Road Tripping in the USA!
- Thread starter [TW]Fox
- Start date
The infotainment system in this car is terrible - can’t seem to remember either of our phones over Bluetooth every time we start it up, and despite me deleting the previously stored devices, they reappear when we start it up too!
usb works but takes a while to to initialise, and you have to remember to set it up before moving otherwise making any new connection over usb or Bluetooth isn’t possible until you’re stationary!!
usb works but takes a while to to initialise, and you have to remember to set it up before moving otherwise making any new connection over usb or Bluetooth isn’t possible until you’re stationary!!
Soldato
Not had that issue, could be Sync 2 which is poop
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Mar 2011
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Just got back from our trip, it was great! I'll do a proper write up in my other thread (the planning one)
In the end our "Nissan Maxima or equivalent" turned out to be the only car of that class they had at the Vegas car rental place (kind of surprising but whatever) it was a Chrysler 500... I'm not really a "car person" but it seemed to drive pretty well to me and was comfy, good aircon, everything seemed to work well and it fit our 3 huge cases in the trunk just fine
As for driving itself I found it to be pretty easy going and not too bad at all. Probably the worst thing was going for 3+ hour stretches on the straighter in-land roads (i.e. where you're really driving almost in a dead straight line the whole time) as with so little to do it's hard to keep concentration. The winding roads around Yosemite and the coastal road were much easier to stay focused on... Didn't do a lot of driving in the cities but only managed to screw up and get beeped at once in downtown San Francisco, so overall not bad!
The only negative really was that after handing the guy at the booth my credit card, passport, license etc. on the way out he gave me back a big stack of papers to do with the car and the gps etc. but it was only a few hours later when we stopped for lunch that we realised he hadn't given back the credit card
(fortunately my wife had a card for the account as well or we'd have been a bit stuffed - or had to drive back to get it!)
In the end our "Nissan Maxima or equivalent" turned out to be the only car of that class they had at the Vegas car rental place (kind of surprising but whatever) it was a Chrysler 500... I'm not really a "car person" but it seemed to drive pretty well to me and was comfy, good aircon, everything seemed to work well and it fit our 3 huge cases in the trunk just fine
As for driving itself I found it to be pretty easy going and not too bad at all. Probably the worst thing was going for 3+ hour stretches on the straighter in-land roads (i.e. where you're really driving almost in a dead straight line the whole time) as with so little to do it's hard to keep concentration. The winding roads around Yosemite and the coastal road were much easier to stay focused on... Didn't do a lot of driving in the cities but only managed to screw up and get beeped at once in downtown San Francisco, so overall not bad!
The only negative really was that after handing the guy at the booth my credit card, passport, license etc. on the way out he gave me back a big stack of papers to do with the car and the gps etc. but it was only a few hours later when we stopped for lunch that we realised he hadn't given back the credit card
(fortunately my wife had a card for the account as well or we'd have been a bit stuffed - or had to drive back to get it!)So within the space of 2 hours I went from not even remotely thinking about plans over Christmas to booking a flights in and out of Austin, TX for the Christmas holidays.
Me, the wife, a 4-yr-old and a 2-yr-old in Texas for 2 weeks over Xmas and NYE. Fun times
I think the wife still needs convincing though; not sure it's sunk in..
Provisionally booked a Fusion (Group E) with Avis (£0 excess - worth buying full cover with icarhireinsurance, etc?)
Anyone have any experience with Texas and/or driving over to New Orleans?
Me, the wife, a 4-yr-old and a 2-yr-old in Texas for 2 weeks over Xmas and NYE. Fun times
I think the wife still needs convincing though; not sure it's sunk in..
Provisionally booked a Fusion (Group E) with Avis (£0 excess - worth buying full cover with icarhireinsurance, etc?)
Anyone have any experience with Texas and/or driving over to New Orleans?
Soldato
So within the space of 2 hours I went from not even remotely thinking about plans over Christmas to booking a flights in and out of Austin, TX for the Christmas holidays.
Me, the wife, a 4-yr-old and a 2-yr-old in Texas for 2 weeks over Xmas and NYE. Fun times
I think the wife still needs convincing though; not sure it's sunk in..
