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18 days. 7,255 miles. $922 in gas. $423 in other expenses. Total cost: $1,346.

I slept in my car at rest areas, camped for free whenever I could, hiked through some of America's most spectacular landscapes, ate at old-fashioned diners, and drove across a huge section of the United States.

And I did the entire 18-day road trip for about $75 a day.

This wasn't a luxury vacation. There were no expensive resorts waiting for me at the end of a long driving day. No room service. No carefully organized tour bus carrying me from attraction to attraction. Most nights, my car was my bedroom. The highway was my route. National parks were my entertainment. And America itself became the destination.

If you've ever searched for how to road trip across America on a budget, wondered whether sleeping in your car can actually save enough money to make a long road trip affordable, or dreamed of visiting several national parks in one journey, this is what my experience looked like.

Sleeping in My Car Saved Me Money—and the Headache of a Schedule

Sleeping in my car did two important things for me on this road trip: it saved me money, and it saved me a lot of headaches.

The money savings are obvious. On an 18-day trip, hotel rooms could easily have added well over a thousand dollars to my expenses. By sleeping in my car at rest areas where permitted and camping for free whenever possible, I eliminated one of the biggest expenses of a long road trip.

But there was another benefit that I didn't fully appreciate until I was actually on the road:

I didn't have to rush.

When you're driving thousands of miles across America, it's very difficult to know exactly when you're going to arrive somewhere. You can estimate that you'll reach a destination at 7:00 p.m., but the highway may have other plans.

During my trip, I encountered major road construction, lane closures, traffic delays, detours and all the other things that can turn an eight-hour driving day into something much longer.

If I had a hotel reservation waiting for me hundreds of miles away, I would have felt pressure to keep driving.

"I have to get there tonight."

Instead, I had freedom. If road construction slowed me down, it slowed me down. If I wanted to spend another hour enjoying a beautiful place, I could. If I was tired, I could start looking for a legal and safe place to stop rather than forcing myself to drive another two or three hours just because I had already paid for a hotel room. That freedom was a luxury in itself. Most people think of luxury travel as expensive hotels, comfortable beds and room service. On this trip, my definition of luxury became very different.

Luxury was not having to rush. It was not constantly looking at the clock. It was not worrying about whether I would make my hotel check-in. It was being able to change my plans because of weather, traffic, road construction—or simply because I found somewhere worth spending a little more time. My car wasn't as comfortable as a hotel room, of course. But it gave me something a hotel reservation couldn't:

complete flexibility. I could drive until I was ready to stop, find an appropriate place for the night, sleep, wake up the next morning and continue the adventure. For a 7,255-mile road trip, that freedom turned out to be worth almost as much as the money I saved.

My 18-Day USA Road Trip at a Glance

I started from Orlando, Florida, and eventually returned to Orlando after driving 7,255 miles.

My route took me through or near:

Orlando → Sioux Falls → Badlands National Park → Mount Rushmore → Glacier National Park → Yellowstone National Park → Grand Teton National Park → Colorado → Denver → New Mexico → Oklahoma → Arkansas → Tennessee → Orlando

Along the way, I hiked, explored national parks, visited roadside attractions, ate in diners, and experienced the enormous geographical changes that make an American road trip so fascinating. One day you're driving through flat farmland. A few days later you're surrounded by mountains. Then there are forests, rivers, deserts, small towns and highways that seem to disappear into the horizon. Flying would have been faster. But flying would also have meant missing most of the journey. That is exactly why I wanted to drive.

My original plan was to travel to Spain or Greece, but these days, international travel can feel unpredictable, so I decided to turn my attention closer to home. Even then, taking a 7,255-mile road trip with rising and constantly changing gas prices was a gamble. In fact, that uncertainty became part of the reason I wanted to do this trip. I wanted to find out whether a journey of this size was still possible without spending a fortune. The point wasn't to prove that travel is cheap—it isn't—but to show that with discipline, careful choices, flexibility, and a willingness to give up some comforts, an adventure like this can still be achievable.

What My 7,255-Mile Road Trip Actually Cost

One of the biggest questions people have about a long road trip is:

How much does a cross-country road trip cost?

Here are my actual numbers.

