If you are on a very long solo trip (say, a couple of thousand miles), how many hours a day can you comfortably drive? Actual driving, not including rest stops or meals, and not pushing yourself or needing stimulants.
10 hours, unless you’re including caffeine as a stimulant.
If I’m driving to get somewhere and not intending the time to be relaxing 10 hours is a good number. Once you add rest/food/bathroom breaks it means I’m probably on the road for about 12 hours a day.
These days I try to limit it to about 12 hours driving time, which gives us a good 13 to 14 hours on the road with stops planned. When I was younger and didn’t have a wife in the car, I’d often drive 20+ hours in a 24 hour period, but I’m not sure I’d try that today, even when driving alone.
I would also say 10. Done it a few times. I don’t really stop much so barring traffic it’s 11 hrs on the road.
Probably 10 hours, though I’ve done 16 at one go (Knoxville, TN to San Antonio, TX, approx. 1,100 miles).
10 or so, unless there is tricky driving involved (treacherous terrain, inclement weather, etc.) and then probably more like 8.
Twelve. It’s a twelve hour drive between where I live and where my parents live (though, oddly enough, which of us were at which end has switched a couple times over the years) and I have driven it dozens of times over the last almost-20 years. So it’s really stuck in my mind as a the length of a trip.
This is one of those things where everyone who does less than you is a wimp and everyone who does more is a maniac and endangering others out of machismo.
10 hours like a regular work day, including my commute. The few times I have driven longer hours, with other people and taking turns driving, has left me feeling wonky the next day.
Twelve is reasonable. I’ve done more. Solo cross country trip, San Diego to Carolina. About 40 hours. I did it in two and a half days. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Especially because my friends made sure I was good and hung over the day I left.
We’ve done 14-hour driving days, switching off every couple of hours.
By myself? No more than 2ish.
Though a couple weeks ago, I started on Nuvigil (wakefulness promoter, used in my case for excessive daytime sleepiness despite having adequate sleep). I’d been off it, but restarted it the day we drove back from Florida.
I drove from 9:45 AM til about 7 PM, with very brief pee breaks and very little caffeine… and felt alert the entire time. By 7 PM, I was tired but not sleepy. I think (but am not sure) that this is how someone who was well-rested could perform. So anyway, that was 9ish hours.
For a destination-oriented trip, 12-16 hours, although I tend to stay closer to the 12 hour mark anymore.
If it’s a destination thing and more than 16 hours, I fly.
It depends on what’s in between points A and Z and whether I need to be somewhere at a certain time. Right now I’m getting ready to drive from San Jose to Colorado Springs and back on a 3-week roadtrip. The long haul days will be at the beginning and end of the trip; I’ll probably do 8-10 hours a day getting through the long stretches in Nevada and Utah. I think my longest single day ever was something like 14 hours from the Columbia River Gorge back to the Bay Area.
Haven’t taken a trip that long in years, but I was generally good for about 12 hours of driving. When traveling alone, I stop only for gas. I eat whatever they sell at the gas station/convenience store closest to the interstate.
I would always shoot for 8 hours a day. I used to really hate when a trip is like 12 hours, like Chicago to DC. You’re like if I stop at 8 hours it’s only 4 hours the next day and you’re like if I do 10 hours, it’s only 2 more hours to DC. But if I did that then I would be all tired and cranky.
I’ve done Pittsburgh to Orlando both in a car and on a motorcycle in 17 hours or so. Figure 15 at the controls and a little time eating and gas and all. My best time to Orlando was on a bike - just under 12 hours.
My former boss (Oscar Kovaleski) would be proud of me
I get twitchy about every hour and have to stop. So, personally, I would probably only be able to do about 8 hours a day. Thankfully, my husband can do more and accompanies me on these sorts of endeavours.
It depends, among other things, on how many days in a row and what the point of all the driving is.
If my goal is to get from point A to point B and I’m only driving for a day or two, I can push. 10-12 hours/day.
However, if my goal is to meander around the countryside in an easterly sort of direction and go where my whims lead me for a few days or so, I’ll only plan on going around 5-6 hours a day. Planning on going further than that leads to my not enjoying the drive.
I drove Central Ohio to LA two weeks ago. Left Ohio 9 local time Thursday morning, arrived LA about 8 local time Saturday night. I think I was “on the road” about 14 hours per day.
This with three cats in the car. They all did better than I did!
10 to 12 is tops for me, I start getting stupid after that and have to get off the road.
Last summer I drove from Gary IN to Phoenix in 48 hours, and that’s pushing it.