How Long Do You Like to Drive?

[kath]

In planning a week-long trip that could involve several long-hour drives, I found myself wondering what other folks do. If you're on a destination trip with more than one leg, how many hours seems right for you?  Just to give you an idea, we're looking at a Yellowstone trip that would require two close-to-7-hour legs to get there. I tend to max out at 5 hours and prefer 4. But we only have so much time for the whole trip. So...

What's too much?  What's just right?  You know, the Goldilocks concept. And, why?

p.s.  Merlin suggested a clarification of "leg":  for the purposes of this poll a leg is the amount of time you prefer to drive before you stop for the night. 

[sandyu]

I guess it depends on your needs. In your shoes I would put in the 7 hours to enjoy Yellowstone.
I prefer like you to pace myself and take in the sights. However,  once I drove 14 hours. I did not plan driving that long but it just turned out that way. I hope to never do that again.
I'm going to say six or seven hours is probably our average drive time. I actually enjoy driving the open road. Crowed eastern roads not so much.

[daplumbr]

My dogs tend to get antsy and stinky after about 7 hours total, and that's including stops every couple of hours so that I don't get antsy and stinky. That puts us right about 300 miles per day or less. We've taken a few long-haul, non-towing trips to Florida (from Michigan) and we know that anything over 10 hours is way too long. One thing we do that helps a lot is to make the trip part of the journey overall. We look for interesting things to do on the way, stop a lot, and avoid the attitude that everything between us and where we are headed is just "in the way". 

[rob]

I only tow for an hour, 2 tops, but that is because of my work schedule.  I like to arrive, be set up, fire started and a beer in me before sunset.

[billmoore]

My limit now is around 11-12. I've done 18 straight through several times, but now will break the trip halfway on a trip that long...

[hogtyd]

[quote source="/post/12345/thread" timestamp="1434408450" author="@billmoore"]My limit now is around 11-12. I've done 18 straight through several times, but now will break the trip halfway on a trip that long...[/quote]
I just did two straight-through 18+ hour trips with only a few days between travel days, and next time I'm definitely going to break it into no more then 10 hr or so stretches. I think I'm still recovering from those drives!

Graham  

[daplumbr]

[quote source="/post/12338/thread" timestamp="1434394465" author="@kath"]

What's too much?  What's just right?  You know, the Goldilocks concept. And, why?


[/quote]I wonder if an edit specifying what a "leg" is would help the poll?  Is it hours between stops or hours between overnights, or something else? I think you mean basically total hours driving per 24 hour period? 

[whoofit]

I don't have a choice. ~11 MPG and a ~13 gallon tank gets me a break every two hours like it or not. I have driven MA to FL non-stop in 23hrs IIRC. But not towing.

[dh50]

Depends on the balance in the ol' bank account.   We can drive as long as pocketbook permits....but, hey our driveway ain't all bad!    

Good poll question, Kath!

[leslie]

I read somewhere about a retired couple who uses a rule of "threes". Drive no longer than 3 hours without taking a break, drive for no more than 300 miles a day and when you stop driving, stay for at least 3 days to rest and explore. My husband and I are trying to follow these rules.

[kath]

[quote source="/post/12449/thread" timestamp="1434577497" author="@leslie"]I read somewhere about a retired couple who uses a rule of "threes". Drive no longer than 3 hours without taking a break, drive for no more than 300 miles a day and when you stop driving, stay for at least 3 days to rest and explore. My husband and I are trying to follow these rules. [/quote]Ahhh, retirement!  That's what sage rules like this were made for. Someday, perhaps, we might not have time limitations on trips...

[dh50]

[quote source="/post/12476/thread" timestamp="1434645345" author="@kath"][quote source="/post/12449/thread" timestamp="1434577497" author="@leslie"]I read somewhere about a retired couple who uses a rule of "threes". Drive no longer than 3 hours without taking a break, drive for no more than 300 miles a day and when you stop driving, stay for at least 3 days to rest and explore. My husband and I are trying to follow these rules. [/quote]Ahhh, retirement!  That's what sage rules like this were made for. Someday, perhaps, we might not have time limitations on trips...[/quote]Someday indeed, (sigh).  :-/

[runningwriter]

We like to limit legs of a journey to about 400 miles, optimally, but we've done much more.

[lanell]

We just finished a 5000 mile trip thru 14 different states and 500 miles is about my limit in a day . 300 miles is the preferred daily trip .

[gerry]

my son lives 600 miles from me....I have done that in one day.....both towing and on my motorcycle!  with another person in the vehicle, I have gone to Sarasota from NE Ohio in one day...........I look at it this way....how long is a work day?  mine always varied from several hours to most of the day.....so I try to drive until I get very tired.....going to take a trip to the son soon with the wife....will see how long we can go!!