Planning a Road Trip: Tips from our Big BBQ Tour

I love planning. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the planning side of our trips is a significant portion of the fun for me. I also get great satisfaction once on the trip, when the plans go off without a hitch. I have put together this guide to planning a road trip, using my experience booking our big BBQ tour in Spring 2019, as an example. All the methods and ideas are transferable, whether it’s a bbq tour you are planning, or a road trip of another kind. Bon voyage!

Now, before any Texans jump in with “You can’t have a BBQ Tour without a visit to Texas”. Yes, I know. Texas is actually getting its own trip in a couple of years time. We gave this trip the moniker of ‘BBQ Tour’, because we wanted to taste the different varieties of BBQ in the South. But it’s actually not the driver for the tour. Our drivers? Music and history. But, what we found during the research of this tour, is that music, history and barbecue all intertwine.

Planning a Road Trip:

Prioritisation

We had been talking for many years about visiting the American South. For me the draw was the history. I am fascinated by the migration of peoples by way of slavery and how that has influenced the music and food culture of an area. How this racial tragedy has led to diversification and rich and complex cultural changes. My big priorities were Nashville (for the country music); the Antebellum period architecture of places like Savannah and Charleston; as well as the various styles of BBQ. My husband’s priorities: blues, bourbon and BBQ.

Did you know that each state has their own take on barbecue? From the Memphis style dry rubs to the Alabama white sauce – there are so many differences!

We established quickly that we didn’t have enough time to fit Texas into the itinerary, as we only had 6 weeks to cover a huge amount of ground. We also realised that the parts of Texas we wanted to see were so far apart that we would have to dedicate a separate holiday to this state.

The ‘Must See’ Stops

After determining our cultural priorities and establishing a timeline, we then had to identify the things we couldn’t miss. This was the hard bit, because there was so much. For us it came down to a mix of tourist must-sees (given we don’t live state-side and may not be back), and areas of interest (places where we felt a pull to see).

For me I felt a huge draw to the Georgia and Carolina coastline. Places like Cumberland, Egret and Tybee Islands; influenced in some part by the books of Sue Monk Kidd. Other draws for me were weird mixes of pop culture and music – Pigeon Forge and the Dolly Parton connection. Then there is the mystical draw of New Orleans, and the absinthe of course!

Dates and Flights

Picking the dates and where you want to fly into can often be the time consuming part. For us, we have a dog that needs looked after, so we need to source dog-sitters. For others it is organising time off work, or working out how far your budget stretches.

I usually try to be relatively flexible with the airport I fly into, as this can mean the difference between an affordable flight and an extortionate one! For our BBQ tour, it turned out to be cheapest to fly into Miami than any of the other big hub airports. I also investigated flights into Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, New Orleans, Chicago, and Orlando. Miami worked well for us as I was keen to see the art deco buildings of Miami Beach.

If you are an flight opportunist and use flight deal finders like Dollar Flight Club, you can skip this step and just grab the fair deals you can!

Plotting your route

So, while we had a rough idea of the route we would take to hit all our desired areas, it is only at this point that we could start pinning things down. If you live in the US, or are able to buy a camper and spend 6 months tootling around the country, your road trip planning would undoubtedly look much different. But when you only have 6 weeks and a hefty list of must-dos, you are going to have a plot a route. This also helps with budgeting.

I use TravellersPoint.com as a map tool, mainly because I enjoy the aesthetic. But you can also use Roadtrippers or Google Maps. I also usually have Google Maps up as a reference or to search for areas I know about but am not sure of the exact location. At this point I am also usually using a spreadsheet to list the days of vacation time, and to spread out the time in each place in an ordered way.

Personally, I don’t like to drive more than 3-4 hours in a day; unless it is for a particularly scenic route where you can’t stop overnight along the way. If you have a long drive, I usually make sure I stop for a couple of days afterwards so that driving fatigue doesn’t set in. I recommend you pick a pace that suits and ensure you don’t get too tired. Driving while tired is a danger to yourself and others.

