Road trip! Or as you’re more likely to say and/or hear it, “Rooooaaaaad triiiip!” As a car person, I’m comfortable saying we all long for the pleasures of a well-executed long-distance automobile journey, but one needn’t be a car person to appreciate the lure of the open road and the untold adventures that might be experienced between A and a distant B. Moving through time and space from a beginning to an end is the essence of storytelling, and who doesn’t love the feeling of living a story? It’s no wonder film and TV are rife with road trip riffs.
No doubt each of us has our own vision of the ideal road trip (not The Hitcher, I’m guessing), and that’s the topic of today’s Autopian Asks. What does your perfect road trip look like? Where are you going? How will you get there? How long is your ideal journey–and in what vehicle would you like to pile those miles? Or maybe you’re lucky enough to have already experienced some great road trip adventures–tell us about those!
To the comments!
Top shot main image: merla/adobe.stock.com
Movie poster images (clockwise from top left): Dreamworks; Warner Bros.; Universal; HBO Pictures; Searchlight Pictures
I sort of just completed my ultimate road trip. I took 3 weeks to go from my home outside Atlanta across the country to spend a few days in wine country and then back again.
All in my 981 Porsche Boxster with my wife. It was pretty epic though there were certainly pros and cons to the car choice.
We covered 17 states (though some were quick pass through-only states), a bit over 6000 miles and went from sea level to over 8,000 feet in elevation.
I was pretty tired at the end of it but it was somewhat of a bucket list trip for us.
As a goth kid who grew up reading Billy Martin ex Poppy Z. Brite novels, I’ve long wanted to drive the back roads of the deep south. Me being me, I would naturally choose any flavor of Fiat, I’m not picky. North Carolina to New Orleans.
As a geography nerd, I would pick the Pamir Highway or the Road of Bones. Mostly I just think central Asia and far eastern Russia are beautiful and fascinating places. I wouldn’t be too picky on the vehicle, basically what’s locally available and won’t leave me stranded. Obviously the Road of Bones is very much out right now, but if I had the funds, Pamir would be doable.
I’ve got three, all of them long. The easy one is The Red Ball Garage to The Portofino Inn, a’la the Cannonball Baker. The second is the full length of US Hwy. 41 from Copper Harbor to Miami. The last one, and I don’t really know quite why other than remoteness and the fact that it’s now possible, is from Milwaukee to Goose Bay, Labrador.
The vehicle: The answer is always NA Miata. Seriously… I drove one, alone, from San Diego to Chicago, and because I fit and was traveling light, it was perfect.
Copper Harbor to Miami is a bucket list for my husband and me. Obviously in a Miata. Obviously in the 4-5 months per year we don’t have to worry about snow.
Wonder if we’d rather go north-to-south or south-to-north …
Still hope to go coast to coast in the US some day in my BMW 128i, but the best so far was in Spain in a rented (manual!) Seat on the A4050 from Granada to the Mediterranean coast. Beautiful views and all the hairpins. https://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/spain/7392-a-4050.html
Honestly? Around the western US on bike trails and off road trails (including northwest Texas while avoiding CA, OR, and Western WA) on a Stein Trikes Wild One 20″/20″ custom build with cable disk brakes, a manual enviolo CVT rear hub and Tannus airless tires.
I’m happy with a weekend trip to the coast in my Mazda.
I love the PNW highways. Great scenery, fun roads. Added bonus if you tack in a ferry ride along the route to get out and stretch the legs and breathe in the Puget Sound air.
Quileute resort and Cape Disappointment state park are probably my favorite destinations and there’s lots of different ways to get there.
My ideal road trip would be to Alaska and Back Via the Alcan Highway, with the return trip being via route 66 back to upstate NY. My vehicle of choice would be my 1970 Triumph Spitfire. But I doubt ol spitty would make it to buffalo let alone the west coast.
My upcoming reasonable trip is a 2-week jaunt to Portland OR in July to attend the OG Gambler 500 event, for that I will hopefully be driving my ” franken-fire” project (A spitfire body draped over a 1990 S10 frame, with V6 power, fuel injection and a stick).
Need more info/pictures of “Franken-Fire” please.
