Road Tripping in the USA!

weringo · 26 Jun 2017 at 22:36

Yeah we considered the long drive via Death Valley but partied too hard in our last night in Vegas and didn't fancy adding 2 hours to a 7 hour drive + stops. Also my gf doesn't like driving which would have meant me doing all of the driving whilst hungover

Peerzy · 27 Jun 2017 at 08:31

I'm sure the Mustang has an AUX port (in the arm rest).

Be very careful when speeding in Arizona, I believe it's something like 20mph over the limit and you would be facing prison time!

San Diego is one of the best places in CA, so many people miss it which is such a shame. We had 4 nights there on our first trip and then made sure we went back last year so had another 5 nights.

I've got a week in Seattle in October but have decided to pop up to Vancouver again for 2 nights as soon as we land, leaving us 5 nights in Seattle.

uncle_rufus · 27 Jun 2017 at 08:51

I'm still reading guys and taking notes - thanks very much! We hadn't considered San Diego but I'm not sure if we can easily stretch our time to fit it in (and I'd rather go slightly less places but see more of them than be spread too thin...)

Peerzy · 27 Jun 2017 at 09:02

uncle_rufus said:
I'm still reading guys and taking notes - thanks very much! We hadn't considered San Diego but I'm not sure if we can easily stretch our time to fit it in (and I'd rather go slightly less places but see more of them than be spread too thin...)

It's a shame, you don't have enough time really but personally for us it is the best city in CA (and so far the best city we've visited in the USA). I don't think it's worth trying to fit it into your plan though as it'll make everything too rushed.

FishFluff · 27 Jun 2017 at 12:18

weringo said:
There was a USB port but I couldn't see any headphone jacks. If you have an iPhone you can connect via USB and play music via iTunes. It also had Bluetooth stereo which is what we used for most of the trip.

Excellent!

You've also just persuaded me on whether to stay in Monterey or Carmel. We were kind of on the fence about it.

b0rn2sk8 · 27 Jun 2017 at 19:47

FishFluff said:
Excellent!

You've also just persuaded me on whether to stay in Monterey or Carmel. We were kind of on the fence about it.

I don't really think it matters that much there within minutes of each other. They are both very small towns and were very quiet when we visited on a Thursday. Carmel is much more up-market but the as are the prices. I can't really say there is a whole lot going on late into the evening. Just pick a hotel you like in budget

We stayed here: http://www.hotelabrego.com/ Decent hotel that wasnt too expensive and well within walking distance of the aquarium. Would stay there again.

Phemo · 28 Jun 2017 at 15:15

weringo said:
There was a USB port but I couldn't see any headphone jacks. If you have an iPhone you can connect via USB and play music via iTunes. It also had Bluetooth stereo which is what we used for most of the trip.

Yep, also the one I hired back in April supported Apple CarPlay which came in handy as Apple Maps seemed to actually be pretty decent over there.

uncle_rufus · 29 Jun 2017 at 10:49

Okay, since the discussions on here we've been contemplating the leg of our trip which goes down the coast itself (SF -> Monterey -> Santa Barbera -> LA)... and thinking since it seems pretty likely that we won't be able to drive the most iconic section of HW1 due to the landslides etc. perhaps we should rework that part entirely (and someday in the future if/when we return to the west coast can hopefully do the ocean road properly)...

So potentially instead of that part we were thinking about dropping Santa Barbera (where we planned to drive to from Monterey for 1 night then head onto LA) and instead head back East from Monterey to the Sequoia National Park for 1 night, and then head from there to LA the following day. This makes the trip slightly longer as previously we had Montery -> Santa Barbera at ~4hrs then Santa Barbera to LA was ~2hrs... Heading to Sequoia is ~4hrs but then the trip from there to LA is another ~4hrs but that's okay, and I think we both agreed that we would love to see the giant forest, General Sherman etc.

What do you guys think? Anybody been that way?

Peerzy · 29 Jun 2017 at 11:13

I didn't go that way, but Santa Barbara was a great place. We had 2 nights there and found it really nice and relaxing.

weringo · 29 Jun 2017 at 19:25

Don't know about the forest but I agree Santa Barbara was probably our favourite town we visited. We did Carmel > San Luis > Santa Barbara and if I was to plan it again I would skip San Luis and drive straight to Santa Barbara for two nights.

