Trip Summary

In 2018, Ella and I went on a 4-month road trip around North America. We flew into Toronto on July 4th and flew out on October 30th – four solid months of adventure. In total, we drove 21,400 kilometres, through 26 states and 3 Canadian provinces. As we went along, we saved various places on Google Maps, like accommodation or sights. And so, luckily, we ended up with a pretty good map of the route we took (see above; travelling anticlockwise).

This blog of our journey is presented in reverse chronological order. To start at the beginning, please click here. At the bottom of each post, you’ll see a link that will take you to the next blog post of the trip.

Ella and I each picked a couple of our favourite stops along the way. You can click on any of the photos below, and you’ll be taken directly to that post.

Many who are planning to do a similar trip at some point have asked about the costs involved. We ended up spending $105 per day on average in the form of running costs. The biggest cost was accommodation at $39 per day. Camping at the various national parks helped bring down our average cost, and Airbnb was definitely the most reasonable service in towns and cities. Food & Drinks was our next biggest expense at $32 per day. In addition to these running costs, we spent about $25 per day for the car (including: purchase less sale price, insurance, purchase tax, safety certificate, minor repairs, oil changes, etc.).

We’ve also been asked a lot about any major takeaways from these travels. Here are some of the highlights:

• How to put up a tent.
  We picked up a bunch of camping gear from a Walmart in South Dakota and set up our first tent at a campsite in the Badlands. By the end of the trip, we could put that tent up in the dark in under four minutes. We also quickly learnt where not to place the tent if the weather forecast suggests rain.
  
• It is better doing things together.
  Whether it was scaling the Big Beehive next to Lake Louise, sheltering from a sudden biblical storm in Eden, Texas, or listening to live jazz in New Orleans, sharing the experience made it better. We’ve laughed about so many of these adventures since, and doing so seems to keep the memories alive. Seeing Ella’s face light up when we first glimpsed the Badlands is still a very fresh memory.
  
• How to travel cheaply.
  Walmart is a ridiculously cheap place to shop, and items like cheddar cheese and salami last the longest without refrigeration. McDonalds serves good coffee for a very good price. Airbnb is a win (after carefully reading the reviews), motels are not. And the “America the Beautiful” pass for access to all national parks is a fantastic deal.
  
• That you can overcome obstacles by simply plowing ahead.
  We had problems with driver’s licenses and car insurance, issues with visas, got lost a few times, had difficulties in finding accommodation after dark, muddy tents after a night of rain, etc. You can get through all these sorts of problems by just taking a breath and then simply plowing ahead – figuring out a way through it as you go. A positive attitude here is key though.
  
• Sometimes you simply get lucky.
  We rolled into a gas station in sparsely-populated Montana on our very last petrol fumes. If the gas station had been on the other side of town, we almost certainly would have had a serious problem. Our tires surviving the brutal dirt roads up to ghost town, Garnet, Montana, was also a pure stroke of luck. In addition, we got lucky with suggestions – we wouldn’t have walked the Field of Dreams in Iowa if it hadn’t been for an Airbnb host.
  
• And sometimes you simply get screwed.
  In a dash to get to our Alcatraz tour boat on time, we ended up forking out $48 for parking in central San Francisco – what a shocker! Also, our motel in Selma, Alabama, should have paid us to stay there rather than the other way around.
  
• How to keep track of stuff.
  We only lost one pair of sandals (I left them at an Airbnb in California) and Ella’s green beanie (also, my bad) on the entire four-month trip. Ella almost lost her sunglasses about four times, but still has them to this day. Maybe the lesson here is that she learnt how to keep track of stuff…
  
• North America has such an incredible range of beautiful places.
  Yellowstone, the town of Missoula, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Big Sur, the swamps of Louisiana, Glacier, Redwood National Park, the corn fields of Iowa, Banff, the Niagara Falls, … the list is endless. It’s a beautiful continent.
  
• USA is more of a continent than a country – such a mixed bag.
  The type of people we interacted with were so different that it felt like traveling into a new country every week. We spent time with people from the air force, with Native American heritage, working in tech startups, people itching to discuss politics, and some of the most genuine & friendly travelers. We saw some shocking sights – the gathering of drug addicts in Gastown, Vancouver, was by far the most visceral – and some wonderful ones. Like a continent, it can’t be described as being one thing or the other – diversity rules in the land of the free and may be the secret sauce behind its success.

Our travel story does have a happy ending. About six months after this trip, Ella and I decided to tie the knot.

Thanks very much for visiting.