A road trip is something you should do at least once in your life time, to experience the ever changing scenery and landscape as you drive by. For us, America was top on the list with the gorgeous national parks, long roads and big cities. We also used the Amtrak to start our journey too!
Oh how exciting it was to plan a road trip in America! Below is the full itinerary we planned out for a total of 15 days – and we highly recommend the route to you. Our road trip is a combination of hiking and exploring the National Parks, sightseeing small towns to bustling cities and stopping at the best viewpoints in our rented white SUV car.
We had to change one of two plans (based on the weather) on the way which has been shown adjusted below. We hope it gives you in an insight to a planning a road trip in the US as well as enjoying our own experiences and stories! Don’t forget to check out and share our clickable google map route too!
We will be adding links & blogposts to each day of the itinerary once they have been finalised to share with you!
The 2 Week Road Trip Itinerary
Day 1 – Fly to Denver from Amsterdam via Iceland. Cheap deals with Iceland Air!
Day 2 – A whole day Sightseeing in Denver
Day 3 – Leave Denver with the Amtrak to Salt Lake City
Day 4 – Pick up the rented car from Avis in SLC, visit the Bonneville Salt Flats and end in Cedar City
Check out out Driving experience as Europeans in the US here!
Day 5 – Drive the Scenic State Route 89A through Jacob Lake to Marble Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and end in Page
Day 6 – Hiking in Zion National Park
*Day 5 and 6 we switched around due to dangerous thunderstorms all day above Zion on day 5.
Day 7 – Antelope Canyons tour, Meteor Crater and end late in Las Vegas
Day 8 – A whole day Las Vegas
Day 9 – 2nd whole day in Las Vegas (& Area 51, Extraterrestrial Highway & Rachel)
Day 10 – 3rd whole day in Las Vegas (Hoover Dam & Grand Canyon Helicopter Tour!)
Day 11 – Day trip to Death Valley, through to Bodie State Park and end at June Lake
Day 12 – Lake Tahoe and end in San Francisco
*Had to skip Yosemite National Park on day 12 and drive around to Lake Tahoe due to the Tioga Pass closed with snow.
Day 13 – San Francisco (and Silicon Valley) with the car
Day 14 – Cycling In San Francisco & Alcatraz
Day 15 – San Francisco last day. Cheap deal with Thomas Cook & Flybe!
Day 16 – Home Sweet Home <3
Below shows our route with google maps! View the map larger to see exactly the routes that we did per day.
*This road trip took place in September 2017
Have you taken a road trip through America before? We’d love to hear your stories and tips for next time!
43 Comments
karen
20th January 2018 at 12:29 pmUS is so vast, we’ve been four times and only ever scratch the surface. What a shame you didn’t get to do Tahoe and Yosemite, they are both incredible, although your trip still sounded great. Next time you go, do the Pacific Highway 1 too that is a great trip.
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 1:14 pmThanks for your comment! We had planned the PH1 but there was the landslide last year closing off the highway road half way, so we shortened our road trip in the end to save some money for next time. We hope to go back and do this in the future!
Ferna
20th January 2018 at 12:31 pmEpic Road Trip Planning! 🙂 Haven’t done much of a road trip given South East Asia has crazy roads. But this will give insights on how I should plan for a road trip.
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 1:16 pmIt sure took us a while to plan!! we first decided what we really wanted to see as the starting points then planned the route as we went. Missing Yosemite was unfortunate but we had planned last minute an extra day in SF so it worked out okay with our planning. Sure was good to have a few extra days in between incase something else had happend though 🙂
Kathryn Burrington
20th January 2018 at 12:56 pmI’d love to do this one day! I spent two weeks on a road trip around Canada’s west coast so the USA’s west coast would be a logical progression!
Sanne Grieten
20th January 2018 at 2:33 pmI still have to visit the USA. It seems so incredible over there, and I can’t wait to do a road trip like you in the West Coast. Thank you for sharing (:
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 2:38 pmHope it inspired you to take a trip! 🙂
ayewanderful
20th January 2018 at 2:59 pmI used to live in Denver 10 years ago 🙂 Looking forward to reading your posts about each of the places you visited.
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 3:00 pmThanks for commenting! Denver will be my new post next week! 🙂
goisy
20th January 2018 at 2:15 pmFab itinerary! I’d love to do a US road trip one day 🙂 x
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 2:37 pmTotally recommended! just make sure to keep a day or two in between incase something doesn’t go to plan and you have a day to catch up 🙂
Carly Heyward
20th January 2018 at 6:02 pmThat area of the states has SO MUCH to see! My parents have done a similar itinerary and it looks amazing! Y’all are inspiring me!
