Road Tripping in the USA!

LA is a difficult one to get the most out of. It is a driving city, which to most is a very difficult concept to really get until you live here. There are very few places where you could do the equivalent of a pub/bar crawl because nothing is close to anything else. It is very easy to end up in the LA equivalent of Croydon and then judge the entire area on this experience "I've been to Thornton Heath so London is a ****hole".

Los Angeles is a City and a County and the two constantly get conflated. What would you be wanting to see in LA? There is an amazing brewing/arts district, there are some hidden away world class restaurants, the science museum has the Endeavour space shuttle which is just fantastic to go see. Santa Monica pier is sadly mostly a tourist trap now, but if you want a more local vibe head to the center of Culver City or Manhattan Beach. If wine is more your thing head to the Malibu Hills, there are a couple of wineries where you just end up spending the day in the mountains.

If touring a movie studio tickles your fancy, Warner Bros do the best that is open to the public and genuinely interesting.

The new Star Wars rides at Disney Land are freaking amazing but come at a hefty $$$.

The only reason to go to Hollywood Blvd, Chinese theatre etc. is to say you have been, it is a ****hole of the highest order. There are hidden nightlife gems very close to there, but you need a local guide to make the most of it. I personally love going into speakeasies, Good Time at Davey Waynes is right there.

If getting up close and personal with the Hollywood sign is your thing, there is a road path that takes you super close, the locals hate it though...

The list goes on :) If you head this way let me know what you are interested in and I am happy to point in the right direction. Don't be put off by people stating anything is a ****hole.
 
wildest_jjk said:
Hi all,

For a while now I’ve been thinking about visiting the west coast of the US but would like to get around a bit whilst I’m there. The plan is to also take my parents as they haven’t been to that part of the US either.

Particular areas of interest would be the usual sorts of places including San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Death Valley and potentially others I might have missed... I’ve seen other posts on here regarding road tripping which I hadn’t considered before. So really I have a few questions and it would be very helpful to get some advice from those who might have visited these locations as part of the same holiday.
  • Would the most sensible option be to travel by car to all of these locations or would I take some internal flights?
  • If I would be driving to all locations what percentage of time would be spent driving over the course of the holiday? I would have to consider how my parents would feel about this as I’m not sure they would want to be cooped up in a car for 75% of a holiday!
  • Are these locations viable to visit in say two weeks? Would I need longer?
  • Does anyone have any similar plans from trips they have been on in the past?
  • For peace of mind I think hotels would have to be booked in advance, what’s typically the best way of doing this i.e. Comparison sites or direct?
  • What sort of price would I be looking at say per person? I have absolutely no idea!
  • What would be the recommended time of the year? Would March work in terms of weather etc?
As mentioned any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
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  • Drive - by the time you mess around trying to take an internal flight, you’ll be there in the car.
  • It will be about 2200 miles to cover all those cities in a loop (most do this and start in LA). Over 18 days that’s only 125 miles a day. The biggest leg is between Las Vegas through Death Valley and up to a suitable stopping point on the way to Yosemite. If you need to go the long way (see below) it’s 8 hours driving but you’ll be stopping all the time in the park so it doesn’t feel like 8 hours driving. If the Tioga pass is open it’s about 6 hours. You’ll want to get as close to Yosemite as you can in the evening, You’ll want to get to Yosemite as early as you can to make the most of the light.
  • No you will need longer to cover all that, 18 days minimum IMO.
  • Yes - read this thread from the start. Trust me it’s well worth it.
  • I booked in advance, it was a fairly well planned trip so there was no issues with this. I did a mixture of direct/travel agent/comparison sites/booking sites like Expedia, who ever had the best deal. You need to be careful about picking hotels with reasonably priced parking, particularly in SF.
  • I targeted about £100/night for a hotel room. Some were more some were less. SF is incredibly expensive for why you get. Flights are £400-600 each and hire car will vary depending on what you want. I’d suggest getting at least a full size or premium as there is more than 2 of you.
  • Depending on the time of year you go changes the route between Yosemite and Death Valley significantly. During ‘winter’ the mountain pass is closed and you have to go south to go around the Sierra Nevada mountains instead of over. Google Tioga pass, it typically opens in May and Closes again in September when the snow comes.
Just to add, there is no such thing as a cheap hotel room in California. No real equivalent to a Premier Inn for £30-60 a night. You will be paying central London prices in a lot of places. Make the most of not staying in ‘downtown’ locations where you can, especially if you have a car. Vegas is the exception, stay on the strip. Out of SD, LA and SF, SD is the best IMO. 2 days in each is enough, spend the rest of your time exploring the landscapes, and smaller towns and 2-3 days in Vegas IMO.

