Permit me to comment on and disagree respectfully with this generally
excellent advice:

1) Don't flight plan the whole thing.

I disagree. Plan the whole thing. It's good practice, and if you're
like me, it's fun! I get a lot of pleasure out of sxpreading out the
charts, drawing lines, calculating distances, and making up a flight
plan. Even if I have to change it, it was worthwhile.

Generals always plan battles. As the saying goes, no battle plan
lasts beyond the first shot. Nevertheless, Generals plan battles.

However, I've planned two flights to the West Coast (from central
PA),two to Alaska (two different routes), one all around the Canadian
Maritimes, and one around the perimeter of the Lower Forty-Eight, and
except for being delayed by weather, We flew all those trips exactly
as planned.

2) Before you leave, buy every sectional you think you'll need, plus
an extra one on each side.

If you live near a public university, check to see if you can borrow
the charts. Most or all public universities have "Depository
Libraries," meaning the federal government "deposits" with them
public documents to "bring government to the people."

(And BTW, check to see if they'll give you charts when they expire.
Old charts are useful for flight planning, especially if you have two
of each so you don't have to flip-flop them.)

5) I'm assuming you're not IFR rated, but the same thing goes for IFR
charts.

We carry all the necessary IFR charts, but do all our "sight-seeing "
trips VFR. Seeing the scenery is half the fun.

6) Don't rush. Plan to fly a few hours, then spend an hour hanging
out chatting and relaxing at each stop. Add another hour if you're
going to get food. This is not a cross-country race, it's a vacation.

Good advice! Three hours in the morning and three hours in the
afternoon is a schedule that has worked well for us. Took us eight
days to get to Fairbanks, but we had a lot of fun along the way.

vince norris