3 Awesome U.S. Road Trips
Road trips are an inexpensive way to travel and can be a lot of fun. I’d like to share with you 3 awesome U.S. road trips that I’ve done over the years!
California – Los Angeles to San Franciso
We did this road trip in the summer of 2010 with three of our children and my mom. I had been to these parts of California before, but it was the first time for everyone else. We drove up Highway 1 from Los Angeles to San Franciso and spent a week doing the trip with overnight stays in Pismo Beach and Monterey.
We flew into Los Angeles and spent the first few days at the Wyndham Hotel next to Santa Monica Beach. Use this link to see accommodations in Santa Monica. We went to the famous amusement park on the Santa Monica Pier and enjoyed being next to the beach.
A must-do in this area is to walk along Venice Beach to see the funky stores and crazy people. It’s a vibrant area and a good place to people-watch. You can see all the bodybuilders exercising and lifting weights on the beach.
The Highway 1 coastal drive is gorgeous. It takes much longer to drive this route but it is definitely worth the detour. One of the first towns we stopped in was Santa Barbara. We had lunch there and walked around the beautiful little city. There are lots of cute shops and a big choice of restaurants.
I had pre-booked the hotels so we knew exactly how far we would drive each day. The first overnight stop was in Pismo Beach. I had seen photos of this area and thought it would be a pretty place for a stopover. You can view Pismo Beach accommodations using this link.
The next day we drove up through Big Sur and stayed overnight in Monterey. We spent some time in the quaint town of Carmel (called Carmel-by-the-sea) and drove around the famous Pebble Beach golf course.
Our final destination was San Francisco where we spent two nights exploring this city. We did the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour which took us by all the sights and across the lovely Golden Gate Bridge.
One day we took a boat tour out in the bay. This was a great way to see the bridge and the city skyline. The boat tour took us around Alcatraz island and explained the history of the prison.
After San Francisco, we drove back in one day to Los Angeles through Silicon Valley. I would highly recommend this road trip to see some amazing views and experience the two major cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Colorado – Breckenridge, Colorado Springs, & Rocky Mountain National Park
I have to admit that I didn’t experience this area on a typical road trip. I was visiting girlfriends in Colorado in August 2019, and I explored these towns and parks over two weeks with different sets of friends. But you could easily turn this tour into a road trip as the locations are within a two-hour drive.
The first destination was Breckenridge, known for being a popular ski resort but is also beautiful in the summer months. We rented electric bikes one day in nearby Frisco and did the tour around Dillon Reservoir. It was a sunny warm day. We enjoyed the exercise and spectacular views.
Another day we drove from Breckenridge to nearby Boreas Pass for a hike. This was a stunning area and worth the visit. The highest point was at 11,482 feet on the Continental Divide. Even though the altitude here was much higher than what I’m used to, I was able to hike without being too out of breath.
I also had the chance to do some nice hikes in this general area. One day we did the Mohawk Lakes Trail. This was a beautiful hike that takes you up to two sets of lakes. We only made it to the lower lakes before it started to rain lightly. If you like hiking, you will LOVE Colorado.
My big achievement was to hike my first 14,000+ foot mountain. I woke up at 4:30 am and started the hike at 6 am in the dark. I arrived at the top of Grays Peak (14,278ft / 4300 meters) at 9:30 am. Because of frequent afternoon summer storms in the Colorado Rockies, they advise people to be off the mountain by noon. There are many mountains to hike in this part of Colorado. I found this website very useful when researching which mountain to climb.
The next area of Colorado I visited was Colorado Springs which is a one hour drive south of Denver. I spent another few days here seeing the sights and visiting with other girlfriends. I spent a few days in a B&B in the cozy town of Manitou Springs, which is a 15-minute drive from Colorado Springs. It’s a very small ‘Western-style’ town nestled next to Pikes Peak. Here is a link to places you can stay in Manitou Springs.
No trip to this area is complete without seeing the unique rock formations of the Garden of the Gods. This is a park you can drive through for a small entrance fee. There are several spots to stop and walk along the trails to get up close to the rocks. It is definitely more crowded during the summer, so you may want to visit outside of this time for fewer crowds.
