Ok, maybe we are delusional, and if so, please tell me, but my husband and I would like to go on a month long road trip somewhere in the US with our 7 month old baby. We would be leaving from Toronto.

This is all in the very early stages of planning, so I'm looking for some itinerary suggestions and practical advice. Has anyone else done something similar?
My concern is, how long can a baby sit in a car? Is it realistic to say we'd drive 3 h, stop for a couple of hours, then drive another 3h? And how many days in a row can you do that? Originally we wanted to go to the west coast and drive down (Seattle to San Diego), but I think that's too far? A friend has done it in an RV, so that's a possibility as well.b
Once I work out an itinerary, I will probably be back for more specific advice

thanks in advance!

I think the west coast plan is a good one, but a month is a long time. What about a month long trip using four different locations as a base for a week? 30 days on the road every day would be really exhausting for everyone. 30 days of 4 weeklong vacations would be fun!

I think the notion is daft. The baby will severely limit your travel time and need you. A four-stop hub and spoke approach like starrs suggested is far superior.

A seven month old is pretty easy to travel with...no potty breaks, not feeding every two hours, sleeps a lot. But you can't keep the poor kid in a car seat for a month.

If you wan to drive the coast, do a driving day followed by a few site seeing days. Don't put the baby in the car day after day after day.

Only you know how well your baby does in a car. Some are fine and sleep a lot and some are cranky if you get beyond an hour. How has your baby done on trips closer to home?

Agree that 30 days in a row in a car seat for quite a few hours would make almost any child really cranky. I agree that you need to intersperse driving days with staying put days - and some kid activities (yes even kids that age can be interested - going to the beach, kiddy zoos, etc - as well as just playing in the park.

Due to a family "thing", we had to drive a car from Texas to D.C. when our child was about the age of yours. We did this trip in 3 long days and the baby did fairly well with occasional meal and gas station stops. But he did get cranky sitting in the car seat for extended periods of time.

I would NOT try to do a 30-day trip like this.

Strapping an infant into a car seat for hours at a time with sun exposure and less than ideal conditions borders on child abuse... Save this drive for a few years down the road... Both you and your child will better enjoy the trip as a family experience, not a month of torture for all....

You are delusional.

m_v, sounds like you are open to ideas. That's not delusional.

An RV might be a good option, since your baby would have her own private play room. You could pull over to a visitor center, take a break, take a walk, and have a homebase everywhere. She could crawl around indoors, and you'd feel safe about cleanliness, etc.

Do you want to drive one of those? Or know how?

"She could crawl around indoors" NOT while the RV is moving; she'd still have to be in car seat.

Actually an RV might be worse - being stuck in a car seat in a large open area.

It is not the month-long that is the problem, but the hours in the car. First, you probably could get the baby adjusted to sitting in a car seat for that long each day - but the cost would likely be 180 degree turn around in sleep/wake cycles. The baby would sleep all day in the car seat and torment you all night at the hotel.

Can you plan a trip you want where you drive 3-4 hours/day and then stop and do or see something?

But that is the other issue - do or see what? Babies are not really interested in beautiful sites, nice dinners, museums. And then there are safety issues everywhere - after being restrained in a car seat, baby is going to want to crawl, explore, play. Where - in a National Park, museum, cute little town?

I like the idea of staying 4-7 days in several spots, taking day trips and being better able to adapt to the needs of both your child and the 2 adults. And when you search for lodging for these stays, I would strongly suggest it have at least a partial kitchen (even a Residence Inn type place). Eating out 3 meals/day with a baby gets old very fast.

As pointed out--STILL in a car seat in an RV that is moving.

I think the base camps and travel from there is the way.
Babies that age "can" be very amenable to long times in the car, but then they will be getting out with a stroller and sightseeing, yes? Planned that way, this could work out to cover a good bit of geography, including the west coast drive.

I don't think even the adults would be talking about driving 8 hours a day for 30 days. LOL

We drive from Charlotte to St. Louis with our twins and have done it since they were infants. Its a 13 hour drive each way. However we spend a week with family in between. I could not imagine trying to do a long extended road trip like that, to be honest. My girls are great in the car but even they have limits. And the coastline is very rugged. I got very very car sick on the drive north of San Francisco so there is potential that a child could get car sick as well.

I think it would be much better for everyone if you cover much less ground and break up the drives with longer stays. Drive for 4-5 hours and stay for 4-5 days and then continue on.

Traveling with infants can be difficult. In one sense they sleep more, but they are also still very needy and aren't yet easily entertained by things like a zoo or the park... they are

(sorry... hit reply too early by mistake)

They are content having freedom to crawl around and play with their toys.

Here's an idea to kick around but don't kick me too hard janisj.
Take the Amtrak Maple Leaf (leaves 8:20Am) to Rochester, NY (mid afternoon).
There's a good Children's Museum there (Strong).
At about 11PM get on the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago.
You can spend a full day in Chicago or just a few hours before getting on either the California Zephyr (SF) or the Southwest Chief to Los Angeles. Once you are in California you can rent a car for about 18 days before you head back to Chicago.
Coming back from Chicago, you can spend a few hours in Buffalo before getting back on the Maple Leaf to Toronto.
If you go by way of Rochester, the station agent can hold your luggage or check it through to Chicago so you don't have to carry much around town.

Kick him Janis, kick him. Hours and hours on a train and tons of delays because Amtrak sucks. ARGH.

you kicked him for me

I think we scared her off....she hasn't come back.

But she only posted yesterday afternoon -- give her a chance.