At the end of June, I packed up my little Nissan Altima Coupe, Gracie, with all of my worldly possessions and set off for the road trip and adventure of a lifetime. Below I’ve shared my breakdown of the basics: food, gas, and lodging from my US Road Trip, and tips on budgeting for your next road trip.
I will be passing through 19 states, so start at the beginning and follow along on the adventures…
- Florida
- Georgia
- South Carolina
- North Carolina
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- Kentucky
- Indiana
- Missouri
- Kansas
- Oklahoma
- Texas
- New Mexico
- Colorado
- Nebraska
- South Dakota
- Wyoming
- Montana
- Idaho
- Washington
- Oregon
- California
Planning for Your Next Road Trip
This was the most unplanned and longest trip, I’ve ever taken. If you know me in the slightest, you know it’s very unlike me to not have a plan with a full itinerary down to the hour. However, my mind was extremely preoccupied with completing my TEFL certification, packing, saying goodbyes, and moving, that I was super unprepared for this road trip.
With a general itinerary, but no real ending points, I honestly had no real budget per say. This way of traveling is not recommended. An itinerary, budget, and travel partner are essentials for any good trip.
Create an Itinerary
Create a general itinerary of must-see places, things to do, and places to eat. This is where my US road trip developed and grew and grew from there. I already had a Things To Do List of places from friends, family, and blogs, so essentially all I had to do was connect the dots. Where there were long gaps between locations, I asked and researched around to find out what the heck there is to do in the middle of Kansas?
What is Important to YOU
Experiencing a city like a local and enjoying foods custom to the region are my main goals when traveling. I will tell you every place to eat in every city I’ve been to, but you just happen to be a vegan, so my choices of restaurants don’t apply to you. Just because someone recommends it, or you read it on some blog, doesn’t mean you have to do it.
This is where deciding what is important to YOU really comes into play. Decide what is important to you and your travel companions before your trip.
Lodging
I didn’t book any hotels in advance, not even for the first night. I had, however, arranged to stay a few nights with friends in Tennessee. Although the exact days and length were a tiny bit up in the air until the day before we arrived. To this, I was so thankful for others being super accommodating with my nonchalantness during this whole trip.
If you have family or friends along your route, and crashing with them is an option, I highly suggest this for various reasons. It’s a huge money-saver and you’ll also have the opportunity to experience the city as a local, which is always the preferred route of travel for me.
Are you already a hotel member?
Great! Double-check that the hotel is located along your route. If you’re not a member or your hotel isn’t in that region, pick a hotel chain, join their rewards program and stay with them the entirety of the trip. That’s what we did!
We chose Best Western; the rooms and facilities are clean, the price is pretty average, they’re located all across the United States and most importantly, they offer free full breakfast (none of that continental fruit and coffee bullshit). This small benefit ended up being pretty time and money-saving in the end, so I highly recommend finding a hotel that offers breakfast.
The entirety of our trip was booked using the Best Western app each afternoon to locate a hotel closest to our destination for the night.
On average, rooms were $80, some locations were cheaper- $65 in Kansas, while others were a little higher- $130 in Colorado.
For budgeting purposes, you can use the average based on the hotel chain you’ve selected or if you need a more accurate budget, look online per location for the night stay.
Overall, we stayed 12 nights in Best Western hotels and 4 nights with friends.
Total Amount Spent on Hotels: $1,080
Gas
If you’re taking a road trip, there’s no way around it, you’ll be spending money on gas. You can estimate your mileage using your itinerary and local gas prices for an estimate. Gas prices vary around the United States, but usually no more than a difference of $1.00.
We traveled a total of 5,607 miles.
Total Amount in Gas Gift Cards (from extremely generous friends): $75
Total Amount Spent on Gas: $399
Food
Luckily, we ate breakfast for free every morning at Best Western and would grab an apple, yogurt or granola bar to add to the snack collection in the cooler. Most of the hotels let us fill the cooler with ice each morning, which saved a few bucks each day (hey, it adds up over a few weeks).
I used the Yelp app a great deal on this trip (and actually just a lot in life) to find the trendiest of restaurants or the best local hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Yelp is also a great tool if you are on a specific budget as it provides a general price range allowing you to search for dinner with anywhere from $-$$$$.
Depending on the type of day we were having greatly affected where and what we ate. On days we spent most of our time in the car we stopped at local grocery stores and picked up fruit, meat, cheese, crackers or pre-made salads to sit and eat in the park. Days we spent exploring, we wandered into restaurants to experience the local cuisine (ie: Kansas BBQ vs Nashville BBQ) for lunches and dinners.
Not all, but some of our dinners included a few drinks, and on countless nights we stopped for a bottle of wine to have in our hotel room. My total spent on food includes alcoholic beverages that were included in dinner tabs. However, if you don’t drink, you could definitely spend less! Truthfully, I’m shocked at how little I spent on food.
Total Amount Spent on Food: $776
Budget
After you’ve decided what’s important to you and your travel partner you should be able to assemble a general itinerary with a basic route. Estimating gas and lodging based on my guidance above, you will have a general budget. A more accurate budget including activities can easily be made depending on the focus of your trip.
If you’re interested in theme parks, find the exact parks you’ll visit and check the admission prices and average vendor food costs online. Planning to visit a museum in every city you stop in? Make a list of the museums to look up online. Always check for free days and times or special discounts. Maybe you’re a Starbucks coffee mug collector; average the cost of Starbucks mugs with the cities you’re visiting to give you a general idea.
Your budget can be as accurate or loose as you choose. I hope this quick and easy breakdown has 1. shown you that traveling doesn’t have to be expensive and 2. planning a road trip or any vacation can simply be broken down ahead of time for no unexpected costs.
What’re you waiting for??? Plan a trip now! Need help? Comment below!
*These totals are based on a combined amount spent by my aunt and myself.
