Planning A Road Trip During A Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a surging increase of road trips in America. Back in June, AAA predicted that during the summer of 2020, Americans would take 700 million trips, 97% of which would be road trips. This isn’t so surprising, even though the total number of trips is down 15% since 2019. International travel is not an option for many, and flying in planes or staying at hotels introduces more fears of catching or spreading the virus, as neither allows for much social distancing. Not to mention that cruises and other common travel scenarios are also likely less safe or not even possible this year.

People still want to get out of their houses, and families still yearn for adventure, so in America this quickly became the year of the road trip, and 2021 may look similar. Some may opt for driving a car and renting a house or a cabin, or staying at an Airbnb or a tent or whatever they prefer. That said, many have been gravitating toward driving in RVs, as they are self-contained and allow for social distancing while still sightseeing. According to the RV Industry Association, 46 million Americans plan to go RVing sometime in the next year.

In October of 2019, I took a road trip with my dog in an RV across the Pacific Northwest for three and a half weeks. In taking this trip, I researched many different ways to rent motorhomes and also tried a number of different apps and websites that can help with everything from planning your route, to finding campsites and attractions and calculating fuel costs. They’re just as relevant during this pandemic when so many people will opt for road trips. While not every single thing in your life needs an app to take up more space on your phone and more time out of your day, the sites below are some of the tools that I found useful during my own journey.

Check out the full article from Forbes here.