Yay! my wife has agreed I can start planning this. I’d be really interested to hear experiences of anyone who has done something similar.

Driving across America has for some reason always been something I’ve wanted to do. I like the idea of a huge road trip, visiting places I’ve only ever seen on TV, meeting people right the breadth of the continent, etc etc.

Now my original plan was roughly follow route 66. I’m fully aware that most of the route no longer exists in it’s original form but the route is still good and takes in some of those special places I want to visit. I’m sure I can plan a route that avoids interstates for the most part but still allows me the opportunity to jump on one if I need to speed up.

So rough plan, fly to Chicago, spend a day there, set off in some classic American car, lets say a Mustang, potter across America, I’m assuming around two weeks, stay cheap, dodgy motels and the like. Visit St Louis, Grand Canyon and assorted other cool places. End up in LA, maybe drive up the coast to San FranCisco if I get time, ditch the Mustang, fly home.

i’m not really interested in hearing if this is a shit idea or not (i’m sure this won’t stop anyone) but those who have had the same idea and done, it, let me know how things went.

Gotchas would be useful. Time and money. I’m anticipating needing to take 3 weeks off and I happy to do a couple of high mileage days to make the rest of the time more fun. I’m currently placing a finger in the air around £4000 all in. As I say, I’ll stay cheap, have no problems spending the odd night sleeping in the car and understand my biggest cost will be fuel.

ta.

*not a “this is a shit idea” post* 🙂

But why start in Chicago? You’d be starting your trip with a shitload of driving through the midwest, and 180 degree horizons get a bit boring after a while. There’s loads of the east side which would be good fun to cross before you hit the mid-west, don’t you think?

I would start arpund Washington and head down the Applacians first.

and do it on a motorbike

stay cheap, dodgy motels and the like

Don’t do that. Might be charming in a “watching the drug deals going down” sense, but why not just stay in nice hotels…? Not gonna cost much for somewhere not shit in Badiddlyboing Idaho.

My sister did something like this (more like two months) but they hired a modern Mustang to drive around in. She want’s to do it again but says she would rent an RV as there were so many great places to park up. She would also be less ambitious about the distance to cover and allow more time to stop and enjoy.

I think you will have a great trip whatever you choose.

I took 3 days to drive from LA to San Fran along route 1. It was great being able to take a long time to go a small distance just stopping off on a whim to enjoy a view or chill out in a town.

My experience was that the less touristy a place was, the friendlier the people were. I would love to return and have a longer trip along the same lines.

We did this a few years ago – three of us.

Flew into New York. Couple of nights there.
Train to DC, because we want to go on an American train. 1 night there.
Picked up hire car at Dulles airport. For all the driving you’ll want aircon, tunes, comfort, space. A classic is a lovely idea but we went for practicality.
Then we went to:
Cleveland (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
Chicago 2 nights.
Sioux Falls overnight for Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore
Spearfish South Dakota
Yellowstone (stayed in a cabin in the park) 2 nights
Jackson (Wyoming)
Salt Lake City
Monument Valley (stayed in Mexican Hat, just outside)
Grand Canyon (stayed in the park)
Las Vegas (baby) 2-3 nights
LA. 2 nights.
Flew home from there.

3 weeks total. Lots of driving but we like driving, we changed driver every 2-3 hours. A couple of days had about 10 hours on the road.

We booked almost everywhere in advance. Staying in the national parks was a case of booking a year ahead, especially for Yellowstone.

My brother lives in Michigan and often does big road trips, either around the Lakes on his motorbike, camping, or elsewhere in the USA staying at Motels. PM me if you want his email address as he’d be happy to send you some suggestions.

Guy here has just suggested starting in DC and driving down the Applacians too, ta. Harley already considered and discounted. It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy it but it limits some options.

Good stuff on LA to San Fran. It looks like a reasonably short route but someone else has just told me it takes 2 hours in a plane, so not.

This is in preparation for next year so I hopefully will have time to book places once I get my route sorted. Obviously the cheap places was based on cost, if the better places turn out to be reasonable I’ll just book those instead.

All great stuff this, thanks.

Just back from 3 weeks driving round California. Definitely do the trip! We had a Challenger & I’d agree that a modern car is the way to go. Just be aware that luggage capacity is limited for the size of the car you’ll get. 2 of us in the car & the boot/trunk was just big enough for 2 suitcases & hand luggage. Great car though & got comments from locals.

