How do you personally feel about long road trips when you have to drive? Like them, hate them, why?

38 comments

  2. Honestly, I don’t mind them all that much. I have to do a lot of long day trips for work- 2 to 3.5 hours each way. My pickup truck is a really comfortable road trip car and gets *really* good gas mileage for what it is… I just put on some music or a long-ish podcast and focus on the road. I would rather drive than sit.

    EDIT: If I can take a quick stop somewhere interesting, I like it even more.

  3. I like them as an occasional thing when I plan it myself, like once or twice a year. If I was obligated to do it regularly for work or something I would probably hate it.

  4. Depends.

    The long road trips I’m familiar with is going from Chicago to Denver which makes me want to explode from boredom in Nebraska.

    However I have fond memories of Florida road trips.

    I bet they’re more entertaining on the coast.

  5. I don’t mind them if it’s me by myself or just with my husband. If anyone else is in the car, I hate it. My husband works as my hype man to keep me in a good mood. Other people ruin the vibe.

  6. I take “middle size” road trips about 5 or 6 times a year to Cedar Rapids Iowa. It’s around 500 miles and usually takes 7.5 to 8.5 hours, depends on how often we stop for gas food and rest stops. I personally enjoy long trips, but as we get older it’s not so much with my wife. I compromise with a 5 to 6 hour limit between camping/hotels.

  7. Oh, man. You’ve hit on my favorite topic. My family and I take a long road trip vacation every summer. I’d much rather drive through and see the beauty of this vast country than fly somewhere and hang around in a city or see a bunch of tourist spots. To me, cities are all roughly the same, but there’s nothing like driving through this amazing landscape.

  8. I hate road trips with other people in the vehicle. I absolutely love road trips when I’m solo.

  10. I like them, but I have limits. I don’t like to go more than about 5 hours a day. My wife and I have done 2 in the last few years. Last year we flew into El Paso and drove up to New Mexico and back down and across Texas to Austin stopping off and staying the night in a few towns along the way. And this year we flew into Charleston SC and drove to Savannah GA, then up to Asheville, NC and then back to Charleston. We like to see different places and get out of the cities and a road trip is a great way to do it. I don’t, however, just like covering miles and staying in the car all day.

  11. I like them. I probably do 4-5 per year. It’s one of the few times that I’m able to disconnect from my texts, email, slack, etc. Also, I love stopping in small towns and having lunch in a local restaurant not some chain.

  12. I like them and occasionally I just get the itch to drive some stupidly far distance to go see something.

    Some of my favorite times with my wife were just cruising across the US to do something like backpacking or going home for the holidays.

    I can probably get us from the east coast to Indiana at this point without using a gps or looking at a map.

  13. I’m not a fan of being the driver.. and really not that into being a passenger either.

    Driving to Boston or DC is about where my line is drawn (~4 hrs)

    Anything longer than that is just miserable boring to me

    I do at least one longer road trip each year at Thanksgiving (11 hours).. my brother is a weirdo who likes driving so he’ll drive the whole way and I tend to the dogs.

    I much prefer flying for long distances and even that is kind of a hassle to me

  14. Honestly, I’m one of the first to volunteer for driver duty. Bonus if I get to select the playlists. I’m much less bored behind the wheel than I am in the backseat trying to keep myself occupied.

  15. Love them! I love just driving, especially when I’m by myself. Love seeing parts of the world I’ve never seen before.

  18. I like a long meandering road trip where I take my own damn time. I hate having to drive a long distance because I have to.

  20. Depends on what you classify as “long”. I’ve made the 6 hour trip to LA numerous times for work and most Europeans seem to consider that long. That one’s easy.

    I’ve also made the trip from Detroit to Phoenix (or reverse) a few times. That’s a 36 hour drive that I split into 3 days of 12 hours. That one is not enjoyable in the slightest and by the end of it, I’m just exhausted.

  21. Love them if I can take my time, but I hate it when it’s “drive 10+ hours with as few breaks as possible” style trips.

  23. I hating driving and I also hate being in the car for a long time, so road trips are torture imo

  25. I personally don’t mind, but my wife is somewhat claustrophobic, and while normally being in a car is fine, after several hours, it starts to wear on her. We avoid them for that reason.

  26. I don’t hate them and find joy in them depending on the circumstances. Who I’m driving with, what music I’m listening to, where I’m going, etc. I also love seeing the different scenery along the way.

  27. First big road trip with me as the lead driver was 35 years ago, 1200 miles from New England to Florida with two buddies in a 1980 Chevy sedan during HS spring break.

    Most recent was two weeks ago, 850 miles from the Midwest to the Carolinas.

    With thousands and thousands of miles driven in between.

    Can’t wait for the next one!

  28. Every year I rent a vehicle big enough to put a sleep pad in and just pick a coast and wander that way for 2 weeks. Sometimes I have an overall destination, sometimes I don’t. I’ve woken up with elk outside my window and with a bus full of casino bound seniors. I love it all

  29. I despise long car rides. My family would take 6hr road trips at least twice a year to visit family when I was a kid, and for most of my childhood I suffered from extreme motion sickness. I didn’t discover bonine/dramamine until I was an adult. Roadtrip is synonymous with feeling awful for me. I’ve taken a few shorter (3-4hr) trips as an adult that have been more tolerable, but I can’t see myself ever willingly going on a longer than 4hr drive ever again.

  30. Love them! My husband and I take 5000-7500 mile road trips twice a year. Our vacation starts the second we get in the car and the road trip is just as important as the destination. We’ve done cars, camper vans, pulled travel trailers and a fifth wheel and did it in our class A RV. Depends on our goals, what we want to see, how many side trips, backroads or interstates for what vehicle we drive but it’s all amazing

  31. I love them. I miss going from Florida to West Virginia frequently. I like taking at least a couple of long road trips every year.

  32. I like it! Adventure! Truck stops!
    Audio books.

    I’d rather drive since it gives me something to do, and I can kind of tune out. But ideally, I can make frequent stops to get out and explore the world every couple of hours.
    The people who turn it into a competition about making no bathroom stops or going as fast as possible don’t understand the joy of the journey.

    8-12 hours is my daily limit though.

  33. I like road trips, especially when I’m driving. I make a long music playlist and just hit the road

  34. Depends where I’m going. Rural trips I love. Driving up to new England (once you’re past the boston commute) is so freaking peaceful. The fresh air, the outdoors the quiet road. When I drive to New Hampshire I get so peaceful that I typically pull over after 3 hours to take a small nap in a parking lot lol. I’m so used to the hectic driving of NYC that anything that is ‘put cruise control on and do 40 miles straight’ puts me to sleep

  35. I love road trips. I’ve been doing road trips these past 3 weekends

  36. Getting ready to leave on one next week. 1800 miles. I am excited and dreading it at the same time

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like