Although significant travel events have been a bit scarce around here lately, mine is a road-tripping family at heart.
Whenever it’s time to plan one, there are a few guidebooks that I turn to again and again, because they are well-edited, accurate and it’s easier to skim through them than it is to plow through a jillion websites of dubious vintage.
You’ll notice that none of them are kid-specific; I like the unusual, unknown and offbeat, and my children usually do, too. Plus, hey, I’m driving, so I get to pick.
Other than my other favorite tips (see my earlier post on how to plan a tailpipe-kicking road trip) here are my favorite references….
*** Road Trip USA – This is a top reference for me because Jamie Jensen’s Road Trip USA finds the most wonderfully obscure stuff. The book covers 6 major routes, and if my trip area isn’t included it doesn’t do me much good, but I always check it first (and the Road Trip USA blog, of course.) The series now has books for certain routes, like the Pacific Coast Highway.
*** Off the Beaten Path travel guide by Reader’s Digest – Yes, the old fogies at Reader’s Digest have one of my favorite guidebooks. Off the Beaten Path is packed with useful information about unusual sights that I don’t find anywhere else; I always check it for each state that I’ll visit. Worth tracking down a copy, along with Most Scenic Drives in America and See the USA the Easy Way (great loop tours.)
*** Insiders’ Guide: Off the Beaten Path – from Globe Pequot Press, these are easy to find in the travel section of any bookstore. Super-detailed and usually written by locals, the Missouri and Kansas versions were invaluable to me when I drove from Texas to Chicago and back for BlogHer a few years ago, exploring the “Square States.”
*** 1,000 Places to See Before You Die – Overly dramatic title, but I do find good things here, arranged by state.
*** Anything Frommer’s – my favorite general guidebook. I always have the current edition for wherever I’m living (currently Texas.)
*** RoadFood by Jane and Michael Stern – because, well, food. Must have. Preferably not from yet another Chili’s, although they’re fine in a pinch.
*** For any particular city where I’ll spend significant time, I look for the TimeOut guides. Very British, very detailed, very thorough. Can read them over and over during subway rides and never be bored.
My biggest guidebook surprise over the last decade?
The quirky and detailed Lonely Planet Guide to Louisiana and the Deep South, used to death during our Great American South road trip from Florida to Arkansas and back. At the TBEX travel blogger’s conference recently, I had the pleasure of telling the US Lonely Planet editor, Robert Reid, how much I used and adored this guidebook.
What are your road trip planning favorites? Please let us know in the comments.
PRINT 
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 8 comments }
Way cool. I’m always a bit confused when I go to the travel section at the bookstore. There are SO many books. Now I know which ones I should pay attention to. Thanks!
Hi Kim,
Well, there are a ton of them, for sure. I also like the Dorling Kindersley ones, but for some reason haven’t used them much for road trip planning. Their city guides are usually very good, though.
We haven’t ventured outside the USA/Canada yet, nor have we tried air travel with the kids, so I’m armed with a ton of road trip planning books. I love pulling them out to make the sparkle of an idea for a road trip turn into a full-fledged itinerary, whether in our home state or across the country.
For any road trip:
Road Trip USA
Off the Beaten Path
the specific Off the Beaten Path book(s) for where we’re headed
100 Places to See USA/Canada
National Geographic Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways
100 Places to See with Your Kids Before They Grow Up (Frommer’s)
Reader’s Digest Travel Guide USA
The Most Scenic Drives in America
Over 1001 Amazing Places to Go in North America
AAA Tourbooks for our locations
Back issues of Country Discoveries magazine
Watch It Made in the USA
America’s Best Zoos
Any “curiosities” or “oddball” books I can find about our route or destination
If we’re camping:
Frommer’s Best RV & Tent Campgrounds in the USA
AAA Campbooks
Kept in the car if we’re traveling by Interstate highway:
The Next Exit (guide to restaurants, stores, and services at each exit)
Heading to a national park:
Frommer’s National Parks with Kids
National Geographic’s Complete National Parks
Midwest-Specific:
Rand McNally Midwest Getaway Guide
If we’ll be anywhere near the Lincoln Highway (roughly US 30 across the country)
Brian Butko’s Greetings from the Lincoln Highway
Lincoln Highway Companion
And if we’re roadtripping in our home state of Minnesota, I have no less than 15 state-specific books from which to draw ideas.
Sometimes I think I enjoy the planning more than the trip itself!
Whoa, Linda, what a great list! Your bookshelves must be as overloaded as mine.
Didn’t know about the two Lincoln Highway guides; will have to look for them….
For the Pacific Northwest and BC, I love Moon Travel Guides. They’re very well-written with comprehensive listings; the guides always include quirky stops and history. Pacific Northwest Trips (by Lonely Planet) is somewhat new and covers Oregon, Washington and BC via stop-by-stop itineraries.
Hi Lora,
I’ve used a few Moon guides in the past, and did like them. Thanks very much for the tips (and I like your Cascadia Kids travel site, too!)
Nice travel plans!! Thanks for the tips!
No doubt road travel in the US is simply flawless in this part of the world, but the so many numbers as names of highways is really confusing… isn’t it? i had a problem remembering the name and avoid mixing up all of them..!
Comments on this entry are closed.