How To Plan The Perfect Road Trip

There's an old Thanksgiving song that goes, "Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go." Admittedly, for most of us the drive to Grandma for Thanksgiving is a pretty short trip, but when was the last time you took a serious road trip?

A few tips and tricks for your next road trip were revealed in a recent OnePoll survey of over 2,000 Americans.

First, the best length for a road trip is three days. That makes sense because a lot of road-tripping involves sitting in a car and three days of that is enough for most of us.

Then next tip was to have plenty of snacks on hand. This could get sticky (if you'll pardon the pun) because some people don't like foods in their vehicles. As it turns out, the best choices for snacks are pretty easily cleaned up. The top choice was pretzels, followed by chips, followed by chocolate. The evidence of the first two can be easily removed with a vacuum cleaner, but that last one ... That could be a problem with sticky fingerprints all over the car. Whatever your choice is, just be sure you have a trash bag handy.

The third tip, according to this survey, was to take your trip in a convertible. OK, there's a certain romance to cruising down the road with the top down, but if you've ever been in a rag-top at highway speeds for any length of time you quickly appreciate the quiet and comfort of a solid roof over your head. Besides which, for most of us that would mean renting something.

A bonus tip, no matter what kind of vehicle you're in, was to make sure you had phone chargers for everyone. Just because you're escaping the trappings of your daily life doesn't mean you want to unplug from the whole world. Besides, you'll need that phone to post your road trip selfies. And maybe to navigate your way home when you've made a few wrong turns. What's a road trip without a little unexpected adventure?

When it came to destinations the Grand Canyon came in first, followed by Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks. Those might be more than a three day trip from North Texas, but it would be easy to make a quick drive up to the Wichita Mountains, or even farther into Oklahoma and explore a bit of Route 66.

Even with all of today's technology, the appeal of simply getting in a vehicle with a few hand-picked friends and going for a drive is still pretty popular. 64% of the people in the survey said they'd be up for it.