Road Tripping in the USA!

September.

The only time we stayed in places that where a bit meh was when the town was literally so small that better places didnt really exist. ie, whilst I didnt go bonkers and stay in 5 star places in the middle of SF, I didnt stay in crap places either :)

Infact accomodation wise..

LA: Holiday Inn LAX
San Diego: Holiday Inn x 3 nights
Las Vegas: Planet Hollywood x 3 nights
Bishop, CA: Ramada Motel
Modesto, CA: Best Western
San Francisco: Marriot x 2 nights
Monteray: Super8 Motel
Morro Bay: Roadway Inn (This was the crappest)
Ventura, CA: La Quinta Suites
Los Angeles: Candlewood Suites by Holiday Inn.
 
Virgin did a similar fly drive, cost us around £3-3.5k was a good honeymoon. LA is certainly a dive.

Yosemite was the highlight for me, and the wife loved Vegas!

Next it'll be a fly-drive through Canada I think :D
 
my villa worked out at £57 a night and I thought that was excellent value (to be fair it could sleep 6, had a 50" lcd a jacuzzi and a heated swimming pool). Biggest crippler for me was the cost of car hire because I'm u25, was £205 a week for a crappy mazda 3 / chevrolet something class car. Nearly half of that was purely because of my age though :(

Tom.
 
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RockLobster said:
Fox how do you manage it? I paid 100 odd quid for a crap hole in San Fran. Was you there in the week?
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http://www.marinamotel.com/ - Would take it over the place Fox stayed which was quite a way away and he had to pay for parking.

Free parking in a garage underneath the apartment. Marina district isn't near the central area but it's only a short walk to the coast and 15mins walk to the Pier 39 area. Plus that area has a street about 2 mins away with a shed load of cool restaurants/bars (Chesnut Street).

O ye, did I forget to mention FREE PARKING in a garage!!!!!!!!!
 
RockLobster said:
Fox how do you manage it? I paid 100 odd quid for a crap hole in San Fran. Was you there in the week?
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I did my homework beforehand to find out where to stay when to get the best rates. San Francisco was cheapest at weekends - so I stayed there on Saturday and Sunday evening.

Because I don't drink, I was able to stay at the Marriott in Foster City (Opposite Sony North Americas HQ!) which is 20 miles down the freeway. But this meant the centre of San Francisco was just a 20 minute drive from the hotel - and I'd found out beforehand that on Sundays, on-street parking in San Francisco was free in most distracts.

So on the Sunday I drove in, parked a block along from Lombard Street, and walked around SF for the day :)

Las Vegas was similar but reversed - in the week everything is obscenely cheap, at weekends its very expensive. So I planned the trip around being in Las Vegas midweek and San Francisco at the weekend.
 
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Thanks for the insights, doing Cali, Nevada, Arizona myself in April.

I want to rent a Mustang, I was speaking to a friends Brother who did so at a Murder Mystery party on the 2nd.
 
[TW]Fox;18187640 said:
No he didn't ;)
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Lies, I'm sure you did :p

Probably just said that most places charge. Still driving around San Fran was a nightmare but thank god for the easy right turns and grid layout. Miss a turning then just a number of rights until you are sorted :D
 
[TW]Fox;18187773 said:
Nope. Read above - free parking on Sundays.
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Skim reading fail it seems.

I remember you going on about San Fran being a must at weekends, but for us it was either Vegas at the Weekend or San Fran mid-week, San Fran was perfect mid-week. Wish we could have stayed there longer though!
 
You seem to have spent quite a lot of time looking into these road trips Fox, are there any worth doing at the age of 21/22 or would you suggest waiting till your older?

BTW great write up, would love to do it one day.
 
Hmmm, 21/22 means you are stuck with either loads more cost or crap cars.

Driving crap cars for 2500 miles is not my idea of fun.
 
To rent a car with us must be over 25 years of age, have a credit card in your own name and hold a full, clean driving licence.
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From Hertz website?

Not sure the Mustang is included in the car range where you can pay $25 a day. Even so, over my 15 day trip it would have added almost $400 to the bill!
 
I googled Hertz USA, picked LAX and selected Fun car which was Mustang or similiar. Under the age bit it said most cars cost an extra $15 a day and some of the more prestige stuff up to $25 a day.

Although $400 is a lot when you conside it's do the entire trip for $3.8k then or have to wait 4 years maybe it's worth it?
 
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