Our California road trip: The plan

As a young adult in college hearing about a family’s need to take yearly vacations was odd. Hearing about yearly cruises or trips to Disney world didn’t make me think of the middle class. The people who spoke this way were surely raised in an upper class life style.

Growing up our family took some vacations but they were not a yearly occurrence and we weren’t jetting off to far off places. Actually they were few and far between and mostly involved camping.

As a full fledged adult I have to admit that I have bought into this yearly travel lifestyle. Through all our challenges, traveling has always remained in the forefront. Even as we tackled our student debt  and then became debt free. Even after a lay off. We continue to go places.

Usually our trips revolve around family, which also makes them  more affordable, sending us off  frequently to Michigan and later Colorado. They were great but  resulted in us living in California for over 5 years and not exploring it. Time off is a limited resource.

This year we are doing something different.

We cancelled all our out-of-state flights and are embarking on a California road trip.

I’ll be honest it was suppose to be a trip of epic proportions but alas Jr school calendar changed this year, resulting in a start date of August 24 instead of in September.  Sadly I had to slash stops and days out. But the road trip lives!!

Our Plan

This is our first ever family road trip. And our first camping trip since Minnie Roamer joined the family.

Trip stats

• Trip length : 5 nights about 6 days
• 8/18- 8/23
• Visiting: Yosemite , Bumpass hell, Burney’s falls, Mount Shasta
• Drive time: 27 hrs total round trip
• About 1,500 miles

Projected Cost

Any trip has costs associated to it. We will not be paying for flights but we will still need to pay for gas, food, and a place to sleep. This trip also has the added cost of some national park entry fees.  All these are approximations based on the information I have been able to find online. Well see what the final cost is post trip.

• $200 in gas
• $130 for 1st night in hotel
• $55 for 2nd night (tent camping)
• $36 for 3rd night (tent camping)
• $40-50 for 4th night (tent camping)
•  $130 for 5th night in hotel

We also plan to pack and take food from home and only eat out minimally. Which means the food cost will just be part of our weekly groceries.

So, trip costs are about $600.

That’s not too bad.  I am surprised, I thought it would be lower.  But it’s not really about the costs.

This trip is about exploring new places! I’m excited for what will surely be a very new experience for all of us.

Come back as I will do a post trip write up about what we saw and how much it really did cost. Follow me on twitter @travelingwallet or sign up to my rss to receive update on my latest posts.

What are/were your summer plans? Where have you gone?

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