Of course you could do Santa Barbara another time if you plan on revisiting at some point when you can drive the PCH properly.

uncle_rufus · 29 Jun 2017 at 22:39

Yeah that's sort of what we were thinking - I can't shake the feeling that although I'm sure it would still be nice something about not actually experiencing the drive down the coast would make it always feel like we didn't really experience that area properly, and it'll for sure give us a good reason to go back. I expect the next time we visit California we won't necessarily want to try and do a big road trip loop seeing so many places, and would be more likely to want to spend a bit longer in wherever we liked the best as well as seeing some parts we missed out on this time...

FishFluff · 1 Jul 2017 at 09:49

uncle_rufus said:
Yeah that's sort of what we were thinking - I can't shake the feeling that although I'm sure it would still be nice something about not actually experiencing the drive down the coast would make it always feel like we didn't really experience that area properly, and it'll for sure give us a good reason to go back. I expect the next time we visit California we won't necessarily want to try and do a big road trip loop seeing so many places, and would be more likely to want to spend a bit longer in wherever we liked the best as well as seeing some parts we missed out on this time...

My girlfriend and I are pretty bummed about the road closure too. Our plan is to do as much of it as we can, then we'll do another trip in a few years time and drive down the coast from Canada since we'll have already done all the in-land stuff like Vegas, Yosemite, Grand Canyon etc on this trip.

Roland Butter · 1 Jul 2017 at 21:53

I didn't mind the PCH being restricted this May as I had done most of it in the past.

I do regret arriving too early, the Yosemite passes and ghost town Bodie access road still being closed due to the snow. However the Donner Pass road was open and a fine detour on the journey back west to SF.

Roland Butter · 1 Jul 2017 at 21:54

delete

uncle_rufus · 2 Jul 2017 at 10:47

FishFluff said:
My girlfriend and I are pretty bummed about the road closure too. Our plan is to do as much of it as we can, then we'll do another trip in a few years time and drive down the coast from Canada since we'll have already done all the in-land stuff like Vegas, Yosemite, Grand Canyon etc on this trip.

It's funny you say that as we were looking through a trail-blazers brochure yesterday and said almost exactly the same thing (although Canada might be a bit too far for us... we were thinking perhaps starting in Seattle and finishing in San Diego, which we're also not going to get to this time but people keep telling us is worth a visit)

Peerzy · 2 Jul 2017 at 19:53

Seattle and Vancouver are both brilliant, you also have Portland on route which was an enjoyable visit.

FishFluff · 17 Jul 2017 at 12:54

Does anyone know of a car hire company in the US who will let someone drive a car with less than a year on their licence? My partner passed her test in January this year and we were hoping to have her do some of the driving for our trip in September, but after reading the fine print for the company we've booked with (Alamo) it seems that they're not going to allow this.

[TW]Fox · 17 Jul 2017 at 13:03

Very few rental firms anywhere in the world allow that.

OllyM · 17 Jul 2017 at 13:32

FishFluff said:
Does anyone know of a car hire company in the US who will let someone drive a car with less than a year on their licence? My partner passed her test in January this year and we were hoping to have her do some of the driving for our trip in September, but after reading the fine print for the company we've booked with (Alamo) it seems that they're not going to allow this.

I'm not sure any of the US rental companies actually have a restriction on how long you've had a license - Alamo's US website makes no mention of it, neither does Hertz.

I doubt the staff working behind the counter would even know that a UK license shows when you passed your test - for example my NJ license only has an issue date for the actual card, there's no mention of when I passed a test.

FishFluff · 17 Jul 2017 at 14:35

Here's the wording from the actual rental agreement:

License and Document Requirements

All drivers must have a valid driver licence in effect at least one year (or more according to the renting country and the car category) prior to the rental start date and present it at the rental counter at the commencement of the rental. A valid major credit card must also be presented at time of rental

That seems vague to me so I've emailed them to clarify. You could infer from that that a provisional licence was a 'Valid driver licence' if you were trying hard enough.

Even if the desk staff didn't check my partners licence, I imagine we'd be totally screwed in the event of an accident if we've knowingly ignored this term of the agreement.