Road Trip Routing Tool

Ready for some great online help for your road trip?

One way to stay safe when traveling by car is to be prepared with maps and having your route planned.

One of the best tools on the internet for helping with a road trip is the AAA Trip Tik site. It has a bit of a learning curve but that is because it is so powerful. It’s a tool worth learning if you’ll be taking a road trip of any distance.

(You do not need to be a member of AAA to use their on line Trip Tik tool. However, you do need to be a member if you want to Save your trip to work on over several days. If you are not a member, you need to print out the information before closing down the window.)

Start by knowing what your limit is for the number of hours behind the wheel. Knowing that, calculate the amount of driving mileage you can expect to do on a day by day basis. Do the plan on a day by day basis because you’ll probably be traveling different types of roads over the length of the trip. You’ll make a lot less mileage on a scenic secondary road than you will on an interstate.

Check where your final destination for the day will be to make sure there are accommodations available. You don’t want to drive, exhausted, into a small town, only to find the one motel is booked solid.

Watch your gas gauge. Keep your tank at least ¼ full so you don’t run out of gas on a long, lonely stretch of road.

Getting started on using the Trip Tik tool to plan your road trip is easy. Go to AAA.com, click on Travel, then Maps and Directions. Then click on TripTik travel planner.

You enter a starting and ending destination and then click Get Maps and Directions. The tool will give you the quickest routing. Now is when you have an opportunity to customize your trip.

Suppose you don't want the quickest route? Or you've got a place in between that you want to stop at. You can easily Add a Destination using several different Location Types like address, airport, national park and more. You can change your route and re-order your stops by simply ‘grabbing, dragging and dropping’ the destination with your mouse.

Want to get a better look at the available secondary roads along your route? Use the tool in the upper right to zoom in on the map. A blue line designates your route. ‘Grab’ it with your mouse and drag it to the road you want to use.

Drilling down on the map also allows the display of icons designating hotels, gas stations, etc. Click on the tab Show to pick and choose which icons you want displayed. These icons can help you figure out your safe daily driving distance, as they will display AAA rated hotels/motels, etc along your route.

When you are done, you have several options for printing out the information, from map only to a full Trip Tik.

Route your trip. Plan your trip. Drive safely. Return safe.