For a cross country trip I’d say 3 weeks is the minimum, there’s so much to see & do you’ll regret having to drive on to meet your targets.

I’d second the suggestion about driving down the Appalachians. Did that a couple of years ago and loved the drive. This trip we passed the end of 66 and I would recommend Barstow as a stop. Big train yard & a couple of museums to visit. I’d go back there again. Just make sure to be there at the weekend as they only open then.

I love driving in the US, especially when you find a small town to stop in. We traveled booking hotels on Priceline or Booking.com mostly just a day or 2 in advance which have us the flexibility to change our plans a little. An RV would be great if you plan to stop in parks, but as said, the big parks need to be booked well in advance.

Already started thinking of our next trip…

Our biggest decision was where we wanted to cross the middle bit – went for the north option in the end as we could get to Yellowstone then cut south from there. Middle through Kansas/Oklahoma looked a bit dull. South would have worked but we’d done Louisiana/Mississippi/Tennessee the year before. You could go that way then Texas/Arizona/New Mexico kind of way.

Last year set off from Chicago to go to Denver, went up the lake then across Wisconsin Minnesota North Dakota South Dakota quick detour into Wyoming then down into Colorado. Great fun, that took a week then stay with friends in Denver then interstate back.

Love road trips and the Dakota’s were two states I hadn’t visited

Also, your £4k budget should be achievable. Fuel costs are NOT going to be your big expense. We did 2,700 miles and I think it cost around $300/350 in the Challenger. Our average mpg worked out as 30/US gallons which is not bad for a 3.6l V6. I budgeted $100/night for hotels, but that often left us looking at 2*, or 3* with poor reviews, so next time I’d allow a little more.

Eating out was the biggest expense. Even fast food places aren’t that cheap.

So rough plan, fly to Chicago, spend a day there, set off in some classic American car, lets say a Mustang, potter across America, I’m assuming around two weeks, stay cheap, dodgy motels and the like. Visit St Louis,

Chicago to St Louis is nothing other than a boring drive down an Interstate, not a lot to see.

tbh As someone who spent his working life travelling (UK and abroad) no way would I even consider wasting my life (and money) doing this.

Firstly, bloody great idea.
We did it on the cheap. Autodriveaway in Seatle-car bound for Richmond, Virginia. We had 9 days to do it and only had to pay for gas & accom. Although you’re not going the same route, the same principles apply. Drive a lot when it’s boring and featureless and make up for it by spending more time in the scenic/interesting places. We spent 2 days in Yellowstone (could of spent a week) and then drove a hell of a lot all the way to Chicago with only one stop over in Cody for the rodeo. Driving the States is a great way to see/meet the interior of the country, and I’d never really appreciated just how different it is. Only thing I’d do differently is not to visit Mount Rushmore, it’s crap

beej – good decision I70 through Kansas is dullest road ever!

OP – time of year might influence route choice

I have driven st Louis – Denver – Utah – Grand canyon – Vegas – Death Valley – Yosemite- San Fran. Aside from the aforementioned bit across Kansas plenty to see along the way.

Your biggest expense is likely to be the one way car hire.

We camped with the odd night in motels and were driving a $400 car so v. low budget. I think we spent around 20 days to get from st Louis to San Francisco before carrying on up the coast and back to st Louis.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ebygomm/sets/875056/with/39795358/

Done it few years ago started by Gananoque ,Ontario to Toronto round to buffalo NY , then through Michigan down to Indiana up to Chicago , up to Wisconsin dells , Minneapolis through the Dakotas and Fargo into Manitoba Winnipeg then along highway 1 through saskatchewan ,Alberta into golden ,British Columbia …easy driving stayed with friends and family in Winnipeg and Toronto

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ebygomm/sets/875056/with/39795358/

Excellent!

Hey! Wait a minute, that’s got your snaps in from Egypt and Venice!

Can advocate a modern Mustang FWIW – readily available from most of the main hire companies, not hugely expensive, feels like an American muscle car – big engine, atrocious cornering, but still got all the creature comforts.

We hired one last in Florida – got a convertible, drove around with the windows down and the air con on full blast, fuel’s so cheap it really doesn’t matter. Indeed the first time we filled it up (it was on fumes), was at a prepay petrol station, I went in and she said “how much do you want?”, I said “I dunno (not knowing how big the tank was or anything), $80?” She snorted with laughter, think it was about $40, and that was 2 years ago when petrol prices were at a real high for the US!