Seek advice

It’s at the route plotting phase that you should also seek the advice of other travellers, travel bloggers, and locals. There have been so many times where I have put the call out on Twitter for advice and amazing humans have given me nuggets of information. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice, or to listen even if it is given unsolicited. I trust my own planning and research skills, but sometimes other people have found lesser known places that I am glad to know about!

Budget

I’ll admit, I LOVE spreadsheets. I make them for everything. But when it comes to keeping track of your budget on a road trip, I find it essential. During the week I keep a track of expenses on my phone, and once a week I sit down at my laptop to balance the books and tick off costs. This means I can shuffle the finances if we are over-spending. There’s no need to do this for a short holiday, but for a 6-week trip with a fixed budget, it’s a must.

Time to book:

Booking your hotels

Due to our hectic schedule and restricted budget, I decided to book 90% of our hotels in advance. We had a fair few city stays, where accommodation costs can increase steeply. And as the timing of our trip crossed both easter and school holiday times I didn’t want to end up without decent accommodations in our desired locations. For some nights we didn’t bothered to book, as it is just a transit stop and we can grab a roadside motel.

I use a mix of my loyalty programs (American Express credit card deals, Marriott Hotel rewards etc.), and Booking.com for my advanced hotel bookings. While many choose Airbnbs, for short stays I prefer hotels. Our trip turned out to have many short stays across 17 locations, so hotels were our first choice. We are not hostel-goers, we are most definitely comfy bed hotel kinda people. But I do love a bargain, so the more stars for the lowest price is my mantra!

Booking your hire car

For a big road trip like this it was important to get a decent hire car. I like to use comparison hire car trawlers like Rentalcars.com to get the best deal for a nice large sized car. Obviously, you don’t always get the car you want at the check-in counter, but if you book a larger class you are more likely to get a decent vehicle.

Remember to research the Miles Per Gallon averages for the cars you are likely to rent. This will help you approximate a budget for your trip

Booking activities

Once your schedule is sorted and your know where you will be each night, it’s time to book any activities or transport you want to secure. There wasn’t much we booked in advance, but there were certain things we didn’t want to miss so did get tickets ahead of time. The ferry to Cumberland Island was one that we couldn’t afford to miss, as well as a Mississippi Riverboat tour. If you are travelling in low season, you don’t have to worry about this step so much, but it is advisable in summer and on public holidays.

Researching (BBQ in my case)

There are so many sources for info when travelling. For finding BBQ tips I used:

• Contact your hotel and ask for their recommendations
• Contact the local tourist board for highly rated BBQ restaurants
• Ask Twitter!
• Take notes from programmes like ‘Parts Unknown’ with Anthony Bourdain; ‘Diners, Drive-ins & Dives’ with Guy Fieri; and ‘Man Vs. Food’
• Talk to locals! This really is the best way to get the low-down on food

Thanks to a tip from twitter, we are taking a small detour to visit Big Bob Gibson BBQ in Decatur, Alabama – where white sauce is a speciality!

Get your documents in order

As much as I try to cut down on printing and paper usage these days, there are still some documents you need to carry. I always carry a print out of my itinerary, my ESTA (electronic visa for USA), any tickets that require physical copies, and a photocopy of my passport. This may sound old fashioned, but having those things on hand during an emergency is super useful.

For a general schedule and hotel confirmations, I collate these in TripIt, an app on my phone that allows me to email confirmations to it, which it then collates into an itinerary. For me, this is a great way to keep on top of my itinerary on the go.

Planning a road trip: Our Big BBQ Tour

Some people find planning a trip overwhelming, but just break it down into these different categories and you should find it easier. If you love planning as much as I do, put your tips in the comments below.

I had the best time planning our BBQ tour – researching barbecue restaurants, wildlife in every state, museums and scenic drives. This research and learning informs our trips, gets us excited, and prepares us for our journeys. I look forward to writing about it in the coming months and letting you all know if all my planning paid off!

Read about our adventures in New Orleans on this big road trip.

If you hate the planning process, why not get me to do it instead? Contact me to discuss my itinerary planning services!

All photos & content © Hannah Henderson and may not be used without permission (sharing this blog post is fine, though!).