Forum menu
driving on the right.... yup that'll take a bit of getting used to
being on the wrong side of the car.... sure i'll get used to it quickly
automatic.... take seconds/minutes to get used to
but, i've been reading websites with advice on how to drive in california and they're making it seem like a mental place to drive... nobody using indicators, 'death cars', carjackings etc etc
will i die?
should i buy a USA sat nav before i go or try and pick one up when we get there? (cheaper to buy than rent for the 2 weeks)
Freeways at rush hour can be a bit exciting (people don't really give each other space and tend to switch lanes seemingly at random), but generally everyone drives fairly slow, and the road systems are very simple, so it's not very difficult if you've had a little time to get used to it imo.
Load of crap IME
I was lucky enough to get a few days in oregon before driving into san francisco.
Biggest problem I had was in oregon, driving in the country, getting too involved in the scenery and drifting back to the uk side of the road, then coming face to face with another one of those big 4*4 tanks they drive.
carjackings? never heard of them and never mentioned.
indicators? more popular with americans than with bmw drivers over here
as a mate of mine said - you don't get much road rage when there's a 50/50 chance the other guys got a gun in his glove compartment
its fine , just be assertive - they smell fear and loathe it
do not hire a compact compact compact would be my advice
a colleague thought it would be easier to drive round in a smaller car.
nope. Get something big with road presence - gas is cheap. - i had a gmc acacia 3.5 v6 MPV
ignore folks indicators.you need to mirror , indicate manuver - DO NOT wait .... people WILL speed up if you indicate and wait - they love to close gaps on folk.
following the advice when we booked the hire car we're picking it up straight from the airport in vegas, website suggesting worst thing you can do is try driving in america for the first time on city roads let alone vegas on a sat night lol
EDIT - chevvy impala 3.whatever v6
if you have a satnav thats all youll need
get a stack of dollar bills and coinage for the toll roads. or better still hire an ezi tag.
IIRc thre werent many toll roads to worry about though in california. i think i just had the grapevine to pay for from bakersfield to LA
You know Vegas is in Nevada not California right?
It's easy. The actual driving bit is way easier than UK cities. Getting your eye in for their style of road signage takes a little while. You could always drive on the right over here for a day or two before you go to help get acclimated. 🙂
Where in California? I've driven all the way up to napa valley from San Diego. (from NY) LA was the worst it's mental any time of day but in rush hour its insane. Just take it easy and make sure you're looking way ahead of the car in front of you. There's no real system just get in a lane and stay there until you have to.
And remember you can turn right on red. Also you as the driver should be in the middle of the road in respect to driving on the right. Just like here. Always makes it a little easier for me.
I bought a cheap sat nav at best buy. It was less then $100.
It's fine - I picked up a (big boat like) hire car in Vegas. Then took it to grand canyon/ palm springs/ Disneyland/ Hollywood/ Santa cruz/ San fran
I bought my own sat nav as it worked out cheaper than hiring one for that length of time
- freeways are busy around la, and the right hand lane frequently turns into a slip road without much warning so watch our for that
- you can turn right on a red light in California
- automatics start moving forward, even if you don't touch the accelerator. This was news to me!
It really was fine though. Nothing to worry about.
You will die (eventually, it comes to us all apparently 😥 ).
Orange County has a bit of a rep with people not stopping at red lights.
Apart from that easy peasy.
Go to an In Out Burgers just the best ever 😀 animal style 8)
It's easy, much easier than driving on the continent IMO. As above, the toughest thing to get used to is the signage. It's been a while but IIRC you don't get as much notice of turns as you do over here - easy to miss a junction on the motorway, sorry, freeway.
Just looked up the Chevy Impala, I think I've had those before. Pretty bog standard car, gutless but comfy - upgrade to a muscle car! Mustangs are fairly cheap to rent. Driving round Vegas with a throbbing 400 horse power underneath you, with your top down, OOH ERR MISSUS! Just don't try to corner too fast 🙂
As has been said driving in the US is very easy once you get used to the signage. People don't really speed, ever (or at least IME).
