How to Plan a Craft Beer Road Trip: 7 Tips for Brewery Hopping

A craft beer road trip is not as fun when the hours are spent at the beer joint, making tasting reservations you need to work out, and then an additional two hours of driving somehow gets in there.

The good news? It isn’t necessary to have some elaborate plan in order to make it work. Some creative planning can open the door to incredible local beers, uncover new areas, and, undoubtedly, make the ride more enjoyable than perpetually having to refer to your phone for directions.

If you’re looking to embark on a weekend brewery trip with your buddies or just a new trip to a new brewery scene while you’re on vacation, these seven practical tips will help you create a smoother trip getting from brewery to brewery, even if it’s finalizing the route,r how you manage the budget, or even how you keep in touch as you move between venues.

1. Pick a Destination That Fits Your Beer Style

The best craft beer destination isn’t necessarily the one with the most breweries or the widest selection of beer brands. It is the one that can provide you with the experience you’re looking for.

Want to taste some “experimental” IPAs and small-batch releases? Check a city for a vibrant independent brewing community. Prefer relaxed afternoons? If a town has taprooms for walking to, outdoor eateries and tasty grub, it might be a better fit.

Just don’t forget to think out of the box as well. Brewery adventures aren’t limited to fresh brew. There’s stuff to enjoy in between hop visits, with local markets, pretty tracks, and funky neighbourhoods. They can also be a hit with non-beer lovers among friends.

For a weekend getaway, be realistic about driving distance, especially when travelling hoppy and looking to explore different breweries. Being on the highway all day on Saturday means you have less time exploring. Also, don’t downplay smaller towns; there are a few lucky local breweries that can be a better experience than cramming a large city with a lot of foamy beers.

2. Map Your Route and Prepare Your Travel Tech

First of all, open up a map of the breweries close to your destination. Review points of interest for excursions made in the neighborhood, stopping to determine if any routes are available for walking or alternatives that are available, such as public transportation. Check the hours before a taproom opens; not all of them will be open for lunch, and some don’t open as late as Sunday morning.

This is where plenty of work will be done by your phone. It is your map, reservation folder, restaurant finder,r and group-chat hub. Download maps offline and create a list of any major addresses that you will visit before you leave for a trip, especially if traveling to some large area where you might not have cell phone signals available.

Stay Connected Without Compromising Your Privacy

In addition, you may find access to Wi-Fi in hotels, coffee shops, or airports. While most websites are likely to operate via HTTPS, less familiar networks are not necessarily safe to use, especially if you become part of a fake hotspot. Verify the name of the network with staff, enable your device, and use two-way authentication when accessing your important accounts.

If you’re looking for the best free VPN for travelers, be more specific about your privacy policy, setup, and usable data volume than giant marketing promises. Leaving the registration procedure behind, one option for privacy when on shared Wi-Fi is X-VPN’s free VPN service,e which promises no data caps and no registration. Encryption from the device to the VPN server will be safe, but you won’t be safe on the web, and you won’t be able to use the same phishing techniques when that occurs.

After you’ve learned the basics, you can focus on breweries, and hopefully not troubleshoot with your Internet connection.

3. Build a Shortlist, Not a Brewery Marathon

Once you have your destination and a general idea of how to get there, it’s easy to bookmark all the breweries you discover on Google Maps! Resist the urge.

Look into brewery menus, postings, and social media to find out what is available, the hours, tours, and food options. It can be one taproom that excels in hazy IPAs, another that stands out for their crisp (and refreshing!) lagers, or for their seasonal sours. Having a variety is more interesting, particularly if you’re travelling with friends who have differing tastes.

The reviews can give you an idea of the atmosphere, but don’t assume that because the stars are set to a certain rating behind a site, everything is that way. A local bar may provide your favourite conversation or beer of the weekend!

Don’t aim for six, but two or three interesting stops. It’s more fun to taste flights and get a tour of the brewery when you have time to relax. Have an alternate list of breweries as a precaution in case one turns out to be über-popular or, whoops, is closed for business.

4. Book the Experiences That Actually Need Booking

Many taprooms welcome walk-ins, but guided tours, special tastings, and larger group visits may require reservations. One of the most useful travel tips is to check the booking policy in advance if a particular brewery is the main reason for your trip. Before constructing your travel plans, make sure to incorporate this into your travel itinerary.

Notification and booking confirmation emails, tickets, and accommodation information are all saved in a single location. Shared notes can be used for groups, and if reception is poor, screenshots can be useful. Review identification and cancellation policies as well!

A few strategies are necessary for accommodation. A room in the vicinity of your planned brewery stopping points may be more expensive, but can save you time and transportation costs. Oh, and if you’re going on a festival or holiday weekend, make sure to book in advance,e as some places may get booked fast.

The objective is not to schedule all the minutes. It’s to ensure that you have the time to make the experiences that you are feeling so you can have the remainder of your day free.

5. Decide How Everyone Will Get Around Safely

A brewery road trip is a two-part journey: how to get to the brewery and how to get around from tasting to tasting.

Driving should not be a part of the day after drinking. Select a walkable brewery city, try to travel on foot, public transit, or hire a designated driver who will not consume alcohol. Plan the ride not on the way out, a precaution also recommended by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Take realistic levels of walking distance into consideration, too. Breweries can be within eyesight on a map but may be blocked by streets or have no sidewalks. Find out the way, especially if you’re going home late.

Would you be able to drive through one or more of the towns via them with time to park in the afternoon and explore one of the towns before returning to camp? If you have a long trip coming up, you can postpone your trip for a more relaxed and sober time in the future.

Just some forward planning will keep the group safe and maintain a good level of fun.

6. Budget for Food, Not Just Beer

The tasting flights may be an expensive part of the package, but they’re not the only part of the package. Anything from a sightseeing tour to car hire in the region, food, lodging and goods can easily add up.

Make a decision about what’s important to you before you leave. Perhaps if you’d seen one of these behind-the-scenes instead of a couple more places, you’d have had it. Or perhaps two low-cost beer establishments, after which a scrumptious meal from the local area!

Make lunch and dinner plans; remember! Check if breweries serve food or if there are street food vendors or if they’re in the vicinity of food. When sampling strong beers, be sure to take breaks and drink water.

If one of the people in your group has no interest in drinking, find a taproom that has appealing options that don’t involve alcohol and nearby activities. We should all love our craft beer road trip, not just the one arranging the brew breaks.

7. Leave Space for the Unexpected

Some of the best discoveries won’t appear on your original list during a road trip. It’s possible for a bartender to be able to suggest a small brewery that’s down the road, and if you ask a bartender, they will be able to direct you towards a food market you might not find without asking for one.

Have workers advise you and be open to going outside the taproom. Free shops, local restaurants, and parks will provide a better sense of the destination you are visiting.

And if you do not get to all the saved breweries? That’s fine. It’s not just a Road Trip; it should be a fun one too. Give it a fairly long duration to socialise, meet people, and discover a drink you really care for.

A tour that is well-researched but at the same time is able to cater for unexpected events is the ultimate aim. The FTC’s public Wi-Fi guide offers more practical safety tips.

Enjoy the Journey, One Brewery at a Time

One definitely cannot have a great beer tasting experience without visiting the least number of taprooms. It’s about discovering places that interest you and enjoying yourself in them.

Find a place that is appropriate for your group, find out about the attractions you plan to see, plan and schedule, and arrange for food, transportation, hotel, and restaurants, and more before heading out. Let the day be now; let this day be the day.