Provided by IMC! Peer Mentor: Josh Beach
As summer gets closer, I thought that it may be cool to share some basics for a budget road trip! Personally, I am looking to make a road trip this summer out west with one of my best friends and I know others may want to do the same. The hardest part about planning a trip is just figuring out where exactly to start. Well, in this blog, I will try my best to get some destination ideas out there and get that initial snowball rolling!
One thing that you have to keep in mind is just how easy it is to spend more than initially planned on. Gas, food, and making sure the car is in road trip conditions are all things that need to be taken into consideration when. Budgeting for a trip like this. One of the last things that you want to happen are to get out to your destination, then have something in your car go wrong and end up stranded. Taking the extra time to check everything beforehand is well worth the time and often gets overlooked. Here is a great website to guide your car check!
Now for actual destination recommendations (the fun part), I will share the 3 best ones that I would like to incorporate into my own trip this summer. To start, we are driving straight out west from La Crosse. I think our first major stop on our way out is to Yellowstone National Park. One theme that you will find between all of these recommendations is how they are all national parks. The parks provide a wonderful, cheap spot to explore for countless hours and see many natural beauties that our nation has to offer. After Yellowstone, you can head straight north to the forests of Glacier National Park. This national park is perfect for the hiking and outdoors enthusiast that loves to see all of the mountains and hidden lakes that they can think of. After Glacier, it is time to head west again to Olympic National Park in Washington. After hitting all three of these parks, the time it takes to drive to all three of these from La Crosse is about 36 hours, not too bad!
Last but not least, the biggest thing you can do when taking a trip is plan for more than you actually end up spending. It is much better to plan to spend more than you actually do. Not only does this create a safety net in case things take a rough turn and you do have to shell out a little bit extra, but it also allows you to put that extra money you don’t spend here towards your next adventure. Hopefully this post helps you get some ideas for this summer and helped you be better prepared for your trip!
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