1

17 destinations in 21 days?
You're not actually planning to SEE those destinations right?

Edited by: LongIslandBob

2

What #1 said.

Before I start indicating alternative routes, please confirm your method of transport. "Road trip" suggests you're driving, but sometimes people come here and say "road trip" but use transit.

Also, please indicate which places "you know who to stay with," and which places are non-negotiable for the trip.

3

What #s 1 and 2 said.

Please provide the "specific cities" that you are basing the trip on.

4

And in particular, can your friend from Salt Lake meet you at Zion or Bryce instead?

5

Think of it this way:

• Monday arrive in Boston, check into hotel, have night on the town, maybe take a quickie bus tour.
• Tuesday tour Boston.
• Wednesday, tour a little more of Boston then drive 8-10 hours to DC, check into hotel
• Thursday, tour DC
• Friday second day in DC
• Saturday Drive 8-10 hours to Charleston, check in to hotel, have night on the town, maybe take a quickie bus tour.
• Sunday, tour Charleston

There ya have it. Even on a quick schedule you’re looking at 3 destinations per week. At that (somewhat rapid) pace you’ll do ~9 total destinations on a 21-day tour.

But it also means while in Boston you will have missed Plymouth, Lexington and Concord, Salem and whale watching (I don't actually know if December is a good time for whale watching).

Edited by: LongIslandBob

6

Delete half your planned stops, and tighten up your route.
Don't forget weather, you must cross the Rockies in winter-time.

7

AFAIK, no one runs tours in December.

8

Far too many stops without any indication of what you want to do or see other than a motel and a gas station.

In winter, the days will be very short and you will have to do a substantial amount of driving in the dark to make this agenda.

Basically, it looks like a long-haul truck drive and not much fun.

9

IMO, your couchsurfing is not a very good idea: Denver, Charleston and SLC EACH add over 300 miles of pure driving. If you had more time, sure. But you don't. Try something closer to
http://tinyurl.com/bsjqdln

Your notion that "We're moving at a pretty good pace to see a lot" makes even less sense. The basic premise gets a lot of airtime around here, but is a lie. If you hope to see anything other than the inside of the car, you'll need to get out of the damn thing.

10

And again, with the short days of winter, you are going to see "a lot" of the inside of your dark car on dark roads.

11

Why Oakland, of all places? Even if you have traveled to San Francisco before, it's still a better place for a stopover than Oakland. Or do you have friends in Oakland you plan to visit?

12

Although we have had some snow here in Santa Fe and the Rocky Mountains, the meteorologist is forecasting another dry winter with less snow that last winter, so you probably will not have any problems driving along Interstate-25 from Santa Fe to Denver -- however, it takes more than one day to drive that distance.

I am assuming that you already live in Boston and will not be spending time sightseeing there? Interstate-40 from Knoxville to Albuquerque is excellent and you can easily drive more than 300 miles per day. There is lots of open space in the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico. Skip overnight in Little Rock and go to Hot Springs for the night. Skip overnight in Oklahoma City and drive straight through to Santa Fe -- there is a short-cut at Cline's Corners north through Eldorado to Interstate-25, then turn south 10 minutes to Santa Fe. Be sure to have reservations -- there are 3 Motel 6s along Cerrillos Road. In December, Santa Fe has luminaria (candles in small paperbags -- artificial these days) lining flat roofs on adobe buildings in downtown area and especially along Canyon Road, where there are many art galleries. You might be in town to experience one of the festivals.

You will not have time for the Grand Canyon and other national parks on this trip. Drive straight north to Salt Lake City -- it will take more than one day's drive from Denver. There is a mountain range along Interstate-80 between Salt Lake City and Lake Tahoe, so that will slow your progress. Lake Tahoe is about 4 hours' drive to Oakland on Interstate-80, if the weather is good and not much weekend traffic.

Highway #1 along the Pacific Coast is narrow and slow, maybe 45 mph in most places. It is very scenic. Stop in Mendocino village for the night make reservations. You might make it all of the way to Portland the next day, if you leave early. Otherwise, Newport is nicer than Coos Bay, which has lumber mills and logging.

13

Think west coast: gray whale migration.

14

First off, thanks for the quick responses. I guess I should clarify some things. First, the purpose of the trip is to be moving her from the east coast to the west coast, it's not purely a vacation kind of road trip. Also, I'm not from Boston but have spent a lot of time there because my brother does live there. So Boston is really just a starting spot for us. A lot (most) of these stops are because it's a free place to stay. Some, like Charleston, are out of the way but she has friends she wants to see. Little Rock is also on there for a particular reason, and I've spent a couple months in that city so I'm already familiar with it. Basically, I know our pace is quick, but we wanted to put some miles down and get off the east coast quickly and have more time in the SW. Since I didn't put dates, we'll be spending about 4-5 days total in the Arches/Zion/Grand Canyon area with a full day scheduled just for Grand Canyon.

Thanks for the advice on snow from Santa Fe. As a SoCal native, snow driving is still new.

Oh and Oakland is definitely because that's where our place to stay is, we plan to spend most of the time in S.F.