In the olden days (BC = before computer), I used to write to State Tourism offices for info packets and get all the info I could about what was between here and there (final destination before heading home) and back again - always a different route. I wuld plot our route by what there was to see and do (never an amusement park). We did history and experience - ie tour a lead mine and a gold mine stop at a festival if we could (brats festival in Ohio).
Our last "family" vacation included (not in order) the cog railroad to the top of Mt Washington, Morristown, NJ, Valley Forge (we had done Gettysburg another year), Philadelphia, Boston (took Beantown trolley), Concord, Springfield, Saratoga, Fort Ticonderoga, and the final week of that month-long journey was a 6-day windjammer cruise off the coast of Maine. The monkey wrench on that trip was the first 5 days had to be spent waiting to see if my Daddy was going to live or die as I was informed 2 days before starting the trip that he was in ICU with either a stroke or a heart attack - they were not sure which - but he definitely had pneumonia. He lived - just had pneumonia so bad it scared him into quitting smoking, was his usual uncooperative self, so we went on with the trip. He died 10 years later in my Library.
Out trips were to have the kids see a bit of what was there to be seen. Sometimes if they were really interested in a place, we spent more time there than anticipated (I had figured a half day at Fort Ticonderoga but it happened to be the day of the BAR battle and the kids wanted to stay - so we did).
Now WE can't travel as we did because DH cannot. But I did take the slow road when I went to Europe - crammed in a lot but took a month to do it. I understand the one-nighter because we would hone in on what to see (known to have gone 20 miles off course to see a Daniel Boone cabin) and move on to the next but we usually traveled the 2-lane instead of Interstates and looked at wrong turns as taking a detour. Our trips turned one kid into a history teacher.
Edited to add: I kept a file cabinet drawer with this info and was the office "travel agent" of what to see between here and wherever. I was invited to be called to give input on a travel program in Chicago when calling to say everyone was missing the best place when giving info of what was between Chicago and Williamsburg and I said WV. When asked what was there, I gave such a list of just the places I had visited that they called me back for another program the next week - and I had my list ready!.