We have spent the bulk of the summer over the last few years hitting the road as a family and traveling together. As a result, I have come up with what I feel are the Best Family Road Trips. On this list are things for every type of family to enjoy. I’ve included our favorite beach destinations, as well as the ultimate in theme parks, and even a few places for those geeks and nerds to enjoy. We have personally been to each of these destinations and they continue to be top on our list of places to visit as a family. The bonus comes in the fact that the travel to get to them is a ton of fun as well.
Best Family Road Trips For 2015
St. Louis, Missouri: This is a perfect destination for those in the South, Midwest, or even East. This city is a wonderful destination that brings you through rolling hills and lush landscapes from all directions. The travel to and from Missouri is typically beautiful, but once you reach the destination there are so many things to do! St. Louis is famous for its free family-friendly attractions. Children’s museums, parks, the St. Louis Zoo and more are all downtown and free to anyone! Just a few miles outside the city, you have a Six Flags theme park for the thrill-seekers. St. Louis has tons of historical elements (The Arch) as well as great nightlife with an amazing food scene and even a few great local theaters with live productions.
Portland, Oregon: The great Pacific Northwest appeals to everyone with the mountains, trees, nearly perfect temperature, and eclectic neighborhoods. Portland is a wonderful destination for the technology-minded family. With a great tech community, you will find friends on every corner. The food scene is unlike any other place you’ve been to. Some of the best Pho is only feet away from New York-style pizza and down-home country cooking. With parks, a great zoo, and tons of kids attractions throughout the area, it is a great family destination that appeals to literally every group you can imagine. We loved the public transit system that made it inexpensive and easy to get nearly anywhere in the city we wanted in minutes. Everyone was super friendly, and it really was a beautiful art-rich city we would move to in a heartbeat.
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming: This area of the nation is rich in history and beauty. It certainly isn’t a place full of shopping malls, theme parks, and attractions but the beauty is something you don’t want to miss. With nearby Jackson Hole a hub for many celebrities and foodies, you’ll find entertainment outside just the park, but for those who enjoy the outdoors, it is the ideal vacation spot. Stay in a hotel outside the park, or stay inside in one of the lodges. You can even bring your tent or RV and camp out for a few days and commune with nature. This is one family road trip that is historically important, educational, and quite literally one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places in the United States.
Corpus Christi, Texas: If you are looking for a beach vacation this is a great place to go. Not only do you have great beachfront condos to stay in, but you also have tons of great local entertainment and attractions. The Texas State Aquarium is phenomenal and an excellent choice for all ages. Along with the beach and a few other local attractions, you have a multitude of beautiful streets of architecture and shopping that will make the women in your family happy.
There are literally thousands of cities across the nation that I could include in this list. The best family road trips for 2015 are ultimately the destinations that you and your family choose. These four locations are some of my personal favorite from recent years of travel. I know that they are going to provide your family with a ton of options, fun, and most of all frugal choices.
ETA from Tatanisha: This summer the boys and I are planning a road trip. Last summer we took a road trip to DC. We had a blast, and the kids were GREAT! 5 Tips for Road Trip Travel With Kids
While shopping at Target last week I picked up the Best of the Midwest Travel Magazine. If you’re planning a road trip and want to check out the Mid-West, I highly suggest you grab a copy of this magazine. There are so many great tips and suggestions on places to travel! I’m hoping we will be able to cover quite a few places this summer. And of course… I’ll be here to tell you all about it.
I do love to travel and we’ve taken many road trips over the years. Now that the kids are grown and gone, my favorite trip is to the Caribbean by plane. 🙂 We do take the grandkids to Disney just about every spring, so that’s always a fun road trip. And we would love to visit Yellowstone.
We’ve been kicking around the idea of road tripping to Yellowstone this summer. We just have to figure out how to find the time!
We just went on a road trip to DC from Boston. We had such a blast on our trip. Road trips are so fun!
I love road trips! We don’t take them anymore since we don’t drive but I sure do miss them! You’ve got some great ideas!
These sound like greta places to visit with the family! We don’t do road trips very often, but we do travel to Europe every summer!
I would love to go on a long road trip! It is just difficult with pets at home. My daughter’s friends are good about helping out, but it still is hard. I would so love to hit the Pacific Northwest. I’m in OH so that would be a long road trip with great stops on the way!
These are great tips of towns to visit. We are traveling more and more and will be sure to stop at a few of these. Thanks for sharing.
I love going on road trips! I’d love to go to Portland someday. Since it’s so far away, I’ll have to travel there by plane, though.
We love to travel!! We do an annual lake vacation and several beach trips. This year we are hopefully going to Utah too 🙂
Need to bookmark this post! I love road trips, they always exciting with family and friends and I love good scenery.
Thank you so much for this list. We always get bored in the Summer so this is great!
This is such a great list of vacations! I really want to go down to corpus cristi! I live fairly close!
Due to finances we have only been able to take short distance road trips from MI like Ohio or Canada. Hopefully one of these days we’ll be able to change that.
My favorite family vacation is Deadwood South Dakota. Lots of fun in the area.
We LOVE road trips! One of our favorite things to do. I’m planning on going to DC with the kiddos very soon 🙂
We’re planning a two week roadie as our summer vacation this year and have St. Louis on the map. We won’t make it as far as Yellowstone, though I desperately want to go there. We are gonna do Mt. Rushmore though.