2023 Summer Road Trip Suggestions And How To Prepare

Posted on 2nd August 2023

It’s summer 2023, and you still haven’t booked a vacation! Scandalous, we know. But, to be fair, there are good reasons for holding off on a vacation abroad.

For one, we’re now in the midst of summer, which means that most of the popular vacation destinations are going to be pretty packed. Secondly, good, roomy accommodation might be hard to come by – it’s all very well visiting London in the heart of August, but it becomes slightly less romantic when your accommodation is the size of a red telephone box. No, it’s probably best to hold off, build up some savings, and fly away somewhere next year.

But don’t get too downhearted just yet! We’re not saying don’t do something fun this year. Just do something fun here in the US. Road trips across our beautiful country are a popular pastime in the heart of the summer, not least because of the amount of different scenery and landscapes you can come across – sometimes all in one state! For this reason, we think you should fuel up the old motor, slip on your driving gloves, and get ready to really explore your own backyard.

Just before you do that, however, you need a location to tap into the GPS. Not only this, you need to know how to prepare for a successful road trip – sadly, it’s not as simple as some extra fuel and driving gloves. To help you prepare, and to help make the decision on where you should go, below are a few suggestions for orchestrating the perfect summer road trip:

First, Take Care Of The Essentials

To start out, you need to make sure you’ve nailed the essentials. If you haven’t already, look into updating your auto insurance to an affordable, top-rated company, take some time to invest in a good dash cam, and make sure you’ve got all the documents, you will need when travelling interstate.

Make Sure Your Car Is In Shape

As well as this, you should make sure that your car is in good shape. Sure, it might do well driving down to your local Walmart, but how well will it do driving across the country? Make sure you carry out an audit on wheels, brakes, oil, water and gas. That way, you don’t have to worry about breaking down in the middle of a Texan desert!

Remember Basic Biology

While you don’t have to do an audit on yourself, you should remember that you are made of 60% water, so you might need to keep stocked up for your journey! Even if you are planning on travelling through well-populated areas, you should always be prepared for the worst and make sure you have made room for supplies, including water and food.

Plan Out Your Route

The last thing you want to do on a road trip is play it by ear. America is a big place, and if you don’t plan your journey, you might find yourself seeing a lot more of it than you first envisioned. Because you’ll be lost. Make sure that you plan your road trip route carefully, factor in where you would like to go, what you would like to see, and then the best, most cost-effective routes.

Prepare A Banging Summer Playlist

Lastly, it’s a road trip. So there’s going to be a lot of driving. For this reason, we suggest curating your own entertainment and making a playlist of all the best summer road trip tunes. This one is optional, of course. But if you want to avoid playing 1,345,896 games of “eye-spy”, then we think it’s a very good option.

Best Road Trips

Now to finish up with some of our favourite summer road trip routes. There are a lot to choose from, and countless articles online that can give you even more options. But for now, here are the ones that we think are the biggest and best:

The quintessential American road trip, hence why it found its way into our list of best road trips in the world. This is a route that has inspired musicians, filmmakers, and writers alike. It captures the imagination and allows it to soar.

Like all the best road trips, this one is made up of sections of road that combine together to create one long experience. Also, it takes you all the way down the West Coast. So add some swim shorts to your “essentials”.

Blue Ridge Parkway

If you want slightly different scenery, then the Blue Ridge Parkway takes you through the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, connecting both the Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountains. It is a more leisurely drive, however, as the speed limit sits consistently at 45mph.

Overseas Highway

Lastly, if you want to get tropical, then the Overseas Highway in Florida is the perfect drive that connects Key Largo and Key West. Again, swim shorts will be needed. This is Florida, after all!