Re sat nav, if you would use a sat nav in the UK going to a new city, then its a good idea. Have you looked at how easy it would be to buy one in Las Vegas when you arrive, i.e. found a website for a store that will be open when you are there? A map would be fine driving between Vegas and the San Fran area but for the cities, I can imagine a sat nav is useful.
Re the carjackings, unless you are going into Los Angeles and get lost, crime really isn't that bad, just follow the same common sense you would going into any city anywhere in the world.
I bought a sat nav from a staples in new York - but that was before I had the car
It was handy to help me get from the car hire place to the hotel
Thinking about it I still have it - you can buy it from me if you like. Few years old but very little use
timbod1975 At Googlemail Dot Com
i got off the plane in san fran and drove 10 mins down the freeway without my lights on :$ I'd not slept and didnt feel at all safe!
Got used to it after a couple of days commuting but it was time to come home by the time i'd got my head around it.
I was definitely happier on the train 😀
yeah vegas isn't cali, but once we've gone from vegas to the grand canyon we're driving into cali and spending most of the 2 weeks driving all over the place 🙂
with regards to the car... comfy is priority! will be spending most of our holiday in it after all 🙂
the plan at the moment is fly into vegas, get out of there and half way to the hoover dam as i'm not paying sat night rates for a hotel in vegas when we're going to be too sleepy to care, back into vegas for the night on sunday - grand canyon, amboy via route 66, calico, LA, up the coast to Cambria, over to the kings canyon nationa park to see general sherman, back over to monteray bay/carmel on sea, over to the jelly belly factory then back into san fran to end the holiday
Last time I was in San Francisco I was told there's a law in California about not sticking stuff to windscreens, i.e. sat navs, so theres no obstructions to your view.
Don't know if this was true but I'd ask the hire car people, they should be able to confirm or deny it.
Driving over there is fine. It's when you drive out of Heathrow that's the problem.
If you have a smartphone, you can often get a USA nav app cheaply - I got Copilot USA for £2.99 last time I was there. Download the maps and everything first (that one was 1.2GB), and make sure you take a car charger.
As said, pretty easy. I find driving on the "wrong" side much easier when you're in a matching car. Just get familiar with the specific laws in states you'll be visiting (turn on red, 4-way stop, etc).
I always rent the cheapest thing via Easycar, and take out their "cover everything" insurance. They'll ask you if you want to upgrade, take out extra cover, etc - just refuse it all. Very few hire companies actually stock the lowest couple of grades, so you end up with a reasonable compact (Focus, Civic, etc sized).
Don't fret about it - Americans are able to do it easy enough, so why not you? Just be assertive, go for a bigger car than you think reasonable, and have a laugh; who cares you get a few things wrong now and then? As for driving on the right, I've been driving on the left all my life, yet for some reason the right comes more naturally to me and is easier. Just be aware that when entering rural freeway's or dual carriageways that the entrance you want may appear like an entirely separate road some way off in the distance as it is not uncommon to have half a mile between carriageways. As for sat nav - hate it. Buy a map! Have fun my friend.
Driving in America is fine. You're mostly at risk from one of those absent minded lane repositioning where you're in danger of having a head-on with another car or have half the car wiped out by a bollard or something.
You don't need to be any more assertive than you do in the UK. The only thing to remember is the right turn on red as commented on before. Unless the sign says it's prohibited. Treat it like driving at home and you'll be okay.
Driven all over California, no different/worse to anywhere else I've driven?
Certainly safer than Southall high street
following the advice when we booked the hire car we're picking it up straight from the airport in vegas,
You'll need to get the shuttle bus to the car rental hall, it's too far to walk
That'll be the first time someone will be looking for a $1 tip - and you're not yet out of the airport 🙂
The guys at the rental desks will try to sell you all sorts of upgrades and addons, make sure you know what you have before you leave here and refuse everything
Much easier than driving in europe IMO. Scariest thing was the steepness of roads in sanfran and the weirdness of the four-way stops - might is right.
That's scaremongering b*llocks, it's a doddle.
Hard? No, not as such.
