas you’ll be traveling, and https://gasprices.aaa.com/ is a good resource for that.

If you’re starting with your fuel budget, use this formula:

Total Fuel Budget / Average Cost of Fuel per Gallon = Number of Gallons You Can Afford

then

Number of Gallons You Can Afford x Average MPG Your Vehicle Gets = Approximate Number of Miles You Can Afford to Travel

OR

If you’re starting with the number of miles it takes to get to your dream destination and then home again, use this formula:

Approximate Number of Miles You Want to Travel / Average MPG Your Vehicle Gets = Number of Gallons of Fuel You’ll Need to Buy

then

Number of Gallons of Fuel You’ll Need to Buy x Average Cost of Fuel per Gallon = Approximate Cost of Fuel For This Trip

Do you have enough fuel money to get you to your destination (and then home again!), or do you need to go back a few steps?!

6. Plan Major Road Trip Stops

Once your destination is set, pull out some maps! Paper maps, Google maps, using the highly recommended app Roadtrippers - whatever works best for you!

Check out possible stops along the route that takes you to your road trip destination. Family member or friend’s house? National Parks? A city you’d like to explore? Don’t forget about getting off the interstate and taking the scenic route when time allows!

Focus on those major draws that would be worth planning a road trip route around.

7. Reassess Your Available Road Trip Time & Money! Again!

Yes, one last check-in with that road trip budget and available time. Fun, huh?

Plug all those major stops you’ve picked out into your preferred maps app, get the total miles you’ll need to travel, and again, see if you’re still in the ballpark of your fuel budget.

Then guesstimate how much time you might want to spend at each major stop along your road trip route (along with the drive time between stops of course!), and see if you’re in the ballpark on the amount of time you have for this road trip.

Eliminate road trip stops and destinations accordingly. (We know this is HARD!)

Look closest at those that are farthest off your path, or least interesting, or that you don’t actually care that much about experiencing but for some reason think that you should!

And, of course, don’t forget to have a few buffer days.

For enjoying cool state parks, dealing with car trouble, a day to get a hotel and binge watch a straight 7 hours of TV while you order room service, staying an extra day with out-of-state family members or friends, enjoying a bison jam, having the freedom to take a scenic route - you’re going to need a couple extra days in there!

There you have it. That’s been our process to successfully plan awesome road trips over the years while staying within our given time and budget limitations.

When we load up to leave for an adventure, having all the major stops, approximate time frames, a manageable budget, and the date we need to arrive home figured out ahead of time removes a lot of the stress and greatly improves the experience of our road trips.

If you’ll need to work while on the road, head over to this post: Portable WiFi for Camping, Traveling, and Working Remotely.

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