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 10:51 pmGreat to hear! It was hard to choose where to go in just two weeks so we still have a list of things to visit in a future trip 🙂
Aneesha Rai
20th January 2018 at 6:45 pmMy fiance and I are really looking to do this road trip in the future. Thanks for such awesome details thrown in! I’m especially excited about seeing the antelope canyons
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 6:53 pmGreat to hear & highly recommended!! I plan to post our draft posts of each place and sightseeing trip throughout the next two/three months so I hope we inspire you with them!
Practical Wanderlust (@practicalwander)
20th January 2018 at 6:29 pmThis is really similiar to the road trip I took when first moving out to San Francsisco! Except we drove through Yosemite rather than Tahoe. Ahh, memories!
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 6:32 pmThanks for commenting! We would of done the same if the snow didn’t stop us haha! 🙂
pearlsandparis
20th January 2018 at 9:06 pmThis is amazing! Being an USA gal myself, I really want to explore more of our country and I love a good road trip.
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 9:07 pmI would totally recommend to do a road trip! We first decided what we wanted to see most and planned the route on those things 🙂
Paola
20th January 2018 at 8:18 pmMy dream itinerary! 😍
Lynne Nieman
20th January 2018 at 9:20 pmWell, having lived in Colorado for 15 years I’m incredibly disappointed you didn’t spend time in the mountains there. You missed a lot! But Utah is cool…and San Francisco is a gorgeous city.
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 9:22 pmWe didn’t really research Colorado that well so we definitely missed the mountains! It’s on our list to go back 🙂
Kate - Travel for Difference
20th January 2018 at 9:10 pmI’ve heard amazing things about US roadtrips! This one sounds like an incredible journey ❤️
Zoe | Together In Transit
20th January 2018 at 9:21 pmThanks for commenting! it sure was!!
Viola
21st January 2018 at 3:30 amNice itinerary! I’m from Canada so neighbours! Hope to do a road trip through west coast USA one day definitely! 🙂
SamiM Adventures
21st January 2018 at 3:49 amWe were in some of the same areas! I love the area but there is so much desert out there! Like so much!
Zoe | Together In Transit
22nd January 2018 at 10:11 amYeah we loved it too! 😀
Clazz - An Orcadian Abroad
21st January 2018 at 11:16 amThis is literally my plan at some point!! I’ve visited a few of the places before but I want to do a proper road trip with friends and basically do this route! Great suggestions. 🙂
Zoe | Together In Transit
22nd January 2018 at 10:11 amGreat to hear! Would totally recommend this route and can’t wait to share my draft blogposts of each place too.
BootsNotRoots
21st January 2018 at 3:25 pmWow! Such a cool trek! Love it! I’m curious to hear what your favorite part of the trip was!
Zoe | Together In Transit
22nd January 2018 at 10:12 amIt’s so hard to choose ‘the fav’ place as we really had an amazing time in the cities like SF as well as being in the nature like hiking in Zion!
Katie
21st January 2018 at 5:08 pmWow, that is a crazy itinerary! I’ve seen more of Europe than I have of the US because it’s just so overwhelming to me to see all of the places there are to see in the States. I’ll definitely bookmark this for my next trip back!
Zoe | Together In Transit
22nd January 2018 at 10:13 amThanks for commenting and great to hear! We had fun planning this route and it worked out best for us!
Amanda Blizzard
21st January 2018 at 8:00 pmWhat a great itinerary!! We LOVE roadtripping, and do it as often as possible! the last one we did we were able to hit Page and all the sights around there, but I’m still dying to make it to Zion!
Zoe | Together In Transit
22nd January 2018 at 10:13 amTotally worth going back for Zion! Since the thunderstorms cancelled our Zion plans on the first day we bit the bullet to drive back from page the next day. It was a very long day but we were so glad we went!
Zarina
2nd February 2018 at 4:38 pmThis is the exact area I’ve been wanting to road trip so this is SUPER helpful, thanks x
Zoe | Together In Transit
2nd February 2018 at 7:14 pmGreat to hear! We visited some great places on this route so highly recommended 🙂
Shoma Abhyankar
17th March 2018 at 2:02 pmI have done some of this route; two short self driven road trips in USA; SF to LA on PCH1 and road trip around Finger Lakes to Niagara and a tour package to Grand canyon. Great post.
Zoe | Together In Transit
17th March 2018 at 3:16 pmThanks for commenting Shoma! We’d love to take the trip from SF to LA as we had to miss that based on our budget. Maybe next time 😉
Shoma Abhyankar
17th March 2018 at 4:46 pmOh you must. It is beautiful
Farrah
10th January 2019 at 7:06 pmThere are so many gorgeous places to explore in the US! I definitely have Zion on my list!
hadi
9th February 2022 at 1:56 pmThis is literally my plan at some point!! I’ve visited a few of the places before but I want to do a proper road trip with friends and basically do this route! Great suggestions. love it!!!
Togetherintransit
10th February 2022 at 6:08 pmThanks for sharing! I hope you get the chance asap as it was an amazing road trip!