Travel With Griz unveils a free family road trip planner built by the actual Griswold family, just in time for the great American summer driving comeback of 2026.
CANTON, GA / ACCESS Newswire / July 29, 2026 / Forty-three years ago this week, an unsuspecting American family piled into a wood-paneled station wagon and drove into pop-culture history. Today, a “real” Griswold family – Steve and Lisa Griswold of Canton, Georgia – is marking the date with something a little more useful than a cross-country detour: a brand-new, completely free road trip planning app at plan.griswoldfamilyvacations.com.
The Griswold Family Road Trip Planner is the family’s answer to a simple question they hear at every backyard barbecue: “Are you guys really Griswolds? Have you actually done the trip?” The answer to both, for the record, is yes. Steve, his wife Lisa, and their kids have logged tens of thousands of miles across America in their fully restored “Family Truckster” replica – and they’ve been profiled by USA Today, CNN, NBC, ABC, MSN, and HLN doing it.
“We didn’t pick the last name, but we sure leaned into it,” said Steve Griswold, who owns Pixie Vacations, an award-winning travel agency in Canton, GA. “Every summer somebody asks us where to stop, where to sleep, where to eat, and how to keep the kids from staging a mutiny somewhere around exit 217 in South Carolina. We finally decided to just build the answer.”
Road Trips Are Roaring Back in 2026
After several years of fuel-price anxiety, supply-chain weirdness, and pandemic hangovers, AAA and the U.S. Travel Association are projecting one of the largest American summer road-trip seasons on record for 2026. More families are choosing the car over the airport, citing cost, flexibility, pet-friendliness, and frankly – the chance to actually “see” the country they’re driving through.
That’s exactly the audience the Griswold’s had in mind.
What the App Does (and Why It’s Free)
The Griswold Family Road Trip Planner is built for families driving from anywhere in North America to Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Cruise Line ports, Beaches gateways or just to see Unique Road Side Attractions, and for any family that just wants a smarter way to plan the long haul.
Drop in a starting zip code and a destination, and the planner generates:
– A custom route with overnight stops at family-friendly mileage marks
– 57,000+ vetted roadside attractions, restaurants, and hotels – including 242 National Park sites and a hand-curated layer of iconic Americana (South of the Border, Buc-ee’s, Rock City, Mammoth Cave, the Peachoid, and more)
– A 90-day drive-day traffic calendar that tells you the best hour to slide past Atlanta, Richmond, or Jacksonville before everyone else hits the road
– Backseat games – license plate hunt, roadside bingo, slug bug, with optional cloud-saved family scoreboards
– Family Dine Vote – host creates a session, the family votes from their phones, and the spin-wheel breaks the tie
– Drive Mode with GPS-fired audio commentary in Steve’s own voice – equal parts trip-tip and dad-joke
– A PDF trip guide you can email to the in-laws so they stop calling for updates
There are no subscriptions, no paywalls, and no credit-card prompts for the core planner. The app is free because Pixie Vacations earns its keep the old-fashioned way – by booking the Disney, Universal, and Cruise portions of the trip for families that want a real travel agent (also free) handling the resort side.
Built by an Actual Travel Agency
What separates the Griswold planner from the dozens of generic route apps already out there is the people behind it. Pixie Vacations has helped plan family vacations for over 16 years and has 735+ five-star Google reviews.
“This whole thing started because Lisa and I kept getting asked for our packing lists, our route maps, our hotel picks,” Steve said. “At some point your spreadsheet stops being a spreadsheet and starts being a product. Today, it’s a full complimentary Road Trip App.”
About the Launch Date
July 29, 2026, is the 43rd anniversary of the 1983 release of the comedy film that made the Griswold family a household name. It is also the 11th anniversary of the 2015 follow-up – a film for which Steve and Lisa were on set as their family’s Truckster replica was used during production.
How to Get the App
The Griswold Family Road Trip Planner is a free, mobile-first web app. There’s nothing to install. Just visit:
plan.griswoldfamilyvacations.com
Take the 90-second quiz, get a custom plan, and hit the road.
About Pixie Vacations
Pixie Vacations is a full-service travel agency based in Canton, Georgia, specializing in Family Vacations like: Disney, Universal Orlando, Cruise Lines, and Sandals/Beaches Caribbean all-inclusive vacations. Founded by Steve and Lisa Griswold, the agency has booked thousands of family vacations and consistently ranks among the top travel agencies in its categories. More at pixievacations.com.
About the Griswold Family
Steve and Lisa Griswold are the actual Griswold family of Canton, Georgia. Their fully restored “Family Truckster” replica has been featured on USA Today, CNN, NBC, ABC, MSN, and HLN, and on Jay Leno’s Garage, Jimmy Fallons The Tonight Show, and is actually in the 2015 Vacation Movie. They have driven Route 66 end-to-end, taken their kids to Walt Disney World more times than is probably reasonable, and continue to document their adventures at griswoldfamilyvacations.com.
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Media Contact
Steve Griswold
Founder, Pixie Vacations
steve@pixievacations.com
678-815-1584
griswoldfamilyvacations.com
Press kit, hi-res Truckster photos, and interview availability on request
Legal / Affiliation Disclosure
Steve and Lisa Griswold’s Family Road Trip Planner is operated by Pixie Vacations LLC. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Warner Bros. Entertainment, the National Lampoon’s Vacation film franchise, or any related rights-holder. The Griswolds here are the real Griswolds – we just happen to share a last name with the famous fictional ones.
SOURCE: Pixie Vacations
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
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