North America:
The Ultimate Road Trip Guide
North America:
The Ultimate Road Trip Guide
Destinations: Canada, USA, Mexico
Length of Trips: 1.5 weeks - 7 weeks (3.5 months combined)
Lodging Costs: $30.64/night (average)
Here is the guide to the planning the best road trips in North America. We will go over the best road trips to do in the US and Canada, including a taste of Mexico. We know most people will not have the time to do a 3-4 month road trip in one go, so below you will find a breakdown of the best road trips in North America.
The three main regions are the North East, the Great North, and the West. Each part includes the total length of time, miles driven, and destinations included. Individual destination posts part of each region include the best things to do, lodging costs, and total length of stay. We hope this will help you create your own best road trip in the US and Canada.
The Complete Road Trip Map
The North East
Red Line
Starting Point: Baltimore, MD
Ending Point: Niagara Falls, ON
Trip Length: 16 Nights | 2,120 Miles
This trip starts in Baltimore, MD and ends in Niagara Falls, ON for a total of 16 nights. Of course, this is not a full round trip as we continued onward to Banff National Park, AB. However, it is possible to make the 8 hour drive back from Niagara Falls to Baltimore in a day.
3 Nights
5 Nights
4 Nights
4 Nights
The Great North
Blue Line
Starting Point: Calgary, AB
Ending Point: Loveland, CO
Trip Length: 28 Nights
2,300 Driving | 3,100 Flying
The easiest way to start this portion is to fly into Calgary, AB. Not included in the trip length is the 5 day/2,400 mile drive from Gettysburg, PA to Banff, AB (upper portion of the white line on the map). We also decided to to fly from Calgary, AB to Anchorage, AK which saved us over 4,000 miles of driving.
But, the driving miles above do include what we drove from Anchorage to Denali National Park, and from Banff to Loveland, CO where we ended the trip. If we were to make this a round trip back to Gettysburg, PA it would add just over 1,600 miles and about 2-3 days of driving. All in all, this is one heck of a road trip. In our opinion, 28 nights was a good amount of time to get a feel for 4 National Parks, plus Mt. Rushmore.
10 + 2 Nights (Calgary)
7 Nights
3 Nights
4 Nights
2 Nights
The West
Green Line
Starting Point: Olympic National Park, WA
Ending Point: Loveland, CO
Trip Length: 46 Nights | 3,500 miles
The best place start a west coast road trip is Olympic National Park, WA. From here we drove down the coast through Oregon and California. Honestly, California is a road trip in and of itself. We spent 30 nights in the state; you can read more about the best way to road trip California if you keep scrolling. This west coast portion covers the southwest with a great road trip through Utah for 10 nights. The best way to road trip Utah is also listed below next to the California Road Trip.
Not included in the trip length was the extra 2 nights/1,300 miles to drive from Loveland, CO to Olympic National Park to make this a complete loop. It also took us another 3 days/2 nights to make the 1,700 mile drive from Loveland, CO back to our home in Maryland before beginning our tour of South America in Peru.
4 Nights
1 Day
2 Nights
2 Nights
4 Nights
1 Night
4 Nights
2 Nights
14 Nights
1 Day
1 Day
3 Nights
3 Nights
3 Nights
1 Day
1 Day
1 Night
3 Nights
Breaking up the West
30 Nights
We know that not everybody can take a month and a half road trip out west. So we have broken down the majority of our trip into the best two road trips for the west coast. We know 30 days is quite a while to spend in California, however 14 of those days were spent in San Diego. So realistically, you could spend a few nights there and do a great California road trip in roughly 16 days to get a taste of the state.
10 Nights
Planning the best road trip through Southern Utah is tough when there is so much that this state has to offer. With five national parks and hundreds of thousands of acres of public land, Utah is breathtaking. Doing a 10 day trip through southern Utah will give you a taste of the amazing landscape and leave you craving more. Check out crazy cool national parks and other iconic landscapes we got to see on that road trip here!