Another excursion I did in this area was to visit Seven Falls. It is a bit complicated to get to this place as you need to park a few miles away and take a shuttle bus. There is no parking onsite. We didn’t know at the time, but you can also park at the Broadmoor Hotel where there is a shuttle available. The Broadmoor Hotel is also a great place to visit and walk around.
Once inside the park, you walk through a narrow canyon to reach the falls. The height of the seven cascading falls is 181 feet (55 m) and there are a total of 224 steps on the staircase from the base of the falls to the peak. This was a typical tourist spot but I enjoyed the area and seeing the waterfalls.
The last stop on this Colorado road trip was the Rocky Mountain National Park, a 1.5-hour drive northwest of Denver. It had been many years since I visited this park, the last time probably in 1987 when I lived in nearby Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The park was just a pretty as I remembered. Most people start the park tour in the town of Estes Park. It’s a very small and cute town with restaurants and shops along the main street.
One of the most visited places in this town is the Stanley Hotel. This hotel was the inspiration for the Stephen King book and 1977 movie, “The Shining”. You can walk around the main lobby area, eat some food in their onsite restaurants, or take a guided tour. It’s also a functioning hotel and said to be haunted.
We drove from the north end of the park all the way down to the southern exit, which took a couple of hours with photo-op stops along the way. The views from the drive were stunning and we saw lots of wild animals including deer, elk, moose, and squirrels.
If you ever go to Colorado, I highly recommend spending some time in this national park.
Florida – Miami to Key West
I’ve been to Florida many times in my life, but I went to Miami in 2016 for the first time! I had heard so many good things about Key West, I arranged for a road trip from Miami to Key West and back.
We stayed two nights in Miami at an AirB&B right on South beach. It was a nice one-bedroom apartment with a pool on the roof. When traveling with a group (we were four), I prefer to stay in apartments instead of hotel rooms. You have a lot more space and can prepare light meals in the kitchen. I use AirB&B on a regular basis to find good deals all over the world.
The location was ideal for walking on the beach and along the popular Ocean Drive.
Aside from walking near the beach, we spent a day renting bikes and riding over to Wynwood Walls. I had done some research about this place and really wanted to see it. It was very cool to walk around this neighborhood and see the murals from many artists.
To start our road trip, we headed out the third day for the long 3.5-hour drive from Miami to Key West. It wasn’t as boring as I thought it would be. There were many long bridges to pass over and nice towns to drive through. We took turns driving and sang songs the whole way down. Isn’t that what you do on road trips?
One of the places we stopped on the way down to Key West was Robbie’s Marina on Islamorada Key. We decided to try the experience of feeding the tarpon fish right off their docks. You pay a small price for a bucket of small fish food. We all took turns feeding the huge tarpon fish and screamed while doing it!
We finally arrived at Key West in the late afternoon and got checked into our hotel (Ocean Key Resort) right next to Mallory Square. It was right by the water and had its own dock complete with a restaurant and outdoor bar called Sunset Pier. It’s a popular place to go there to watch the sunset and have cocktails.
We didn’t do many activities in Key West as we were only there for two nights and one full day. We mostly just walked around and looked at the shops. We tried out some of the funky restaurants, including this one called Sloppy Joe’s. It had live music even during the day.
I really liked the feel of Key West, very laid back and fun. Spending at least 3 days is a good idea to fully enjoy the area and various water activities like jet skis, stand-up paddle, fishing, and a sunset boat cruise.
So there you have my 3 awesome U.S. road trips!
There are many more, of course, I could share or even plan for you! Check out my Itinerary Planning page for more details on how I can plan a trip for you! If you have a favorite road trip, please leave a comment below so others can learn from your travel experience.
THANKS AND HAPPY ROAD TRIPPING!!
33 Comments
Cindy Mailhot
I love these trips. I have wanted to do some of the California stretch you mentioned.
Jan
Glad you liked them and hope you can do the California road trip soon!
Eva Keller
Great suggestions! We just did the Miami to Key West drive last month and it was awesome! We also were in Colorado back in March but Rocky Mountains was closed so we did Colorado Springs, Breckenridge, Vail, Aspen and then up to Dinosaur Monument over to Salt Lake City. We’ve also done PCH from San Diego up to Napa so far, but would love to do the rest of it going further North.
