Road Trip Map Help

[kelela92]

Does anyone have any websites they can share with me that would assist in mapping out a road trip?

DH and I are kinda broke and thought it'd be nice to drive up the coast of CA with our dogs. I was wondering if there's a website, or application or something, that can help me figure out how many miles/hours I'll need to drive a day to get to XYZ. What bigger cities to stay in, etc.

I'm looking at Google Maps and thought they had an application where I can drop points and it'll map out miles and the such.

I've never done a road trip before so any suggestions to make it easier would be wonderful.

Thanks.

 

[Luanne]

I've used mapquest, but just to find the route, miles and estimated times between point A and point B. I think there may be links of things like hotels and restaurants on the route, but I really can't remember.

 

[M. Henley]

Best I Believe

The best in my opinion is

maps.google.com

You can find nearby restaurants from a point, as well as motels. etc.

 

[DeniseM]

Also www.mapquest.com. You start off with two points - your home address, and the place where you want to spend the first night, or stop for lunch, or whatever. After you do that, and enter it, you will see a link to add more stops - you can add more stops until you reach your final destination.

If you are an AAA member, they also have a service that will do this for you.

 

[LUVourMarriotts]

I'd suggest Google Maps too. You mentioned you already went there, but it sounds like you didn't see how to get directions. It is very easy. Either click the Get Directions link just under where it says "Google Maps", or just type something like "1 Main St, Los Angeles, CA to 20 Park Ave, New York, NY" in the search box.

You can also get restaurants, hotels, etc just by typing something like "Hotels near Tuscaloosa, AL" in the search box of Google Maps.

Great site/app.

 

[carl2591]

The best in my opinion is

maps.google.com

You can find nearby restaurants from a point, as well as motels. etc.

agree about google.. much better than mapquest in direction and the ability to make changes in teh route..

I like to get the sat view up and look at the roads.. especially like in DC and NY city area..

 

[kelela92]

Since a lot of ppl suggested google, I must be doing somethign wrong. Do I need to find a destination, BEFORE I can start putting flags down? (flags or pins for places of interest or stopping areas?)

And Denise, thanks for mentioning AAA. I do have AAA. Do I need to go into their office and see a travel agent about doing this? Or how does that work?

Thank you everyone. I guess it's either Google or Mapquest. Now, I just need to figure out where I want to turn around.

 

[Stricky]

+1 on the AAA map (called a TripTiks)

Go to one of their offices and they will print it up for you. I think they bind it and it looks like flip cards if I remember correctly. Very cool for road trips.

http://www.aaa.com/AAA_Travel/AAAMaps/aaa_map.htm

 

[Passepartout]

Since a lot of ppl suggested google, I must be doing somethign wrong. Do I need to find a destination, BEFORE I can start putting flags down? (flags or pins for places of interest or stopping areas?)

No matter which mapping solution you use, you have to tell it where your destination is before it will start routing you or providing points of interest. Then it will tell you mileage and driving hours. Google maps will also show you street-level photos along the route.

Jim Ricks

 

[kelela92]

+1 on the AAA map (called a TripTiks)

Go to one of their offices and they will print it up for you. I think they bind it and it looks like flip cards if I remember correctly. Very cool for road trips.

http://www.aaa.com/AAA_Travel/AAAMaps/aaa_map.htm

Very cool. Thanks for the info. Now to figure out where to go, stay, etc.

FYI to everyone else. The add a destination on MapQuest is very easy and cool to use. I'm not really using the lodging/food areas as I'm looking for dog-friendly places and I don't think it narrows it down. It's at least giving me an idea of how long it'll take to get from place to place.

Thank you everyone! This was so helpful. I think choosing where to stay and what to do will take up the rest of my time.

 

[BSQ]

for my recent coast to coast drive I used a combination of google maps and AAA triptik on line.

I used google maps to break the drive into the number of hours I wanted to cover in a day, and used the TripTik to find hotels at each stop and things to see or do along my route.

You can save the triptik as a PDF file or print out two different versions of it.

I then sent the PDF to a few folks so they could follow my trip.