Second that: give us more!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gQAatkJmQnF2wUer8
Here is the concept art I had made roughly half way through the build. This is what it should look like completely, although it doesn’t show the rollbar I am still working on.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wsfqx7R6dYVGdeFd7
wrong link
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gQAatkJmQnF2wUer8
That’s the most recent picture I have of it. I built it out of cast offs from other projects . Parts from 7 different spitfires, a 1992 s10 frame with 20″ taken out of the middle, a 4.3L v6, nv3500 5 speed, 2wd for now, hopefully 4wd later . Still a lot of small details to finish but I have yard driven it a bit. Pretty fast and scary without the doors on it
Right now our Road Trip is to a rented beach house near Myrtle Beach.
The vehicle, the z28 as we can fit what we need and it is a surprisingly comfortable ride.
I recently did a 2500 km (total) trip to the Alfa Romeo museum in Arese with my wife, in my 164 Q4. Arese was the birthplace of that very car nearly 30 years ago. We took the longer, more scenic and twisty route through the Alps, kids left with the grandparents for the long weekend. Got lots of thumbs up and horn beeps on the way. It wasn’t the first time I’ve made that trip, and certainly not the last one either!
I’ve done a couple trips across the US from coast to coast. My favorite trip was back in my 20s. Me and 2 friends went from Phoenix to Cabo San Lucas and back over the course of a month. Best part, we were in a Chevelle SS convertible (had an automatic though)
I’ve always wanted to take a few weeks off, drive across country (from upstate NY to the mountain west, etc) to see everything the national parks out there have to offer. Not sure if that will ever be possible; when you’re limited on vacation time it makes way more sense to not spend 5-6 vacation days just trying to get back and forth through the midwest.
So a more realistic trip, I would love to do a miniature version of National Lampoon’s vacation (hopefully less grueling though) where I pack up the family truckster and head out to Cedar Point. I love rollercoasters and have always wanted to go, but never have. Once my kids are old enough and hopefully aren’t weenies about rides, I’d love to make that happen.
As for the vehicle, obviously the Voyager that I’ve been waxing poetic about in damn near every post here.
As someone who grew up near-ish, Cedar Point is a bit much in the summer but their Hallow-weekends in the fall are cool and much less crowded. Perfect for a miniature vacation.
Yeah we live a few miles from a Six Flags; the fall is the best time to be there for sure.
Hard to make fall weekends work for that sort of distance but if you can swing it, it sure makes sense.
Omg Halloweekends. Riding a rollercoaster in the cold is hilarious because your eyes just SPEW tears. And the scary stuff makes me almost pee myself with screams and laughter. It’s been over a decade since I’ve been there and I’d love to go back. 🙂
Cedar Point in the Fall is absolutely the answer here. Grew up in Akron, had a great time there.
Denver to San Francisco in a white 1970 Challenger R/T
Someone has to – Kowalski just died. 🙁
I’ve got a trip I’ve been wanting to do of crossing Southern Utah 100% off-road. The route exists and I’ve done much of it in pieces, but I would love to do it all together. its a solid 10 days though and I haven’t been able to put it together.
Obviously Im taking the 80 series.
I’ve got a simliar trip plotted out on google earth, but starting in Pueblo CO and ending near Moab. Figure it would take two weeks or more though so it may be a few years before I complete it.
Go to every automotive museum and racetrack in 48 US states (I exclude Alaska on top of Hawaii), in a SRT Viper, to experience what I have never been able to/have.
A far more attainable goal? Visit Watkins Glen. I live decently close to it, but I never get the chance to go there, mainly due to poor life choices.
Go in September for the SVRA Vintage Races. It is a fantastic place.
I’ve always heard those were a blast!
I’m old enough to remember Emerson Fittipaldi (Lotus) winning the Grand Prix there in front of Jacky Ickx (Ferrari), assuring the Championship for Jochen Rindt posthumously.
Also The Ferrari 312PBs winning the 6 hour a couple years later. I think it was Ignazio Giunti.
More recently we’ve been taking long road trips every year from Tampa Bay. We’ve driven to and/or through every state east of Idaho. Not been to New Mexico or Utah yet, and they are on the list. All in a 2015 Honda Fit, and mostly on back roads.