Expense	Cost
Gas	$922
Other expenses	$423
Total	$1,346
Miles driven	7,255 miles
Length of trip	18 days
Average fuel economy	32 MPG

That works out to approximately: $74.78 per day for the entire trip. And my overall cost averaged only about: 18.5 cents per mile. The biggest reason I could travel for that amount was simple.

I Eliminated Most Hotel Costs

Hotels can easily become the largest expense on a long road trip. Imagine paying even $100 per night for 17 nights. That's $1,700 before buying a gallon of gas, eating a meal or entering an attraction. Instead, I slept in my car at rest areas where overnight parking was permitted and used free camping opportunities whenever I could find them. That decision completely changed the economics of the trip. It also changed the experience. This wasn't simply transportation between hotels. My vehicle became part transportation, part bedroom and part base camp.

Camping inside national parks is one of the best things I have ever done. Waking up surrounded by wilderness adds an entirely different dimension to the experience, but as more people visit America's national parks, finding a campsite without a reservation can be extremely difficult. Many campsites can be booked through Recreation.gov, and if you know your travel dates, I strongly recommend booking months in advance. One important lesson I learned is to double-check the exact location of the campground before paying. The booking information may not always make the location or driving distance as obvious as you expect. I learned this the hard way when I thought I had booked a campground in Yellowstone, only to discover that it was about 120 miles away, and I ended up losing that reservation. Some campgrounds also offer first-come, first-served sites, which can be useful when your road-trip schedule is flexible, but there is no guarantee that a spot will be available when you arrive.

Leaving Orlando: When the Road Trip Becomes Real

There is something special about the first few hours of a long road trip. You know intellectually that thousands of miles are ahead of you, but it doesn't quite feel real yet. You're still driving roads that look familiar. Then gradually the scenery changes. The exits become unfamiliar. Cities disappear behind you. Your normal routine begins to feel very far away. For me, that was part of the attraction. A road trip gives you something air travel usually doesn't:

transition.

When you fly from Florida to the mountains, you leave one world and arrive in another a few hours later. When you drive, you watch America change mile by mile.

Sioux Falls: A Break From the Highway

Eventually I reached Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I intentionally skipped hiking and sightseeing in most of the southern states on this trip because I am already very familiar with the states closer to Florida. I have traveled through many of these areas before, so rather than spending valuable time stopping at familiar attractions, I wanted to use my limited 18 days to explore places farther from home. My priority was the landscapes and national parks of the Midwest, the Rocky Mountains, and the American West—places such as the Badlands, Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton. The southern states were primarily part of my route out and back, allowing me to save my hiking time, energy, and budget for destinations that offered something new to me.

After spending so many hours behind the wheel, stopping somewhere with a completely different pace feels refreshing.

Sioux Falls provided an opportunity to get out, explore, eat and experience another piece of America rather than simply passing through it.

One of the pleasures of road-tripping is eating at diners along the way.

I'm not talking about turning every meal into an expensive restaurant experience.

For a budget traveler, diners can become occasional rewards.

You spend hours eating simple food from the car or preparing inexpensive meals, and then every so often you sit down in a booth, order something hot and enjoy the atmosphere of a local diner.

Those meals become part of the memory.

Badlands National Park: The Landscape Suddenly Changes

Then came one of the most dramatic parts of the trip:

Badlands National Park.

You can drive for hours through relatively open country and suddenly encounter a landscape that looks almost prehistoric.

Jagged formations rise from the prairie.

Layers of earth reveal different colors.

Cliffs and unusual rock formations stretch across the landscape.

This is exactly the kind of place that demonstrates why a road trip is different from simply traveling to a destination.

Badlands wasn't just somewhere on a list.

It was part of the progression of the journey.

I could stop, hike, look around and continue when I was ready.

There wasn't a tour guide telling me I had 20 minutes before getting back on a bus.

That freedom became one of the themes of the entire trip.

Mount Rushmore: Seeing an American Icon in Person

Next came Mount Rushmore.

You can see thousands of photographs of Mount Rushmore, but there's still something different about standing there yourself and looking up at the massive faces carved into the mountain.

George Washington.

Thomas Jefferson.

Theodore Roosevelt.

Abraham Lincoln.

Road trips are filled with moments like this.