Did a lot of driving in the US last year. Started on the east coast in April but passed on driving across the middle as it’s widely recognised to be dull. Instead we spent many, many weeks driving up and down either side of, and through, the Rockies, from New Mexico up and across to Seattle (then a side trip to Canada) and then down again, finishing in LA to fly onwards in October.

I won’t go through the details of where we went because it was a much longer trip than you have (and I’d just be boasting), but the main lessons were:

Don’t drive too much – do big days occasionally to get somewhere but once there, stop and stay for more than one night.
When you drive, try to avoid the interstates unless you are going for maximum speed/distance – other highways are usually more interesting.
There are lots of perfectly decent motels, usually just off the interstate either side of whatever town you visit.
If you’re on a fixed schedule, book the motel on Priceline using the ‘Express Deals’ option – less complex than the usual bidding system. Turning up and getting a decent motel room on spec can be a lot more expensive.
Take a gamble on the random diners and restaurants you pass rather than stopping for fast food – may not be great but can be amazing, and always more memorable than the big chains. This is another reason to travel through towns on the highways rather than bypass them on the interstate.

One thing we didn’t do, but wish we had: fit a camera of some sort rigged to take time-lapse photos as you drive, and make something like this: [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt-juyvIWMQ[/video]

If you end up in St Louis and are doing a route 66 trip make sure you get to Ted Drewes for frozen custard.

I did this years ago from east to west. flew to Orlando then bought a GMC van in Cocoa Beach, Florida then:

Alabama
Mississippi
New Orleans
Texas
New Mexico
Arizona
Grand Canyon
Las Vegas
Los Angeles

Sleeping in the van

Quite a mission, driving becomes the daily routine with occasional sight seeing rather than the other way round. But all the remote diners and small towns are the best bit. the return to 8 lane freeway down into LA is a shock after days of countryside. Meteor Crater should be on any list. And Hoover Dam.

Make sure the hire car has Sirius or similar. You need more radio station choices the further you are driving!
As suggested, try and stop a couple of nights in some places. Doing a road trip where you move on every night just makes it feel like a load of driving between hotels even if you go somewhere en route. Not having a schedule to meet to get to a destination makes for a more chilled day.

This is a GREAT website for finding crap things on your route:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/

Eating out is pretty cheap, especially in the middle bit. You’ll mostly dine on beef, chicken and shrimp but that’s largely what they eat in ‘merica.
You can manage to book a couple of nights ahead and keep costs down. Last time we did it, we just booked stuff 2 nights ahead from a laptop so our route remained a little flexible depending on how we felt. Register with all the chains so you build up points and you might have enough by the end for some free or upgraded nights.
Get Navmii USA for your phone. Between that and a charging cable to a lighter socket adapter you’ll have data-free satnav for the whole country. You have to download different areas but it’s all free.
Find the best credit card for US travel and have that before you depart.
Have cash, but don’t worry if you run low. Very few places at all won’t take cards.

Get yourself a copy of this. It’s a hugely entertaining correspondence between a father and son who start road trips on opposite sides of the US and meet in Dodge City.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Roads-Dodge-City-Chronicle/dp/0060390646

My brother did the drive someone elses car from NYC to LA and loved it.

I loved Virginia and the Appalachian mountains, The Ozarks in Missouri worth seeing too. The Adirondacks are worth seeing if you start in New York state. Try and see the Tetons and Yellowstone. I have a fondness for Oregon, Crater Lake and the Cascades. The Oregon and California coast down to San Francisco will take you through the Redwoods. Yosemite and Lake Tahoe aren’t so far from San Francisco.

Get yourselves off the interstates and you’ll find some amazing small towns, diners and motels.

Dave Gorman’s book Unchained America is a good read too.

Done quite a few roadtrips in the US.

Don’t do that. Might be charming in a “watching the drug deals going down” sense, but why not just stay in nice hotels…?

Cos it’s a waste of money. You don’t have to stay in shit hotels – there are decent basic hotels almost everywhere on the major road networks, and some places off it. Days, Super 8, Best Western etc etc – they aren’t great, but they aren’t bad, they are on every junction and you don’t need to book. Just drive til you are tired. Unless you are out in the sticks, then you need to plan to pick up an interstate, main road or big town towards the end of the day. There’s a huge infrastructure around long road journeys, for obvious reasons.