Did I miss something, or has no one suggested driving through the Smokie Mountains? Spend a day at Dollywood and then drive through Smokie Mountain Park over to North Carolina for a trip on the Tail of the Dragon or the hundreds of miles of other roads that are less crowded and just as winding and scenic.
Best car? Caddy CTS-V. Has room for stuff, preferably locked away in the trunk of the coupe or sedan. But still engaging to drive fast on winding roads.
Cross country, route 66 there and then 80 back in restomod Oldmobile Vista Cruiser.
I’ve always wanted to drive from one US coast to the other. Haven’t yet had the opportunity. I’m not sure it matters what car I’m in, but I do know I wouldn’t want to drive an RV or pull a trailer all that way. Too limiting. I’d rather have a normal car, and spring for motels along the way.
Route choice would take some careful planning – I would probably want to stay off the interstates to avoid the sameness and monotony of them. US highways that slow down for towns take longer, but let you see more.
But more than once when I lived right by the northern end of Interstate 35 in Duluth, MN, I daydreamed about heading south and seeing what its southern terminus in Texas looks like.
Meh, been there many times. In college at UT Austin, my roommate and I would make regular runs down to Nuevo Laredo for bottles of cheap Cuervo. Not the prettiest sight. In fact, I’ve driven all 588 miles of I-35 in Texas. It is far from the best road trip you could take. Very far. Hell, I-10 from El Paso to Orange is a more interesting drive. Also 300 miles longer.
May I recommend U.S.50? Starts in Sacramento, ends in Ocean City, Maryland. Takes about a week, and includes Tahoe, “The Loneliest Road In America,” weird mining ghost towns, Arches National Park, the Continental Divide, downtown St. Louis, the thoroughly charming town of Vincennes, Indiana and Washington D.C.
Obvious answer is a Goldwing. But, in the world of cars, I’d go with the biggest car I could get before it gets into minivan or SUV territory (I did a short road trip in a Bronco and I loved it, but you really need road tires to enjoyably log freeway miles and that just feels sacrilegious). Probably a CX-30?
One lap of the lower 48 in something big with real comfort, but not a truck.
S-Class
Genesis G90
Cadillac CT-6 (but not with 4-banger)
Lincoln Conti (the last one)
Lexus LS or EX. Even an Avalon would be nice.
8-10 hours in an RS6, IDGAF where.
Tough call. I’d like to do a West Coast trip, get a convertible and drive from Seattle to Tijuana. Do it in a C5 convertible or a 1st generation Mustang convertible.
I’d do a cross country trip in a Delorean, just to say I did it. The dream car and I hitting all the big spots from Maine to California, it would be a heck of a ride!
If I didn’t have a lot of time, I’d like to drive a classic Fiat 124 Spider from Milwaukee to Marquette, MI. Take the bridge over, drive down the coast, and take the ferry back over to Milwaukee.
I’ve taken the Badger from Manitowoc to MI. It’s slow and smooth, and the stars in the middle of the lake are fantastic. Do the loop of Lake Michigan, you won’t regret it!
Driving all the way to Prudhoe Bay is on my bucket list.
I suppose something reasonably rugged is in order for the trip, maybe a Bronco Raptor or a Wrangler 392.
For a wide open trip on the interstates in the lower 48, a 911 Turbo S is probably the ultimate GT car.
The Turbo S or really any touring oriented/PDK 911 would be pretty good and safe call. My cousin has a Carrera GTS convertible that I definitely lust after. He custom ordered it too and went with the 7 speed manual. He’s a reasonably decent dude as far as multi millionaire Wall Street types go and there’s a non 0 chance he’ll toss me the keys to it at some point.
Oh, the Alcan? Yikes, are you sure you know what you’re in for?
Not even the slightest idea, but that’s part of the fun I expect.
I don’t think AAA or CAA even send tow trucks there. It’s Mad Max but colder.
Well that’s got to be the most extreme road trip I can think of. Certainly more aspirational than my choice to drive to Ohio.
Well, whether with my family growing up, or my wife and kids now, I’ve already road-tripped to 47 of the lower 48 (48th coming up in a couple weeks!), and seen several places multiple times, so I need to think higher for a bucket list item.
