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

Redterpos3, Love your post!

Redterpos3 wrote:
Not the ending we expected, but still vacation all the way!! Attitude attitude attitude!!

No truer words.
We never made it to our destination on our very first big family trip. We were headed to Lake Superior. I've lived in Michigan my entire life and had never been to Lake Superior. Our children had never been to the UP. I was anticipating the trip greatly.

2 hours into the trip, our truck broke down. Through a series of fortunate coincidences, we got a ride off of the expressway to a nearby cottage a family member owns but was not using. We ended up with a house on the lake with a pontoon, a car to drive while ours was being repaired, and friends to visit with to pass the time.
The truck was fixed the day that our vacation ended. We never made it to our planned destination that year, but still had a great vacation.

BTW-the next year we DID make it to Lake Superior. Something about that postponed anticipation made it so much sweeter. We had to work hard to get there, but finally made it. To this day, if I had to pick a favorite family vacation, that would be it.

For that trip, it was 300 miles and we had a two year old with us. I believe it took us 9 hours to get there! ;) Toddlers + long travel = not fun. As the baby has gotten older, the trips have gotten longer!

Our biggest driving stretch was last April. 650 miles in 12 hours. We considered stopping for the night a few hours prior, but it was pouring rain so we figured we'd just motor on.

This year, our trip is 1800 miles in 16 days with our return home being 640 miles in one day.

Next year, we're going to Yellowstone, 3600 miles in 16 days and at least 2 consecutive days of 600+ miles. Not looking forward to that but it's a necessary evil.

Happy trails everyone!

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?

3600 miles sounds like 3+ weeks to me.
About 1000 miles per week is plenty. Need to see something besides truck stops. Maybe even relax a bit.

On vacation a long time ago I realized that I could decide when my vacation would begin. Does vacation begin when you get there, or when you leave your home, or better yet, does it begin as you start planning to go! The earlier the better, so when I am packing my trailer/car, etc, I am on vacation. When I'm on rv.net I am on vacation. For sure when I pull out of my driveway with my rig, I am on vacation, and begin enjoying every minute. That attitude helped when we stopped at a flying j in NY, and after pulling out realized I had popped my radiator. AAA came figured out they would tow us home. Van on top of truck, trailer towed by the tow truck. His rig was maxed out! But we made it home in tact, and I was able to have him drop my van off at my shop to get it fixed and the trailer he dropped at my house. Not the ending we expected, but still vacation all the way!! Attitude attitude attitude!!

I think it is a bit a progression and a wisdom that comes with age and experience.
At some point I think we were all road warriors. Drive as long and as far as possible. This approach may still be beneficial when heading to a major destination. I.E. Disney, Mount Rushmore,Washington DC, NYC,Grand Canyon etc.
Nevertheless driving 12-13 hour days is not fun what ever advantage you get of additional time at your destination must be weighed against lost time behind he wheel.
Why spend 10 hours to reach South Carolina beaches when MD and DE beaches are 3 hours away. I agree Myrtle is the best beach destination on the east coast however drive time is a real factor. I do not want to spend my vacation time on I-95. I can make do with OC,MD or DE beaches and save a day behind the wheel. I apply this logic to lots of destinations.
A major attraction may warrant more driving but there are still limits.
If you have 14 days for vacation. driving 1800 miles will consume 4 days. That's almost 1/3 of the time driving.
I am not retired, I have taking the road warrior approach many times and simply discovered I don't need to work that hard to reach my destination. I do not need to get into warrior mode. I can have more overall enjoyment throughout the entire journey if I spend less time behind the wheel and more time at my campsite, at the pool or touring the town.
If traveling 1800 miles from MI to DC. I would do 450 mile a day max and hopefully make 2 days to get there and 2 days back. I would work in any convenient attractions along the way and make the most of it.

weekend trips only. No vacation time in contract consulting purgatory.

pira114 wrote:
I'll drive all night ...Minimizes the felt time traveling for the kids and wife. They sleep the whole way usually. But we're a relatively young family still.

When our family was young I enjoyed the night driving. Less traffic, less pitstops (folks needing to go)...we end up in Florida at Grandparents in the early AM, sometimes before they even awoke for the day...I would then crash, and the rest of the family would hop in the pool! That was pre-trailer, though.

Now we are empty nesters, so we travel a little less in a day, but depends on what we are doing and where we are going. Trying to figure out my next trip to Maine to visit my son. I want to drive and stop at LL Bean for the night, will arrive around 3AM, and it is open 24/7, mainly for the fun of it, but want to have some options along the way in case my excitement can't carry me through, will be working the morning before we head out.

Like John S above, we often leave at dusk and do 200 miles. Last summer on the next day we changed destination to the Tetons because I-35 was closed north of us. Had not planned on doing 1900 miles in 48 hours but one of the best ways to see the plains is at night and we were in Jackson Hole the next afternoon.
PS, we are 70 and there is very little in the middle of th country we need to see again. For us it's still the destination... The West.

Sorry. CONUS is Continental United States.

OutdoorPhotographer wrote:
We've set a goal of all the CONUS National Parks before kids graduate college. We like bobbing and weaving states as well to catch as many as possible. Have to stop and do something though or it doesn't count as a state visited.

What are CONUS parks? I haven't heard this term before.

Same with us. My ten year old wants to visit every state. While I don't think I can take him to every state, I'll get him to several. We have the same rules. We don't have to sleep in the state, but we have to stop and do something in it or it doesn't count.