Why would you want to take a road trip spending days driving on endless interstates and highways?
Why not just fly? It’s so much faster!
Don’t you get tired of being with John?
Are you crazy?
These are all questions I’ve been asked after telling someone that I frequently take 24+ hour road trips. I know it seems like a crazy thing to want to drive from Colorado to Florida….but I enjoy it!
Why?
Dogs
First and foremost, our dogs! We love to take them on our adventures and allow them to experience new things. Taking Sebastian and Zella to the beach for the first time is a core memory!
If we were to fly, Sebastian would be able to fly in the cabin with me, in fact as a puppy he did! Zella is not small enough to fit under a seat and would have to ride in cargo. For John and I putting Zella in a kennel in the cargo area is an absolute no! Zella and I are both anxious, and I don’t think either of us would handle the trip well.
Read about road tripping with dogs here.
Space
As much as we do love our dogs, we don’t take them on every trip that we take. John and I have taken long road trips without the dogs. One of the reasons is that we are more comfortable in our cars.
John and I are both tall, I’m about 5’8 and he’s 6’6. John does not have enough legroom in standard airline seating, and flying first class all the time is currently only a dream! Taking a road trip in Betty, our Kia Telluride, allows us to stretch out and be more comfortable.
Packing Everything
I pride myself on being able to pack incredibly well when traveling on a plane. For instance, I have packed for two-week trips in a standard backpack. I don’t like checking a bag most of the time so I will pack strategically and incredibly light for air travel.
All that goes completely out the window when packing for a road trip. I bring ALL THE THINGS!!
Toys for Zella? Yup.
Full-size toiletries? Yup.
Extra outfits just because? Yup.
Every snack in the store? Yup.
I pack all our necessities and then some, and I love that I can! When traveling in a plane packing must be much more strategic. I may not be able to bring the shoes that match PERFECTLY with my dress because I just don’t have the space. When we take road trips there is no need to leave things behind.
Price
For our little crew, often road trips are much less than air travel would cost. We must consider the price of the ticket, a rental car or rideshares, and food including snacks and meals. There are also the non-monetary costs of air travel like being uncomfortable, limits on carry-on items, and the stress of requiring someone to watch our high-maintenance dogs.
Being able to pack our snacks allows us to budget more for other activities. While traveling often our meals consist of restaurants and fast food, and having some fresh veggies or fruits on hand can be much needed.
Slow travel
I know that time is precious, and not everyone can take 4 days to drive to a destination and back home. Road trips are a different type of travel and do require longer vacation time. A road trip will force you to slow down and appreciate the vastness of states. You can watch as landscapes change from mountains to plains, to forests. Watch as cities rise from the empty spaces around them.
Road trips allow us to appreciate the journey to our destination. We can slow down and take time to see places that we probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I was truly shocked at how beautiful Kentucky and Tennessee are, how lllooonngg Kansas is, or what it’s like to be in a dust storm. Things that I would not have known without road trip adventures. We can always add a side quest to the main journey and see more along our road trip.
Freedom
Everything in this post so far has had one main theme-
And that is that we enjoy our travel freedom! The ability to take our dogs, pack what we want, and take extra time if we want to outweighs the timeliness of air travel. Road trips aren’t for everyone, especially the extra-long road trips, and I know that. I do believe road trips are a different traveling experience that is worth it at least once!