Road Trip in the USA family of 4 for nearly 3 weeks - minimalist packing

[BananasAreEvil]

Would I be naive to think that I can take a minimun number of clothes, say 5 days worth and just rotate them for the nearly 3 weeks we'll be there? We will have access to washing machines.

What time of year? Where in the US?

All you need is a pair of hardwearing trousers each (jeans) 2 pairs of shorts, 2 short sleeved t shirts and a long sleeved tee and a jumper each. A waterproof mac each, one smart shirt per male and one dress or smart top per female (eating out) Plus undies and socks and swimsuit each.

If it's going to be cold then it's a different matter.

Just done 16 days in Canada like this travelled with hand luggage only. Quiet easy. We took max 7 outfits. Did a couple of washes at places we stayed. DDs still managed to not wear everything.

Have done two weeks in the states at Christmas on hand luggage just wore big coats onto the plane.

Have a look on YouTube, plenty of people go backpacking or travel with the bare minimum.

We do holidays to the US but always somewhere hot, so fewer bottoms than tops and colours that are easy to match, ie navy or black. Laundry is done whilst we are there so I just make sure everything we take can be tumble dried.

We took about 6/7 days worth of clothing and did just that, washed them and wore them again and again. We also went for 3 weeks, I took 5 pairs of shorts, 2 day dresses, 5 t shirts, 3 swimsuits and 3 beach cover ups. 2 nicer long dresses that could be worn on an evening out.
The US is very casual, no one seemed to dress up for dinner. The washing machines do a full large load in just 20 minutes and the dryers are huge and very quick.
It was very easy and no problem to do at all. It’s the longest holiday we’ve ever taken and probably the lightest we’ve ever travelled.

Are you road tripping in a car for the 3 weeks. If so i would take more - we aimed for 10 days and did a couple of washes - you may as well. If backpacking I would take bare minimum!

I took far too much when we went on a similar trip. I ended up wearing shorts every day, jeans most evenings, and summery tops all the time. I also used a zip up hoodie, wore trainers or birkenstocks. We didn't go anywhere fancy to eat! Every place we stayed in had a laundry room so as soon as we checked in I'd do a wash, and it would be dry quite quickly.
I suggest you use packing cubes so that you don't need to lug your suitcases around eventpy time you check into a new hotel, we stayed in lots of motels.
Do tell us what your plans are, I want to relive my road trip 🤣🤣🤣

Itinerary is Toronto, Montreal (I do know those are in Canada ) Boston and New York, leaving tomorrow for 3 weeks!!!

We flew with Air Canada a couple of weeks ago I love the fact they’ve no weight limit on your hand luggage. Enjoy.

Also got the hard sell at the car hire desk saying we’d never fit 4 people and luggage in a compact car (ford focus). But all fitted fine didn’t even block the back window till the extra shopping hit 😂. All of which we managed to squeeze into our bags. Does help that AC allow case, small bag and hand bag

Thanks lovelyupnorth, we're flying BA!
Where in Canada did you go and do you have any advice for us? DC are 15 and 13.

I would recommend that you try and see a Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre while you are in Toronto (or Red Sox in Boston/Mets in New York).

We did a month back in 2015, started in Ca went across the country visiting friends ( sued their washing machines !) en route and even a wedding. We rented a Hyundai Santa Fe so had some good space. DC's who were 13 and 11 at the time, took two big suitcases and rucksacks. Minimal clothing , used a few laundromats, which turned out to be brilliant fun for me I even got given coffee and food at one it was filled with a group of women having some weekly catch up they were lovely and kept feeding me cake !
But back to the point, it's doable, remember to leave some space for shopping, I ended up buying an extra suitcase to bring the shopping home, so we came home with an extra case but well within out flight allowance. Have a great time ..

I think you will be fine with minimal stuff, you can always buy some stuff but you can definitely wash stuff as you go. My Sister in law and family of 4 did Asia for 5 weeks and everyone took 2 pants, 1 trouser, 1 shorts, 1 vest and 2 tops plus decent trainers. Everything else got washed on the trip!

It's years since we drove in USA and was east coast but my advice is use cheap motels ( they are fine), buy food in delis and picnic, visit as many heritage things you can and definitely do a big sports event eg baseball etc. The atmosphere is amazing and crowd watching fun

We did the west coast flew to Calgary then worked out way to Vancouver via Banff, north of Jasper, Kamloops and whistler. Loved it.

My only tips take plenty of money. Everything was expensive. We did end up eating out more than we planned.

If you’re doing Niagara do it from the US side if you can

We did Toronto and the Algonquin 20 years ago pre kids and loved it.

Our DDs are 18 / 17 found plenty of shopping which we managed squeeze in. Though not many bargains any more with the pound being so bad against both US and CA dollars.

We go to California a lot. I always pack the minimum and shop over there
Though exchange rates have reduced those spends a bit.

We’re in the middle of a US road trip for a month with 5. I over packed. I packed 3 pairs of shorts, 3 jeans I haven’t used as it’s baking, 2 hoodies ditto , 2 thin cardies( have used 1),loads of tees, 3 dresses for evening and 2 sundresses.. Converses and 2 birks have all been used, smarter shoes not. 3 shorts have been the most useful.Forget you don’t need to dress smart for dinner here. 1 swimsuit,1 sundress and 1 other dress( for NYC) plenty. Pack a macs v useful ditto pac away hiking towels. Don’t forget a plastic plate or bowl each and cutlery. It’s great fun.