aew5

I am planning to go on a road trip this coming summer from Madison, Wisconsin to Forks, Washington. It is a 31 hour drive straight through. I need advice to whether I should make it a 2 day or a 3 day travel time each way. I will have one other adult passenger with me who is technically able to drive, but has had minimal driving experience. Because of this, I may be the only one driving that vehicle. If I make the travel time a 2 day trip each way, then I would have to be driving 15.5 hours each day to get there in time, not including pit stops. I'm debating if that will be too much to handle, given the most I have driven by myself is 2.5 hours each way. I have been an active passenger on a 10 hour trip though, and I believe that I fared pretty well, but I also wasn't the one driving. I'm afraid that if I make it a 3 day travel time though, that it will too expensive and that my friend will not want to commit to a trip that is that long. I really want to make this trip a reality, but I'm afraid of not being able to make it to places on time and that I will get too exhausted driving that far... Does anyone have advice for me?

MoBro

15.5 hours driving, two days in a row?
No.

NewbE

I know nothing about the route you are planning.

However, my SO and I were stuck in the car last week for 16 hours, with one half hour break, and it was awful. He did all the driving. We have never driven for that long before, and wouldn't have had we known that traffic would double the length of the journey.

Granted that bumper-to-bumper crawling is the worst kind of driving, but I still would never commit to 15.5 hours of straight driving. We have moved across the country many times, drove both cars each time, but never for more than 8 hours straight, less if we could swing it.

Sassafrass

Even 3 days is still over 10 hours driving time each day, plus time to stop, stretch and eat something. Personally, I won't do even that. What is the point of tortuous driving if you are not able to do any sight seeing along the way?

Why is making this a "reality" so important? It sounds like a bad reality. It is certainly not a nice vacation road trip. If you were taking a leisurely vacation without having to make it any place by a particular time, it would be OK. You could stop at any point, or even shorten the trip. You, however, seem to have a deadline, and you have no long distance driving experience. Neither does your prospective passenger.

If you have to be somewhere for an event like a wedding, just get a cheap flight.

janisj

How long is the entire trip? Do you have any time in Washington before you head back east?

If this is just a road trip out and back . . . WHY? 2 days or 3 days make very little difference. Still too much time in the car.

If you are going to an event of some sort -- don't drive, fly.

WhereAreWe

>I'm afraid that if I make it a 3 day travel time though, that it will too expensive and that my friend will not want to commit to a trip that is that long.<

One extra day should not make it too expensive. That's one extra hotel night...under $100 easily unless you splurge. And if your friend can't commit to an extra day but is just going to be a passenger and not help with driving....leave him/her behind.

Take the train if you're really worried about the long drive and rent a car when you get to Washington. 31 hours in 2 days is not realistic if you've only driven 2.5 hours in one stretch.

NewbE

If I'm reading the OP correctly, it would be two additional days--3 to get there, 3 to get back, plus the unknown number at the destination, which aren't really relevant to our advice. I understand that the OP really wants this friend to come, and hope that the safety issue of not driving too far in one day will be persuasive.

Gardyloo

31 hours must be something you saw on Mapquest or Google Maps or some such. Malarkey. Those services almost always underestimate drive times, sometimes horribly, and they give no leeway for fuel, toilet and food stops, road construction, traffic, waits for ferries, or any number of other sources of delay.

I've driven from Seattle to Chicago several times, and I'd never consider doing it in less than three days (two nights) on the road. Adding a ferry and a drive to and across the Olympic Peninsula, dodging log trucks on wet two-lane roads for the last half day, to a trip from Madison, would make for a minimum of 3 1/2 or 4 days' drive time, and even that would be uncomfortable.

My recommendation: back to the drawing board.

NewbE

<they give no leeway for fuel, toilet and food stops, road construction, traffic, waits for ferries, or any number of other sources of delay. >

Yes and no, IME.

Rest stops, of course they don;t take that into account, you have to figure those out for yourself.

But Google Maps, Apple maps and Waze all take traffic and construction delays into account and show you alternate routes, slow downs, etc.

Ferries, I have no idea.

suze

My best advice is to re-think this entire plan.

I do not think it's safe for one driver to do 15 hour days on the road. Even for a single day. Yet alone several in a row.

jv827

Like those above, I would highly urge you to rethink this plan. Even if you have no plans to stop and see some sights, 15.5 hours per day is not advisable, even for someone whose driven for long periods. (Which you already state you haven't.) Being an "active" passenger does not translate in any way to such a long period of driving. Even three days to do the drive is not ideal for you, but two in this case, is unsafe and not realistic.