Road Tripping in the USA!

So here we go again, attempt number 2:

So the downside is that we will only be able to go in August, so it will be hot as discussed above! The upside is I managed to get the new business class suites to San Diego and First on A380 from Los Angeles with my avios and ba 2-4-1, so flights should be excellent.

I have made some adjustments to my previous plan:
  • An extra night
  • Less time in cities due to the virus and heat
Each entry represents a night at that location.

San Diego
San Diego
San Diego
Las Vegas
Las Vegas
Zion (Springdale)
Zion (Springdale)
Mammoth Lakes (will be a long drive)
Mammoth Lakes
Yosemite
Yosemite
Yosemite
Yosemite
San Francisco
San Francisco
Morro Bay (or somewhere midway)
Los Angeles (Downtown)
Los Angeles (Downtown)

The only parts I am not sure about is:
Drop Mammoth for a night in Bishop and spend the other night in Zion, but concerned it will be too hot? Or add the night to Yosemite or San Fran...
Maybe drop a night in LA for somewhere else, the full day was originally for Universal, might be less likely depending on virus.

After a mixture of Natural Scenery, food and craft beer :)

Anyhow opinions welcome, I realise it all very much depends on how things are next year.
 
My initial thoughts would be to drop a day somewhere (mammoth lakes?) and insert another day on the PCH, you don’t really have enough time there. I’d stay over in Monterey and do a day in Big Sir before heading south to stay for the night.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
My initial thoughts would be to drop a day somewhere (mammoth lakes?) and insert another day on the PCH, you don’t really have enough time there. I’d stay over in Monterey and do a day in Big Sir before heading south to stay for the night.
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Nice suggestion, I will puzzle out what day to swap.
 
We’ve done numerous variations on this route, and dare I say, you can’t go wrong, but will want to go back and fill in the gaps. It’s a tight itinerary though.

We’ve done Mammoth to Springdale, and it’s fine. Great scenery most of the way (just don’t get caught in traffic around Vegas).

We’ve also taken advantage of the cheaper business/first prices over summer, so understand the trade off (plus it coincides with school holidays).

Zion is OK if you get out early ie first light, do your hikes early (Angel’s Landing!), but it does get v hot by about 12:00, so sit by the pool in the pm. It’s still v hot in Sept anyway. October is probably perfect for that part of the world, but that’s not practical for most.

You don’t say where you’re staying in Yosemite, but the hotels in Mammoth are nicer, and cheaper at that time of year. You can also go to Devils Postpile, Mono Lake and the surrounding area. The downside is that the main Valley at Yosemite is a long drive from ML (but the Tioga pass area is pretty close). It splits the driving up to do E Yosemite from Mammot, then W from the other side. Bishop has nothing of interest unless you fancy doing the Witney area or the Bristlecone forests.

Stay in Hollywood/Beverley Hills if you want to do the usual tourist stuff in LA.
 
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Seems after all is said and done COVID did my a favour in leading to a cancellation of the trip this year. We'd have flown out 10 days ago just as the horrific situation with the wild fires was ramping up :(

Got my money back from BA, going to look at rebooking for next year but tempted to go earlier so we don't fall into peak fire season.
 
Due to Covid it will probably have to be next year that we do our budget USA road trip. I'm just wondering how realistic it even is to do a budget roadtrip over there.

We spent three weeks 2 years ago going San Francisco-Pacific Highway- Los Angeles- Yosemite- San Francisco. Overall it cost about £2000 all in which was way over our budget. Now this was only 3 weeks staying in the worst hotels and buying a tent and camping supplies and staying in campsites.

We would like to do a 3 month roadtrip over there going across the country while taking the long route up and down as well. We were thinking a budget of £4000. Does this sound possible? We will try and stay in campsites as often as possible. The car is sorted as we will have our converted minivan from Canada. Last time we ate out a lot, did loads of activities etc. Do you think it's even worth it if we will be constantly counting the pennies? It's always been a dream of ours and it seems like the best time to do it while we have a car over this side of the world's
 
timmothy said:
Due to Covid it will probably have to be next year that we do our budget USA road trip. I'm just wondering how realistic it even is to do a budget roadtrip over there.

We spent three weeks 2 years ago going San Francisco-Pacific Highway- Los Angeles- Yosemite- San Francisco. Overall it cost about £2000 all in which was way over our budget. Now this was only 3 weeks staying in the worst hotels and buying a tent and camping supplies and staying in campsites.

We would like to do a 3 month roadtrip over there going across the country while taking the long route up and down as well. We were thinking a budget of £4000. Does this sound possible? We will try and stay in campsites as often as possible. The car is sorted as we will have our converted minivan from Canada. Last time we ate out a lot, did loads of activities etc. Do you think it's even worth it if we will be constantly counting the pennies? It's always been a dream of ours and it seems like the best time to do it while we have a car over this side of the world's
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We did something like that a couple of years ago. Two weeks in Cali.
Started in SF, drove down to 'almost' LA (didn't want to visit, and since visiting for work after the holiday, I'm glad we didn't. The breweries are amazing there, that's it for me)
Drove across to Death Valley
Then into Yosemite
Back into SF

Amazing holiday, we went back again the year after, but mostly stayed on the coast. We want to go again but visit King's Canyon or Sequoia National Park instead (just for variety, Yosemite was amazing as expected)

I can't remember how much we spent, but it must have been nearer £3k. Flights we're £1k for us both I think, and about £2k for hotels (averaging about £140 a night). (I didn't take note of spending money for everything else tbh!)