You've seen something on television, in books, online or in photographs for decades.

Then suddenly it's right in front of you.

Mount Rushmore was also a reminder that a long American road trip doesn't have to be exclusively about national parks.

Historic sites, roadside attractions, diners, small towns and unexpected stops are all part of the experience.

Glacier National Park: One of the Highlights of the Trip

As I continued north and west, the landscape became increasingly dramatic.

Then came Glacier National Park.

For someone who enjoys hiking and wilderness, Glacier is the kind of destination that can make all those highway miles worthwhile.

Mountains.

Forests.

Lakes.

Wild landscapes that seem to stretch forever.

This is where traveling inexpensively becomes especially rewarding.

Some of the greatest experiences in America don't require spending hundreds of dollars once you arrive.

You can hike.

You can sit beside a lake.

You can watch the landscape change as the sun moves across the mountains.

You can simply stand somewhere beautiful and take it all in.

Nature doesn't ask whether you're staying at a five-star resort.

Hiking Became Part of the Journey

I didn't want this trip to consist entirely of sitting behind a steering wheel.

Hiking gave the journey balance.

After driving hundreds of miles, getting out of the car and walking several miles through a national park feels incredible.

Your legs finally move.

You slow down.

You notice things that are impossible to appreciate at highway speed.

The sound of water.

Wind moving through trees.

Birds. The people you meet.

Changes in temperature.

The smell of a forest.

Views that gradually reveal themselves as you climb.

Driving allowed me to cover America.

Hiking allowed me to experience it.

Yellowstone National Park

From Glacier, the adventure continued toward one of America's most famous national parks:

Yellowstone.

Yellowstone feels different from almost anywhere else.

The geothermal activity, wildlife, open landscapes, forests and mountains combine to create an environment that can change dramatically as you move through the park.

And this is another advantage of traveling by car.

Your schedule belongs to you.

See something interesting?

Stop.

Want to spend longer somewhere?

Stay.

Need to change plans?

Change them.

On a road trip like this, flexibility isn't an inconvenience.

It's one of the biggest advantages.

One thing I strongly recommend before traveling through remote areas around the national parks is to download offline maps before you leave, because much of this is no-signal country. Small towns can be far apart, and you cannot assume your phone or your vehicle’s emergency services will work when you need them. I learned this firsthand when I hit a pothole and my rear tire went flat instantly. There was no cell signal, so my Subaru emergency assistance couldn’t connect, and there weren’t park rangers conveniently nearby to help. That’s when panic started to set in—especially when I couldn’t find the wheel-lock key to remove the tire. I was in a mess. But I did what I try to do whenever I find myself in a panicky situation: I stopped, stepped back, took a breath, and calmed myself down. Once I stopped rushing, I found the wheel-lock key, changed the tire, and got myself moving again. But solving the immediate problem was only half the battle. Now I had to find a Subaru dealer, and the nearest one could be hundreds of miles away. These are the situations we rarely think about when planning a beautiful national park road trip. We prepare our camping gear, food, hiking equipment, and itinerary, but sometimes it’s the unexpected pothole in the middle of nowhere—with no cell signal—that really tests how prepared we are.

Grand Teton: The Mountains That Make You Stop

Then came Grand Teton National Park.

There are landscapes that look impressive in photographs.

And then there are landscapes that make you stop what you're doing when you see them in person.

The Tetons belong in the second category.

Their dramatic peaks rise sharply above the surrounding landscape, creating one of those classic American wilderness views that almost doesn't seem real until you're standing there. But the Tetons aren't just something to admire from a distance. Hiking into the mountains and backcountry camping are extremely popular here, giving adventurous visitors the opportunity to experience this incredible landscape from within it. For those properly prepared, spending a night in the backcountry can turn a visit to Grand Teton into something much more than a sightseeing stop—it becomes a true wilderness experience.

After thousands of miles on the road, moments like this reminded me why I was doing the trip.

Not to collect destinations.

Not to say I'd been somewhere.

But to experience the enormous variety of landscapes that exist within one country.

Sleeping in My Car During an 18-Day Road Trip

This is probably the part many budget travelers are most curious about.

What is it actually like sleeping in your car during a road trip?

First, it isn't a hotel.

Space is limited.

You need organization.

