RVs are ideal for a range of different road trips — as you travel across the country (or even just a small section of the country), you can enjoy a personalized, targeted, and comfortable overnight experience, all while in the midst of the outdoors. Further, the portability of RVs provides users full access to places where an overnight stay would otherwise be too expensive or too complicated.
Suppose that you and your friends are interested in going on a trip to a large outdoor music festival, like Burning Man. If you embark on a road trip to Burning Man, you’ll find that there are few overnight options near the festival. You will likely have to camp out with a tent and some sleeping bags, and have to share public restroom and shower facilities with other festival goers. If you set off on your road trip in an RV, however, you can retreat from an exhausting day at the festival to climate-controlled, well-furnished living quarters — and depending on the model of the vehicle, you may have access to private toilet, kitchen, and shower facilities.
With an RV, you don’t have to worry about a poor-quality hotel room or suffer from lack of privacy at a hostel, and because you’re not altering your living quarters as you shift from location-to-location, the experience of traveling in an RV feels much more grounded and consistent. Plus there are so many great tools out there to make your trip as seamless as possible. Give the RV Life app a try to find a safe route to your destination, or Campground Reviews to find trusted reviews that will help you make the best choice for your stay.
Ready to go on an RV road trip? Let’s take a look at your options!
The Top 10 Best RV Road Trips
When planning a road trip, you don’t necessarily have to prepare a detailed route, nor do you have to follow it to the tee. If time (and budget!) allow, it can certainly be interesting to get sidetracked. Of course, you’ll likely want to have a rough idea of the road trip route before heading out on your journey.The following are ten of the most popular road trip circuits among RVers in the USA.
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway is an immensely popular driving route that snakes through nearly 500 miles of mountainous Appalachia. The route features extensive RV support infrastructure as well, making it a great choice for new RVers. During summer months the route can get heavily trafficked in certain areas, but the impressive scenery is more than worth the trouble.
Big Sur Coastal Highway
The Big Sur Coastal Highway is a true gem for those looking to experience expansive ocean vistas. The route travels along the central coast of California, making it a great choice if you are interested in making a trip between tourist-friendly urban centers in Northern and Southern California.
Columbia River Highway
The Columbia River Highway makes for an excellent RV road trip in the Pacific Northwest region. The route begins near Portland, Oregon, and continues alongside the renowned Columbia River Gorge. Throughout the trip, you’ll find plenty of RV campgrounds and scenic points of interest, from dense forests to rocky waterfalls.
Route 66
Route 66 is the penultimate cross-country road trip route, stretching all the way from Illinois to Southern California. In a way, Route 66 has become larger-than-life. It has featured heavily in popular Folk Americana fiction for over 60 years: movies, novels, and music. If you’re interested in tackling Route 66 in an RV, make sure to plan ahead somewhat — it’s a long trip!
Historic New England
An RV trip around New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, etc.) is a diverse experience that includes both natural wonders and historic sites. New England has a lot to offer RVers looking for something different. If you have extra time, consider driving north to Quebec so as to loop in Montreal and Quebec City, each of which features a spectacular culinary scene and distinctive old world architecture.
Yellowstone National Park and the Rockies
Yellowstone National Park in Montana is one of the world’s premier RVing destinations, and is worth a trip on its own. When making your way to Yellowstone, however, try to plan a scenic route that passes through other interesting points of interest in the Rocky Mountain region (i.e., Rocky Mountain National Park and Grand Teton National Park).
The Great Lakes Region
Using Chicago as a base, consider a trip where you loop around the American side of the Great Lakes through the Upper Michigan peninsula. If you plan a Great Lakes road trip in an RV, do bring along some watersports equipment, such as surfboards or paddleboards — there are plenty of beaches in the region where you can make use of the equipment (some beaches in the Great Lakes region actually have great surf). Once you arrive at your destination, you may even want to consider renting a boat!
Desert Southwest
The American Southwest is an incredibly scenic landscape worth exploring in an RV. Though the region contains famous parks like the Grand Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, don’t forget to explore thriving urban centers of the Southwest, such as Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is renowned for its pueblo-style Native American architecture and vibrant creative arts scene.
Southeastern Seaboard
The Southeastern Coast of the USA is in many ways the Southern analog of a New England RV trip — though perhaps not as popular among RVers as classic road trips to Yellowstone and along the Big Sur Highway, the diverse landscapes and cities of the Southeast certainly make it a memorable trip. For your route, hug the coast from Virginia down through the Carolinas (stopping at Virginia and Myrtle Beaches), then stop in Savannah to explore a city steeped in Southern history and culture.
New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
New Orleans has experienced a stunning revival over the latter half of the past decade. Though it is not commonly seen as an RV destination, a route through the Gulf Coast region makes for an excellent RV road trip. The Gulf Coast itself — and its beach tourism infrastructure — has seen a substantial and sustained tourism drop-off in recent years due to media coverage of oil spills, so it’s a good choice for RVers on a strict budget.
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