Our families 8 week RV Trip
So here is our first BIG family trip. We bought a 2011 38' Fleetwood Expedition 38B last Oct. We are pulling a Jeep Wrangler as a toad. Going will be me(the driver), my wife, and 3 boys (ages 12,11, a...
Forum Discussion
I'm going to dissent from most and say it's doable with kids with some caveats. I've made two crosscountry trips in pop-up with kids 7 & 10 for first trip and 12 and 15 for second trip. We didn't have to make return trip because they were associated with moves. I've also been to every place on your list except Glacier - it got cut to add sanity to our last trip.
1. I haven't checked your mileages to see if your drives are doable. I know sections well enough to know you are fine but others not as much. Factor 55 mph and no more than 10 hours on the road counting stops. And that's aggressive.
2. You have a maneageble tempo upfront. If kids are road warriors, you can handle 2-3 days hard driving without a stop. The back end is going to be painful so you need to make concessions to add stops there for safety and sanity.
3. Skip Houston. It's close enough to Jax, FL to see another day and is an attrocious place for an RV. Go straight to San Antonio. You can get to San Antonio from Henderson, LA in a day. You do need a stop by this point so at least pick one of the two.
4. Are you camping outside cities and using toad? You don't want to sight see in any of those cities in an RV.
5. My take: Add a day in San Diego and drop Seattle. You have to ask if going to needle is enough? San Diego you need to go to the zoo and La Jolla at least. Zoo is a day. Skip Sea World. You live in FL. Go to USS MIDWAY and walk Gas Lamp District.
6. Yes, Yosemite is worth it even for a day but you only have a half day with your drives. San Diego to Yosemite is 9 hours with perfect traffic. I'd cut Grand Canyon to one day and add a day to Yosemite and a day to Moab. You can see Yosemite Valley in a day and half if you don't do longer hikes like Vernal Falls or Mirror Lake, which unfortunately are probaby dry anyway. Not ideal to doable.
7. LA has perfect traffic about seven hours per week - and that means five lanes of traffic at 70 mph instead of a traffic jam. You have to really watch your time through LA. My best luck driving SD to Central CA is to go through LA between 1000 and 1500 but there is still a lunch slowdown. Lot's of opinions on how to get through but I just choose my timing very carefully and stay on the 5.
8. Categorically do not drive into SF with an RV. I can't see your agenda right now but 3 hours in SF is plenty with trade offs you have to make. Drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and go up to the lookout on the NW side. Spend a couple hours at Fisherman's Wharf and ride a street car. Next. You must get clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl. That is worth the trip. I don't know the area outside SF well enough. Maybe you could stay north of the city and come in south over Golden Gate Bridge and spend the evening at Fisherman's Wharf. If you want to do Alcatraz, it sells out way in advance so plan accordingly and big factor time.
9. Again, I'd consider cutting Seattle and maybe Glacier to add some stops on your route home. Having made 4 week trips, 3 days straight on the road is max before everyone is tapped out.
10. Whoever mentioned laundry day is dead on. Once a week you need a day to recover with only light sightseeing.
11. Last one, is other than booking National Parks, we like flexing on intermediate stops so we don't have to press if things went wrong driving or just extra tired. Reverse was also true where we hate to stop due to overnight reservations if we feel we can safely cover another 100 miles.
Have fun!
1. I haven't checked your mileages to see if your drives are doable. I know sections well enough to know you are fine but others not as much. Factor 55 mph and no more than 10 hours on the road counting stops. And that's aggressive.
2. You have a maneageble tempo upfront. If kids are road warriors, you can handle 2-3 days hard driving without a stop. The back end is going to be painful so you need to make concessions to add stops there for safety and sanity.
3. Skip Houston. It's close enough to Jax, FL to see another day and is an attrocious place for an RV. Go straight to San Antonio. You can get to San Antonio from Henderson, LA in a day. You do need a stop by this point so at least pick one of the two.
4. Are you camping outside cities and using toad? You don't want to sight see in any of those cities in an RV.
5. My take: Add a day in San Diego and drop Seattle. You have to ask if going to needle is enough? San Diego you need to go to the zoo and La Jolla at least. Zoo is a day. Skip Sea World. You live in FL. Go to USS MIDWAY and walk Gas Lamp District.
6. Yes, Yosemite is worth it even for a day but you only have a half day with your drives. San Diego to Yosemite is 9 hours with perfect traffic. I'd cut Grand Canyon to one day and add a day to Yosemite and a day to Moab. You can see Yosemite Valley in a day and half if you don't do longer hikes like Vernal Falls or Mirror Lake, which unfortunately are probaby dry anyway. Not ideal to doable.
7. LA has perfect traffic about seven hours per week - and that means five lanes of traffic at 70 mph instead of a traffic jam. You have to really watch your time through LA. My best luck driving SD to Central CA is to go through LA between 1000 and 1500 but there is still a lunch slowdown. Lot's of opinions on how to get through but I just choose my timing very carefully and stay on the 5.
8. Categorically do not drive into SF with an RV. I can't see your agenda right now but 3 hours in SF is plenty with trade offs you have to make. Drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and go up to the lookout on the NW side. Spend a couple hours at Fisherman's Wharf and ride a street car. Next. You must get clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl. That is worth the trip. I don't know the area outside SF well enough. Maybe you could stay north of the city and come in south over Golden Gate Bridge and spend the evening at Fisherman's Wharf. If you want to do Alcatraz, it sells out way in advance so plan accordingly and big factor time.
9. Again, I'd consider cutting Seattle and maybe Glacier to add some stops on your route home. Having made 4 week trips, 3 days straight on the road is max before everyone is tapped out.
10. Whoever mentioned laundry day is dead on. Once a week you need a day to recover with only light sightseeing.
11. Last one, is other than booking National Parks, we like flexing on intermediate stops so we don't have to press if things went wrong driving or just extra tired. Reverse was also true where we hate to stop due to overnight reservations if we feel we can safely cover another 100 miles.
Have fun!
