15 Tips On How To Plan A USA Road Trip In 2023

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Every traveller should do a USA road trip at least once in their life.

The United States is the absolute best country for roadtrippers. It’s big but very drivable and the roads are excellent.

There is such a huge amount of diversity in America. Each state feels very different from the next, both in landscape and in culture.

After road-tripping in the US for more than a year, we only covered about 60% of the States but we’ve learnt a few things about travel in USA along the way, because as it turns out, planning a USA road trip isn’t east.

If you’re wondering how to plan a USA road trip, here are some of my top tips and things you should know to make the most of your adventure.

NOTE: This post was originally written by a guest author, but Caz and Craig (founders of ytravelblog) have updated to include helpful information based on their experiences road tripping the US (5+ years, 11 months of that full time in an RV, 38 states covered. We’re now green card holders, living in Raleigh NC, so are very knowledgeable on US travel)

Tips for Planning a USA Road Trip

Below are some of my top tips for planning a USA road trip to make sure you go in prepared and also make the most of your experience.

1. Understand the USA is a BIG Country

We were road-tripping in the US for over a year and still only covered 30 states! By the time we finished travelling we only hit around 40.

While we all go in with high expectations of seeing everything and doing everything on a cross country road trip, it’s not going to be possible. Unless you have two years at your disposal, you probably won’t get to see all 50 states.

If you’re limited on time, pick a section of the country rather than trying to cover a lot of ground.

There are some really good US road trips that you can do in under a couple of weeks if you don’t have time to drive across the whole country.

Here are some US road trip itineraries that we’ve done on our travels:

2. You Might Need A Visa for the US

If you’re coming to the US for just a few weeks and flying in and out, no problem! You can enter under the Visa Waiver Program using an ESTA (electronic pre-approval).

If you want to stay longer than 90 days or if you plan on also visiting neighbouring countries, the US visa…