In the UK you get more aggressive driving, people trying to go fast in a hurry. In general, in the US, people are more relaxed. However the flip side to that coin is that to drive aggressively you at least have to be concentrating. US drivers overall are concentrating far less. So you get a raft of 6 lanes of traffic all barrelling along at 80mph 4ft from the car in front and they are texting, reading stuff, eating, staring vacantly etc. On all sides, since no-one keeps right ever.
Then HGVs have the same speed limits as cars, so they are doing the same thing.
However that's only around cities really, and you can stay out of it by chilling out and sticking wherever there's space.
Best advice I can offer is make damn sure you look in both mirrors before changing lanes 🙂
cheers guys... feeling much less daunted now!
What others have said
Highway 17 from Santa Cruz to San Jose is a beast, mind, and deserves utmost respect. Fast swooping mountain dual carriageway.
To be honest Phil if you are out in the countryside as you should be, there'll be no issue at all. It's really only cities that are busy, and if you are on holiday you can avoid the rush hour.
You may want to revise the plan about flying in, then finding somewhere to stay. We tried that quite a few times, and it works provided there's nowt on in town and the Americans themselves have decided to stay at home. Problem being that some Americans get very little holiday entitlement so make most of their weekends by going places, Vegas being one of them. New York one year the place was full, and we ended up 150 miles out of town before we found anywhere to stay, and Seattle one year we ended up in Portland! That's a lot of stress after a big flight. On the plus side, we lucked in several times, getting places right in the heart of some big cities dirt cheap. Take some luck with you.
Always ask for a deal in each hotel, never pay the asking rate for a room. Walk away if they don't haggle a bit. On your journey out of Vegas motels etc. will be easy to find, especially mid week.
You don't need a map of Vegas or the drive out to the coast. Vegas isn't that big and even a moron can find the strip. As for the coast, unless you're Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber, West is all you need to know.
Get a car with cruise control. Take CD's as American Pie on the radio for the 95th time that day grates. Unless you like the Eagles or Don McLain that is?
Man why go small with the car? In Boston we had arranged a 5 litre JEEP, thinking that was big. They offered us a 7.4 litre monster and it was brilliant. It's a holiday, treat yourself a little on the car - by the sound of it you're going to do some miles so why not. You can claw the money back negotiating with motels.
Bacon for breakfast is expensive but worth it, especially with pancakes.
Jack Reacher type events exist in books and CSI type crap only. In all events you will not die 😉 You will come back exactly one stone heavier.
Whatever. Just enjoy the trip.
Phil
Me and a mate did a similar loop a good few years ago , starting in LA.
- You need a first night address to get through customs. We queued for about an hour , to be turned back and 'booked' a nearby motel . Which we then didnt go to and carried on as original plan .
- Ensure you know how to turn head lights and main beam on , and off before leaving the car park . Being screamed at by unhappy Americans on the freeway , at night , in a hire car is not fun.
- The distances between everywhere are much bigger than they look on the map, we did about 2500miles in 2 weeks . Too much really.
- Grand Canyon is weird weather wise, Cold and snowy when we went in late October IIRC.
- Do not test out the ABS and off road capabilty of your hire car in Death Valley .
- Do not test the V-max of your hire car when any traffic is nearby . The Police have head on radars and helicopters and enjoy putting people in jail overnight for speeding in National parks . Alledgedly.
- You might have to pre pay for fuel at night in a city petrol station.
Have fun.
rob
Big miles hence cruise control 😉
Very easy compared to UK, you get used to the laid back driving on the freeway then back to the M4. Only found LA a bit iffy in traffic. SatNav is a must though, made that mistake first time.
Risky? More likely to die of boredom on drive from Nevada/Arizona to CF, oh look more desert....
Drove round California/Nevada/Arizona/Utah inc Vegas and LA when I was 17 and had only been driving for a couple of months. Scariest part was the dodgy insurance place we had to go to in LA. And that was in a 1.3 Chevy Metro, you don't [i]need[/i] a big car.
Make use of the car pool lane!
Rob, you forgot how to put on the handbrake and work the locks.
Kev, yeah, but we dropped off the Freeway and used local roads when uber bored. Found some odd places that way.
