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Mapping Your Route

When most families plan road trips they look for the shortest route to get from home to paradise. But eight hours through Nebraska pastures on I-80 won't fire anyone's imagination. Choose routes that take you through interesting places with sights to stop and see. Plan your route with a good guide for the areas you'll be traveling through. The top picks for a general guide are the regional Mobil Travel Guide series ($17 each, Publications International), and Fodor's Road Guide USA ($16 each, Random House), which will be published in May. Both guides list hundreds of cities, sights, museums, historical places, addresses, and phone numbers. You'll also want guides that specialize in family vacations. The Fun with the Family series and the Great Family Vacation series ($13 and $15, respectively, Globe Pequot), and Fun Places to Go with Children series ($12, Chronicle) cover various regions and cities. If you're heading to our national parks, National Parks With Kids: Be a Traveler  -- Not a Tourist by Paris Permenter and John Bigley (Open Road Publishing) is a must. Though not all of the listings in Great Nature Vacations With Your Kids by Dorothy Jordon (World Leisure) are accessible by car, there are enough to make this guide worthwhile for families on the road.

Don't forget children's travel books. They offer a new perspective on sites and events that have taken place along your route, and they can spark kids' enthusiasm. Try the Kidding Around series ($8, John Muir), which provides a kids-eye view of 15 American cities; also check your library for books about events that happened along your route. Read these books beforehand to get children excited, but be sure to pack them in the car, too.

A good atlas is a must. Not only is it a map for you, it can also turn into a geography lesson for your children. Among the best for kids is Kingfisher's Young People's Atlas United States ($22, Kingfisher). For general atlases, go to Mapquest (www.mapquest.com), then click on the map store at the bottom of the screen. One of the best CD-ROMs is AAA Map'n'Go 5.0 ($35, DeLorme,) an easy-to-use program with maps and more than 70,000 AAA-rated lodges, restaurants, and attractions. For something more economical than a ho-hum motel room, reserve a "kamping kottage" at one of Kampgrounds of America's (KOA's) campgrounds . KOA campgrounds are all about families; most have pools, some have playgrounds and miniature golf. (For a campground directory, send $3 to KOA, P.O. Box 30558, Executive Offices, Billings, MT 59114.)