You need to think about ventilation, temperature, privacy, safety and where overnight parking is legally allowed.

But there's another side to it.

You don't have to check into a hotel every evening.

You don't have to check out every morning.

Your belongings travel with you.

If you're tired and find an appropriate legal place to stop, your sleeping space is already there.

And, most importantly for this trip, it saved me an enormous amount of money.

I used rest areas when overnight stays were permitted and camped free when appropriate opportunities were available.

Rules vary by state and location, so anyone planning a similar trip should always check posted regulations before settling in for the night.

Never assume that because one rest area permits overnight parking, another one will. One of the best discoveries for budget travelers is that national forests can offer far more flexibility than national parks. In some areas, there are pullouts, dispersed camping areas, and forest access points where you may be able to legally sleep in your car or pitch a tent, sometimes for free or for a small registration or camping fee—I encountered places costing around $8. Always check the rules for the specific national forest and location before settling in, because regulations vary and some areas prohibit overnight parking or camping. I learned several other simple tricks for staying comfortable while primitive camping, but I’ll save those for another blog post. One of the easiest is something most travelers already have: empty drinking-water bottles. I would refill them with water wherever appropriate, such as rest areas or other public water sources, and keep them in the car. When you haven't had access to a shower, a little water and soap can do miracles for washing up, and wet wipes are another useful addition to your supplies. When you're traveling this way, you quickly discover that staying reasonably clean and comfortable doesn't always require a campground shower or hotel room—it sometimes just requires a little preparation and creativity.

What Car Camping Taught Me About Travel

One of the surprising things about traveling this way is how quickly your definition of "necessary" changes.

At home, we're surrounded by things.

On the road, the important questions become much simpler.

Where am I sleeping tonight?

Where can I refill water?

Do I have enough fuel?

What's the weather doing?

Where am I going tomorrow?

Where can I safely park?

When can I take a shower?

What am I going to eat?

Suddenly the things that seemed important at home don't seem quite as important.

You realize how little you actually need to keep moving. I am someone who really values comfort. I like things to work, I don't enjoy broken things, and I appreciate the little luxuries that make life easier. But a trip like this teaches you that there is so much more to life than comfort and luxury. Some mornings I would wake up at a remote rest area, occasionally with no one else around, step outside and brush my teeth while the sun was just appearing on the horizon. I could feel the cool wind on my face and hear nothing but the sounds of wildlife waking up around me. There was no hotel room, no fancy breakfast, and no luxury resort—yet standing there in that quiet moment, I realized that you couldn't buy that feeling for a million dollars. Those mornings gave me a sense of freedom and peace that is difficult to explain until you've experienced it yourself. Sometimes I would stand there looking at the horizon and think, I could live like this forever.

Each morning, I would heat some water for tea at a picnic area, sit down, and quietly plan the day ahead. Sometimes I would respond to comments on social media, look over my itinerary, and see what destinations and adventures were coming next. Even the way I used my car changed as the trip went on. I developed my own little system with CarPlay, organizing the next destination and the stops that would follow so I always had a sense of where I was heading without constantly trying to figure everything out while driving. These weren't systems I had carefully designed before leaving home—they were systems I reinvented along the way, based on what the road was teaching me. That's one of the things I loved about this trip: every day I became a little more efficient, a little more resourceful, and more comfortable with this new way of traveling. The road wasn't just taking me to new places; it was teaching me how to travel better

Colorado and Denver

After experiencing some of America’s greatest northern national parks, I continued toward Colorado and Denver, but this part of the journey became special for a completely different reason. I stopped in Aurora to visit a Venezuelan friend, and what I expected to be a simple visit turned into a little fiesta. She invited other friends, we had food, Spanish music, dancing, laughter, and for a while my solo road trip became a celebration with friends. The next day, I was back on the road and headed toward Pikes Peak, where the adventure changed again. Driving to the summit is an experience in itself. The mountain road demands your full attention, and the park rangers provide important guidance about safely making the drive, particularly how to use your transmission and brakes on the descent. There are also brake-temperature checks on the way down, and you may be required to stop and allow your brakes to cool if they are too hot. Reaching the summit at 14,115 feet, after watching my car climb all the way up that mountain, made the experience extraordinary. One day I was dancing to Spanish music with friends in Aurora; the next I was standing more than 14,000 feet above sea level looking out over Colorado. That contrast is exactly what makes a road trip so unpredictable and memorable.

