How to Plan the Best Summer Road Trip

Mar 13, 2019

A family inside a car while having the best summer road trip.

3 Tips for Planning the Best Road Trip From NJ

As Johnny Cash once sang in his famous “I’ve Been Everywhere,” there are so many different places to visit when you are planning a road trip in the United States. With so many scenic New Jersey Spring and Summer rides, it can be hard to choose just one destination.

The NUTLEY Auto Kia family has you covered. We put together a quick, crash course on how to plan the best road trip from New Jersey.

Step 1: Pick a Location

The three most popular summer road trip destinations from NJ are as follows:

NJ to Florida
NJ to Colorado
NJ to Maine

Here are some tips for driving to these popular destinations from Nutley, NJ:

Road Trip: Nutley, NJ to Orlando, Florida

Estimated: 15 hrs 30 mins (32 hour round trip)

Fancy a trip down south to the magical world of Disney? How about a high stakes boat ride through the alligator-filled-Everglades? Florida is a state famous for its incredible 1,000 plus mile coastlines. There are so many tourist destinations, from the Gulf Coast to Miami Beach, it’s no wonder New Jersey to Florida is a popular summer road trip.

Quick Tip:

The best tip for driving I-95 to and from Florida and New Jersey is to split the trip into two days. Traffic is notorious on the I-95 especially heading south to Orlando once you pass Petersburg, Virginia. Why? Because the lanes switch from multiple lanes down to four. By spending the night in Virginia you will avoid commuter traffic by getting on the road early.

Road Trip: Nutley, NJ to Denver, Colorado

Estimated 24 hours and 53 mins (50 hour round trip)

Do you eat, sleep and breath adrenaline? Denver, Colorado is a city worth exploring! Colorado’s mountains are famous for radical skiing, snowboarding, biking and hiking adventures. Colorado also has a total of 300 lakes, making the state a popular lake house getaway. Happy water skiing!

Quick Tip:

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admission, the maximum amount a person can drive a day varies from 11 hours to 14 hours depending on how many days a person is driving each week. Plan on driving anywhere from 10-12 hours a day if you want to reach Colorado from NJ in under three days. If you’re looking for a great stop to break up the trip, plan on staying somewhere along the great lakes of Michigan or Illinois. Chicago offers wonderful food and photo opportunities.

Road Trip: Nutley, NJ to Portland, Maine

Estimated: 7 hrs 26 mins or 15 hour round trip

After the snow melts away, the shopkeepers of Maine open their doors for the summer. Red lobster dinners, saltwater rafting trips, and beachside campfires are just some of the many different activities waiting for you and your family in Maine.

For those who are not one for being in the car for long periods of time, the New Jersey to Maine road trip can happen in less than seven hours depending on where you are heading. Maine is a perfect location for summer road trips leaving from NJ because Maine offers a change of scenery without a lot of traveling.

Quick tip:

If you are driving North to Maine from New Jersey invest in a monthly E-Z Pass. Massachusetts and Maine are especially riddled with tolls, avoid extensive tourist traffic with an E-Z Pass.

Step 2: Pick Your Car

Once you have your road trip destination on lock, the next step in planning the best summer road trip is to pick the right car for the journey.

When choosing the right car for your best summer road trip the three important things to consider are reliability, space and mileage.

Here are two excellent road trip options from KIA.

Visit our website at NUTLEY Auto Kia for available Kia models today.

Auto Kia: Kia Sportage

The Kia Sportage tops the list for the best cars for summer road trips because of its cross-over capabilities. The Kia Sportage has the space of an SUV and the fuel efficiently of a compact car. This car will get you safely across the country with features including Lane Departure Warning Systems, Autonomous Emergency Braking, and optional Rear Cross-Traffic Alert systems. Don’t get caught off-guard with the trusty and flashy KIA Sportage.

Auto Kia: Kia Stinger

Cars.com awarded The Kia Stinger with 2018 Best in Show award. The Kia Stinger is a perfect choice for cruising the highways this summer because of its superior design and speed. Kia’s first sports car has two available engines and five total trim options. The GT, GT1 and GT2 trims come with a maxed-out 365 horsepower Lambda II engine and a V6 twin-turbo. These features allow for speeds up to 167 MPH (0-60 MPH in 4.7 seconds). Enjoy the road with this powerful and safe Kia car option.

Step 3: Pick your Entertainment

Location: Check

Transportation: Check

The next step in planning the best summer road trip from NJ to your ideal vacation destination is to pick the best road trip entertainment option.

When choosing a car, it’s important to choose something safe, spacey and efficient on gas. Once those bases are covered, you are going to want to look at a car’s infotainment capabilities.

Infotainment is defined by AutoWeek as “a blanket term generally used to describe in-car communications, entertainment and data presented to the driver — namely, the central screen with its associated radio, media and navigation functions.”

Paying the extra money for a solid Infotainment system is worth the money.

Infotainment allows for a seemingly switch between voice assistant navigation, music playing, driving directions and video watching. Do you already use voice assistant technology at home, say Amazon Alexa or Google? Plan your trip using voice assistant commands and sync your travel arrangements to your car’s infotainment system. Be sure to speak with your car dealership about infotainment compatibilities before investing on a specific infotainment program.

The Kia Sportage, for example, comes with Apple Carplay and Android-enabled capabilities. Take advantage of Google Play when planning your road trip. Listen to tunes and set voice-enabled directions with Google Play. Spend your trip actually enjoying the scenery by using voice assistance technology while driving.

For more tips on how to play music offline for long car drives, visit our other related blog post: Offline Music While Driving

Maybe your family is trying to break away from technology this summer vacation? Nothing wrong with some good-old-fashion road trip games.

The best road trip games involve all the passengers and encourage healthy competition. Brain stimulation helps the ride go by faster.

Here’s a list courtesy of the best road trip games courtesy of BuzzFeed:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/fuelthejourney/cows-on-my-side