Road trip itineraries, with the driving and the daylight

Each route below is a complete multi-day plan: every stop, the measured distance and time between them, and how many hours of daylight that day actually gets — so you can see which legs would be driven after dark. Open one, then build your own version on the map.

Or go straight to which of these routes work in which season — midwinter is the constraint most people meet last.

Which route works in which season

The same arithmetic the route pages do day by day, in one table: the sun's position at each day's midpoint against the driving time measured for that day. A route counts as fine only when every one of its days fits inside that day's own daylight — one dark day is what actually decides a trip, so it is what decides this table too.

13 of these 17 routes fit every day inside daylight in December; 3 have at least one day that would be driven entirely after dark.

Route 21 Jun 21 Sep 21 Dec 21 Mar
Amalfi Coast & Naples 3 days · 131 km 15h 5m 12h 13m 9h 14m 12h 10m
Blue Ridge Parkway & Shenandoah 4 days · 378 km 14h 34m 12h 11m 9h 26m 12h 10m
Dolomites — the Sella Passes 4 days · 137 km 15h 49m 12h 15m 8h 34m 12h 12m
Florida Keys — Miami to Key West 4 days · 130 km 13h 40m 12h 9m 10h 34m 12h 8m
Germany's Romantic Road 4 days · 160 km 15h 59m 12h 16m 8h 6m 12h 12m
Grand Circle — Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon & Arches 5 days · 587 km 14h 37m 12h 11m 9h 34m 12h 10m
Icefields Parkway — Banff to Jasper 4 days · 247 km 16h 38m 12h 16m 7h 35m 12h 14m
New England Fall Foliage 4 days · 656 km 15h 26m 12h 14m 8h 50m 12h 12m
North Coast 500 5 days · 334 km 17h 59m 12h 21m 6h 18m 12h 15m
Norway — Atlantic Road & Trollstigen 5 days · 278 km 19h 47m 12h 24m 4h 45m 12h 18m
Pacific Coast Highway — San Francisco to Los Angeles 4 days · 599 km 14h 28m 12h 11m 9h 33m 12h 10m
San Juan Skyway — Colorado 4 days · 194 km 14h 44m 12h 12m 9h 31m 12h 11m
Yellowstone & Grand Teton 5 days · 260 km 15h 27m 12h 13m 8h 47m 12h 12m
Cabot Trail — Cape Breton 4 days · 334 km 15h 45m 12h 14m 8h 32m 12h 12m
Finnish Lapland — to the Arctic Ocean 4 days · 511 km 24h 12h 30m 0h 12h 21m
Iceland's Ring Road — the Full Loop 7 days · 1,320 km 20h 35m 12h 25m 3h 8m 12h 19m
Lofoten Islands — the Arctic Road 4 days · 186 km 24h 12h 31m 0h 12h 22m

every day fits inside daylight · one day is tight · at least one day would be driven after dark · the number is the hours of daylight on the route's shortest day.

This is arithmetic only — the sun, the coordinates and the measured driving times. It does not know about road closures, snow, ferries or the weather: a “fine” December day can still be closed, and a “dark” one can be fixed by shortening the day. Sunshine hours, temperature and the weather at every stop are in the planner.

Why daylight is the thing to plan around

A self-drive day fails in one of two ways: too much driving, or not enough light. The second is the one that catches people out, because a route that is comfortable in June can be entirely after dark in December — and the sunset moves by hours between the north and the south of the same country. Tseril shows the night-driving legs and the weather at every stop before you book anything.

Open the planner See Pro