The coloured cards, top
One-click presets. Each picks a route and sets the map to the layers that make its case.
Nothing you can’t do by hand below.
Show route
Which single route is drawn. Everything else on the page follows this choice.
All eight draws them together so you can compare.
Show markers
Which kinds of marker appear on the map — hotels, food, fuel, landforms, oddities.
Bed standard
The ratchet. ★ Five-star is $$$$ and up; ★★ Only the best is $$$$$ only —
Aman, Blackberry, Post Ranch, the Vegas suite products. It filters the map, the bed picker
and the stops, and it ignores the route filter so you see every qualifying hotel in
every state. Apply standard then upgrades every bed it can and drops the stops that
can’t meet it — stops marked ✕ are the ones with nothing good enough.
Thresholds
Not places — the numbered orange discs mark where the country changes under the car:
the Mississippi, the 100th meridian where the trees give up, the Colorado Plateau.
Stops slider
A blunt “how many stops” dial — drag left and it drops the least essential.
It only switches stops on and off; your nights and beds survive it.
Adding a resort you want
Click any hotel on the map, then + Add as a stop on its card. If a stop within
80 miles already offers it, that stop’s bed changes instead — no near-duplicate
20 miles down the road. Anything genuinely off-route is inserted in the right place and
charged the detour, both ways. Your own stops are marked ★ and removed with the ✕.
Building a route from scratch
Clear all stops, then click hotels on the map and add them one by one. They order
themselves along the road. Save this plan… keeps it; saved plans sit on the row below.
Your route (the button row)
All stops on · Clear all stops · ★ Best bed everywhere (upgrade every stop at once) ·
Reset (back to the shipped itinerary) · Save this plan.
On this route only
Hides places that aren’t within 55 miles of the drawn line. Turn it off to see
everything on the map at once.
If you just want the itinerary:
- Pick a route — Vision Quest (most national parks) or Five-Star Line (best beds).
- Open the Plan tab on the right. Tick stops in or out, set nights, choose each bed.
Drag the divider between map and panel if you want the panel wider.
- Want a resort that isn’t on it? Click it on the map → + Add as a stop.
- Hit Save this plan… so you can come back to it.
- Open the Brief tab and copy, print or email it to the travel agent.