This is about a year (or less) into the future. Planning to take a family roadtrip from Charlotte NC to Grand Canyon. Self, wife, and 2 kids, currently aged 4 & 1.
Still debating on staying in hotels VS buying a small camper to tow behind the Pilot. Likely will go the Hotels & Airbnb route, but not 100% yet.
Would like to have a fun family-friendly place to visit daily, while covering an average of ~350 miles per day or more. Obviously with kids the stops are going to happen every 2-3 hours, so that will limit the daily mileage some. But having a fun daily stop should give everyone something to look forward to daily, instead of just going straight there and back with only fuel/food/restroom stops. I'm considering taking one route there and a different route back, for change of scenery and whatnot...
What would be some "must see" places along the way, without breaking a bank? Free is great, but I know most nicer places have admission fees. Anything more than $40-50/person goes out the window, as $200 almost daily for 3 weeks just on attractions is not in the cards currently.
Looking forward to your recommendations. And yes - I've tried a couple "trip planning" sites. But their AI just keeps pushing the high priced places, and I'm sure there are fun things to do along the way and cool places to visit, without blowing all the savings on it. Hopefully some here can share such places.
Still debating on staying in hotels VS buying a small camper to tow behind the Pilot. Likely will go the Hotels & Airbnb route, but not 100% yet.
Would like to have a fun family-friendly place to visit daily, while covering an average of ~350 miles per day or more. Obviously with kids the stops are going to happen every 2-3 hours, so that will limit the daily mileage some. But having a fun daily stop should give everyone something to look forward to daily, instead of just going straight there and back with only fuel/food/restroom stops. I'm considering taking one route there and a different route back, for change of scenery and whatnot...
What would be some "must see" places along the way, without breaking a bank? Free is great, but I know most nicer places have admission fees. Anything more than $40-50/person goes out the window, as $200 almost daily for 3 weeks just on attractions is not in the cards currently.
Looking forward to your recommendations. And yes - I've tried a couple "trip planning" sites. But their AI just keeps pushing the high priced places, and I'm sure there are fun things to do along the way and cool places to visit, without blowing all the savings on it. Hopefully some here can share such places.
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