Road Tripping in the USA!

Youstolemyname said:
Fox, what was this Pacific NW route mate?
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I really need to get it written up, sorry. In the meantime...

Flew to Vancouver. Straight down to Seattle in a one-way rental. Picked up my Cadillac ATS from Seattle. Few days in Seattle, went to the San Juan islands, etc.

Then back to Vancouver via Mount Baker. Few days in Vancouver. Amazing city.

Then across the mountains to Banff via Revelstoke. Used a place down the road from Banff as a base, did Icefields Parkway etc. Then round the outside of Calgary down into Montana to do Glacier National Park which has to be the best kept secret of any USA NP. Better than Yosemite.

Down to Missoula Montana for an overnight stop, next day through Montana and Idaho to Spokane, Washington. Then down to Portland Oregon. Then back up to Seattle via the Olympic Peninsula and also Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument. Also amazing.

Then another one-way to Vancouver for the flight home.

Why Vancouver and the one-ways? Car hire in Canada absolutely sucks - expensive, crap cars, limited mileage for cross border. The US rental market is massively cheaper and loads better. But flights into Vancouver are easier and cheaper than Seattle.
 
The town itself is beautiful, its well worth a stop. We didn't stay there because the accomodation there is very expensive. I stayed down the road in Oxnard I think (Just a Holiday Inn type place off the interstate).
 
£4k each? So £8k for two?

To be honest that sounds far more than sensible unless you only like staying in 5 star hotels in the centre of town and eating steak most nights after flying premium.

You could do it on £4k for two depending on the deal you get on flights!

Spending £8k sounds completely and utterly stupid if you are in a position where she'd need to save up in order to go. Thats huge money!

I paid about £3-3.5k for two for California and New York to Florida and just over £4k for the Pacific Northwest this year. I usually do just under 3 weeks and the Pacfic Northwest trip was more expensive than usual partly as a result of very expensive flights (£750 each for economy).

£8k is mental. Even if you have £8k to spend I'd still not do that, I'd rather save some and go on another trip!
 
Ahleckz said:
was factoring £75 each a day for spending money.
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What are you both going to spend £150 a day on after accomodation, fuel etc?!

You wont spend 300 quid on fuel on that route, I spent about 300 quid on fuel and drove twice as many miles.

That would take us to £5900 or so and then you've got an extra £2000 for a fancy hotel somewhere one night and a couple of nice dinners.
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An extra £2000 for a hotel 'one night' and a 'couple' of nice dinners?

What on earth?

I've been doing these trips for several years now, I've enjoyed every single one, never stay in crappy accomodation and always rent really nice cars and I honestly dont know how I'd manage to spend £8k on one. If I did I'd wonder why I wasted it all on a single trip - I could go more than twice for £8k!

£8k is what you spend when you are fabulously wealthy not when your girlfriend needs to save up and you are wondering if the trip is affordable. It's just an insane amount to blow and there is absolutely no need.

Perhaps if you spend £200 for two on a romantic meal at a high end restuarant every night but thats something rather above road tripping if you ask me.
 
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To be fair you did manage to spend 85 quid a day on a rental car :p The same car but with a V6 instead of a V8 is about 30 quid a day.

The rental firms must love that - the V8 is only about $5k more to buy yet they rent them out for up to 3 times the cost! My Cadillac ATS had a list price of some $10k more than a Camaro SS yet cost 30 quid a day to rent.

Just an example of where significant savings can be made, which for you probably wasn't worth it but Alekhz appears to be worried he can't afford to go in one breath but has some sort of bonkers-epic budget in the other?!
 
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You got taken to town by the guy on the desk, why did you allow them to con you for the fuel?! You can ALWAYS refuse fuel service option and return the car full and this is always cheaper. Plus breakdown cover? It's included as standard - they are brand new cars - they flogged you the BS 'enhanced assistance' to cover you against a load of implausible stuff you can scare tourists with.

When you book from the Hertz website in the UK, thats it - everything you need is included in the prepayment. Ignore everything they say at the desk - they are on comission, they may lie to you and you need none of it.

If you didn't book from the Hertz website in the UK then the moral is... book from the Hertz website in the UK :p

Your initial booking price sounds reasonable for one of the special collection cars too :(

Personally I think the 'normal' rental sweetspot is the Luxury Sedan class. Gives you access to cars like Cadillac ATS/XTS, Infinit's, BMW 328i, Mercedes C250, etc etc and it's usually circa £30 a day. Every surface in my ATS was leather trimmed and the 280bhp turbocharged engine does 0-60 in 6 seconds flat - perfect for a rental :D
 
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It was Vision Air - and yes it was a day trip. Left Las Vegas North Airport at 11am, back on the strip at 3pm.

Bumping this thread reminds me I've still not written up my Pacific Northwest trip yet :o
 
tlrBeta said:
Hi All,

Is there any way round the 1 way hire fees for Mustangs in California? For example, I want a Mustang for the PCH...San Fran down to LA (roughly 5 days as I'll keep the car for LA)

Also, I am thinking about skipping San Diego for an extra few days on Mauii, what are peoples opinions on San Diego?

Cheers
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There should be no one way fees between locations in California.

It might be different with those rubbish 'guaranteed Mustang' deals as they are designed to rip off British tourists but with the standard classes none of the decent rental firms will charge for one way within California.
 
Says 'Free one way fees' on all of those except the top one, which I suspect is just a mistake. I don't know of a major rental firm which charges one-way on standard vehicles within California.

If you rent a standard convertible from Alamo, Hertz etc you'd need to be unlucky to not have the choice of a Mustang.
 
tlrBeta said:
Thanks Fox, I guess I'll use carhire3000 as it seems to be the one with no one-way fees and says Hertz & Dollar used.
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Netflights.com and uscarhire.com will also offer you fully inclusive packages too, so pick the cheapest one. You can book direct with hertz if you want to use Hertz, the prices on the UK website are totally inclusive of all insurance and there is usually a 10% off code floating around.

My flights are looking at around £1,100 each right now - thats with BA and AA.
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Insane amount of money to spend on economy flights to the West Coast. Are you going in August or something? Pick a different month. Also, don't book until there is a widespread sale on of which there will be several between now and next summer. I paid £470 return to Los Angeles with Virgin Atlantic.
 
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