Road Trip Tips to Help You Get More Out of Your Next Road Trip.
WRITTEN & PHOTOGRAPHED BY: STEVE HOLLOWAY
12 road trip tips to use to plan trips, find great routes, killer restaurants and authentic stays, work around some common problems and have fun out on the road.
For a multi-day road trip, pick a CD or make a playlist you identify with at some level.
Start each day playing that CD/playlist start to finish.
You’ll be surprised at the memories that get tied to those songs.
When we only have a few travel days available for a longer trip we put together a fly-then-drive road trip, flying into a destination and renting a car at the airport.
We’ve taken fly-then-drive road trips in Denver and Las Vegas.
For us, it has worked out to be the perfect mix of flight and drive time. Right now, we are planning to fly-then-drive Highway 1 along the California coastline when Covid-19 is less of an issue.
Long wait at a restaurant? Use this strategy. We’ve had great success asking if we can order from the bar. The answer is usually yes and usually from their full menu (we’ve only come across one restaurant with a limited bar menu).
We’re almost always seated right away and have placed our order, gotten our drinks, and met the people sitting with us in about ten minutes.
We’ve found meeting and talking to the people around us adds as much to the experience as the design, atmosphere and food in the restaurant do.
Can’t find listings on Food Network or Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives for restaurant ideas?
Ask around.
Hotel staff is a good place start. But we ask more than one person because opinions can (and do) vary. For example, in Palestine, Texas we got lucky. We heard from more than one person that Switch was the place to go. We went and found a wood fired pizza oven Italian restaurant. A cooked from scratch, delicious, memorable meal. In tiny Palestine!
Good thing we asked.
Switch is set back, out of sight from the main street. Driving by, we never would have seen it if we didn’t know it was there.
When we’re planning a trip we search destinations and nearby towns for vintage, authentic hotels. Some memorable, vintage, renovated finds include: The Palace Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, Havana Hotel in San Antonio, Texas and The Hotel Faust (now the Hotel Giles) in Comfort, Texas.
These are always great experiences that give you a sense of what travelers in earlier times might have experienced.
That said, there are times when a corporate style hotel makes sense.
When we arrive in a small town late and plan to leave early, we stay at newer, corporate style hotels (La Quinta, Holiday Inn Express, etc.). They’re reasonably priced, clean, well-staffed and have a breakfast bar the next morning for some coffee, juice and a bagel or fruit before you head out.
Our newest find in this category that we can’t say enough good things about is tru by Hilton. Clean, well maintained, well thought out, great staff and thoroughly disinfected between occupancies. We stayed at tru in Anna, Texas for two nights for a recent SCCA Road Rally and loved it.
We have never had a problem with the newer, hotel style locations so make sure to look for that.
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If you get to a destination and find something isn’t what you expected it would be, do something different.
In Eureka Springs, Arkansas, we spent our first night at a bed and breakfast we reserved online before we hit the road.
Online, the rooms look great.
When we got there we found a detail left off the web site, a hot tub in the room where a second bed probably lived at one time.
I’m talking a full size, four person hot tub. Since Eureka Springs is known for its’ mineral baths, I guess it was supposed to be like a “mineral bath experience”.
The next day we went to the Palace Hotel for their authentic mineral baths. In addition to the baths, we found a restored, turn of the century hotel that offered a catered breakfast tray to your room every morning.
We went back, packed and moved to the Palace for the next two nights.
Before we drove Route 66, we had a lot of trips where we stayed at hotels we found on line that turned out to be real disappointments.
They were poorly located, dirty, noisy, poorly maintained. To make things worse they were always right across the street or around the corner from a much better choice.
Since we made reservations we felt stuck and just stayed. Today, knowing how much where you stay affects your whole experience and your memory of the trip, we would be on the phone or at the front desk telling them our concerns, asking to check out early and willing to pay a cancellation fee.
That said, whenever we’ve left a hotel early, we haven’t had a problem.
Changing plans when you find great spots on the road is one of the best parts of a road trip.
Research your trip while you’re still at home.
More than once, we’ve found routes that couldn’t be plotted on Google Maps or similar programs.
The only way to get there was printed paper maps plus help from Google.