Provisionally booked a Fusion (Group E) with Avis (£0 excess - worth buying full cover with icarhireinsurance, etc?)
Anyone have any experience with Texas and/or driving over to New Orleans?
Driven from Houston to New Orleans quite a few times, nice easy drive really. Seem to remember it taking around 5-7hrs. Parking isn’t as bad as I expected, there’s a fair bit of metered street parking, along with private garages you can pay a daily rate for.
Only thing to watch for is don’t be tempted to leave the highway to get petrol on the way - I went a few minutes off my route as Waze told me there was a garage with really cheap petrol, and found myself in an area that resembled Somalia. Seems like a lot of the poorer parts of Louisiana aren’t the greatest of places.
When you’re in New Orleans, I highly recommend getting chicken at Willie Mae’s, Gumbo at the Gumbo shop and a few cocktails at the Carousel Bar. All quite touristy but thoroughly enjoyable IMO.
Soldato
The Fusion is a decent car but be warned, you may get a hybrid (actually really good aside from the CVT 'box) which has very little boot/trunk space due to the batteries taking up quite a bit of the room for luggage and with the four of you/two young children, you'll want decent space. I was on my own and had one large case plus a camera backpack and most of the usable space was taken up with just that.
Soldato
Think I just got a good deal, 16 day rental Orlando (XCAR - Mercedes E Class, Cadillac XTS, Volvo S90) 513 quid with SIXT.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Soldato
It was weird, been scouring the net and adding countless discount codes and nothing came close to this. Click on normal SIXT webpage and it comes out at 639 quid. I just randomly clicked on another sixt link offering "best deals" and it came out at this so pretty chuffed with it, will report back with what I got to choose from.
Soldato
Also, if I get the choice of the 3 which t ogo for? i'm thinking Merc though the Volvo looks nice too.
Soldato
Yeah, good point.
Soldato
I'd probably go with the Cadillac too. The XTS is a complete barge but it'll have a V6 and probably lots of kit.
Not technically a US road trip, but we did dip into Alaska three (technically four) times on our trip round Yukon and up to the Arctic Ocean.
Stunning scenery unlike anywhere else further south, plus lots of wildlife (including bears fishing salmon). We did 3.5 weeks during August and I wish I could have stayed longer to explore more of Alaska and do some more hiking.
A little different to a west coast trip, but if you like vast wilderness and wildlife then definitely put it on your list.
We had our own car, but we saw lots of rental vehicles (and campers) around. You'd just have to be careful who you hired with as most probably wouldn't allow you to do most of the roads up there. Driving Force cars were a pretty common one on the roads.
Stunning scenery unlike anywhere else further south, plus lots of wildlife (including bears fishing salmon). We did 3.5 weeks during August and I wish I could have stayed longer to explore more of Alaska and do some more hiking.
A little different to a west coast trip, but if you like vast wilderness and wildlife then definitely put it on your list.
We had our own car, but we saw lots of rental vehicles (and campers) around. You'd just have to be careful who you hired with as most probably wouldn't allow you to do most of the roads up there. Driving Force cars were a pretty common one on the roads.
Things got a bit messy on the Dempster...
I'll try and post some more in the photo forum soon.
I'll try and post some more in the photo forum soon.
Soldato
Looks good. 
What do you guys do for data roaming when travelling to the USA? Buy a local SIM card with data roaming only like this? https://www.ultramobile.com/tourist/?icid=WMM_TMNG_PPEULTRA_AU4DD3J38PK7L3C8617764
Soldato
You're in Europe right? So not sure anyone can really comment about using your plan there which is what a lot of UK people do.
I wanted to roam in both USA and Canada so when I landed and got my hire car I headed to a local AT&T and got a prepaid sim ( https://www.att.com/buy/wireless/prepaid/select-plans ) on a $50 plan, gave me 8GB of data for a month and gave me mobile tethering too. I put the sim in a spare phone and used that for tethering my actual phone to for data when out and about (including for Waze) and then used wifi spots when visiting places.
E: I embrace the flaming from others...