Winter travel routes with a dog!

My cousin and her family will be moving from Boston to Colorado at the start of the new year and my mom and I will be driving my cousin’s car and (very active) yellow lab out to Colorado shortly after (likely between January 5-8.)

We would like to stick to a southerly (to avoid the possibility of snow as much as possible) but direct route that will get us there in 4 days. Neither my mother nor I have ever done a road trip (more than 7 hours driving) so this will be new to us. We are not looking to do more than 8-9 hours of driving a day.

I’m looking for route suggestions, dog-friendly hotels, dog friendly (outdoor) sight-seeing, etc. TIA!

Colorado Denver Boston

1 Answer

answered first by

RosalieAnn

The most direct route between Boston and Colorado is not a southern route It goes through Chicago and is 1800 miles (27 hours or about 7 hours a day for 4 days). There is no way to do both the most direct route and the southern route. Trying to go south of that route will add miles and hours and may or may not avoid snow. The best thing to do IMO is to watch the weather and pick a snow-free weather window to do the trip. And try to figure out a way to schedule the trip so that you can be flexible with the time of departure, and the number of days.
A slightly longer route (36 hours) would be Boston down to Harrisburg and then down I-81 to spend the night in the area of Charlottesville (this part of the route is the most likely to have snow IMHO). Then to Nashville for the second night, and Dallas for the third night. That route will have you driving about 9 hours a day. You will not have any time or energy for sightseeing - dog friendly or not.
As for dog friendly hotels - you can do that on Google maps as easily as I can.

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