If you going to the Hoover Dam you can do this from Vegas no problem, get there for opening to have a chance of doing the extended tour, it’s first come first served. Once you have done that there is a really nice drive around lake mead and up to the valley of fire. And then back to Vegas. Lots of places to stop and take in the wilderness. It’s such a contrast to anything you’ll see here. You’ll have to pay to get into the national parks (2 on this route) but it’s only a few bucks and well worth it.
 
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wildest_jjk said:
Hi all,

For a while now I’ve been thinking about visiting the west coast of the US but would like to get around a bit whilst I’m there. The plan is to also take my parents as they haven’t been to that part of the US either.

Particular areas of interest would be the usual sorts of places including San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Death Valley and potentially others I might have missed... I’ve seen other posts on here regarding road tripping which I hadn’t considered before. So really I have a few questions and it would be very helpful to get some advice from those who might have visited these locations as part of the same holiday.
  • Would the most sensible option be to travel by car to all of these locations or would I take some internal flights?
  • If I would be driving to all locations what percentage of time would be spent driving over the course of the holiday? I would have to consider how my parents would feel about this as I’m not sure they would want to be cooped up in a car for 75% of a holiday!
  • Are these locations viable to visit in say two weeks? Would I need longer?
  • Does anyone have any similar plans from trips they have been on in the past?
  • For peace of mind I think hotels would have to be booked in advance, what’s typically the best way of doing this i.e. Comparison sites or direct?
  • What sort of price would I be looking at say per person? I have absolutely no idea!
  • What would be the recommended time of the year? Would March work in terms of weather etc?
As mentioned any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

We did something pretty similar to what you described for our honeymoon. I was actually in the process of doing a fairly (perhaps too) comprehensive writeup on the post I made about it, although as tends to happen life + work picked back up again a bit after I got back so I haven't had time to finish the tail end of it (perhaps this is the reminder I needed to get back to it!) Here is the post if you're interested: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...s-op-updated-11-08-19-final-version.18858993/ (the first post was me planning it and the second post is the writeup)
 
Hey guys. I won a competition at work for 4 nights at the Four Seasons on the island of Nevis. As part of the deal they've allowed me to organise a lay over in Miami on the way out. So I've got 4 nights in Miami Jan 25th - Jan 29th.
I'm going to do some typical tourist things there but I really want to go to the Kennedy Space Centre which is about a 3.5 hour drive. I don't like to travel, and never had any interest in going to the US. The only reason I'm going is the free flights and stay in Nevis. With that in mind, I am unlikely to ever go again, so I want to make the most of us.

How practical is it to rent something like a convertible V8 Mustang for the 4 days, and use it to drive up the Kennedy Space Centre on one of the days? Sixt is stating roughly £210 for 4 days. Surely that can't be right? Has anyone got any practical advice on car rental in Miami, and practicalities of doing a round trip to the space centre in one day?

Cheers!!
 
Are you sure that’s not the regular mustang (V6/4 cylinder turbo). £35-£50 a day seems about right for that.

V8 is normally way more.

In terms of the practicalities, there isn’t anything special to think about. Hire the car, get in it and drive on the correct side of the road. Pretty much everything else is the same.

Just make sure you hire a car with a $0 damage waiver or get separate excess insurance. Get a Three or local sim and use google maps/Waze.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Are you sure that’s not the regular mustang (V6/4 cylinder turbo). £35-£50 a day seems about right for that.

V8 is normally way more.

In terms of the practicalities, there isn’t anything special to think about. Hire the car, get in it and drive on the correct side of the road. Pretty much everything else is the same.

Just make sure you hire a car with a $0 damage waiver or get separate excess insurance. Get a Three or local sim and use google maps/Waze.
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Thanks, that's helpful. I've hired a car in Mallorca before but I didn't know if there were many additional hoops in the US or paperwork required etc. And thankfully I'm on Three so that solves any potential data\network issues.

I double checked as some sites were offering the ecoboost engine (the 2.3l from the Focus) but the V8 isn't actually priced that much more. £40 per day for the standard Mustang (assume the ecoboost) and £58 a day for the GT (and GT denotes the V8 in the UK, it's the same in the US right?). I guess Mustangs are just that common in the US the pricing isn't particularly premium. Result.

Any recommendations on hire car companies? That quote is from Sixt who after a quick check have shocking Trustpilot scores!
 
Murf said:
Just seems dirt cheap. Are there usually a load of add ons that you need to buy or bolt on insurance it's essentially mandatory that you purchase? If not, great!
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The Mustang is a cheap car and 50 quid a day is expensive for car rental. I've paid less than that for a $100k AUD Audi Q7 in the past.

So 210 seems fine, if anything I would be disappointed to pay 200 quid for a car for only 4 days and get a Mustang.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
In terms of the practicalities, there isn’t anything special to think about. Hire the car, get in it and drive on the correct side of the road. Pretty much everything else is the same.
Click to expand...

Couple of random stupid things that *might* be worth knowing (based on my own experience):

At their petrol (gas :p) stations you typically will have to go inside and pay for your petrol in advance (unlike here) - go in and state how much you want e.g. $40 or something - you'll have to guess the first time you fill up then adjust based on that. If you don't use the full amount you asked for it gets refunded to your card (if you paid by card) automatically (or if you paid in cash you'll have to go in again before leaving to collect your change)

We were also briefly confused about which petrol to use - regular stations tend to not have diesel at all (at least all the ones we went to didn't) and instead have something like 3 different grades of petrol - they aren't labelled as "Unleaded" and "Super Unleaded" like ours but are done as something like 87 89 and 93 (the grade of the fuel) - we just went with 87 but might be worth double checking when you pickup the car if they want you to use one of the higher grades

Other than that I agree that it's all pretty straightforward - the only 2 things to know in terms of the driving are the "right turn or red" thing and the fact that if a School Bus is stopping to pickup/dropoff kids anywhere near to you (on either side of the road) you need to stop completely until it pulls away again
 
[TW]Fox said:
The Mustang is a cheap car and 50 quid a day is expensive for car rental. I've paid less than that for a $100k AUD Audi Q7 in the past.

So 210 seems fine, if anything I would be disappointed to pay 200 quid for a car for only 4 days and get a Mustang.
Click to expand...

V8 muscle car. Once in a lifetime opportunity to drive one in the US. I've wasted a lot more on a lot less so I can live with that price. :)

uncle_rufus said:
Couple of random stupid things that *might* be worth knowing (based on my own experience):

At their petrol (gas :p) stations you typically will have to go inside and pay for your petrol in advance (unlike here) - go in and state how much you want e.g. $40 or something - you'll have to guess the first time you fill up then adjust based on that. If you don't use the full amount you asked for it gets refunded to your card (if you paid by card) automatically (or if you paid in cash you'll have to go in again before leaving to collect your change)

We were also briefly confused about which petrol to use - regular stations tend to not have diesel at all (at least all the ones we went to didn't) and instead have something like 3 different grades of petrol - they aren't labelled as "Unleaded" and "Super Unleaded" like ours but are done as something like 87 89 and 93 (the grade of the fuel) - we just went with 87 but might be worth double checking when you pickup the car if they want you to use one of the higher grades

Other than that I agree that it's all pretty straightforward - the only 2 things to know in terms of the driving are the "right turn or red" thing and the fact that if a School Bus is stopping to pickup/dropoff kids anywhere near to you (on either side of the road) you need to stop completely until it pulls away again
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All useful advice. I'll check their equivalent of the highway code before I travel. I was aware about the stop signs and turning right but not the school bus thing. The fuel station prepayment sounds like a massive faff but hey ho. :)
 
Most fuel pumps I have stopped at had pay at pump but they don’t work with foreign cards so don’t bother trying (you need to enter your US zip (post) code tied to your card which of course you don’t have).
 
As said, I suspect that price for the Mustang will be for a V6. I paid an extra $15 per day with Avis to upgrade to the V8, thought it was a no brainer ;)
 
uncle_rufus said:
Couple of random stupid things that *might* be worth knowing (based on my own experience):

At their petrol (gas :p) stations you typically will have to go inside and pay for your petrol in advance (unlike here) - go in and state how much you want e.g. $40 or something - you'll have to guess the first time you fill up then adjust based on that. If you don't use the full amount you asked for it gets refunded to your card (if you paid by card) automatically (or if you paid in cash you'll have to go in again before leaving to collect your change)

We were also briefly confused about which petrol to use - regular stations tend to not have diesel at all (at least all the ones we went to didn't) and instead have something like 3 different grades of petrol - they aren't labelled as "Unleaded" and "Super Unleaded" like ours but are done as something like 87 89 and 93 (the grade of the fuel) - we just went with 87 but might be worth double checking when you pickup the car if they want you to use one of the higher grades

Other than that I agree that it's all pretty straightforward - the only 2 things to know in terms of the driving are the "right turn or red" thing and the fact that if a School Bus is stopping to pickup/dropoff kids anywhere near to you (on either side of the road) you need to stop completely until it pulls away again
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fact that if a School Bus is stopping to pickup/dropoff kids anywhere near to you (on either side of the road) you need to stop completely until it pulls away again

Yes and no, if there's a 4+ foot wide raised median you don't need to stop on the other side.

Also, green light does not automatically mean you can turn right, pedestrians may be crossing. Green arrow you're good to go.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Most fuel pumps I have stopped at had pay at pump but they don’t work with foreign cards so don’t bother trying (you need to enter your US zip (post) code tied to your card which of course you don’t have).
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If you have a UK Amex card they will work at US pay at pumps if you enter the numbers from your postcode and pad it out to 5 digits with zeroes. They all have foreign transaction fees so it’s not ideal but worth paying for the convenience.

uncle_rufus said:
We were also briefly confused about which petrol to use - regular stations tend to not have diesel at all (at least all the ones we went to didn't) and instead have something like 3 different grades of petrol - they aren't labelled as "Unleaded" and "Super Unleaded" like ours but are done as something like 87 89 and 93 (the grade of the fuel) - we just went with 87 but might be worth double checking when you pickup the car if they want you to use one of the higher grades
Click to expand...

The big rental companies will not care at all, the employees fill all the returns with regular so I’d suggest doing the same unless it’s a Ferrari or AMG Mercedes.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Most fuel pumps I have stopped at had pay at pump but they don’t work with foreign cards so don’t bother trying (you need to enter your US zip (post) code tied to your card which of course you don’t have).
Click to expand...

All the ones I’ve ever tried work with both my UK Halifax Clarity and a Canadian credit card.

I‘ve rarely ever had to put in a zip code but if I do just put in the 2 numbers of your post code with three 0s and should work.

edit: And I’ve never had a foreign transaction fee either... It’s always US dollars charged to my card (both with free foreign transactions).

And prepare to get people amazed at chip and pin. Perhaps not in Florida, but there’s a fair chunk of the US that it’s still a novelty!
 
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