Trip planning resources

Trip Planning 101: Websites and advice to help plan a 116 Scout trip and rough out a budget

Rule of thumb for all cost estimates: Always round up. We will inevitably end up driving more miles, paying for more experiences/attractions, eating more food, and generally spending more than you plan for. So if you estimate, say, the gas will run $455, go ahead and put $500 into your cost plan.

Be ambitious, but realistic. Don’t try to pack too much into a single day or the entire trip (adults are only willing to endure so many 10-hour driving days, especially in a row).

TRANSPORTATION

Driving

Gas (gasbuddy.com) – Use Google maps to rough out a route and get the total mileage. The van (a Chevy Express 2500) gets 15 mpg on average. Now you can figure out how many gallons we’ll burn. Use Gassbuddy to find fuel prices where we will be traveling. That’s just for the van. We will likely also have something like Stew’s truck to carry gear, so do the same math for that (figure 23 mpg for a pickup) and add it to the total.
Tolls (Tollsmart.com, tollguru.com/toll-calculator) – These handy tools are self explanatory. Note Tollsmart also offers fuel cost estimates, but still do the math above yourself to get a hang of it (then: use whichever $$ is higher, and round up).
Van fee: Add in $1 per person per day to cover general wear and tear and other random van expenses (oil, fluids, breakdowns in the backwoods of Tennessee, etc).

Trips Farther Afield

For farther destinations (Florida, anywhere out West in the US or Canada), always compare the costs of flying vs. driving. This means not only what it costs in money but also in time and aggravation.

It’s always a tradeoff: flying then renting cars in the destination is way faster, but way costlier. Using the van (and, usually, another vehicle or two) is usually cheapest, but adds time: often 4–6 days of sheer driving just to get there and back.

(Some years, we’ve managed to convince a college-aged/young-20s alum to drive the van to, say Vegas, and meet the rest of the troop there—Vegas is cheap to fly to, and a gateway to Utah/Arizona and the rest of the Southwest.)

Here’s what to consider/research for each option, and where to research each. It’s good practice to research at least two sites (I do three minimum) to get a fair picture of the best deals out there.

Flying

Airfares (Momondo.com, Skyscanner.com, Southwest.com) – Note: Southwest results don’t show up on search engines, but are often great—and, crucially, include free luggage—so always check them as well. Don’t bother with flights with more than one stop/plane change.
Luggage fees – Momondo has filters (on the left) that will return results with luggage fees folded in; Skyscanner links to the airline sites’ fee pages; Southwest bags are free.
Vehicle rentals (Autoslash.com, Momondo.com, Rentalcars.com) – It’s hard to find 15-passenger vans to rent; we usually end up with a couple of minivans. (Try for 7-pass; settle for 5-pass with lots of luggage space.)
Gas – See “Driving” above for the technique; Google the mpg of whatever car model the rental site offers (you will see city and highway mpg numbers; use an average). Remember to multiply the total by however many vehicles we’ll have to rent (a group of 10 can get away with two 7-passenger vehicles; more and we’ll need more cars).
Tolls – See “Driving” above.
Public transit (buses, coaches, trains, etc.): Rome2rio.com

ACTIVITES

Outfitters and renting gear (kayaks, bikes, etc.)

Price out any major activities that we’ll definitely want to do, as well as a few other likely ones. Most trips have at least one or two lynchpin activities—rafting a river, mountain or trail biking, kayaking out to islands, horseback riding, whatever.

Just Google the destination and the activity and start looking at reviews of the local outfitters. When you are looking at their websites, poke around the menu section for any group or youth rates. If it’s not there, go ahead and call them up and ask.

Be sure then to peruse the offerings of several outfitters/rental spots and get the prices and deets from each so you can make a chart to compare.

Trails and such

Circuit Trails of SE PA: circuittrails.org
D&L (Delaware & Lehigh) bike trails: Delawareandlehigh.org

Parks and other fees

Don’t forget to budget for things like historic sites, park entry fees (not just national; many state parks have day use fees), museums, etc.

National Parks, etc: nps.gov
PA state parks/forests: Dcnr.pa.gov
NY State Parks (Parks.ny.gov)
NJ State Parks
Links to each state park system: Stateparks.org/locate-a-park/
National Forests: Fs.usda.gov/visit-us/recreation
BLM land (mostly out West): Blm.gov/programs/recreation/camping
National Wildlife Refuges (Fws.gov/refuges)
Camping reservations for most National Public Lands (Recreation.gov)

LODGING

Camping

Use the links below to find campgrounds on national and state lands—keeping in mind that many will end up sending you to Recreation.gov, the nation’s one-stop shopping site for the majority of public land campsite reservations and other bookings.

National Parks, etc: nps.gov
PA state parks/forests: Dcnr.pa.gov
NY State Parks (Parks.ny.gov)
NJ State Parks
Links to each state park system: Stateparks.org/locate-a-park/
National Forests: Fs.usda.gov/visit-us/recreation
BLM land (mostly out West): Blm.gov/programs/recreation/camping
National Wildlife Refuges (Fws.gov/refuges)
Camping reservations for most National Public Lands (Recreation.gov)

Tip: The smaller the municipality, the cheaper the campgrounds, so municipal and county campsites—though sometimes harder to find online—will be cheaper than state ones, which are (usually) cheaper than national ones. Some may be pretty basic (just toilets, often potable water), but they get the job done.

Tip: National Park campgrounds are usually more expensive (and more crowded/overbooked) than those in the neighboring National Forests, National Recreation Areas, or other federal reserves (lots of BLM lands out west). For example, most campgrounds in Yellowstone NP are $30–$50 per site; those in Grand Teton NP are $55–$60. Campsites in the Shoshone NF next door? $10–$25.

Tip: You can usually camp for free on non-NP federal land (National Forests, BLM, etc.) so long as you are off the road and more than 100 feet from any streams. However, this means no toilets, running water, trash cans, or anything—it’s like backpacking/trail camping—so use this technique sparingly.

Motels, hotels, and rentals

For urban stays—and the occasional break from sleeping on the ground—we’ll need cheap indoors lodging. Research a handful of options so we can get a sense of the local going rates (or any amazing finds, like that Moab motel with different decorative themes in each room—or the hostel in Moab that rented us a whole house for 4 days):

Tip: Be sure you are getting the rates with all taxes and fees (read the fine print on the rate; sometimes you have to click through to the actual booking page to get the total price).

Pro tip: Since EU regulations require that ALL fees be included up front, you can get the real price on the results page by pretending you’re in Europe. Just use a VPN and set it to a server in Ireland (any EU country works, but Ireland keeps things in English; just remember to set the currency to US$, and clear your cookies so the sites don’t remember your U.S. server from any previous visits.)

Tip: Renting an apartment, house, or such can be a great deal, but watch out for any limits on occupancy and especially any hidden fees (some charge a “cleaning fee” that’s higher than the nightly rate!

FOOD

This is a rough one, as food prices have soared since 2020. Even doing 95% of our own camp cooking (with only the occasional diner meal or pizza party), it adds up fast.

At this point?

Figure $25 per person per day.

Some Sample Charts

Here are screenshots of a few back-of-the-envelope spreadsheet charts I made when considering which family vacation to take last summer: Iceland (in an RV or by car/hotels), the Pacific Northwest, or Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (I priced out two options: driving out and back, or flying part way then renting). I hope they help: