Traveling from NJ to AZ
 

Hello, making a quick trip from Jersey to Phoenix with 2 young adults and 1 child. I figure to get there in 3 days we need to do about 800 miles a day. Probably taking Rt. 81 to Rt. 40, although will accept alternatives. Any fun places that are "must see" along the way?

Can your child handle riding in a car 13 hours a day? I like Albuquerque Old Town which has narrow streets and century-old adobe houses which are home to shops selling pottery and jewelry and restaurants. The Old Town Plaza features the historic Felipe de Neri Church dating from the 1700s.

Is there something time critical that you "must" be there in 3 consecutive days of driving 800 miles? The things that you "must see" for a trip like that is gas stations with available bathrooms.. Pack a cooler with stuff the kid (and both of you) like to eat and drink.

How does cost of gas, food and hotels on the road compare to cost of flights?

Graceland and Petrified Forest. Meteor Crater is definitely worth the stop and won't take long. I could call it a "must see" simply because it is unique and you will practically be there (5.8 mi off of I40) for once in your life.

You won't have the time - or energy - for fun or 'must sees'. You'll be lucky to know where you are. Sleep/eat/gas up/rest break/eat/sleep/gas up/repeat

I have done 2 back-to-back 800 mile drives and that was a lot, especially the Billings to Seattle drive with 5 mountain passes. There won't be any passes on I-40 however. Without having strategized in advance where we were going to eat, and which milepost marker to call ahead and order the pizza it wouldn't have worked. 3 days of this will be hard to pull off (then repeat on the way home?).

I was just in Albuquerque and add the city to the ones with horrendous homeless problems, along with Anchorage and many, many others. The Old Town Area was especially bad.

In my younger days I drove cross country several times. One time I did it full-out, as far as I could each day - I think it took 3 full driving days. Another time I stopped here and there along the way and the trip stretched into a week. Looking back, the first was by far easier. Regardless of whether you drive for 6 hrs, or 8, or 10 in a day, it's still a long day. Doing that for fewer days was far easier. A different hotel each night, finding places to eat that weren't greasy spoons, living off snack foods, all get tired very quickly.

If you had several weeks and could stay in one place for a few days, or limit your driving to just a few short hours each day, then that MIGHT be a road trip to consider, but not in such a short time.

How does the cost of food and a 30 day Amtrak USA Rail Pass ($499)? compare with what you will spend driving? The trains run all night getting closer to your destination.

In “olden days” it was easy to do long family trips. Kids just piled into the car and off we went. Now, safety, which is good, makes that less easy and requires more planning.

Biggest concern: how old is the child? Will they have to be strapped in a child car seat? Even the best car seats can be awful after a couple of hours and longer can cause numbness in the child’s legs and feet. The longest our GD could manage without pain was a couple of hours, then 15-30 minutes out of the car, walking. She also needed frequent bathroom breaks so we looked ahead for places to stop. The longest total time sitting was about five (max of six) hours in a day.
It sounds like a terribly unpleasant trip.
Unless there is some family emergency or event that makes such a trip absolutely unavoidable, I would really re-think it.