We hired a rav 4 for going san francisco-napa-yosemite-monterey-san fransico and it was a piece of piss. Used mu Mum n Dad's sat nav that had USA roads downloaded. Didn't know my Dad had programmed the sat nav to avoid freeways/highways whenever possible (whn they go out they prefer to hit smaller towns and stuff) till we got home! And to be honest it was great.
following the advice when we booked the hire car we're picking it up straight from the airport in vegas, website suggesting worst thing you can do is try driving in america for the first time on city roads let alone vegas on a sat night lol
Arrived at LAX somewhere after 7pm, had to pick up the hire car out near South Central, about a month after the Rodney King police trial, had to work out where all the controls were, then had to ask how you opened the filler cap! (Stupid little lever on the floor by the side of the seat in a Buick Skylark). Then had to drive up to the hotel off Lankershim Blvd, just the other side of Ventura. That was fun, at 8pm, in the dark, in a totally unfamiliar car!
Fortunately I had a mate who was using my Rand Macnally map, so we got there relatively unscathed.
It is, as others have said, pretty easy driving around LA, easier than Bristol, the roads are much wider for a start. Used to drive down to Sunset every evening to eat at Toi, a Thai-American restaurant just over the road from the Mesa Boogie amplifier store, all very rock'n'roll. It's still there, and I can recommend it highly. Just go very careful with the hot'n'sour soup... 😳
Took us two days to work out how to lock a Pontiac. Key only, opened the doors by turning it either way. Turned out you had to turn it clockwise to a second click. As for handbrakes...... Can be anywhere.
If you haven't already, you might want to check with the hire company about insurance if you want to take the car outside the state, i.e. from nevada into california. There may be a premium to do that. I seem to remember something along those lines when I hired a car in california and wanted to drive to Vegas - but that was about 18 years ago so a little hazy.
A few years ago I spent four weeks driving around California and Nevada. In the cities you had to have your whits about you but thats no different to driving in a UK city. The freeways were fine. Expansive and not overly crowded. The two hour drive home from Manchester airport (weekday afternoon) was one of the most unpleasant journeys I've ever had. I realised how impatient and uncourteous UK drivers can be.
You'll be fine.
For Sat Nav - there are a few people on Ebay renting USA Sat Navs. Delivered to your house. Two weeks is £20-30
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=usa+sat+nav+hire&_sacat=0
If you have a decent smartphone, CoPilot Standard USA is £2.49, and the HD version is £12.99. That's in the App Store, not sure about Android, but likely to be about the same. A steal, at that price, and you still have it if you go back.
Oh yeah and don't expect clear road markings telling you where to be or go. The lines tend to stop and restart on the other side leaving a big void.
Just back from a 2 week 2600 mile trip, booked a tiny car but got given an almost freelander sized thing but 2wd. Driving not a problem, cruise control was a blessing on the days we did big miles. The only thing we struggled with was filling up the car with fuel as you either guess how much you are going to need and pre-pay or use your credit card at the pump lots of which require a zip code which you won't have with a UK card. Oh and in the parts of US we were in (Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona) green pump is diesel and black is petrol, that nearly caught me out the first time when I was stressing with payment hassles.
It's not too bad. I've just passed my CA driving test.
A few things to do.
Turning right on a red (unless there is a sign saying don't or a red arrow). Stop before the white line, then edge forward before turning if it's clear. Watch out for pedestrians crossing as they will have green man and right of way.
4-Way stop - first car at the junction goes first, or the one on the right if you both arrive at the same time.
Freeway - easy - but don't expect much information on the junctions - know the name or the number of the road you want - you don't always get junction numbers, or signs to towns that you might be expecting, just a road name "Blah Blah Avenue".
Satnav - we bought the USA map for our UK one, and updated it. You can pick up a cheap garmin for about $70.
If you look up CA DMV on youtube you can get some handy driving tips aimed at people taking their tests.
The scariest thing is the fact one in three drivers in CA are uninsured, so if you rent a car take out the non-insurance cover, otherwise you could be faced with a hefty health insurance bill as holiday insurance small print will show a not so worrying $$ limit that would get eaten up in weeks in a CA hospital.