Jan
Thank you for reading and your comments about what you’ve done! There are so many nice road trips all over the U.S. Utah is on my list to see the parks there!
Jessica
Great post! So many more people are looking to take road trips this year so this is perfect. We’ve driven parts of all of these, but not all of them.
Jan
Thank you! 🙏🏼 I hope you can some fun road trips this year! 👍🏻 Please sign up for my email list to get my latest updates!
Barbara
I love a great road trip! Very cool to see what others do for ideas for us!
Jan
Thank you! 🙏🏼 I’m glad you liked my road trip ideas! I hope you can do some fun trips this year! 👍🏻 Please sign up for my email list to get my latest updates!
Adrienne
These all look like amazing road trips! There are so many places we are blessed with without having to leave our country. Thanks for sharing your itineraries!
Jan
Thank you Adrienne! 🙏🏼 I think we are all doing road trips this year. This pandemic has forced us to find beauty in our own backyards! 👍🏻 It would be great if you sign up for my email list to get my latest updates!
Stephanie
These trips all look like they were a blast. I can’t wait I be able to road trips again.
Jan
Thanks! I hope you can do a road trip soon! We are all doing local travels this year. It’s better than nothing!👍🏻 😍
Sabrina DeWalt
I am moving to Colorado Springs in October. We will definitely do this trip when we get there.
Jan
Lucky you! It’s such a gorgeous area there! Let me know when you do this trip! It’s great! 👍🏻😍
Amanda
These road trips look amazing! I absolutely love your photography. Beautiful shots from 3 very different parts of the country.
Jan
Thank you so much! I love taking photos of where I go! 🤩 Please sign up for my email list to get my latest updates!
Judean
Out of these 3, I have done the Florida trip – that may be because I live on the East coast! When I travel out West, I will need to revisit this post!
Jan
Cool! I hope you can do the west coast trips soon. There are so many beautiful places to see in the U.S. 😍
Erin
These look like fantastic road trips. Just last night I was trying to plan one from Vegas to Salt Lake City. I might have to check out Denver instead! Super cheap flights using miles on Southwest!! Thank you for this great post!
Jan
Glad you liked my post! Yes, Colorado is a beautiful state to see! Let me know what you end up doing! 👍🏻
Ruth Londre
I absolutely love your blog and find nearly all of your post’s to be just what I’m looking for. Does one offer guest writers to write content available for you? I wouldn’t mind writing a post or elaborating on a few of the subjects you write related to here. Again, awesome web log!
Jan
Thanks so much! 🙏🏼 I am open to having guest posts – what is your blog website? Contact me at Jan@janadventures.com to discuss further! 👍🏻
Marianne
We love road tripping! Pinned for later! I actually have a US west coast trip all mapped out on my Roadtrippers app. Hopefully won’t be too long before we can travel properly again!
Jan
Yes, me too! I will check out this Roadtrippers app as I never heard of it. Thanks!
ปั้มไลค์
Like!! I blog frequently and I really thank you for your content. The article has truly peaked my interest.
Danya
These are all so much fun and so different! The SF to LA one is high on my list!
Jan
Hi Danya! I’m glad you enjoyed reading about them! Yes, California is da best!
Santana
I think a road trip through the keys is a bucket list item for sure!
Jan
Yes the keys are great and it was an awesome trip! Where do you live and would it be close to you?
Chris
Wow Jan. This post took me back to 1998 when some buddies and I drove up Highway 1 from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Your photos are amazing too. Thanks for chronicling your adventures!
Maybe you can write a guest post on https://inspirefirst.com from a travel blogger’s perspective!
Jan
Hi Chris! Thanks for your comment and glad my post brought back some good memories for you! I’ve been a subscriber of your site for a while and would love the opportunity to do a guest post! I hope the fact that I’m a UGA graduate will not be a problem (as I see that you’re a GA Tech alumni) – LOL. I will email you directly to talk about this! Thanks again 🙂
Susan
Loved this blog post and would love to do all three of these!
BTW, my cousin and his family lives in Estes Park!
Jan
Glad you enjoyed it! That is cool you have family in Estes Park. It’s such a cozy corner of the country. You could visit your cousin and do that road trip! 😉