The journey through Colorado provided another change of scenery and another opportunity to experience the American West.

By this point, the trip had developed its own rhythm.

Drive.

Explore.

Hike.

Eat.

Find somewhere to sleep.

Wake up.

Repeat.

There is something wonderfully uncomplicated about that routine.

You're always moving toward something, but the space between destinations matters just as much as the destination itself.

Heading South: New Mexico

From Colorado, the route took me toward New Mexico.

Once again, the landscape began changing. As the landscape changed, so did the farms, vegetation, and animals I encountered along the way. I would pass fields with cattle, sheep, and horses, and whenever it was safe and appropriate, I would stop to take photographs and simply watch them. One of the most interesting things I learned was that animals can be just as curious about us as we are about them. Horses would sometimes notice me and actually come closer, almost as if they wanted to find out who this stranger was standing nearby. Sheep, rabbits, cows, and even deer would stare at me with what seemed like genuine curiosity, watching every movement. But the moment I tried to walk toward them, they would usually move away or run. I found these little encounters fascinating. They weren't attractions marked on my itinerary or places I had planned to visit; they were simply unexpected moments the road gave me. Sometimes the smallest experiences—standing quietly beside a field and having an animal stare back at you—become some of the most memorable parts of a journey.

This is one of the reasons a multi-state American road trip can be so addictive.

The country doesn't stay visually consistent.

Mountains give way to open spaces.

Vegetation changes.

Architecture changes.

Weather changes. As I traveled through the wide-open landscapes of Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, the wind became something I could actually feel as part of the journey. At times it pushed against the car, and then I would look across the horizon and understand why there were enormous wind farms stretching for miles. Texas, in particular, is America's largest wind-power-producing state, and wind supplies roughly a quarter of the state's electricity annually—not 30–50% in a typical year, although at certain times wind's share of electricity on the grid can climb much higher. Seeing row after row of giant turbines turning across otherwise open land made energy production something tangible rather than just a statistic. In Texas, I also stopped at Cadillac Ranch, one of those wonderfully strange roadside attractions that belongs on an American road trip. Created in 1974 near Amarillo, it consists of ten Cadillacs buried nose-first in the ground at an angle, their bodies covered in layer upon layer of colorful spray paint left by visitors. You're actually encouraged to add your own paint, so the artwork is constantly changing. After thousands of miles of mountains, wildlife, forests, and open prairie, standing in a Texas field looking at ten brightly painted Cadillacs sticking out of the earth was another reminder that sometimes the weird, unplanned roadside stops are just as much a part of the American road-trip experience as the famous destinations.

Even the light can feel different.

Driving south also marked a psychological turning point.

I was beginning the long journey back toward Florida.

But there were still thousands of miles and several states ahead.

Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee

The return route continued through Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee.

On a map, these may look like states you simply need to cross to get home.

But road travel has a way of making the spaces between major attractions interesting.

Small towns.

Truck stops.

Roadside signs.

Local restaurants.

Unexpected scenery.

Conversations with strangers.

Weather moving across the highway.

Sunsets viewed through the windshield.

These aren't usually the things people put on a travel itinerary.

But they're often the things you remember.

The Real Cost of Fuel

Gas was my largest expense at $922.

Over 7,255 miles, my vehicle averaged approximately 32 miles per gallon.

That fuel efficiency made a significant difference.

A long road trip magnifies fuel economy.

A difference of only a few miles per gallon may not seem important during normal commuting.

Across more than 7,000 miles, it matters.

For anyone planning a similar trip, one of the best budgeting strategies is to estimate:

Total miles ÷ expected MPG = approximate gallons required.

