Road Tripping in the USA!

tsinc80697 said:
Anywhere that stood out that you went to? Thinking of 2 days in each place excluding Orlando.
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The keys are stunning and Tampa was nice but I cannot say I am in a rush to return to Florida. It's just not got anything like as much variety and interest as much of the rest of the USA.
 
[TW]Fox;24209552 said:
Sure - Bishop was tricky as its basically in the middle of nowhere so I ended up at a Ramada Motel. Then drove to Yosemite and then out of Yosemite staying oernight in a larger town called Modesto.



300bhp.
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Thanks. In that case, would you recommend somewhere other than Bishop or is it fine for a night?
 
It did the job - you'll get there late after Death Valley and leave there early for Yosemite so as long as the accomodation is clean and safe its no big deal.

You could try Mammoth Lakes, too.
 
tsinc80697 said:
I'm sure I'll be in and out of this thread over the coming months; just booked 3 weeks in Florida at the start of September, and a convertible obviously. Hoping for a Mustang as even with a crap gearbox it just has to be done!

Has anyone taken a road trip around Florida? Thinking of Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Key West, Key Largo, Naples, Tampa then back to Orlando. Only a paltry 1000 miles but looking forward to it already.
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Sept is not an ideal month for FL, its still very hot and humid, with afternoon showers every afternoon. Sept has 10inches of rain, and its the month that you're most likely to be hit by a hurricane or tropical storm. Oct, still hot, but the humidity starts dropping, and you only get 2" of rain.. November is probably the best month to delay things too, if you can. With it being the month with the most cloud free days. Actually it stays beautiful from Nov all the way till June, which is when the rainy season starts again. That being said, mornings are still perfect. My recommendation is Naples, Marco Island Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, Captiva. St Pete's and Tampa are ok, but the best of the west coast, and some may argue of entire FL, is Naples. On the East coast, the keys, Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach, West Palm Beach, St Augustine, and the Space Coast (though there's not much other than Kennedy Space Center on the space coast) It's all very flat, with boring straight roads.. Well boring if you go down the wrong ones.. Stick to the ones that run along the coast, and there's a lot to see. Stop off at the beaches, rent a kayak for the inland rivers or a boat for the Gulf Coast. I'd try and focus on certain area's rather than cramming too much in all at once, and don't just pass a town through its main artery and say you've been there. You need to break off from say the US41, to see a town in all its beauty.
 
To be honest unless you are desperate to see Disney and friends and theme park it up in Orlando, don't bother with Florida. Parts of it are nice - as I said the Keys are fantastic - but not enough of it is good enough to mean its a better destination than many other parts of the USA.

Also I can't think of a worse transat flight than anything into Orlando :p
 
[TW]Fox;24213021 said:
To be honest unless you are desperate to see Disney and friends and theme park it up in Orlando, don't bother with Florida. Parts of it are nice - as I said the Keys are fantastic - but not enough of it is good enough to mean its a better destination than many other parts of the USA.

Also I can't think of a worse transat flight than anything into Orlando :p
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I beg to differ. In terms of driving, yes its not the best, but it has the best beaches, boating, fishing, bars, restaurants, relaxation in the whole of the USA. I look forward to my own 70 mile road trip on my motorbike every weekend. This is coming from someone who's been to a lot of places in the USA, and from someone who loves to explore when i get to somewhere new. Example, last week i was in New Jersey, next week i'm in Georgia. I hit the best parts of CA once every couple of months. Florida is most definitely not somewhere i wouldn't bother with. Not by any means.
 
It's very different living somewhere or being close enough to visit regularly, though. When you can go perhaps once a year for a few weeks you must be more chosey and for me, at least, California was just so much better.
 
We stayed in Mammoth Creek overnight when doing Las Vegas to Yosemite and can highly recommend the Mammoth Creek Inn. It's normally (in season) a skiing lodge so it had a hot tub and such for use.

Good breakfast too, the only issue we had was a little bit of shortness of breathe when sleeping due to the altitude change :)
 
[TW]Fox;24213103 said:
It's very different living somewhere or being close enough to visit regularly, though. When you can go perhaps once a year for a few weeks you must be more chosey and for me, at least, California was just so much better.
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Oh I agree California is awesome. Love the place and i've even contemplated moving out there. Since i have a job if i need it in the Monterrey area. My first ever road trip was to Florida, and at the time I was living in London suburbia and i really had a blast. Even though the first few days were a bit dodge cos i ended up in the wrong parts of Miami and it was just dirty and didn't feel very safe. However finding Naples, changed all of that. I just wouldn't write it off, that's all. You may of missed part of its beauty to say I wouldn't bother with the place.
 
Fox,

Had a look at the map you posted, San Fran to Vegas.

I assume you done a loop of some sort?

Did you just go the same way back to San Fran?

Any chance you have a full map of what you done?
 
[TW]Fox;24095881 said:
17 mile drive is indeed awesome and well worth it.

Also, Santa Cruz is nice.
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I would disagree here. 17 mile drive was somewhat overrated... I'd say head a little further South past Carmel to Point Lobos State Reserve. Amazing scenery.

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Also, Santa Cruz just reminded me of Margate... pretty dated area, nothing special although if you want a beach with arcades etc it's the places to go... If you want a nice beach, go to Carmel.
 
I just returned from my drive across the states - http://goo.gl/wrlma

Also made a small time lapse video of our first leg to New Orleans (got the rest to process! 32Gb of 2Mb photos!) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jw0fNaQLBI

A friend and I met with various friends along the way and it was an absolute blast. It would take me all day to write about the whole thing but some bullet points:

* Very friendly service industry - people bent over backwards to help us when things didn't quite go to plan.
* Hertz gave us a free upgrade so we ended up with a brand new 2013 V8 Chevy Tahoe with 1,000 miles on the clock - huge, very comfy but hardly luxurious. It had sat radio and GPS chucked in for free too. Not too bad for $1150 for 21 days.
* North east - very much like Europe in terms of scenery. Worked in NYC for 10 weeks 5 years ago so not much new here.
* South east - loved the accent, even friendlier people, New Orleans a bit of a surprise in both good and bad ways!
* Texas - Awesome state, our favourite. Austin was very very nice. Good bars, good food, good history... Want to go back.
* New Mexico - Desert. Nothing much in Roswell either. Santa Fe was cool.
* Colorado - very cool but wrong time of year. Got caught in the middle of a winter storm so was snowed in for a couple of days. Seemed like the transitional period between winter and summer so not much going on.
* Wyoming - Nothing. Couldn't head too far north to Yellowstone etc so nothing.
* Utah - Amazing scenary. Bonneville salt flats were mental - drove on them for half an hour. Strange feeling.
* Nevada - Desert. Regretted not doing UFO highway to Rachel - had time but didn't know it was so close.
* California - Is California - awesome :)

I think the stats were: 98 hours, 6000+ miles, ~300 gallons of fuel used, few accidents (drove into a rock hidden by snow ripping the bumper corner off and a Porsche Cayenne rear ended me in LA), 1 speeding warning, lots of memories.
 
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I'm just back from a Georgia road trip. Drove up from South West Florida, and ended up going to all around Georgia for business. Nothing I've not really seen before. Very much The Walking Dead type scenery. Small hick towns, people sometimes a little weird. Surprised to see LTE active in some of the smaller towns. Best part was the rental I picked up was an Infiniti G37 3.7litre V6. Thing roared when i needed it too. Great when its a rental and someone else is paying for the gas ! ;) Lots of old dusty roads to spin up those back wheels on.
 
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