In terms of driving in CA its easy, although even though they have slow / fast lanes like us nobody really uses them. Plus being stuck in LA rushour traffic on a 12 lane freeway like the 101 or 405 is even more soul destroying than the 3 lane M25. I lived there for 2 years, the funniest thing is when it rains.....people turn into retards in cars as some people have never driven in the rain.....but to be honest the roads do turn into ice rinks as the oil rises to the top of the tarmac...and chuck can't control the wheelspin on his 550bhp Tundra !! avoid !!
The Driving test is about the same.....the bike test is rediculous....pay $25' get 20 out of 25 on a theory test and you can throw your leg over ANY bike. I went from never riding a motorbike to a SV650 in about 24 hours !!
Went San Francisco to Yosemite and back again. Was fun.
Freeways are a bit weird as the vehicles like HGV's are massive.
I drive a left hooker over here anyway so used to them and being on the other side of the road was fine
Always ask for a free upgrade on vehicle. Tell them you are excited about being in America and stuff and they love that stuff.
I lived there for 2 1/2 yrs & drove a VW GTI so a tiny car by US standards & never had one single problem.
Just drive normally, you'll be fine.
Don't know about CA, but I drove around when on holiday in Florida a couple of years ago. The roads are designed for huge cars and driving was easy. If all American cars are like our hire car you may find them the most gutless boring vehicles. Driving wasn't much fun. Mind numbing pretty much describes it.
The scariest thing is the fact one in three drivers in CA are uninsured
you could say that about parts of Bradford 😯
The two hour drive home from Manchester airport (weekday afternoon) was one of the most unpleasant journeys I've ever had. I realised how impatient and uncourteous UK drivers can be
+1 to that
never been to the US but I have been to Canada & I guess it's pretty similar. Canadian drivers are sooooo polite 🙂
Did 3600 miles on a Harley in two and a half weeks for our honeymoon, starting and finishing just north of the golden gate bridge, taking in Vegas (free parking for Harleys on the strip at the HD cafe), death valley, Yosemite, grand canyon, Lake Havasu (where London Bridge went) LA and highway 1 back up to San Fran. Was one of the most awesome experiences of our lives. Driving (riding) was usually relaxed, enjoyable and scenic. Getting overtaken by a big rig like we were standing still (90+, no 56mph limiter in the states!) on a desert road was an eye opener, and LA and SF main arteries were a little busy, but great fun. Recommended.
cheers everyone, insurance will def be fine from NV to CA as the hire is organised as a pick up in vegas drop off in san fran....
asking for free upgrade has to be worth a try 'its our first time in america and its our honeymoon sir, oh and we're all out of crumpets and tea dash and blast it' 😆
haggling on room rates will be a new experience... i'm british and as such i'm not used to trying my luck lol
noted on learning how to use stuff like lights, locks and handbrake in the car before leaving the yard 🙂
read about the pay at pump situation with needing a zipcode for the card... apparently you've just got to find a gas station with an attendant during the day ideally and get them to swipe the card. so will be filling up during the day as much as possible.
websites state that you can pay for most things by card, will still be taking dollars our there with us... anybody got any advise on best way to get cash out there or is it just ATM's and deal with the extra charges?
mrsconsequence has iphone on orange... will that work over there if we download the maps or is it worth just renting a satnav?
will try booking that first night motel online today 🙂
thanks again for all the advice everyone!
Orange will charge heavily for using maps on the iPhone.
My BiL found this out when he moved from ca to Paris.
Cue massive bill.
mrsconsequence has iphone on orange... will that work over there if we download the maps or is it worth just renting a satnav?
It'll work OK with one of the SatNav apps, NavFree or GPS Navigation 2
Won't you need a car charger and some sort of mount for it though?
I have a Tomtom with the US on it you can borrow but it's out in the US with my brother till the 7th Oct and then with me in Spain till the 16th. If those dates fit in, give me a shout and I'll post it of to you
Orange will charge heavily for using maps on the iPhone.
My BiL found this out when he moved from ca to Paris.
Cue massive bill.
