How to Budget your Time 101

Budgeting your time is the trickiest part of planning a road trip. I often create a Google Doc or list while simultaneously working on my map. You'll need the map to see what distances you can cover in a day from destination to destination. If you want to see the Redwoods in California and the Arches in Moab on the same trip, you need to know how much time you can spend in Northern California and how long it will take to drive to Utah and still enjoy the drive and stops on the way.

I'll walk through a few different scenarios.

Obviously the more time you have to be on the road, the more you can see. This is why a priority list is so crucial. In this step of planning you have to make decisions about what is crucial to the trip and what can be cut for the sake of saving time. Read through"Getting Started" first. https://juliannetravels.wixsite.com/blog/post/getting-started

If you have a week to spend, and you're flying- you'll want to hop on a map and pick an airport that is the most central to the locations you want to see (check flights here first). This will involve car rentals, and remember that most car rental agencies require you to be 25. Although, shoutout to Voyager Camper vans, which rents out of multiple destinations, you just have to be 21 to rent from them.

With a week you will need to narrow down your list of sites so you have at least a day and a half in each one. I often find that a day and a half is enough time to get a good taste of a city if I really fill the day with activities. If you desire time to go deeper into a city or park, you'll need 2-3 full days.

Step 1: Make a list of the places you want to see and then off to the side of each location, write down how many days you want there. (Ex: Zion National Park-2 full days in addition to the half-day I will get after traveling there)

Keep in mind you will need a travel day, if you leave early enough is it possible to spend a half-day there? If so, you may be able to use your half-day for activities and then leave on your 3rd day there. So- arrive Sunday at 1pm, spend Monday all day, leave Tuesday morning...repeat at next destination.

Road trips are quick- typically you're trying to cover more ground than spend a full week in one place. You totally can spend a full week in a place if time allows. However; if you're trying to see all 5 of Utah's parks in 1 week, you need to move fast-spending a day and a half in one place and then moving on.

Here's what I would do if I was flying into Vegas(closest airport for the southern Utah Parks + the Grand Canyon

Sunday 12/1- fly into Vegas, rent a car, drive to GC (denote travel time), camp overnight

Monday 12/2- Spend day in Grand Canyon, camp overnight

Tuesday 12/3- Leave GC at 7am, arrive in Zion NP at 1pm (denote travel time), camp overnight

Wednesday 12/4- Spend day in Zion NP

Thursday 12/5- Leave Zion to Bryce Canyon for afternoon stop (3 ish hours), keep driving to Moab

Friday 12/6- Spend day in Canyonlands, lodge in Moab

Saturday 12/7- Spend day in Arches, lodge in Moab

Sunday- Drive back to Vegas, leave late that night

Now, this is just an example, but you can hit 4 Utah Parks +the GC in Arizona in just 1 week. You can drop a park for more time in another, you can switch directions, you can stay in lodges and hotels, or sleep in a tent every night. Road trips are amazing because they provide you with so much flexibility. Even if you make reservations ahead of time(which I recommend if you want to stay in a National Park) you can usually cancel with a small fee and stay where you are at the time.

This part of the planning stage is pretty intensive, once you decide the dates you can start looking for flights and reservations. Triple-check the amount of time you're in a place and make sure you can do those drives in a day before making any reservations.

For a road trip that's longer, I repeat this process on a document until I'm happy with the amount of time I'm spending in each place, and how much driving I'm doing in a day.

I will also say it takes awhile to do this if you're unfamiliar with the places you're going. I like to do research on the park or city to see how much time I NEED in a place to do everything I want to do. Some parks only take 2-3 hours to see, some need a full week- the same goes for cities, so it's important to do some research. I have guides to cities and parks on this blog too if you're looking for guidance!