Essential Travelmath Tools for Your Summer Road Trip
No matter where your journey takes you this summer, there is so much you need to plan before you even reach your destination. Whether you are seeking cultural and arts activities or adventurous outdoor experiences, summer is a great time to venture out from your neighborhood.
Busy moms and dads who work long hours these days usually don't have the time or energy to put into a well-planned trip. To truly take in the fun, excitement and anticipation of a family road trip, we need to have a simple plan worked out before we leave. This helps to avoid surprises, unwanted inconvenience or disappointment.
To make your road trip planning easier and quicker, here is a sample road trip we have planned out for the Jones family of two adults and three children. The Jones family lives in Baltimore and is planning to travel to Disney World Orlando, Florida for 10 days.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones will be driving their Toyota Siena and will leave on a Saturday and plan to make a stopover somewhere along the way for an overnight stay. It is high season and finding accommodation on the road may be difficult. They would like to reserve the room before leaving on the road trip.
The family will stay in Orlando for 5 nights visiting Disney World theme parks and also having time to relax at a resort style pool in a hotel. They will take a short trip from Orlando to Port Canaveral to visit NASA Kennedy Space Center and hope to find an overnight accommodation there before traveling north. The family would also like to visit their former neighbor, the Smith family in Hilton Head, South Carolina for 2 nights before driving back to Baltimore.
These are the steps Mrs. Jones took for less than an hour of her leisure time to plan out her road trip:
One: Driving distance between Baltimore and Orlando
She found out it was
898 miles to travel between these two cities.
Two: Driving time between Baltimore and Orlando
Mrs. Jones has an 11-month-old baby who is learning to walk and traveling long distance is stressful for the baby. So she needs to know what the driving time is between Baltimore and Orlando.
She found out from Travelmath that it takes 14 hours 11 minutes to arrive at her destination. The halfway point will take them 7 hours 5 minutes and 449 miles to drive. That sounds doable and easy for both Mr. and Mrs. Jones. The suggested stop at the
halfway point was in Grove Park, North Carolina.
Three: Overnight accommodation at halfway point
Not wanting to waste their time going into Charlotte, a large city closest to their halfway point, the family decides to find an easily accessible hotel through Interstate 95. Through Travelmath, they found a
list of suggested hotels. Since they are familiar with the Marriott Group, they made a reservation for their overnight stay at Fairfield Inn Marriott Florence.
Four: 5 nights accommodation in Orlando
Next is to look for affordable and convenient accommodation to Disney World in Orlando. Through Travelmath, she had more than 8 booking sites to compare prices and look for availability. Since she is a Marriott reward member, she went straight to Marriott’s website and decided on a reservation at
Fairfield Inn and Suites at Buena Vista.
For less than $95 a night, the family of 5 have a spacious room, with complimentary continental breakfast daily and complimentary on-site parking. For extra convenience, the hotel provides daily shuttle service from the hotel to Disney parks for $7 round trip for each child and adult. No waiting in line for transportation or parking and it only takes 10 minutes to travel directly from the hotel to the parks without pickup in other hotels.
Five: To NASA Kennedy Space Center and overnight at Port Canaveral
Their next stop is NASA Kennedy Space Center. Through Travelmath, Mrs. Jones was able to plan out the time they need leave Orlando to maximize their visiting time in NASA without the rush.
It’s only
54 miles from Orlando to Port Canaveral, which is about an hour drive. So the family could plan to take the trip after a hearty complimentary breakfast at the hotel. They got really excited to find an
oceanfront hotel through Travelmath at Cocoa Beach. This will give them time to soak up the sun and play in the sand for a full day after a few hours of visiting the NASA Kennedy Space Center.
Six: Cocoa Beach, Florida to Hilton Head, South Carolina
Next would be a stopover at the Smith’s home in Hilton Head. It is 338 miles to drive from Cocoa Beach to Hilton Head.
This can be done in less than 6 hours. Mrs. Jones decided to put in the plan to leave Cocoa Beach after lunch to have enough time to play in the sand and arrive in Hilton Head at about 8 pm for a late dinner with the Smiths.
Seven: Cost to Drive
To find out the cost to drive from one destination to the other, Travelmath has an estimated price for you. For example from Cocoa Beach to Hilton Head, it takes about
$41.22 to drive assuming that regular fuel costs are around $3.05 per gallon for the trip at an average gas mileage of 25 mpg for a mix of city and highway driving.
You could calculate the cost to drive for your entire trip via Travelmath.
Road trip planning has never been easier with the help of Travelmath tools. If you would like to see more calculating tools to help you in your travel planning, let us know. We would love to hear from you. Please leave your comment below.