Don't turn on data roaming then and use a satnav app, it won't cost anything
Hi Phil,
You'll have a brilliant time - road trips are addictive. The negotiating with hotels is a bit odd, and I never got the hang of it - but my wife did. $15 a room was her best. Some offer a breakfast, which is often just a muffin but they are good enough for early start mornings where you don't fancy a massive breakfast just then. It's nice to crack off 100 miles before breakfast some days.
And yes, the miles are big depending on your route. Some tiny, tiny towns can be 200 miles apart and they will have nothing in them. Sounds dire but in the end that's the appeal of a road trip. Off the Freeways there can be nothing but that nothing holds an appeal of its own.
You will have massive arguments. Some days will be dull - 500 miles on a Freeway does things to you. We followed the101 for four days once, and it was foggy the whole time so we saw nowt, stopped the night in crummy little towns, and wife missed out on retail therapy. Same may happen for the Grand Canyon - it has weird weather so you may have to allow a few days to see it. Didn't do the Southern rim, but I should imagine it is the same as North, with accommodation nearby. North rim is miles from anywhere.
Oops, digressed. Arguments - end of a long day can be tough, so no big decisions straight out of the car. Give it ten and things chill out.
It is fun arriving at random towns, finding a weird motel, then deciding which restaurant to go to - Mexican or Texan seems to be the order of the day. Family restaurants do not serve alcohol and every person in them smiles at you. Odd at first but some days you'll join in for the crack.
Yeah, ten minutes with the car at the start pays dividends as they hide the buttons everywhere. But us Europeans are the same, so fair play.
Good luck, I'm jealous now ;-(
ohhh an old school friend has just offered me an american sat nav through facebook to use, the windscreen mount has been left in san diego though so i've gotta keep a look out 😆 it'll mean becca will have to hold the sat nav and give me directions which'll be nice as she normally sleeps the moment a car engine starts!
do most motels/hotels have staff on early morning so we can check out and get on the road? as i can see me really enjoying the early morning drives it'll fit my body clock hopefully
Yep, you'll be fine. Depends what you mean by early morning of course but there will always be a night shift if you want to check out at 5am or something. Half the time they're sleeping in the office but will come out if you knock/ring/scream. Bloke at one hotel was asleep on the lobby couch in pyjamas but was happy to check me out at 4am.
i'm both excited and nervous in equal measure.... never been to america... furthest i've been is turkey! or maybe romania... i can't think which is further away.
You'll be fine Phil, no worries on that score. America is easy - far easier than the UK in pretty much every single respect. Pretty much all towns have motels and food, which you can't say about the UK. Generally not an issue turning up in a strange town and at least finding accommodation for the night. Just follow your nose when you get there and enjoy the experience. The worst bit will be American immigration officials when the plane lands - whatever you've read about their badness will be true. But they are just jobsworths on minimum wage, so be patient and no bomb jokes please! Get past them and it is all plain sailing.
ahhh we've done the ESTA visa waiver thingy already, guessing the biggest problem we'll have at the airport is explaining where we're staying?
Yes, America is very much set up for road-tripping. There's always somewhere to stay if you are on major routes. If everywhere's full up, then just go to the next town.
It can be a little harder if you are really off the beaten track mind, but still not really a problem.
Re explaining where you are staying - just book somewhere for your first night and give that. That's what they expect you to do - they know people move around, but they need to put something down.
MUST. REMEMBER. TO. BOOK. FIRST. NIGHTS. ACCOMMODATION. 😯
Also, remember that Americans are really friendly. Take the time to find some stuff off the beaten track and chat to people. I've met some very interesting people in small town diners. Small town bars though I would avoid like the plague unless someone I know recommends them as they can be quite strange places.
Just be ware - in the UK most exits off a motorway go onto a roundabout so if you do take the wrong exit it's just a case of rejoining. A lot of freeways tend to exit onto roads that often don't have a roundabout (they just merge onto new freeways). Been caught out a couple of times trundling 10 miles up another freeway to find a way of turning around.
Get an automatic (you probably won't have a choice). Have to put your foot on the brake to start the car often (and putting it in gear!).
