In the middle of 2018 we used up most of our long service leave to go on (what felt like) the biggest and craziest road trip ever, starting on the east coast of the US in Boston, Massachusetts and driving all the way back to Los Angeles, California.

It took us just over seven weeks and we crossed through 26 states, also staying at 26 different hotels, hostels and b&bs. Here is the hand-drawn map from our street directory that shows generally the route we took.

Our hire car (Cam the Toyota Camry) drove us for over 6,400 miles (10,000+ km). The car basically became the third adventurer on our trip and we would have brought him home with us if we could have!

This wasn’t our first trip to the States, so our route was partially influenced by the fact we had already been to Chicago, Toronto and New York. If we hadn’t already been to these cities we might have tried to fit them in as well somehow. We had also been to LA and Vegas before, but you can’t really avoid flying into LA from Oz and we love Vegas so much we were happy to finish off with a few days there at the end.

Below is a summary of our itinerary, showing the cities we travelled to or explored each day. I plan to write detailed posts about each place and will insert links as I do so. Let me know if there are any places you want to hear more about!

Coast to Coast road trip:

Day 0 – Fly from Perth to Sydney, then Sydney to LA
Day 1 – Arrive in Los Angeles, California and stay for one night to break up the flights
Day 2 – Fly from LA to Boston, Massachusetts
Day 3 – Boston
Day 4 – Boston
Day 5 – Boston
Day 6 – Pick up hire car and drive from Boston to Fairfield, Connecticut (via Providence, Rhode Island)
Day 7 – Fairfield to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Day 8 – Philadelphia
Day 9 – Philadelphia to Washington D.C
Day 10 – Washington D.C
Day 11 – Washington D.C
Day 12 – Washington D.C to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (via Gettysburg)
Day 13 – Pittsburgh
Day 14 – Pittsburgh to Wilmington, Ohio (via Berlin, Ohio)
Day 15 – Wilmington to Louisville, Kentucky (via Columbus, Indiana… where I exploded a tyre)
Day 16 – Louisville
Day 17 – Louisville
Day 18 – Louisville to Nashville, Tennessee (via Mammoth Caves National Park)
Day 19 – Nashville
Day 20 – Nashville
Day 21 – Nashville to Madison, Georgia (via Chattanooga, Tennessee)
Day 22 – Madison to Savannah, Georgia (via Wormsloe Historic Site)
Day 23 – Savannah
Day 24 – Savannah to Tallahassee, Florida (via Amelia Island, Florida)
Day 25 – Tallahassee
Day 26 – Tallahassee to Navarre, Florida (via St George Island and Panama Beach)
Day 27 – Navarre to New Orleans, Louisiana (via Fairhope, Alabama)
Day 28 – New Orleans
Day 29 – New Orleans
Day 30 – New Orleans to Houston, Texas (on a day when most of the I-10 was closed!)
Day 31 – Houston
Day 32 – Houston
Day 33 – Houston to Austin, Texas (via Bastrop, Texas)
Day 34 – Austin
Day 35 – Austin to Fort Worth, Texas
Day 36 – Fort Worth to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Day 37 – Oklahoma City
Day 38 – Oklahoma City to Wichita, Kansas
Day 39 – Wichita
Day 40 – Wichita to Burlington, Colorado
Day 41 – Burlington to Denver, Colorado (via Colorado Springs)
Day 42 – Denver
Day 43 – Denver
Day 44 – Denver to Grand Junction, Colorado (via Breckenridge, Colorado)
Day 45 – Grand Junction to Bluff, Utah
Day 46 – Bluff to the Grand Canyon (Tusayan, Arizona) (via Monument Valley)
Day 47 – Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, Nevada
Day 48 – Las Vegas
Day 49 – Las Vegas
Day 50 – Las Vegas to Los Angeles (via Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch)
Day 51 – Los Angeles
Day 52 – Fly home to Perth via Brisbane and lose our luggage on the way home

Even though we did so much there is still so much we missed out on! We definitely want to return and do another road trip up the west coast at least.

I found driving to be a very relaxing way to travel, as we could leave as early or as late as we wanted each day because there were no scheduled flights or trains to catch. We could stop wherever we wanted along the way which was great for making some detours and checking out some places you would never go to otherwise. We also enjoyed watching the scenery out of the car window so even though we spent quite a few hours some days in the car, we were still sight-seeing the whole time.

Where was your most recent road trip to?