Nice hotels are all about the guests pretending to be posh, and the hotel attempting to fleece people on holiday. Actually a worse experience for me than the motels – but then as someone who business travels a lot the novelty long wore off.

As above though – the East has some lovely places – New England is cool, and Appalachia is as wild as anywhere out West.

Route 66 itself is a bit of a tacky tourist thing nowadays. You can find plenty of good roads that don’t try and offer pre-packaged experiences; you can have your own 🙂

If I were hiring a car, I’d get one with a bit of ground clearance, if not a proper 4×4 – there are plenty of dirt roads out West that are brilliant.. but read up on the standard precautions and local conditions, don’t just head out.

OTOH, if you are trying to keep costs down then get a smaller car. Petrol is cheap, but it’s not THAT cheap when you’ve got 4,000 miles to cover…

We are talking about doing this, but probably just a road trip combined with longer stays up along the east coast.

Start planning where to eat now: http://www.dinersdriveinsdiveslocations.com/

Parking in the motel parking lot and using their free WiFi to book a room online is often cheaper than walking in the front door 🙂

Never had an issue with any of the chain or non chain places we’ve used. They’re more open to haggling than in the UK too. Asking for an International/English person discount worked more often than not in less touristy areas

Sounds like a good plan to me. Having driven rental Mustangs in the US I’d be avoiding them but I totally realise why it’s important.

If you’re intent on Route 66 try and plan some time around Sedona. It’s the best part of it imo.

IfI was doing it I’d be watching every episode of Diners, Drive ins and Dives and working out a plan based on that. The foie gras and chips place in Chicago sounds like an ideal first stop to me.

I just used booking and picked my next hotel based while staying in the last one. Price and availability is worth considering near national parks but no problem anywhere else. You don’t need to stay in ok motels when for the same money there will be a hotel with breakfast thrown in.

I’d be looking at finding a route viaMt Rushmore then Colorado.

Lastly, watch some geology programs on telly as it is so open and visible in places and you probably don’t remember if from school.

Cos it’s a waste of money. You don’t have to stay in shit hotels – there are decent basic hotels almost everywhere on the major road networks, and some places off it. Days, Super 8, Best Western etc etc – they aren’t great, but they aren’t bad, they are on every junction and you don’t need to book. Just drive til you are tired.

It was more the dodgy bit I was picking up on! agree there are plenty of cheaper hotels that are perfectly good, wasn’t suggesting it needs to be a Hilton and nothing less

Make sure the hire car has Sirius or similar. You need more radio station choices the further you are driving!

I drive a lot in the US for work and you’ll want the change. Right now gas in CO is around $2.30 per gal just been on the up. I would suggest looking at Hampton Inns as a hotel choice. In a lot of places it’ll be less than $100 per night with breakfast and they’re pretty comfortable. Super 8, La Quinta etc are cheaper but they are a lot lower standard, and some are pretty nasty.

Diner, drive-ins and dives could give you some ideas for route choice if you want to eat at any of the places featured.

This is a great book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1598809253

Has about 40k miles worth of routes and odd/cool/kooky stuff to see on the way, chalets in the shape of wigwams, world’s biggest tortoise made from tyres, etc! 😀

Another thumbs up for the Mustang, get a convertible. 🙂

Start listening to this to get you in the mood: http://959thehawk.com/

Pfft, the OP shows a lack of ambition. You need a proper fast car, a very good lawyer and just about 30hrs!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2RAAOk_yZg[/video]

😉

Do it. We did Denver – Moab – Vegas – Yosemite – San Francisco in Autumn 2012 over three weeks.

Don’t underestimate the driving, and there’s a lot of monotonous scenery, like once you get out the Rockies (which are only about 80 miles wide) into the high barren Colorado plateau you have 500 miles of scrubby rolling semi-desert.

Stay in motels and hotels. Spend money on hotel in Vegas, you’ll never stay in a better room in your life. La Quinta was fine for us for the rest.

Fuel is cheap, but just as well as the cars are shit and really uneconomical, get Sirius or an iPod dock. Remember no-one can drive round corners and no-one speeds as penalties are really high. And STOP means stop.

And don’t drink too many cocktails in Vegas then work out it’s 12 hours with a hangover to Yosemite through the desert because Tioga Pass is closed. That’s not nice at all.

But yeah, US road trips rock. Do it.

