The summer months are always crazy especially when you have a house full of kids. A great option to get everyone out of the house and go on an adventure is to take a road trip! Road trips are a great way to make memories with your family and friends and are a more convenient way for you to fit more destinations into one trip rather than flying. Here is a list of the top 5 road trip destinations for you to check out this summer.
1. Joshua Tree National Park
Once you arrive at Joshua Tree you can start off your day with some beautiful hikes through the unique rock formations and trees shaped in all sorts of unique and bizarre ways. This national park is full of activities that you could also check out, for example: a sound bath for deep relaxation, the farmers market where merchants can only sell locally grown or created products and downtown joshua tree for when you're ready to wind down from all of the activities for the night. For nature lovers, the Cholla Cactus Garden is arguably one of the most amazing sites in the park, with more than a thousand densely packed chollas stretching out across the desert floor. Often, chollas are sprinkled among other vegetation in the desert but here, they are the only cactuses in this natural garden.
2. Leavenworth, Washington
Leavenworth is a quant little mountain town that looks like its been plucked straight out of Bavaria, Germany. Some things to do in the summer months include hiking, rafting, boating, kayaking and biking. If you enjoy biking there are some great trails that you can bike on and if you are going to be traveling with your bike, we have some great high quality bike rack covers for transport that can fit up to 4 bikes. There are also some amazing breweries and wineries in the area to check out! Leavenworth is a great destination for all of you adventure lovers who like to get out and enjoy nature.
3. Florida Keys
To the south of Miami are the Florida Keys, a chain of coral islands that extend between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. The 120 - mile long island chain of the Florida Keys is a travelers paradise. On the drive you will experience seeing beautiful lighthouses, underwater coral reef parks and get to go over the 7 Mile Bridge which is one of the longest bridges in the world. On the docks at Islamorada, you can hand-feed bait fish to tarpon more than six feet long! The views are absolutely breathtaking and getting to make those memories with your family makes it all so much better.
4. Pacific Coast Highway
No matter where your starting point along the PCH is, you are guaranteed to see some amazing views. The most popular though is from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The Pacific Coast Highway is a cliff-hugging 123 - mile long drive along the Californian coast. If you're heading south towards Los Angeles, you can stop in coastal towns like Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea and be sure to get you photo of Bixby Bridge! You can also stop at Año Nuevo State Park to see elephant seals, Elkhorn Slough to sea birds and otters or take a Monterey Bay whale watching tour. Don't forget to take the time to hike some of the trails along the coast and stop at viewpoints to see how beautiful the Big Sur is!
5. Seattle, Washington
Seattle is a city full of adventures. Some attractions that you could check out are Pike Place Market where you can see fish being thrown in the air in one corner and beautiful flower arrangements being put together on the other. If you are a Starbucks lover, the first ever Starbucks is also located at Pike Place. You can also go to the Seattle Aquarium, the Space Needle or take advantage of all the beautiful hiking trails the pacific northwest has to offer. And, for a bucket list–worthy experience, you can tour a working Boeing factory, the world’s largest building by volume, to see 747s, 777s, and Dreamliners in the making. After exploring the factory, you can learn more about airplane advancements, from jet fuel to in-flight entertainment systems, at the Future of Flight Aviation Center. After you've enjoyed your time in Seattle, hop on to the Bainbridge Ferry and head to the Olympic Peninsula where you can explore Port Townsend and take a whale watching tour. A ride across Puget Sound aboard one of 22 Washington State Ferries vessels is a quintessential Pacific Northwest experience. Enjoy the breathtaking views from the bow of the boat as you cruise to the nearby communities of Bainbridge Island or Bremerton. This is one of those cases where the journey is as much fun as the destination.