Not that there isn’t a lot left to see in some of the places I’ve driven through though. It’s part of why I’m so nervous about EVs; road-tripping is something I absolutely love doing and don’t want to give up.
I think we have a lot of time before EVs threaten the road trip. Though I would bet it gets more expensive over time.
Seeing as much of the country as you can is a must. I’m pretty far behind as my family basically never left the confines of the Northeast when I was a kid. I plan on starting to make up for that lost time as soon as the youngest reaches reliable bladder age.
One day I really would like to drive cross country here in MURICA and hit as many National Parks as I can along the way. I get that that’s a very Boomer dream but I don’t really care. This is a gorgeous country and I want to see it all. I’d definitely make sure iconic roads like the Blue Ridge Parkway are on the itinerary and would likely focus on a fair amount of stuff out west. I’d take at least a month off…maybe even more. No rush.
My ride of choice? Anyone who knows me well already knows where this is going. For a long ass trip like that that’ll inevitably lead to long drives and a lot of time in traffic I actually wouldn’t want a pure driver’s car like a Miata or a 718, but a roof that goes down is mandatory. I think that a Mustang GT convertible with the 10 speed is very well suited to this role, but I’m going to dare to dream.
Give me that LC500 convertible. The greatest touring car ever made and possibly one of the greatest cars ever made. I’ll get to my destinations in style and comfort while being treated to a sonorous V8 soundtrack the entire way. It would be perfection.
There is absolutely nothing Boomer-ish about seeing the natural beauty of the country. We started focusing on national parks for our family trips in 2020 when nothing else was open, and loved it so much that we’ve just kept on doing it.
I went to some of the big parks as a kid, and now I really understand why my parents took us there, because the looks I see on my kids’ faces when they see this stuff are priceless.
Ditto on V100mous’ comment that there is nothing inherently Boomer about a national parks tour. There are some amazing parks in the US, go see as many as you can!
However, as a former Mustang Convertible (’90 GT), I will warn you of two major drawbacks to ‘vert life.
1) The roof mechanism and top-down storage eat a lot of trunk space. And since all you’ll want all your valuables in the trunk when you are parked, that space is precious.
2) Not sure how well the new Mustang tops insulate road noise, but in my old ’90, you were hard pressed to have a conversation with the top up @ 70 mph. Top down driving is awesome on sunny days and even more so on star-lit nights, but 2+hrs of highway driving like that get old quick.
LC500 is way.
And while it seems unrealistic for me now, I really hope to do a tour of the national parks someday. It only seems Boomerish because that appears to be the last generation that’s going to enjoy retirement in any sort of significant numbers. Otherwise, I think it’s something that most people would love to do.
No one considers it boomerish anymore, its what every late teen to 20 something aspires to do like the jobless van life losers making bank on clicks. A month or so and you could bang out almost half them just from the pacific mountain west area. The AK ones are the challenge.
Oh hell yeah. The national parks rule. This is a great plan.
The number of good parks I’d Cayenne out to if I ever got money is “all of them.” And more. State parks are rad, too. It’s a long hike out to the one national park in this state, but playing State Park Roulette when we just need to get out of town somewhere is a fun time.
My perfect road trip would be in a cruising vehicle. My family growing up traveled in an Olds88, and that thing was a great cruiser. It was one of those land yachts and to be honest it deserved it’s designation. One of our trips was from Oregon down to the Gulf of Mexico. It was hauling a tent trailer and we were blasting down bumpy roads with almost no problems (one blown tent trailer tire). Today I guess that would equate to a full size SUV?
Perfect trip for me would include Hells Canyon (the most fun road in the US imo) and the Icefields Parkway (the most scenic road on the continent clearly), and inbetween might as well stop by Yellowstone and the Beartooth Highway, then Glacier and the Going-to-the-Sun road. Lots of other options nearby to add on too, the North Cascades/Mt Baker, the Sea-to-Sky from Vancouver to Lillooet, the Lolo Pass in Idaho, all the offshoots of the Icefields. I’m basically a big fan of the northwest I think it has the best mountains and roads (though I love the southwest too)