National Parks Road Trip Planner

Five parks, five entry fees, twelve nights of campsites — a parks loop has too many small numbers to hold in your head, and the pass question (pay per park, or buy the annual pass?) usually gets guessed. This planner logs the trip park by park and answers the pass question with your own figures.

Our Road Trip Budget Planner with Gas Calculator prices the driving — the legs, the fuel, the tolls. This sheet plans the parks: entry fees, stays and food, park by park, with the pass comparison the driving sheet doesn’t make.

The sample runs 5 parks over 12 nights. Paying entry per park totals $140.00 against the $80.00 pass the traveller priced — the pass costs $60.00 less on those figures, printed in words. One park is a drive-through: 0 nights, no stay cost, and its $25.00 entry fee still counts, because driving through a park is not free. And the honesty holds at the end: the trip total is $2,080.00 against a $1,950.00 cap — OVER by $130.00 paying per park, and still over by $70.00 with the pass, because food and stays, not entry fees, are most of the money. Both totals print.

HOW IT WORKS
– ‘Park Log’: one row per park — name in your own words, nights, the per-vehicle entry fee you found, stay cost per night, and a free-text notes column (your season and plans, in your words; the sheet states no park facts, opening dates or reservation rules).
– The pass line: per-park fees totalled against the pass price you typed, with the difference printed from your figures only.
– ‘Trip Totals’: every park subtotal pulled together, food (your per-day figure x nights on the road), then the trip total both ways — paying per park, and with the pass — and the verdict against your cap.

WHAT’S INSIDE
– A park-by-park log for up to 7 parks with stay costs and subtotals (sample: $940.00 of park subtotals)
– The pass-vs-pay-per-park answer in print (sample: pass costs $60.00 less)
– A drive-through row done honestly — 0 nights, fee still counted
– Trip totals printed both ways, with the verdict (sample: OVER cap either way, by $130.00 / $70.00)
– Plus the standard Expense Log, zero-based Monthly Budget, Dashboard and Monthly Summary tabs

Every fee and the pass price are example settings you type — fees change, and this sheet states none of them as facts.

How it works: the seven tabs are Start Here (your settings + step-by-step), the two feature tabs, Expense Log, Monthly Budget (zero-based), Dashboard and Monthly Summary. Yellow cells are the only places you type — every yellow value is your own entry. Formula cells are locked (password: sheetdaily, disclosed on the Start Here tab) and every formula is error-wrapped, so an untouched sheet reads blank instead of showing error codes. Instant download, ready for Excel and Google Sheets.

A note on the sample data: every price and date in this workbook is example data, typed in by hand to show you how the sheet behaves. Replace it with your own.