Wuss

*** Bollox! Should be "Driving Holiday in the States" ***

First off, I hope everybody had a very Merry Christmas.

I have a friend who wants to drive across the States in January. He wants to start in LA and drive to Miami...

1) How many weeks should he allow, to do it properly?
2) If he flies into LA, what is the best way to source a vehicle for the duration of the stay (pick up in LA, drop off in Miami)?
3) Should he fly-drive or plan it himself?
4) If he's planning it himself, should he book rooms in advance (via the Internet) or just wing it?
5) What are the best places to visit between these two locations, New Orleans, The Grand Canyon, etc?
6) Any other tips or recommendations?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Mark.

[Edited by Wuss - 12/29/2003 3:39:24 PM]

john_s

iTrader: (1)

Go for it. I drove NY to LA with my best mate in late september / early october. Was absolutely brilliant.

We did our trip comfortably in 17 days, which included 2 nights in NY, 2 nights in Washington DC, 3 nights in Las Vegas, and 4 nights in LA. And various detours for sightseeing. It depends how much driving he wants to do in a day. At one point when there wasn't much we wanted to see, we covered just under 2000 miles in 3 days.

Beware of purely working off map driving distances. Our map reckoned it was 2800 miles from NY to LA (straight line or road, i'm not sure). We did about 5500 altogether.

We used alamo for our car hire (booked over the web too). They were considerably cheaper than the competition. Be prepared for a monster one way hire charge though - ours cost as much as the hire itself. I *think* it cost us about £1100. We didn't have a car in NY or DC though - just hired one for a say to get between them.

Plan it himself it is really easy with t'internet. I don't think any of the fly drive companies do pre-packaged tours over these sorts of distances. Hardest part i found was trying to find a reasonably priced hotel on Manhatten Island.

We just winged it - though at Heathrow we did question if we were going about it the right way (decided it was too late then!).

We decided to use Super8 motels. If you sign up before you go, you can get a discount card off them for $4 which gives you 10% off their rates. Of all their motels we stayed in, only one was of a slightly average standard (we were that knackered that night we didn't care anyway). All the others were very good or excellent. They do a free continental buffet breakfast at most motels and we never had a problem with room availability.

If he drives along the major roads (especially interstates), there are signs before each junction which say which services (gas, hotels, and food) can be accessed at that junction.

Well there's all the usual touristy stuff in LA. I'd recommend that he goes out through Death Valley to Las Vegas and spends a at least a couple of days there. From there it's 30 mins to the Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon is a good day out. For him though he would be better carrying straight on from the Grand Canyon that returning to LV. Beyond that he'd need to head east, and we had come into LV from the north, so i can't really help with that.


Book at least his first night's accommodation before leaving the UK, then he can put that down as the address that's required on the immigration form they give you on the aircraft.

If he goes Miami to LA, he'll gain the hours as the time zones change rather than losing them.

I'd recommend he gets a map (we used Rand McNally's Road Atlas USA) before he goes so he can have a rough plan of where he's going.

Is he going on his own? It's a lot easier if he has someone with him to share the driving and to talk to while driving. The non-driver can do the navigating which makes things easier.

If he has a laptop, get hold of Map Point or similar take it along, and use a GPS to help with the navigating (very handy at street level in cities). Also gives a toy to play with in the car to keep the navigator entertained. (Games, DVD's, etc). I took my invertor to keep it charged up in the car.


Hope that helps (if your still awake!). If he's any more questions, feel free to mail me, and i'll do what i can to help. If i think of anything else, i'll post it up.

John.

Markus

Sounds like fun. One major bit of advice though, DO stick to the speed limits, even if it does say 55 and you can see for miles ahead, billy bob will no doubt be sitting in his cruiser by the side of the road and will have you if you're doing 70 odd.

I've driven from Toronto to St Louis and there are some lovely straight bits of road where you would just love to plan the pedal to the floor, and occasion I did, and I nearly got caught out, was coming back, about 3am in the morning, nothing on the roads, doing about 90 odd, see a cop car on the shoulder and sure enough, he pulls out behind me, so I slow down, and he just cruises past, as I'm now doing 60 odd (was a 60 or 65 limit, can't remember which).

Not sure if I'd have been ok, what with the british accent, but I'd not want to try it out.

Tis a real pain though, as the roads are generally very good, as for the drivers, umm, slightly mad in places but hey, that's like the uk

*Sonic*

I just recently came back from San Fran & Las Vegas

We stayed in San Fran for 2 nights (went to Alcatraz etc) then headed off over the Golden Gate bridge to Lake Tahoe via Sacremento

Spent the night in Lake Tahoe, then headed down towards Yosemite (sadly the only road into Yosemite was closed) so we carried on down to Death Valley and stayed in Furnace Creek (driving through 100 miles of Death Valley at night is fun ) then drove through Death Valley looking at all the stop points (Badwater Basin etc) and into Las Vegas

