Oh what fun! The three week road trip I just finished up was fabulous! My partner and I clocked 4,500 miles on our car visiting Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and back home to California. We spent our time visiting friends and family along the way and experiencing the great outdoors. Our goal was to visit National Parks and we did! We spent time in Yellowstone and Tetons in Wyoming; and all five National Parks in Utah: Arches, Canyonland, Capitol Reef, Bryce, and Zion.
The question I often get is, “How do I prepare for a three week road trip?” Fair question and one I wanted to answer in two aspects, financially and physically. Keep in mind, this is my style road trip (upper end) so there are many ways you could cut costs, but I did this my way 🙂
First let me address the dollars, as that’s what a financial coach does 🙂
I love to travel, so travel is part of my budget, and should be part of your monthly savings if you plan a similar trip. I don’t recommend putting every cost on your credit card with no idea of how you’re going to pay for it when you get home and the bills start arriving. To finance this trip, you will want to save $500/month for a year.
That’s right, we spent about $6,000 on lodging, food, and fuel. Lodging was the most expensive ($4,000), as you can imagine 21 days on the road and nights in hotels. When you break it down, we spent $191/night. We stayed at some very nice places like The Lodge at Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Under Canvas Glamping in Moab, Utah; and Red Mountain Resort & Spa in St. George, Utah. Of course you could drastically reduce this cost if you chose to camp or RV, but I don’t do either of those things!
Each of these lodgings offered special amenities for the location. For instance, The Lodge at Jackson Hole had a gas fireplace in the room which felt so nice and toasty in the morning when it was 39 degrees outside. Glamping (glamorous camping) was on my bucket list and did not disappoint! You’ve got to try it out if you love being outdoors, but don’t want to sleep on the hard ground. BYW you also get running water in your tent 🙂
The Red Mountain Resort & Spa was to celebrate a special occasion, and is a great destination in itself if you want a spa weekend or girl’s getaway. It’s an hour from Zion. If you want to stay closer to Zion, I recommend the town of Springdale, Utah, where there are several hotels and lodges. There’s a fantastic restaurant there called Switchback, which I highly recommend.
When it comes to food I’m pretty easy. As a matter of fact, most of the hotels we stayed at included breakfast, which we often took advantage of. During the day we snacked on nuts, fruit, and protein bars, and enjoyed a nice dinner. Since we only ate out once a day our food bill was only $1,300 or $62/day for two people. This does not include alcohol.
We often bought our beverage of choice and enjoyed it where we were staying. Drinking a cold beer on the front porch of the glamping tent in the high desert was refreshing!
A family owned restaurant we stumbled into in Jackson Hole is called Miazga’s. The bison burger and brisket were great and service fast and friendly. We also enjoyed breakfast at Pinky’s in Livingston, Montana, and dinner at the Red Mountain Resort Restaurant.
Our fuel was about $400 for this trip. We drove a small SUV that was loaded with three week’s worth of luggage. I packed for all seasons, cold in Montana and Wyoming, and hot in Utah and Nevada.
When we were spending one night in a hotel, we packed an overnight bag, so we didn’t have to lug our big suitcases into the hotel. That worked well, and was so much easier to carry.
For the most part, the activities of our trip were free! I bought a lifetime pass to the National Parks a couple years ago for $40. This got me free entrance into all the national parks and will for the rest of my life! What a great investment that was.
Of course you can spend more on activities if you want, but we didn’t. We primarily did hiking on our own, with the exception of The Narrows hike in Zion. Due to limited availability we did this as a guided tour. I recommend you start early in the day as this hike gets crowded.
Now for the physical part. How did I prepare for the hiking? I didn’t do anything different than my usual workout. I walk at least two miles five days/week. My partner and I try to get in a hike weekly usually of five miles. I have a morning workout routine I do at home three times/week. This includes basic cardio like jumping jacks and running up and down my stairs. I also incorporate a little kick boxing, weight lifting, pilates, and yoga stretching to keep me flexible. I don’t have a gym membership which saves me money. But if you need motivation to work out and a gym membership does it, go for it!
I also think staying physically fit includes eating healthy. Now I know that is different for each of us. For me, it means limiting my sugar intake (which also helps reduce my inflammation), and eating lots of veggies. I have withdrawals if I don’t have my greens daily 🙂 And yes, I like my protein. I love salmon!
Another thing that adds to my vitality is my mental attitude. I’m that girl that believes the glass is half full. Life is meant to be lived to its fullest, and that’s what I intend to do. I love life, live it big, and enjoy taking trips like this to experience our beautiful country.
I hope this helps you in budgeting your next trip.
As always, if you want to schedule your free 20 minute discovery call, do so here, and I”ll help you figure out how to budget your next great get away!