Then multiply that by a realistic average fuel price. Before leaving, a simple Google search can give you the average gas price in each state you'll be traveling through, which is a useful way to build a rough fuel budget. Gas prices can change considerably while you're on the road, so the number will never be exact, but it gives you something realistic to work with. Fuel-cost calculators can also estimate a trip based on mileage, fuel economy, and current prices; AAA, for example, provides a road-trip gas-cost calculator using current average fuel prices. Before this trip, I estimated that I would spend about $825 on gas. My actual fuel expense ended up being roughly $100 more, partly because of the unexpected tire situation and the additional driving it caused. That experience reinforced one of the biggest lessons of this journey: a road-trip budget should always have room for the unexpected. I learned much more about driving through areas with no cell signal, preparing for emergencies, and traveling interstates where exits, fuel stations, and services can sometimes be surprisingly far apart. There is enough to say about those experiences for an entire article, so I'll save my driving through no-signal country and remote-road survival tips for another post. This one is already becoming quite the journey—just like the road trip itself.

Add a cushion because fuel prices can vary significantly between states and remote areas.

My Other Expenses Were Only $423

Outside of gasoline, I spent approximately $423.

That included my other travel expenses during the 18 days.

Keeping this number low required making deliberate choices. One thing I noticed during fuel stops was how quickly small purchases can quietly destroy a road-trip budget. I would watch other travelers pull up for gas, and often the entire family would go into the convenience store and come back carrying chips, candy, soft drinks, and other snacks. There is nothing wrong with enjoying those things, but buying them every time you stop for fuel can become an expensive habit, especially on a trip involving thousands of miles and dozens of gas stops. Over the years, I have even come across travelers partway through their journeys who had run out of available cash or credit and were asking strangers for gas money. Sometimes overspending can simply become a habit—you stop for gas and automatically feel like you need to buy something. My trip was solo, and discipline was a major reason I was able to keep the cost so low. I tried to eat at normal meal times, drink water in between, have some tea when a long driving day needed a little boost, and keep a few fruits and simple snacks available for those long stretches behind the wheel. Budget travel doesn't mean depriving yourself; for me, it meant knowing the difference between what I needed and what I was buying simply because it was in front of me.

I wasn't treating every day like a traditional vacation day.

That's an important distinction.

When people go on a five-day vacation, they may eat in restaurants several times a day, pay for attractions, buy souvenirs and stay in hotels.

Do that for 18 days and the cost becomes enormous.

Long-term budget travel requires a different mindset.

Some days can be extremely inexpensive.

Then you selectively spend money on experiences that actually matter to you.

Why Diners Matter on a Road Trip

One of my favorite parts of American road travel is stopping at diners.

There's something about a diner that belongs naturally with a road trip.

A counter.

Coffee.

Breakfast.

A burger.

Local people.

Travelers coming and going.

Sometimes the restaurant itself feels like part of the history of the road. I have always been fascinated by Route 66, and for me, the classic American diner is an essential part of that tradition. You simply cannot take a great American road trip and leave out the experience of pulling into an old-fashioned diner, sitting down after hours behind the wheel, and enjoying a good meal surrounded by a little piece of American road history. I wasn't trying to eliminate every pleasure just to keep the trip cheap—the goal was to spend with purpose. Diners were something I deliberately included in my budget because they were part of the experience I wanted. Dairy Queen is another road-trip tradition for me, as it is for many Americans. After a long day of driving or hiking, seeing that familiar sign along the highway meant it might be time for one of my favorite treats: a Cheesecake Blizzard. Budget travel doesn't mean removing everything you enjoy; it means cutting unnecessary spending so you still have room for the traditions and experiences that make the journey memorable.

My road trips in Europe have their own traditions too. Part of what makes a road trip memorable is not just where you go, but what you eat and the little rituals you develop along the way. In Europe, that might mean stopping for fresh cheeses and a crusty baguette, finding a small local bakery, enjoying a pizza, or discovering regional foods as I travel from one place to another. Just as diners, Route 66, and an occasional Dairy Queen Blizzard have become part of my American road-trip experience, European road trips have a completely different flavor and character. I don't believe budget travel should mean removing these experiences. Food is part of the culture, and culture is part of the journey. The key is choosing the experiences that mean something to you rather than spending money constantly simply because you're on vacation.

I didn't need an expensive meal every day.

That made the occasional diner stop more enjoyable.

Instead of eating out automatically, it became an experience.

Could You Really Road Trip America for Around $75 a Day?

My trip proves that it's possible—at least under the right circumstances.

My total was:

$1,346 ÷ 18 days = about $74.78 per day.

But there's an important catch.

