Trying to cover all the bases while trip planning can be difficult.

Breaking trip planning down into steps can allow you to organize your trip and make it much easier to put all together. Judy and I start with putting down the points that we want to visit, play connect the dots and then work on lodging, distances then timing and finally dates and times. Once it's all together you can tweak and adjust then wrap it all up with secondary alternatives.

Let's use our last trip as an example. First we determined our stops, Billings, Glacier National Park, Grand Tetons National Park and Yellowstone. Since we were coming from the east coast we decided to trailer our bike to give us more time to ride. So we connected all the dots, west to Billings, then to Glacier, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and back to Billings then eastward back to Delaware. Trip planning like this, allowed us to get a good overall look at our vacation.

Now let's look at the route. When traveling on your motorcycle, plan your trip for no more than 250 to 300 miles per day. This keeps you fresh and gives you plenty of time for sightseeing. This will also help to determine where you stay. Judy and I prefer Bed and Breakfasts for their personal touch but all hotels, motels are good and come in handy when you're tired and needing to stop somewhere. Trip planning should be done months in advance so that you can be sure to get rooms where and when you want. we ended up with stops in Great Falls, Mt., North Fork, Id. and Cody, Wy..

Next you can figure out the timing of your trip and how long you will be staying at each place. Our trip required us to be in Billings on the 4th of July (Tuesday) for a rally. Sneaking out of work on the previous Thursday night gave us plenty of time to get to Billings so we added a two night stay at Mount Rushmore on the way. We needed two nights in Billings and wanted to spend two nights in Glacier. The rest was point to point rides and one night stays.

Now you have the days, you'll need to book the hotels or B&B's where you'll be staying and have plenty of time to get from place to place by limiting the travel between points. One last thing to do is plan your trip to allow for problems. We planned several alternate routes to bypass intermediate stops if it should rain. We ended up making one change, the road from East Yellowstone to Cody was under construction so we bagged Cody and stayed overnight in West Yellowstone where we were able to squeak in a week after a major fire. All the more reason why you should plan alternatives.

Our planning started in December of 2006 and we booked our lodging in February 2007. We stuck with Best Western Hotels mainly and found two nice B&B's one near Glacier National Park and one in North Fork, Id. I would highly recommend using B&B's when you can. Also look for local investors who have rental properties. We've used investors in Maine and New Jersey with fantastic results. Well kept lodging with all the amenities, kitchens to cook in or home cooked breakfasts with comfort and a home like atmosphere. It's the only way to go.

Return to Motorcycle Travel from Trip Planning

Return to Motorcycle Touring Made Easy from Trip Planning