Going on a road trip in my 2010 Yaris!

[ZeldaFeb]

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[bronsin]

Your estimates for your trip are very impressive! After reading your post I have a couple of recommendations.

Have your car checked out by a competent mechanic before leaving. It will be worth paying Toyota $300 to have them go over the car. If they found something seriously amiss It could save you a serious inconvenience! I’m not seeing that you know anything about cars mechanically And that worries me. Especially since you got the car for free!

If you could spend some time in southern Utah that is an excellent place for scenery. I think a lot of your trip is going to be very boring compared to what’s out west.

Good luck and tell us what happens! :thumbsup:

[bentjazz]

Keep us posted! I love Yaris roadtrip posts. And good luck. I hope you guys have lots of fun.

[NYC-SE]

Sounds like a fun trip. It is good to have a basic plan but I have discovered that often the best parts of a trip (or life in general) are the unplanned moments. Don't be afraid to alter the plan if you're not feeling it and something inside you seems to be pulling you in another direction. You'll know those moments when they appear.

I wish I had the time for a trip like that. My ultimate road trip goal is a 48 state no time frame free for all but that is going to have to wait until I retire.

Enjoy

[ern-diz]

Super cool.

[justanotherdrunk]

I was just up Mt Evans CO this year in the yaris and also drove a rental around the whole country in 2015 9200 miles in 11 days with no problem.

Shes a very comfortable long distance roadtrip car.

See all my roadtrip forum threads for inspiration though it seems you are already excited!

Have fun a post lots of pics!

:thumbsup:

[libraryelf]

I drove my yaris from FL to CA to be taken to HI. I drove during the day, about 8 hrs and I took I20 to I10 to avoid the damage that the Hurricane did. I left FL on a Thursday and got to CA on Monday, left car to be moved to the ship and flew to HI. I picked up a nail in tire had that fixed. I did this almost 2 years ago. My yaris now has 99,000 miles getting close to the 100,000. I've had Yari since 2008. She is 2dr hatchback automatic.

[Leegamer]

Looks awesome! I could spend 210 dollars on food in like 2 days of traveling, though. lol

[grilled cheeseus]

I've always wanted to do a road trip. I haven't had much support from my mom as she thinks it's a waste of time and just "purposely putting yourself in a hard situation."

People have said this to me in various situations (moving "outside" to live in a tent, quitting my job to hike the PCT, driving to Arizona with literally no set plans). Looking back 10ish years, my only regret was not doing those things sooner.

To quote another place (www.svseeker.com) that has inspired me: Explore, Dream, Discover.

I hope everything works out well and my car stays in good condition.

You should be fine! I've driven across the USA 6 times (3 of those in my '07 Yaris, and one of those pulling a trailer) with zero serious car-related issues. 4000 miles isn't really a lot. Just make sure your tires (including spare) are in good shape. Practice putting on the spare wheel if you've never done it. Carry jumper cables and a recovery strap.

Total: 4130 miles (~63 hours driving)
This trip will require about 135 gallons of gas, which I will allot $400 for, but it shouldn't reach over $400.

I'd be surprised if you only get 31 MPG on a long highway trip. If your car is well-sorted then you should get mid/high 30s easy.

You can see I've made 4 days to be in Colorado (day 5 to 9). It has been my dream to visit the nature in Colorado so I want as much time as I need to enjoy it. In fact, you can see the whole trip is pretty focused around nature and national parks.

Hopefully the government will re-open all the national parks by then...

I'm also planning on about $150 for the cost of things like vehicle fire extinguisher, water container, storage boxes, touch lights, curtains, etc. We will buy this over a span of 7 months though so it shouldn't make a big dent.

If money is tight then gallon water containers cost less than a dollar and come with free water inside. Storage boxes are free (just ask for boxes at a store). The Yaris has interior lights, and your phone is a light.

So if anyone has helpful links, tips, guides, etc. it would be appreciated!

I agree with bronsin that everything until CO/NM will be fairly boring to look at. Consider doing the first and last 900ish miles each in one long day, to maximize the time you'll have in interesting natural places.

National parks tend to be firkin' crowded. Check out https://freecampsites.net/ (https://freecampsites.net). Open Google Maps and look for random national monuments/forests and green-shaded areas. Northern New Mexico and Southern Utah will be a lot less busy than anything near Denver, and just as beautiful.

[StBee]

This trip plan is very well put together! I really like how much actual planning and estimating went into making it. I am a bit underwhelmed because there was no follow-up on how the travel actually went. It would have been very interesting to see how accurate your estimations were and how whether or not everything went according to plan. Other than that, great inspiration for a road trip across the US. I have been traveling to Germany, exploring the country on these trains dbfahrplanauskunft.com (https://www.dbfahrplanauskunft.com/de/). My wife has been dreaming of a trip to the US for the entirety of our married life. I will definitely be taking inspiration from this post!

[Gascoigne]

Great plan, everything is well thought out! My husband and I are planning a winter trip. I love snowboarding and he is skiing. We chose the resort for a long time until we came across the site bluehouseskis.com (https://bluehouseskis.com/). There are even more interesting options. But everywhere there are pros and cons that are described there. We are from the USA but wanted to make a trip to Canada. We are planning to visit Mont Sutton. There are more advantages than disadvantages described. Has anyone already rested here? Tell us about your impressions.

[momentumglue]

I've been looking for my first car and saw a 2010 Toyota Yaris sedan for sale in my price range, with 150,000 miles automatic transmission. The only issues with the car itself seem to be cosmetic (the exterior paint has some wear). I dig the odd look it has going for it, and I'm 5'4 so the size isn't an issue. I hope it's a good car for traveling cause I do it a lot. Before I did it by train reisen einen Tag (https://www.dbauskunft.com/de/) , but I've decided it's time for me to drive and go on long road trips by myself.