Accommodation/hotels is the main expense. We did spend a bit extra for nicer/convenient locations for some hotels, which puts the price up.

No that any of the above probably helps, but I guess the main thing is that we saved up purposely so we didn't have to watch the money so much when we were there. If we wanted to go out for a nice meal, we did. Even things like tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which too is amazing!), these were $50 each without blinking. All the little stuff adds up, so if you want to make the most of it, go when you can make the most of it I guess.
 
pugheaven said:
in 4 years time it's my 50th and I'm planning a massive 6 weeks tour in a massivly overpowered Jeep hahaha. Can't wait.
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Aren't all the cars over there massively overpowered? The sedan we rented would have had a 2l engine max in the UK, ours had a 4l or something crazy. Our minivan we have has a 3.8l, which is totally unnecessary.
 
Shadowness said:
We did something like that a couple of years ago. Two weeks in Cali.
Started in SF, drove down to 'almost' LA (didn't want to visit, and since visiting for work after the holiday, I'm glad we didn't. The breweries are amazing there, that's it for me)
Drove across to Death Valley
Then into Yosemite
Back into SF

Amazing holiday, we went back again the year after, but mostly stayed on the coast. We want to go again but visit King's Canyon or Sequoia National Park instead (just for variety, Yosemite was amazing as expected)

I can't remember how much we spent, but it must have been nearer £3k. Flights we're £1k for us both I think, and about £2k for hotels (averaging about £140 a night). (I didn't take note of spending money for everything else tbh!)

Accommodation/hotels is the main expense. We did spend a bit extra for nicer/convenient locations for some hotels, which puts the price up.

No that any of the above probably helps, but I guess the main thing is that we saved up purposely so we didn't have to watch the money so much when we were there. If we wanted to go out for a nice meal, we did. Even things like tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which too is amazing!), these were $50 each without blinking. All the little stuff adds up, so if you want to make the most of it, go when you can make the most of it I guess.
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It's an amazing place, it was our favourite holiday ever and we would go back year after year if we could. As we have insurance, car and are already over here we thought it would be good to do the ultimate 3 month trip.
 
I don't think there are many places on earth that can be so varied in such a relatively small area.
I mean big urban cities, small quaint costal towns, arid desserts, full of life jaw dropping national parks.....it goes on and on.
 
timmothy said:
Aren't all the cars over there massively overpowered? The sedan we rented would have had a 2l engine max in the UK, ours had a 4l or something crazy. Our minivan we have has a 3.8l, which is totally unnecessary.
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A lot of the cars from the bigger companies like Alamo etc come with the lower engine capacities in their range. Eg We’ve had a Chrysler 300 a couple of times, and they’ve been the 3.5 V6 rather than the 5.7 V8! They weren’t slow, but in a big, heavy car it’s adequate rather than fast. I also think that modern European diesels with strong midrange torque have slightly spoilt us in terms of expectations of in-gear pull.

In my experience, the “Prestige” and “Luxury” categories seem to be models with a good level of spec, but a base or mid engine. Still a nice way to get around though!
 
After my US road trip, I was grinning like a fool driving the V8 Camara that we had hired, what a great touring beast. It had unlimited mileage and was fully insured through Sixt I believe. I think we covered 1,500-2500 miles in under 2 weeks.

I want to do a US deep south music tour next, should I post about planning this in a separate thread, or this thread?
 
Well, my 50th is in 3 years time... ang I'm planning 6 weeks fly drive type holiday... probably split into 3 x 2 weeks in different areas... and thinking starting Tenessee (Nashville) way, Lousianna (New Orleans)... then Texas then doing the San Diego as well, not sure yet, but told the missus we need to start saving NOW. Anyone done the tenessee/Lousiana way? It worth doing?
 
pugheaven said:
Well, my 50th is in 3 years time... ang I'm planning 6 weeks fly drive type holiday... probably split into 3 x 2 weeks in different areas... and thinking starting Tenessee (Nashville) way, Lousianna (New Orleans)... then Texas then doing the San Diego as well, not sure yet, but told the missus we need to start saving NOW. Anyone done the tenessee/Lousiana way? It worth doing?
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I’ve been to Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee multiple times.

I actually don’t find Texas that interesting. Austin is nice and probably my favourite town in Texas. San Antonio is fun for a day or two but there’s not a lot to do, Houston and Dallas are boring (IMO) and most of the rest of the state is huge expanses of nothingness with a few little towns which all blend into one after you’ve visited a few.

New Orleans is fantastic and 100% worth a visit. Lots to do, great food, great bars and feels quite different to any other city I’ve been to in the US. The surrounding areas can be quite dodgy though - I felt more in danger in Baton Rouge than I ever have anywhere in Mexico, which should tell you all you need to know.

Nashville is great too, particularly if you’re into country music, and Memphis is worth a visit as well. The best way I can describe them is that’s how I always thought the US was before I visited it.

Not sure how you’re planning on getting to San Diego, but if you’re driving, that’s a hell of a long way from your other destinations so I’d be tempted to fly. If you have the time, it could be fun to rent a car in San Diego and do LA, Vegas, San Francisco, Napa Valley etc
 
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