Road Tripping in the USA!

b0rn2sk8 · 13 Mar 2017 at 18:41

ardy89 said:
Is this the same if booked through a site such as holidayautos.co.uk?

Yes, if its sold through a UK site they must include all relevant insurances. They will try to re-sell you stuff in the airport like additional insurance and additional premium breakdown cover who buys this???), feel free to say no.

You want to look for text on the site like "collision damage waiver" or something similar.

[TW]Fox · 13 Mar 2017 at 21:24

There is no 'must', however generally they do but always check.

Amp34 · 14 Mar 2017 at 18:10

I'm thinking of doing a road trip around Washington, Oregon and Idaho in August/September this year. Very early days at the moment but any recommendations on must see/do things?

I was thinking something along the lines of heading down from Vancouver, through Seattle and Portland, visiting the coast, and then heading down Crater lake and back up through the forests in Idaho, via Missoula, and then pass through the Going to the Sun and back across the border at Waterton. The only issue with that is it's a reasonably long drive for two weeks and I'm sure interior Washington is probably quite nice, and we would miss it all.

Alternatively maybe head down to Portland and then down to Crater Lake and back up to Portland, before heading over to Spokane and on to the Going to the Sun road. I guess the route will partially depend on what else there is in Washington and Oregon.

Any suggestions for those that have been?

SoliD · 15 Mar 2017 at 09:23

Joe T said:
Route looks good.

Alamo Luxury (book from the UK) - Cadillac ATS, 3 series etc is a good option if you dont want an SUV or a muscle car. I've tried all three: 328i, Chevy Tahoe and Camaro SS convertible. All have their plus points; it depends on what you want and how many of you there are.

Edit: if you're wanting more than one driver then look at Alamo Gold. Almost the same price as the driver upgrades but you also get to return the car empty of fuel as well.

Just looking at booking the car up, Houston pick up/drop off, October 19th to November 11th, coming back with 900 or so quid on Alamo, seems expensive compared to previous times. Am I looking at the wrong thing, or am I just expecting it to be cheaper when in reality due to exchange rates it isn't?
Just 2 of us, so nothing huge required.

Peerzy · 15 Mar 2017 at 14:24

Amp34 said:
I'm thinking of doing a road trip around Washington, Oregon and Idaho in August/September this year. Very early days at the moment but any recommendations on must see/do things?

I was thinking something along the lines of heading down from Vancouver, through Seattle and Portland, visiting the coast, and then heading down Crater lake and back up through the forests in Idaho, via Missoula, and then pass through the Going to the Sun and back across the border at Waterton. The only issue with that is it's a reasonably long drive for two weeks and I'm sure interior Washington is probably quite nice, and we would miss it all.

Alternatively maybe head down to Portland and then down to Crater Lake and back up to Portland, before heading over to Spokane and on to the Going to the Sun road. I guess the route will partially depend on what else there is in Washington and Oregon.

Any suggestions for those that have been?

I've done a road trip that included Vancouver, Seattle and Portland and it was epic. Plenty of posts by me in this thread about it but this was my route;

Bennie-Mac · 15 Mar 2017 at 22:33

Jez said:
That seems mightily expensive unless the rental firms have all caught up with this fad in the last year or so? I just did a quote with hertz for a camaro (no Mustang listed, but i'd take a camaro convertible over one anyway) and it came out at £550 for 15 days (4 through 19) in September. Even that seems expensive so i guess this is Sterling:USD catching up with us.

It's been that sort of price for the past month and a half, from LAX to LAX. I've looked everywhere and the average seemed to be about £700 for my dates, booked in sterling. My dates are a bit earlier so maybe there's still a bit of the peak season premium pricing going on.

Joe T · 16 Mar 2017 at 06:11

FX is a bit of a killer at the moment I'm afraid.

Howard · 16 Mar 2017 at 11:50

Howard said:
When's the best time to think about booking flights for a trip to Florida in October? Are you likely to get cheaper prices if you wait until it's less than 6 months in advance?

Is Virgin Holidays still about the cheapest for car hire?

Anyone?

Peerzy · 16 Mar 2017 at 12:09

Howard said:
Anyone?

For flights monitor SkyScanner daily, I've found the best prices for my trips came;

12 months from travel (LA, 2014)
8 months (New York, 2015)
3 months from travel (Seattle, 2015)
4 months (Boston and Washington, 2016)
5 months from travel (LA, 2016)

Airlines do have sales and offer deals so watch out for those as well. Generally speaking until 3-4 months before departure the airline doesn't need to actively push sales so the prices will normally be slightly higher. When it comes round to 90-120 days before the flight they evaluate the spare capacity and then price depending on how many seats are left (high prices for hardly any seats, low prices and sale deals for lots of seats). It really is impossible to work out, by monitoring SkyScanner over a few months you can see what a 'good price' is and then when that comes available snap it up.

