How far to travel with only 2 weeks vacation time/year

michigansandzilla wrote:
I have seen this many times in numerous threads and I find it very interesting how people's opinions differ. So I thought I'd do a quick poll and see what everyone thinks.

We plan to go 1800 miles one way with 650+miles in one day when necessary. So, about 3600 miles round trip.


How far will you travel if you only have 2 weeks of vacation time/year?

Once upon a time I took the 650 miles a day approach however I eventually realized it's not an endurance test. I try to limit my travel to 250-350 miles a day max. Find a CG along the way stop for the night and have fun.
I also try not to travel more that 2 days in a row before reaching a destination CG.
The object is to camp and relax not to drive. After a 650 mile day I'm generally to tired/wound up to enjoy the day.
650 miles is easily a 13 hour driving day. No thanks. Being behind the wheel that long is not:fun,enjoyable or relaxing.
I now pick closer destinations and plan accordingly.
I believe you are headed to DC this summer which is great, but plan 300-400 mile days to and from DC. Maximize your CG time not your drive time.
I once took your road warrior approach before I realized the goal was to relax and have fun. Now I travel in smaller steps and spend more time smelling the roses vs. sitting behind the wheel

We are just starting to do longer trips this year and DW and I have discussed this issue at great length. We have decided that our past 1 week or less vacation experiences have taught us we need to "wind-down" after a long drive. For example, a long single day drive of 700 miles or so, that runs out day #1 of vacation. Then we still kinda feel outta sorts the following day. So we don't really get into fully enjoying our time till day #3.
Now, a good number of short trips add in to show us that we don't feel as road-weary if we only go roughly 300 miles at a time. So that is another strategy to plan around. Hop from CG to CG across an area / state we want to visit.
The tail end of the trip is not as much of consideration, since we are going back to work afterwards but we don't want to get home only in time to go to bed for work the next morning. We just want to time arriving back home to have 1/2 day to unpack / recover.

In round numbers, I'd say I'd do maybe up to 3000 miles round trip if I had 2 full weeks AND only if I wanted to stop / camp in multiple places along the way.

Seeing as how I do only get 3 weeks a year, we are splitting it up to do a bunch of 3 day WE's, 1 full week local (3 hrs drive) camping to just relax, 12 / 13 days for our one "long trip" -- and that is just at 2000 miles round trip with camping in 4 or 5 locations with the longest site only being 4 days in one spot.

We have to do the 2 week thing also... Looks like the longest 2 week trip we've taken was 1500 miles. Back when we had the kids with us the longest was 800 miles. And next month our plans are for a 1300 mile trip. We're waiting till retirement to go out west. We did that back in '77 for our honeymoon camping trip so we know about long driving days. :)

I can do 650 a day if I'm not towing but that's too much with a trailer. I like to let tires cool down and give my truck a break besides not being beat. Being military, I've been fortunate to do cross countries as part of moves where I didn't have to back track. I've done 700 when I had to meet a timeline but for the most part prefer 350 miles max in a day with that including some site seeing stop midday. Also, prefer to not do that more than 2 days in a row before we stay at a spot for a couple days. Best case when in transit mode is a 5-6 hours driving, 2-3 hours site-seeing, set up in camp for dinner and get some rest.

The older we are getting, the shorter the daily drive is becoming.

We figure about 200-250 miles a day. That translates between 4-6 hours of actual driving time. We have found that we can travel shorter distances and NOT be so beat out we can't enjoy the evening hours.

We have learned it is absolutely NO fun at all driving like a crazy nut escaping from hell itself for hours and then reaching our destination so exhausted we do nothing but sleep the next day. That's just stupid!

So, we have slowed WAY down. 200-250 miles a day provides enough driving time to get on down the road, but not so far it's exhausting. We will dive 3 days like this, and on the 4th we stop for at least 1 full day before going on. And unbelievable, the trips are all enjoyable. If we see something along the side of the road while traveling, or see an attraction we'd like to visit, or take an extra long lunch break at a park somewhere, we do and don't have to feel so gosh-danged rushed ending up in frustration and exhaustion.

So as we are getting older, our style of travel and camping has changed completely from when we were younger and had kids at home living with us. For us, camping begins when we start stocking up the camper. We've learned to enjoy the packing, the planning, the driving, the miss-adventures, the wrong turns, as much as the final destination. Actually, some of the best experiences we encountered while driving has been when we missed our turn or somehow got turned around and lost. Those were really the best times on the road! You meet some of the most interesting people when you are "lost".

rv2go wrote:
Call me young and crazy, but back in 1977, the wife, daughter and I took off in our new 1976 Midas Class C. We left Knoxville, Tn and went as far west as Long Beach, Wa. The trip was over 6200 miles in 15 days.
This is about the route we took.

Small world!! In 1977, my wife, daughter and I took a simular trip in our 1976 MiniWinnie class "C". We left Detroit and took I-75 north to the UP and the US-2 west to Montana. Turned left at Glacier International Park. South thru Yosemite and Grand Tetons then into Idaho and followed the Snake River. Dropped down to Reno and west on I-80 into the SF Bay Area. Don't remember the exact route back but we passed thru Salt Lake City, Denver, The Bad Lands and Mt. Rushmore along the way. Our trip was three weeks long. Ahh !!! To be young again. Would take three months now.

After much trial, error and tiring days we have settled on 200 to 250 miles max each travel day. We stay at least 2 days at each stopover (which makes it worthwhile to unhitch) to explore the area. We are usually the last to pull out in the morning and the first to arrive at a new stop. We arrive early enough to unhitch, set up, pick the host's brain for what he or she is most proud of for visitors to see in the area and then maybe tour the town. The next day we see the local sights and maybe find that best Mom & Pop restaurant ever. For us it is all about the trip and who and what we discover along the way rather than a particular destination.

I still do the 1500 miles to CO in two days as I'd rather spend my time in the West. It would not be tiring if I had to do another 750 as I like driving my MH that much. Once there my personal best in one day is four miles.
OP It's not for us to judge why you want\need to do that many miles in two weeks.

Depends on why I'm traveling. For camping trips, I try to limit the time spent driving to 4 hours or less for a 4-day camping trip. Gives me a good range of campgrounds within that distance, and I am not exhausted from the drive.

For sightseeing trips, I have gone as long as 8 hours (not in the RV) between stops. That was a very long day, so I try to keep it closer to 6 hours max. I also have a trick for determining how long to stay in one place. I do a bit of research and identify those sites/activities that interest me. Then I count up those activities based on the expected time needed. So, if an activity will take less than 4 hours, I count it as 1/2; if it takes more than 4 hours, I count it as 1. Add those up and that's how many days I stay in that location. Works great as I have plenty of time to see what I know I'll enjoy, leeway time to relax, add in a couple things, etc.

Our summer long vacation is 15 days this year. Since we are traveling from northern WI, it takes a little while to get where we actually want to vacation, usually west. This year we are going to Denver, Moab, Grand Canyon, and Durango. Total of 3100 miles. Our longest day is 560 miles, shortest is 325 miles. Travel days are 8. Day one and two are usually the longest. We cheat by leaving the night before the official vacation begins and get a few hours in, that makes the real day 1 shorter so we can relax a bit that afternoon, before starting long day 2. We also plan the end of long day 1 at a place with a pool so my daughter has some fun down time, this year it is at a small water park. Last day on the way home is hammer down, longer day to get home no matter what, everyone is eager to sleep in their own bed. PS, we have reservations for every night already, no need for surprises after a long day of travel.