If you’re looking for an elusive route, start by searching road names and looking for associations, chambers of commerce and related sources for maps. Then piece those together with conventional Google course maps.
This is a variation on “It’s OK to change your mind”. Still, it warrants repeating. Because changing where you’re staying during a road trip can make the difference between an unappealing experience you’d like to forget and creating a once-in-a-lifetime memory.
When we planned our trip to Jamesport, Missouri, there was only one bed and breakfast in Jamesport which is where we planned to stay.
When we drove up, we found what looked like very low ceilinged converted horse stables. They were dark and in need of upkeep.
Without even stopping, we went online and found the only other accommodation that was even close to Jamesport, the Marydale Inn Bed & Breakfast.
Located 14 miles outside of town, we took a chance and drove there. The roads are not as well marked as they could be but we found it.
And they had rooms available!
Because of the road markings (or lack of markings) we ended up taking a different way back each day. Still, as the saying goes, WORTH IT.
Situated in the midst of a working ranch like property, the Marydale building looked like it is was built in the last year or so and offered a delicious breakfast.
It was perfect!
Here are 3 ways to find places that can be easily overlooked or missed.
Avoid Highways.
Highways by-pass areas that can cause congestion so we get where we’re going faster. Unfortunately they also keep us out of small towns along the way. And away from the local restaurants, shops, antique stores, wineries and breweries they have to offer.
Try using the “Avoid Highways” function in Google Maps to get alternate routes that take you through towns along the way.
Explore.
When you go through a town or get to your destination, explore the side streets. You’ll see the architecture and heritage of the town and find out of the way shops and stores.
Take a Backyard Road Trip.
Exploring can expand to include where you live, actively looking for restaurants, stores and attractions in your own backyard. Places you’ve meant to go to and just haven’t gotten to or finding places you never knew were there. We find we tend to go to the same parts of town and places we’re familiar with all the time. Exploring our backyard is like a nearby road trip.
Do a Google search for motorcycle magazines like Ride Texas and search for rides and solo rides on their site. We’ve found out, first hand, that great motorcycle rides make great road trip drives. Ride Texas is where we found the Palestine to Tyler Run (look for the Palestine to Tyler Run in an upcoming post).
If you’re on Twitter and/or Instagram, find travel resources to follow.
In Texas, I follow Travel Texas, Texas Highways and Southern Living.
At least once a week, I see an idea for a road trip to take, a town to visit or a must eat restaurant.
Go online to texashighways.com and request their Free Texas Travel Information package. Includes a Travel Map, Travel Guide and two recent issues of Texas Highways. A great resource! Thank you Texas Highways.
Plan trips around your interests. We participate in SCCA Road Rallies and plan trips around those events (look for an upcoming post on different types of SCCA Rallies that are driven in unmodified street cars on open roads offering a great way for anyone to get involved in rallies).
Car shows?
Look for local shows and cruise-ins like the Canyon Lake Hot Rod and Classic Car Cruise-In at the Brookshire Brothers parking lot.
Bigger shows look like they will be back this year after having to cancel last year.
The Lonestar Rod & Kustom Round Up, is projecting November, 2021 (final date to be determined) at The Travis County Expo Center, Austin, Texas for their show. This is a great event to plan a road trip around. (Search Lonestar Rod & Kustom Round Up, Austin on Google for updates.)
Motorcycles?
The Handbuilt Motorcycle Show is also back this year, also projecting November, 2021 (final date to be determined) in Austin. (Search Handbuilt Motorcycle Show Austin on Google for updates.)
Festivals?
The Poteet Strawberry Festival, April 9-11, 2021.
Chili Cook Offs?
The Terlingua International Championship Chili Cook Off, October or November, 2021 (tentative) Terlingua, Texas or local cook offs closer to home.
Antique Shopping?
You can plan trips around antiquing any time of the year (and you can antique almost everywhere).
If (when) you find a vintage, period authentic hotel, especially a restored one, Stay There!!!
You can create the memory of a lifetime like the Palace Hotel. Remember the Palace? The renovated, turn of the century hotel in Eureka Springs with catered breakfast in your room and original mineral baths.
