Road Trips

Frommer’s offers a page listing articles about road tripping. Browse the articles to see the possibilities for various themed and seasonal trips, and find the tools you need to execute your plan.

MSNBC.com’s “Travel” section offers this brief article accompanied by a slideshow on “10 Great American Road Trips.” Read a brief description of each and check out the striking photos that are sure to make you want to hit the accelerator.

Road Trip America is essentially an online smorgasbord for road trip information. Part guide, part library, part fan club, Road Trip America litters its homepage with articles and trip ideas. Don’t be deterred by the cutter; the navigation bar at the top of the page clearly outlines resources that make it possible to find what you need.

Road Trip Dream is the site of a retired couple that has road tripped through all 50 states. They’ve written about their experience and offer lots of resources on the site—some free, some for a fee. Use the “10 Tips To Jump-Start Your Road Trip Dream” article as a catalyst for concocting your ideal vacation.

MapQuest has plenty of road trips already planned. Choose your desired region to find pre-planned road trips, or get help designing your own.

Travel South USA offers “Real South Road Trips.” Find packages for driving tours available for sale, including itineraries and modest hotel accommodations. If you don’t want to book one of these packages, use the site to generate ideas.

Times Union , a Hearst-owned Albany-based newspaper, hosts an article called “The ultimate New England road trip” that describes a route taking travelers south from the wilds of Vermont through picturesque Western Massachusetts.

Legends of America provides an ultimate guide to Route 66. Some of the sections are more useful than others; if you’re seriously planning a road trip, you probably don’t need to visit the T-shirt or bumper sticker sections. Instead, read about the history, activities and sights along the way, or find links to each state’s Route 66 history site.

Historic Route 66 is a site devoted to guiding your travel on the legendary road. The site itself looks pretty historic, but you can get a state-by-state online map and driving directions of how to traverse the road (it’s not on new maps). Also check out the slideshow, or if you’re inclined, buy the “EZ66 Guide for Travelers” that includes directions, maps and suggested activities.

Citysearch’s editors selected their top 10 road trips to U.S. landmarks. Find destinations like the Las Vegas Strip and Niagara Falls, along with links to complete guides with attraction information and recommendations for hotels and restaurants nearby.

JohnnyRoadTrip.com is your shabbily designed “source for sports travel.” Learning how to cook shrimp on an engine en route to a game may or may not appeal to you, but you’ll certainly benefit from comprehensive league schedules, chances to buy tickets and hotel information. Don’t miss the list of nationwide stadiums with seating charts and parking information.

Rand McNally has a “TripMaker Planning Tool” to get your road trip in gear. Select your starting point and destination to get maps and driving directions. Add stops to your trip and the TripMaker selects activities and places as you go along. Save or print your trip, and make notes to yourself on the site. Also use Rand McNally’s online maps and mobile phone maps, or buy paper maps from the site.

Plan-Your-Trip.com is another useful Web site (though with an amateur design) that serves as an interactive trip planner specifically for road trips in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Utah, as well as in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Yukon, Canada.

FreeTrip is a simply designed and useful site, especially for finding accommodations on a long trip. Select your departure and destination towns, whether you want to avoid tolls or take the scenic route, and the kind of lodging you prefer (choose from hotels within a price range, camping grounds or national parks). You can even select rest stops. Submit your form and FreeTrip outlines your route and lists all the facilities that fit your criteria along the way.

PBS’s Web site recaps a film it broadcasted in 2003 called “Horatio’s Drive.” Read about this first transcontinental road trip, learn about the driver and the car, and view an interactive map of the trip.