To plan a good itinerary you must first answer two questions: How much time can I spare? What is my budget?
Armed with this information, planning an itinerary becomes a far less daunting task. As long as you are able to break the task down into smaller manageable chunks, then planning a trip like this is great fun.
Now that you know how long you will be spending on this trip it’s time to start penciling in some ideas for where you will be spending each night. There may be some motels that you feel you simply have to stay at. If this is the case then your task becomes a little easier as you only have to fill in the gaps. If you decide not to book any accommodation in advance then you can just make a note of the general area you hope to be in at the end of each day.
It’s not uncommon to leave your motel at 9am and not reach your destination until 5pm but that’s not to say you’re driving for all that time (in fact you might have only covered 200 miles!) The special thing about Route 66 is that you’ll find yourself stopping off every so often even if just for 10 mins to stretch your legs or at small cafe for a coffee. Then of course you have the museums, gift shops and other attractions to see so 200 miles can take you a full day quite easily. Plus, aside from the places you’ve read about or are included in the EZ Guide you’ll find your own spots to stop at even if it’s just to take photos or buy a postcard to support a local business.
Armed with a list of the motels you know you have to stay at, use a large map or road atlas to judge approximate distances between each stop-over. Be realistic and make sure that there’s not too far between each stop that’ll not allow you to see what you want to see. You should find that you’ll soon have a list of definite stop-overs and potential areas to stop-over spread fairly evenly across your journey.
A final consideration might be whether you intend to do any side trips or not. If this is the case then time should be allowed within your itinerary to allow for the extra travel.
