How many miles per day (or hours) do people budget to reach a destination?

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I live in SE TX and while marshy, flat lands have their own appeal, I prefer areas where the highest peaks are not landfills or highway ramps. This quest means long drives to most destinations. I prefer non-interstate driving. There is so much more of the country to see than billboards and mile markers. So my question is... How many miles per day (or hours) do people budget to reach a destination?

Very good question. I know Texas and know what your talking about. Very long drives to get anywhere near a disbursed camping location and few unpaved back roads of any length except in west Texas. If you were in New Mexico (I am) a 2 hour drive in almost any direction will generally get me to my destination. Finding unmaintained dirt roads
In NM is not a problem.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I just did a straight 16 hours (1,000 miles) of all interstate driving and I was exhausted afterwards. I think that is the last time I will do that. I don't want to be dreading the trip back home so much that I don't enjoy the time I am away.

I agree unless you are touring the country and just going from one place to another for your adventure. Six hours at a time is more than enough time behind the wheel on good roads. Much less on back country roads and about 2 hours on a sketchie road.

 

[RickR]

Well, it depends on the trip. If it's driving from Houston to Marfa, and we just want to get there, that's sensibly doable in a long day - changing driver every two hours, with a lunch break half way - leave at 0730h, arrive at dusk.

If I want to explore on the way, I'd break it up into 3 or 4 days.

For long trips we assume 170 Km (105 miles) per day. So if we're planning a 50,000 KM (30,000 mile) trip, it'll take about 295 days. This is based on our experience of three "big trips" on which we averaged 170 Km/day on all three.

If we know the road will be difficult, we ask advice from locals - perhaps our slowest average so far has been 109 Km (68 miles) in Eastern Uganda, which took 4 days...

At the other end of the scale (and not driving our 4x4) we've driven with a lot higher average in Europe. One day, travelling from Southern Germany to Belgium we covered the first 200 miles in exactly 2 hours. This was simply to get from A to B. A more leisurely trip was from Belgium to London via Scandinavia - 5000 Km (3000 miles) in 16 days, so more like 300 Km (190 miles) a day, staying in lots of places and visiting many more.

Where did you stay at in Marfa? I want to take my micro camper and plug into shore power if possible.

 

[Alanymarce]

We wanted to stay in Marfa but it was really busy when we arrived, so we ended up staying in Alpine. The Rodeo was on there and it was busy too. Didn't see any weird lights until after a few beers....

 

[socal66]

If I'm going far away it is usually on a multi-week trip to make the travel effort worthwhile. I am usually all geared up to get out of town the first day and also anxious to get back the last day so I find I can drive great lengths on either the 1st or last day of a trip. That said I don't like spending the good part of the day behind the wheel between those days unless the main attraction that day is a great scenic back country drive. I try to plan the trip as a series of multi-trip hubs so that driving (if any) is just a short out and back for the day. If there is a long drive between hubs I like to break that day up with multiple stops in between perhaps with mini-sites or lunches worth an hour or so time to make it not seem like one long drive.

 

[Iceman.Actual]

I agree unless you are touring the country and just going from one place to another for your adventure. Six hours at a time is more than enough time behind the wheel on good roads. Much less on back country roads and about 2 hours on a sketchie road.

While I do drive those long interstate hours with little hassle, I would MUCH rather have driven 200 miles in 16 hours on sketchy and bumpy roads than 1000 miles over flat crowded highway. I don’t know if I’m weird for not being one for modern day luxuries, but the escape is apart of the journey for me.

 

[madcratebuilder]

NO schedule, that's the point. I start looking for a camp a few hours before dark, I don't like setting up in the dark. I'm up before daybreak, and on the road a hour after sunup. Do it all over again. Only thing I pay close attention to is the on board fuel.