You have to be willing to travel differently.

If I had added a $120 hotel every night for 17 nights, that alone would have added:

$2,040.

The same journey could suddenly have cost more than twice as much.

Accommodation is where car camping completely changed my budget.

Tips for Planning Your Own Budget USA Road Trip

If I were advising someone who wanted to recreate this style of adventure, I'd focus on a few things.

Plan the big route, but don't over-plan every hour.

Know your major destinations and approximate driving distances, but leave room for discovery.

Know where you can legally sleep.

Rest-area rules vary. Free camping regulations vary. Always verify current local rules.

Watch your fuel range.

In remote parts of the West, don't automatically assume another gas station will appear in 10 miles.

Carry plenty of water.

This is especially important when hiking and camping.

Keep simple food in the car.

You don't need restaurant meals three times a day.

Prepare for temperature changes.

A trip covering Florida, northern national parks, mountains and the Southwest can expose you to very different conditions.

Keep your vehicle organized.

When your car is transportation, storage and bedroom, clutter becomes frustrating very quickly.

Build hiking into the itinerary.

It breaks up long driving days and allows you to actually experience the places you've driven so far to see.

Where Should I Go Next?

One of the hardest parts of travel sometimes isn't the traveling—it's deciding where to go in the first place. Your budget, available vacation days, interests, travel style, weather, distance, and even how adventurous you feel can completely change the answer. That is why I created Where Should I Go? — The Travel Decision System. It is a simple system designed to help you work through those choices and narrow down a destination that actually fits you, rather than spending hours jumping from one travel website to another. If reading about my 7,255-mile road trip has you thinking about your own adventure but you're still asking yourself, Where should I go?, start here:

Where Should I Go? — The Travel Decision System

Was Driving 7,255 Miles Worth It?

Absolutely.

There were long driving days.

There were uncomfortable moments.

There were nights when a hotel bed would have been nice.

There were probably moments when I wondered why I was driving so far.

But then you wake up and realize you're heading toward Glacier.

Or Yellowstone.

Or the Tetons.

You step out of the car and see mountains.

You hike somewhere you've never been before.

You sit in a diner hundreds of miles from home.

You watch the odometer climb past another thousand miles.

And eventually you realize something.

The trip isn't just about where you're going.

The road itself has become the experience.

7,255 Miles Later: Back to Orlando

Eventually, after Tennessee, the road pointed back toward Florida.

And after 7,255 miles and 18 days, I returned to Orlando.

There is a strange feeling when you finally arrive home after a trip like this.

Everything is familiar again.

Your bed feels enormous.

A normal bathroom feels luxurious.

You don't have to figure out where you're sleeping tonight.

But part of you is still somewhere on the road.

Somewhere in South Dakota.

Somewhere in Glacier.

Somewhere in Yellowstone.

Somewhere beneath the Tetons.

Somewhere on an interstate watching another sunset through the windshield.

What This Road Trip Taught Me

You don't necessarily need an enormous travel budget to experience America.

You need time.

You need preparation.

You need a reliable vehicle.

And sometimes you need to be willing to trade comfort for adventure.

I drove 7,255 miles in 18 days.

My car averaged 32 MPG.

I spent $922 on gas.

I spent another $423 on other expenses.

My entire trip cost approximately $1,346.

For that money, I experienced national parks, mountains, hiking trails, diners, small towns, highways, free campsites and thousands of miles of America.

Would staying in hotels have been more comfortable?

Of course.

But comfort wasn't the purpose of this trip.

The experience was.

And somewhere along those 7,255 miles, between sleeping in the car, hiking through national parks and watching America change through my windshield, I was reminded of something important:

You don't always need to wait until you can afford the "perfect" vacation.

Sometimes you pack the car, create a reasonable budget, choose a direction and go.

Because there is an extraordinary amount of America waiting on the other side of your windshield.

For Those Who Would Rather Listen Than Read

Don't have time to read the entire story?

I'm also turning this road-trip experience into an audio edition using Wilderness Protocol Studio, with narration, ambient wilderness sounds and music designed to make you feel like you're traveling along with me.

Put on your headphones, settle in and come along for 7,255 miles across America.

Travel Ideas USA — Travel farther. Spend smarter. Experience more.

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