Earlier this month I went on a one-week road trip through four states where my brother, friend and I visited three national parks and a few other places.
And we did it all in less than $500 per person!
Driving to Zion National Park
Somewhere along The Narrows, Zion National Park
Beautiful sunset at Joshua Tree National Park
Walking on salt flats at Death Valley National Park
I was initially hesitant about doing this road trip because I expected it might cost each of us an arm and a leg. After doing some planning and overshooting the budget – which I make a habit of doing so that there’s wiggle room in case unexpected expenses arise – I concluded that we’d each spend somewhere between $400 to $500.
Still not a bad amount, right? But after calculating everything we spent at the end of the road trip, it turned out that our contribution to the pot ended up being just $398 each!
I think there’s often the daunting perception that trips like this are extremely expensive and not financially feasible. (I’m guilty of that because that’s how I felt in the beginning.) But if you take some time to do some research, write out a plan, and compromise on certain expenses, traveling doesn’t have to cost a ton of money 🙂
Before I get to the details, I have to note two things that made it possible for the three of us to spend as little as we did:
- I already have a national park pass, so we didn’t have to pay for admission to the parks
- We had two free nights of accommodations because we stayed with friends for part of the trip
I’ll first go over how our itinerary was laid out and what our budget looked like, then I’ll offer suggestions on ways to bring down costs further, and then I’ll wrap it up with an alternate cost breakdown that includes a national park pass and paid lodging for all 6 nights.
ITINERARY
| Day | Activities and accommodations |
| 1 |
Accommodations: Motel 6 Twentynine Palms |
| 2 | Travel day
Accommodations: Best Western View of Lake Powell (this place offered free breakfast, which also helped reduce our cost!) |
| 3 |
Accommodations: Best Western View of Lake Powell |
| 4 |
Accommodations: Friend in Las Vegas |
| 5 |
Accommodations: Friend in Las Vegas |
| 6 |
Accommodations: Longstreet Inn & Casino |
| 7 |
|
Budget breakdown (figures have been rounded up to the nearest 10)
| Description | Cost |
| Car rental (one-week sedan rental with basic coverage) | $410 |
| Accommodations (detailed breakdown of accommodations below for reference) -Motel 6, Twentynine Palms: $100 -Best Western View of Lake Powell: $165 -Longstreet Inn & Casino: $95 |
$360 |
| Groceries | $60 |
| Eating out | $105 |
| Gas | $160 |
| Admission to attractions (detailed breakdown of attractions below for reference) -Glen Canyon Dam: $5 per person -Neon Museum: $28 per person |
$99 |
| Total | $1,194 |
| COST PER PERSON | $398 |
Notes on working with a $398 budget
A huge part of the reason this trip was affordable is because my brother, friend and I are really low maintenance travelers. For us, it was not a priority to book fancy hotels because we didn’t intend to do anything except sleep and shower in those places. After being out on the road and exploring all day, it wasn’t too difficult for us to quickly fall asleep at any of the places we booked. Accommodations were an area we were willing to compromise on.
Horseshoe Bend, Page, Arizona – a free attraction!
Building a snowman at Zion National Park
Explored salt flats 282 feet below sea level at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park
Walking through Artists Palette at Death Valley National Park. The mountains are naturally colorful.
(I will say that the Best Western was our favorite hotel, followed by Motel 6 in Twentynine Palms, and then Longstreet Inn & Casino. Our room at the inn had only two dim incandescent lamps, and we could faintly hear our neighbor snoring through the wall. It didn’t bother us much, but I just want to put that out there for anyone considering this as a place to stay.)
We also had a strict food budget. For the bulk of our trip, we ate food we purchased from the grocery store and some food we brought from home. We had fruits for breakfast (except when we were at the Best Western in Arizona, where breakfast was provided); sandwiches for lunch; chips and salsa, fruits, and granola bars for snacks; and sandwiches for dinner. We also bought a total of five gallons of water. And we did allocate a small amount for eating out, which we did 3 times. So food was another area we compromised on, but weren’t too bummed about not eating out – we were with good company and we got to see some cool places! Still, we definitely ate enough and made sure we were getting enough nutrition in the food we were eating.
But this is just how we chose to make the trip work on a small budget. Everyone travels differently, so if you prefer more posh lodging and eating out more, then that’s totally cool! It’s just that in choosing to go that route, the budget will need to be increased to accommodate that and/or it will need to be adjusted to so everything fits in $500.
Based on what the three of us did, here are three suggestions to bring your cost down more and/or to adjust your budget if you do want more room for better accommodations/eating out/etc.:
Vehicle costs
Use your own car if you have one. That way, you’re really only spending on gas. We opted to rent a car so as not to add 1,700+ miles to our own vehicle. This worked out well for us because by the time we returned the car, it was pretty dirty with all the soil, sand and salt that stuck to our shoes, as well as with crumbs from the food we ate while driving.
However, if you do rent a car, try to choose a vehicle that is fuel efficient – like a hybrid – to bring down the gas bill. If no hybrids are available, I always take stock of the options available at the car rental company and spend a couple of minutes on my phone Googling the fuel efficiency before agreeing to take out the vehicle that gets the highest number of miles per gallon.
Lodging costs
Another way to cut costs is to stay with friends and/or family if they live in cities you’re visiting and if that’s a feasible option. If you can completely cut out lodging costs, then you’ll have much more room in the budget to eat out, pay for more attractions, etc. Or you can simply do a trip in even less money.
Couchsurfing may also be another option. It’s not something I’ve done before so I can’t offer an opinion on it, but I’ve spoken with several other people who have done so and have had great experiences.
Bring more people along
If my friend, brother and I had brought along one other person, our total share for the trip would have dropped by about $100, and we would have only had to pay $298.50 each! I think 3-4 people is an ideal and manageable group, and that’s also the maximum number of people allowed in hotel rooms with 2 queen- or king-sized beds. So if you can find a total of four people who have the same traveling style and agree to the itinerary, then that’s one way to substantially shrink how much each person spends on a one-week trip.
(Also, I’ve found that it is really important to go with people who have the same traveling style – who agree on lodging options, how often the group should eat out, how much or little everyone wants to do/see, etc. If there are big disparities in preferences within the group, then disagreements are bound to rise and the trip probably won’t be much fun.)
Alternate budget breakdown (figures have been rounded up to the nearest 10)
| Description | Cost |
| Car rental (one-week sedan rental with basic coverage) | $410 |
| Accommodations
*For this alternate budget, I’ve allocated an additional $300 toward two nights of accommodations. There are tons of lodging options in Las Vegas that cost less than $150/night. So it’s just a matter of doing a couple of minutes of research to find a place to stay. Based on a quick search, some options at the time of this writing are: -Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino ($59.99) *These prices may not be accurate at the time you read this, so please be sure to check to make sure these options fit your budget, and keep in mind that additional taxes & fees apply to these rates. |
$660 |
| Annual National Park pass | $80 |
| Groceries | $60 |
| Gas | $160 |
| Admission to attractions (detailed breakdown of attractions below for reference) -Glen Canyon Dam: $5 per person -Neon Museum: $28 per person |
$99 |
| Total | $1,469 |
| COST PER PERSON | $489 (less than $500!) |
I hope this serves as a helpful reference for those of you who may be interested in planning your own road trip!
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below or send an email to backyarddestinations [at] gmail [dot] com.