When Nissan pitched us for a weekend getaway with access to travel and financial experts to talk to, I had already been thinking about the subject of road trips. The American road trip has become a bit of a lost art. And that’s despite how we have such amazing resources to research trips with, and how cars are incredibly reliable and comfortable compared to just a few decades ago. However, that art appears to be in revival.

As it stands, according to The Vacationer, around 75% of Americans are planning to drive to their vacation destination in 2025. That means there will be a lot of cars on the freeway. However, the most direct route is rarely the most fun. Before we get into that, though, let’s have a little history.

How We Lost The Art Of The American Roadtrip

Once upon a time, America discovered the freedom of the car. The country was covered in family-run motels and tourist attractions designed to pull you off the highway and inform or entertain. Americans wanted to explore small towns and huge national parks, get sidetracked, and most of all, have adventures. Then the interstate freeways came along, bypassing the small towns and family businesses while cities became denser and plastered with traffic lights and stop signs. Air travel became accessible and relatively inexpensive. Then major cities and resorts started battling for tourists and TV glamorized them as a destination.

Now, cars are no longer widely romanticized as a means of escape. We’ve become trapped in them in heavy traffic for short journeys. Air travel is no longer inexpensive or fun for even the wealthy American. Now you have to run the gauntlet of parking and security, then pay through the nose for a cup of coffee or a sandwich before being compressed into airplanes, assuming the flight isn’t canceled at the last minute. And when you reach a major destination, you’re paying tourist prices for everything.

However, the Covid lockdown reminded people that being outside is freedom and there are places away from the rush near their homes. Automakers have responded with a proliferation of adventure or soft-roader trims, but in the rush to sell something new, it’s easy to forget that our regular cars are still a vessel of freedom if we want them to be. What’s more, they’re infinitely more reliable and fuel-efficient than the cars of the previous century. Of course, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth packing a few emergency essentials.

The Modern Roadtrip

Even with high gas prices, a single tank of fuel in a car, crossover, SUV, or truck should get you somewhere between 250 and 350 miles. And in the majority of states, you can get off the freeways and travel roads with far less traffic and much better views. The vehicle Nissan sent us was deliberately random, turning out to be a Nissan Frontier pickup truck. Not the sort of thing typically associated with a road trip, like a big crossover, a sports car, or the traditional road trip tool – a station wagon. But that’s half the point.

Our destination was a hotel in Lake Arrowhead near Big Bear in California, known for being affordable and up in the mountains, even if you want to stay in a hotel right on the lake. Directly, it’s a three-hour drive from LA if you leave at the right time of day. However, we now don’t have to rely on paper maps and guide books that go out of date, and finding a scenic route is easy. If your vehicle is capable, you can even find dirt roads to link a route together.

We now have the internet and navigation apps. Even something as simple as selecting your destination on Apple Maps, Google Maps, or Waze to avoid freeways can lead to interesting routes and wonderful views, as well as showing nearby points of interest. An example we can give from our weekend, is that we passed nearby the iconic Pacific Crest Trail, a trail that’s 2,650 miles long and takes around five months to complete. We walked a few hundred yards, just so we could tell people we hiked the Pacific Crest Trail.

Budget And Destination

According to Jackie Lam, a professional finance writer and wearer of awesome glasses, the reason so many people are traveling by road this year is that people in general are living more frugally and less willing to go through airports. However, they aren’t sacrificing a summer getaway. Instead, they’re thinking about the budget before the destination. Then, when they’re in the “treasure hunt” phase, they go looking for where to go that is close to, say, free museums, restaurants that have deals, and things like varied hiking trails or great beaches. Or all of that in one area.

In our case, it was a hotel with beach access at Lake Arrowhead. Within the hotel is a spa, a cinema room showing movies, a pool, relaxation areas with fire pits, a restaurant, and a coffee shop. On offer was a guided boat tour, kayaking, cooking lessons, and, of course, access to the beach. In the local area there are some great hiking and off-roading trails, a public access lake, some cute little towns, and a cooler mid-summer temperature that was most agreeable to us desert dwellers.

Lori Butler, interim executive director, Lake Arrowhead Chamber of Commerce, made the point that it’s often worth visiting the local tourism office, even if you’ve already researched thoroughly. Often, you can get directions to the lesser-known places, like the restaurants or hiking trails the locals tend to prefer more than the more prominent and crowded state park areas. While we’re happy to give state parks money, when on a budget, this kind of information is valuable.

From Lisa Niver, an award-winning travel journalist with one hell of a track record, we got the most important advice of the day: It’s always worth getting into the details of what’s part of the deal with the hotel. For example, you may find the pool comes under the resort fee, but the spa is a separate charge. While it sounds obvious, it’s time-consuming, detail-orientated and easily skipped when booking hotels.

Here’s the thing though, even just one-day destination road trips are a great way to get out without spending lots of money. So many people are an hour or two away from places worth visiting that they haven’t, particularly museums. I’m guilty of this in Southern California. I’ve lived here for 15 years and have yet to visit the Marconi Automotive Museum, an obvious destination for a car enthusiast. Taking beautiful back roads, it’s a two-hour drive and free to enter. In fact, that’s now next weekend’s destination.

Road Trip Vehicles

Nissan pitched us this weekend and supplied the vehicle, but the reality is that the vehicle doesn’t matter as long as it’s comfortable enough to spend those hours in while on the road. That’s why the car we were sent was random. An option for those with smaller city vehicles that want – or need – more room is to rent a car. It’s also an option for those who want to take the kind of trip that involves driving all day and motels at night but don’t want to put that many miles on a car in one hit.

Our advice for car rentals and vacations in general is not to start out with websites or apps that help you find the right deal, but start by looking at existing services you use, then move on to the deal specialists. Many banks have special offers and deals, and the credit cards you use might have preferred rates or cash-back for particular businesses or chains. If you’ve racked up a bunch of miles traveling by air, now might be the time to cash in and rent a car in another state with which to explore.

If you’re in the position where you’re looking for a new or used car and looking toward a future of road trips rather than flying to vacation destinations, that’s something we’ve put a lot of thought into here. But, truly, the best car for a road trip is the one that gets you on the road.

Source: The Vacationer