2nd day of Vegas we drove to Hoover Dam via Lake Mead, and spent the day there

I would take Winter Clothes & Summer Clothes, as San Fran was warm but wet, Lake Tahoe was -6 and blizzard snow in places on the drive (never seen so Many Subarus in all my life) and Death Valley & Las Vegas was t-shirt weather, if you do go through Death Valley then take plenty of water & first aid kit, and a mobile phone, and snake bite kit just in case you breakdown,

If you do go that route, buy all your water etc from Carson City as there wasnt any places open (including petrol) till we got to Death Valley

We had a fantastic time, 900 miles of open empty roads, and miles & miles of tumbleweeds & mountain ranges

We were going to do Grand Canyon, but we have done it before and its a 600 mile round trip from Las Vegas

Next time we want to drive more, as we had such a good time, the only hotel we pre-booked was San Fran & Vegas

We got our car through Alamo and booked online before we left, you can upgrade when you get there, we didnt but we had a Mitsibushi Galant 2.4 which was nice quiet & comfortable

Steve

*Sonic*

Forgot to add

I took my Compaq Ipaq with PowerLOC destinator USA and GPS reciever, didnt need it for the route as such, but it was nice to have to see ahead the roads when driving through Death Valley at night

Only was a necessity when we drove through & around San Fran to find our hotel from the Airport

jimr

John_s is quite right in what he has advised you

1. without a doubt book the first night, for a few reasons, like John_s mentioned you can then fill in your visa for the nice customs officer(s), there keen or at least have been when ever I've been over in the states. You can then have a few drinks on the flight (taxi to your hotel from the airport and then pick up your car the next morning). YOu'll then be feeling fresh and ready to take on the mad LA traffic

2. WING it with the accommodation - I say again WING IT!!!!!, there is so much accommodation on offer in the states you can't fail to find a room (I would also recommend visiting a DENNY's restaurant) and picking up a hotel voucher booklet (you can get some cracking deals for hotels/motels for next to nothing) or visit www.exitguide.com and print the vouchers off and take them with you. Plus if you do wing it, if you fancy going to blah blah blah or staying an extra day somewhere because you've not seen it all then your not on a time scale.

3. not really had many problems with the fuzz in the states, this year in September I was driving out of the grand canyon on my way to Williams and the speedo was reading 95-100 and a copper coming the other way just waved his arm to indicate me to slow down a bit (or at least that what I thought he mean't - well he didn't turn round and chase me) so just take it steady when its busy and push on when its empty.

4. as for time scales - thats upto you I'm afraid, I spent 6 weeks doing it and still could have done another 6 weeks if I'd have wanted to, depends on how much you want to chill out at the places you visit or if your craming it all in as quick as possible.

Hope this helps a little and have fun (I'm sure you will) Wish it was me doing it

jimr

OH yeah more thing

shop around for your car hire - as you'll be dropping the car off in a different state then you'll be charged big time (it wouldn't suprise me if the extra cost was as much as the car hire itself) Go with a big company who are located accross USA and then your in wth a fighting chance of getting a reasonable price.

*Sonic*

Yep agree on the Hire Car stuff

My Folks when they drove from NY to Memphis got charged 300 quid (pounds not dollars) for the drop off fee, as it was outside of the hire companies Zones)

Wuss

Thanks Guys, some great feedback and advice...

Keep it coming!

Mark.

wazza2770

Just a tip, get yourself an International driving licence from the RAC, they cost just a few pounds and a photo, so if you get stopped for speeding show em that...I did. It confused the hell out of them, as it does not have too much info on it, I found that he wrote dribble on his speeding ticket, I gave temporary address details and hey..........! I eerrr emmmm forgot to pay the ticket and who cares anyway will he junp on a plane and fly to UK to find me I doubt it. Watch em they hide all over the place on the freeway. in the central reserve on the shoulder behind broken down lorries, they use radar and it does not appear to keep a record of the speed you did. I asked to see the speed record and was told I have been an Officer for 7 years you just have to take my word.

*Sonic*

I heard that if you do get caught speeding or other driving offence in the states it is an on the spot fine, and if you dont pay it, you will not be allowed back in the country

22BUK

National car rental have no drop-off charge AFAIK

Chimp-Choker

We did a grand tour of California a few years back and I'd recommend what we did (some already mentioned above).....

Book your first night as you're likely to be knackered and wanting to get your head down.

Book the car in advance and take the insurance! We ended up with a big Mitsubishi 4x4 which was superb. Get an automatic as converting to driving that will be easier (you only hit the brake instead of the clutch once honest!). The best way to drive an auto is to tuck your left foot under the seat.

Get a few guidebooks/maps and plan your route leaving a few days extra so if you real like a place you can stay another day.

When you arrive in a town, go straight to the tourist information place, most have them. These have lists of who has rooms and prices. The best part is, they get the best rates and can negotiate really good deals as we found out.

When driving don't forget the "sneaky right turn". If the traffic lights are red but it's clear, you can still go right.

Perhaps the best advice is on safety, don't ignore your common sense, if you don't feel safe go somewhere else.

Have a great time (you will), the yanks are nowhere near as irritating as they seem on tv! You'll be made very welcome everywhere you go.