Virgin Holidays were cheapest for me with car hire recently, but I'd still check the usual places (CarHire3000, USCarHire etc...).

floatindolphin · 16 Mar 2017 at 16:04

Not quite a road trip but I'm off to LA on Sunday for a week with work. I'm looking into hiring a car for the final Saturday and Sunday.

Is Alamo a good place to rent from? Do they cover all the insurances I'd need? (I've also got a 3rd party Excess cover cover)

I'm looking at a Dodge Challenger (or similar), hopefully similar is Gibbo's Mustang

Psycho Ned · 16 Mar 2017 at 18:39

I've used Alamo out of LAX a couple of times and have no complaints. Use the UK site to book and I believe you get all the insurances you need (though as Fox said above best to check to be sure I've never crashed to find out!!)

They have self service terminals there to pick up your car so least you can avoid the hard sell on all the over prices extras you don't need!

Amp34 · 16 Mar 2017 at 19:40

Peerzy said:
I've done a road trip that included Vancouver, Seattle and Portland and it was epic. Plenty of posts by me in this thread about it but this was my route;

Any particular highlights to your trip/must sees?

Also, totally different topic - flight prices. Have they gone up significantly in the last couple of months for anyone else? I'm looking at tickets for London-Canada for some family members and they seem to have gone up by £100 across the board from last year (and even earlier this year) when they have been bought in the past. Just wondering if it's a weird booking quirk/specific route or something larger.

[TW]Fox · 16 Mar 2017 at 20:33

Amp34 said:
Any particular highlights to your trip/must sees?

Also, totally different topic - flight prices. Have they gone up significantly in the last couple of months for anyone else? I'm looking at tickets for London-Canada for some family members and they seem to have gone up by £100 across the board from last year (and even earlier this year) when they have been bought in the past. Just wondering if it's a weird booking quirk/specific route or something larger.

Didn't you notice the massive devaluation of sterling since June?

Amp34 · 16 Mar 2017 at 23:47

Haha, that was my first assumption.

Just intriguing as it only seems to have hit in the last month. Tickets in January for the end of January weren't affected.

Peerzy · 17 Mar 2017 at 08:42

Amp34 said:
Any particular highlights to your trip/must sees?

Our trip was a month and it was our honeymoon. We loved Seattle and Vancouver for the restaurants and bars, these were two of our favourite cities in North America. The trips we did out in Washington state were really cool (Paradise), we drove to Lake Mowich which was simply amazing but a good hour drive each way in the middle of nowhere. Stanley Park was really good to cycle around as well. The Canadian Rockies were beautiful (Banff) and a great visit, Icefields Parkway was epic. We had terrible fires in Glacier National Park when we went so the GttS road was okay but covered in smoke and visibility was poor. Salt Lake City was okay but not worth the additional drive. Yellowstone NP was great - my wife even preferred it to Yosemite. Portland had a really good vibe and we enjoyed the shopping and bars.

We had an absolutely amazing time - the cities were great for what we enjoy (nice food, going for cocktails, exploring etc...) and the rural parts were epic in their beauty. I'd certainly cut SLC if I did the trip again and just be aware that it's big driving distances. We went in July and August - it would be a very different trip if you went in Jan.

FishFluff · 17 Mar 2017 at 17:47

Just seen today that parts of Highway 1 are closed around Big Sur due to landslides/flooding and a bridge has washed away. Hope they get it sorted by September when I'll be driving that way!

b0rn2sk8 · 17 Mar 2017 at 21:21

Just had a look at it and I cant see another way round the bridge that has collapsed so basically stuck on the 101 between Monterey and San Luis Obispo which is a real shame especially as I'm about 12 weeks from my trip now.

That's going to take months to re-build.

Psycho Ned · 17 Mar 2017 at 22:33

Yeah just read a few news reports and they say it'll be a year before that bridge is replaced. Unless they sort a temporary solution out.

weringo · 20 Mar 2017 at 00:37

Doing this in June and can't wait! We're doing almost the exact same route in 15 nights although skipping San Diego and have 2 nights booked in the Grand Canyon.

The exchange rate is going to be a killer though, we're up to £3.5k already for flights, hotels and car hire. I've done a lot of digging around to get good prices on decent hotels as well but it's just so expensive. A B&B almost an hour from Yosemite is £165 a night

. At least the Mustang is reasonable at £490 with Alamo.

Peerzy · 20 Mar 2017 at 08:36

weringo said:
Doing this in June and can't wait! We're doing almost the exact same route in 15 nights although skipping San Diego and have 2 nights booked in the Grand Canyon.

The exchange rate is going to be a killer though, we're up to £3.5k already for flights, hotels and car hire. I've done a lot of digging around to get good prices on decent hotels as well but it's just so expensive. A B&B almost an hour from Yosemite is £165 a night . At least the Mustang is reasonable at £490 with Alamo.

Yosemite was the most expensive hotel for my trip as well. We stayed in Mammoth Lakes and that was cheap and really nice, then had a night in Curry Village within the park itself.

It's a real shame you're missing out San Diego though - in terms of the big cities that was by far my favourite.