Okay, so the family’s been bugging me for a road trip, and honestly, I was dreading the planning part. Maps, stops, kid-friendly stuff… ugh. But, I figured there had to be a better way than scribbling on a notepad like I did in the stone age. So I started my quest, for finding ways about “Travel itinerary planners for family road trips”.
Digging Around
First, I Googled the obvious: “family road trip planner.” I got bombarded with a million apps and websites. It was information overload. Many of them want a subscription fee, and I am not ready for that.
I narrowed my search a bit. I tried “free road trip planner with multiple stops.” That helped filter out some of the noise, but it was still a lot to wade through.
Testing the Waters
I picked a couple of the top results, random apps, and websites that looked promising and started playing around.
- One app was super pretty, all sleek and modern, but it was way too complicated. I just wanted something simple!
- Another one was promising, but it kept crashing whenever I tried to add more than three stops. Nope.
- I almost gave up,Then, I stumbled upon a simpler-looking website. No fancy graphics, just a straightforward form. I started plugging in our start and end points, and… it worked!
Getting Down to Business
This website, it let me add all our desired stops, like that giant ball of yarn my kids wanted to see. It even let me drag and drop the stops to change the order, which was perfect because I kept remembering things we needed to add.
The best part? It calculated driving times between each stop. No more guessing! I could actually see if we were being realistic about how much driving we could handle in a day, especially with the little ones.
The Finishing Touches
I spent a good hour tweaking the route, adding notes about potential restaurants or parks near each stop. I did a quick search like “best burgers near [stop name]” and jotted down a few options. I also checked if some places like museums were kid-friendly, just to avoid meltdowns.
Once I was happy, I printed the whole itinerary. I know, I know, I could just use the website on my phone, but I like having a paper backup. Plus, it’s fun for the kids to follow along on a physical map.
Honestly, It made this whole road trip planning thing way less painful. I might even volunteer to plan the next one. Maybe.