MUST. REMEMBER. TO. BOOK. FIRST. NIGHTS. ACCOMMODATION.
or at least get the address of one to put on the form 🙂
edit: here put this one down
http://www.railroadpass.com/
It's not too bad actually for the money
Look at airbnb.com for some interesting places to stay. Not all do one night stops but you do encounter some interesting landlords/landladies.
jota.... i might actually book that place tonight! not bad at all and ideal location to scoot off the the hoover dam in the morning 😀
thank you!
Take the time to find some stuff off the beaten track and chat to people.
This is always a good idea wherever you are. Touristy America can be the lamest part imo.
On the subject of road layout - there are some bizarre things in some places. In Maryland and a few other places I've seen they've put a service station INBETWEEN the two carriageways. Ok great, it's accessible from both sides, but you have to merge into the outside lane when you leave it! 😯
ohhh we're going to milk the 'we're from ingerland on our honeymoon' angle, talk in posh accents, use silly english words and when asked more specifically where we're from we're going for 'berkshire, where the queen lives, well actually sandhurst where prince harry and wills did their training... yes actually we do bump into the regularly doing their shopping' 😆
A lot of freeways tend to exit onto roads that often don't have a roundabout (they just merge onto new freeways)
Sometimes on the dual carriageway the slow lane just turns into a slip road with little or now warning - you get used to it after the third or fourth time.
I'd like to say driving from Reno to Tahoe in a blizzard was the scariest, but getting stopped for speeding on the way back was much more terrifying.
i'm going to be avoiding anything that might get me in trouble with the 5.0! drinking, driving too fast, smiling, expressing an liberal opinion, being black.
When I got in the hire car in America, I sat there for ages wondering where the handbrake was, too embarassed to ask.
It was a foot pedal!
I bought a USA maps SD card for my Garmin and it was helpful. I cannot read a map and drive at the same time, and I couldn't trust my kids to navigate , so the satnav was well worth the money, it only cost about £40ish for the card.
booked that room for the first night 😀 muhahah
Did LA - Lake Havasu - Yosemite - Grand canyon - Vegas - death valley - frisco last year . 2000 miles in 2 weeks - dead easy , an absolute BLAST !
Lots of road trips over the years , never been to the states before but it was superb , no other word for it ...
Top tip if your on the wrong side for the first time is dont get giddy and overtake when you dont have to . it`s much easier to follow until you get your head around the change .
Sort out a satnav , makes getting in / out of the cities sooo much easier so why not ??
I make a point of never driving after dark - just something i`ve alus done when in forrin parts , but 500 miles a day is easy over there .
Pay the extra few quid for a decent size/spec car , you`ll be spending hours in there so air-con and cruise control are a must.
Get off the beaten track and take in a diner or two for breakfast , the more remote the better !
Best to book ahead if you`re going to frisco as the place is renowned for its national conferences and daft as it sounds the rooms run out pretty quick . When we were there a conference had just finished - 7500 people !
I could go on all night but the Americans we met were great - they love us for some bizzare reason so stop reading all the scarey internet crap , drive well and you`ll not go far wrong ...
Most of all just chill out and ENJOY !
cheers lasty 🙂
we're looking at about 1600+ miles over the 2 weeks i think, should be picking up a sat nav from an old friend tonight. will definitely try for a free upgrade when we pick up the hire car... play the 'first time in america, on our honeymoon angle and see if it works 🙂
quite a chilled driver so no worries about rushing around trying to overtake everything!
The Grand Canyon Cafe in Flagstaff AZ was very nice. Ate breakfast as a blizzard blew through, very evocative looking across the old Route 66 to the Amtrak lines. Happy memories 😀
I also had a blizzard blow through after our visit to the grand canyon. Got up in the morning and the car was frosted over - had to scrape ice off the windscreen
Within a couple of hours we were driving through the dessert - surrounded by millions of butterflies. Loads died splitting onto the car.
By the end of the day swimming in an outside pool, in baking heat in palm springs. This was Easter time
Dont expect anyone in vegas or California to be remotely impressed by the fact that you are from the uk.
Also the honeymoon angle in vegas isn't that uncommon 😉
dont expect anything cos we're from the UK and on honeymoon, but if the question is asked why we chose america then i'm sure it'll come up 🙂