You can visit Schlumberger’s training facility in Kellyville. There must be a reason they placed in the arse end of knowhere.

This is all really helpful guys, thanks very much.

Someone here has suggested hiring different cars in different cities and to book the cars from the Uk in advance. I’m not sure how well that work but will look into it.

I accompanied a couple of friends on a car buying trip. Flew in to Denver and up to Wyoming, but no deals there. Ended up buying two 914’s in Denver and driving down to Albequerque and accross to LA on as much of R66 as poss. We hit the driving hard, but would have loved to take longer. We loved Flagstaff, stayed in the Hotel Montevista. What a fab place, 3 bars, full of nice young locals, and Indy rock. Had a great night. Very cool (not like Malmaison) independant querky hotel.
http://www.hotelmontevista.com
Then drove to Venice beach, stayed in a motel (also awesome).
The little porkers made it without s hitch for 1500 miles, and were shipped back.
Our back up plan was to hire an RV. Expensive one way unless the company need it moving from one part of the country to another. Circular routes very cheap and fuel is dirt cheap at the mo, so don’t worry about the seven litre petrol engines.
We did it in December, so nearly got snowed in in Wyoming, but was warm in the desert.
I guess summer would be crazy hot.
The whole trip was amazing, and the scenery was always incredible,

If you get through here in Albuquerque, be sure and go to the New Mexican restaurant El Pinto in the North Valley to get a taste of real New Mexican food and killer margaritas

Modern Mustangs are ok, kinda fun but don’t expect anything amazing – the hire ones are always the lower models unless you pay a load of money, and then they usually come with a limited mileage and $0.25 a mile after that, which could add up! Don’t take big suitcases, there is not a lot of room in the boot, and back seats are tiny and would be a tight fit for even a child, no joke.

I would plan on having at least 3 days a week without having to drive from A to B, to relax and soak up things. Driving all day every day sounds romantic, but…

Recommend the North Rim on the Grand Canyon. Higher and much quieter. Remote though – it is a 40 mile drive in down a solitary road with almost nothing on it, and that is after turning off of a road passing through the middle of nowhere 🙂 Great drive though, just watch for deer if it is dark. The campsite is great, if you have a compact camping kit take it, sleeping on the rim of the canyon in the open feels quite special.

Vegas is better than I thought it was going to be, worth a night or two. Hover damn was a disappointment TBH.

Personally, I’d do the coasts rather than the interior. Driving down the West coast would be great, and you could still pop inland. Go to Santa Cruz and rent some bikes for a day!

Some inspiration may be found with these guys – “Roadkill” https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL12C0C916CECEA3BC

Gonna bookmark this thread – looking forward to reading all the replies later.

We did our first road trip in 1996 I think. Won’t bore you with all the details but in a nutshell drove from Baltimore to LA, telling the kids (then 4, 6 and 8 ) we were going to Disneyland . . . cue three and a half weeks of “are we there yet?” 😆 Absolutely awesome trip, especially, Graceland, the Great Salt Lake, Grand Canyon and Moab (natch), oh, and the car. Arrived at the car hire parking lot at the airport and papadirt and the boys began drooling over a massive shiney red Chrysler . . . paperwork sorted and we were handed the keys to, yep, the Chrysler 8)

We’ve done many similar trips since in both USA and Canada and this year we fly to Halifax NS and 5 weeks later, back from Vancouver 😛 with a view to finding the perfect retirement cabin somewhere inbetween.

Accommodation is dead easy to find – all major highways have exits labelled with motels, restaurants, etc. If you have an itinerary, then double check there are no major events on when you’re planning to stay, otherwise vacancies shouldn’t be a problem. We generally work out a route and then book most accommodation in advance via expedia.com or similar though as I think it works out cheaper. I don’t drive but according to papadirt a big comfortable car makes all the difference to putting in the miles . . . any excuse, eh?

Enjoy!!! 😀

We’ve done a couple of 3 week trips. A mix of non driving days and non drive days. So many great places. If you like quiet desert roads then a nice route after Arches National park head for Hanksville and take Rt 24 through Capitol Reef then Rt12 down to Bryce Canyon. This all superb red rock Utah scenery. Traffic is low. A good continuation would be Rt89 sth then Rt9 into Zion National Park through a tunnel. This gets you to a cpl of hrs north of Vegas. In the same area Bryce Canyon NP is also worth going to.