Road Tripping in the USA!

I would consider $1k+ to rent a car purely because of age a bit rubbish, really.

It's just paying money out for nothing and would annoy me greatly.

Mind you I paid a stupid $250 AU one way charge on a crappy camper van in Australia so I guess it's the same sort of thing/

Fun collection is a waste of money, just book the normal convertible class which is named 'Mustang or Sebring Convertible or Similar' and just ask for a Mustang. Thats what I did. Half the price.
 
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I've not looked into it properly, I've got 11 days off just after Easter and when the royal wedding is so my trip would be a different time of year and slightly shorted. $400 is a lot extra but in the grand scheme of the holiday, how expensive everything in total will be and the fact the only other option is wait 4 years where I might not be in the position to do it I'm considering it.
 
It's a long way to fly and there is SO much to see - don't rush it. Make sure you've got at least a full 14 days on the ground in the USA excluding flight time.

You don't want to rush.

Hertz have a sale at the moment, I just got a quote of £330 for a Mustang for 2 weeks in March :eek:

Vehicle Subtotal 339.26 GBP

Mind you you realise if you go in April there is snow in Yosemite Park and Tioga Pass etc is closed?
 
I'm not settled on a location yet. Driving America in a Mustang is the dream but that's why I was asking/considering other places if it makes more sense to do them now and USA when I'm older.

[TW]Fox;18188366 said:
Mind you you realise if you go in April there is snow in Yosemite Park and Tioga Pass etc is closed?
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Nope :)

Never done a road trip before and have only really started thinking about it in the last few weeks.
 
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[TW]Fox;18187291 said:
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.
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I assume there was a good reason for staying in Ventura over Santa Barbara? :p

It's the only place that stands out as a bit of 'eh?' in that list, I may be biased of course but I think SB is a pretty nice place to spend the evening :p
 
September would be a great time to go like monsieur Fox.

I was over there from the 2nd week in October and LA was glorious but the weather varied madly. Drove into Vegas whilst it was a storm, had hail one night, sun the rest of the days. Then Death valley was nigh on 30 with Tioga Pass the following day just above freezing.

Rich_L said:
I assume there was a good reason for staying in Ventura over Santa Barbara? :p

It's the only place that stands out in that list, it might be $20-30 more expensive in SB but about a billion times nicer :p
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SB is amazing, wish we stayed there instead of Pismo Beach. But the drive from San Fran was lond enough along the PCH.

But SB did have it's own mental micro climate of glorious sunshine, awesome people, and just plain WANT to live there!
 
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Rich_L said:
I assume there was a good reason for staying in Ventura over Santa Barbara? :p

It's the only place that stands out as a bit of 'eh?' in that list, I may be biased of course but I think SB is a pretty nice place to spend the evening :p
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Yea it was cheaper and was only an overnight stop :)
 
[TW]Fox;18184093 said:
Just seems like an interesting way of combining New York and Canada. You've got go past Toronto to get to Montreal so its worth a stopover?
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I'd say Toronto is worth a visit for a couple of nights. Niagara is defo worth it and only about 1 hours drive from Toronto.

You going to drive from NY to Toronto? IIRC it is around 10 hours. Toronto to Montreal is around 6 hours IIRC. You can get to Ottawa in around 1.5 hours from Montreal.
 
Can I ask whether you think 4 or 5 days would be sufficient to go from LA out to Vegas, and up the pacific highway with adequate time to see things?

Im going to LA with my daughter and friend in July for the Anime Expo, I have to stay 3 days with her in LA for the expo, then she is going to stay with her friend for 5 days while we do a mini road trip. We could extend it to a week, your itinery looks pretty good, giving San Diego a miss (Ive previously been there). We would love to fit SF into it too, but will leave this out if we dont have enough time.
 
Metalface Mark said:
Can I ask whether you think 4 or 5 days would be sufficient to go from LA out to Vegas, and up the pacific highway with adequate time to see things?

Im going to LA with my daughter and friend in July for the Anime Expo, I have to stay 3 days with her in LA for the expo, then she is going to stay with her friend for 5 days while we do a mini road trip. We could extend it to a week, your itinery looks pretty good, giving San Diego a miss (Ive previously been there). We would love to fit SF into it too, but will leave this out if we dont have enough time.
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LA to Vegas is one day pretty much. A day in Vegas. Another day to Santa Barbara. Then a day to get up to Monterary and do the PCH. Then another day to get back to LA but via the freeway or something.

It'll be tight and involve probably two full days where you do nothing but drive but you might just make it provided you only have nights and one day in Vegas.

Personally given how lame Anime is I'd junk the convention and go road tripping :D
 
Raider said:
If I could pay a little extra and guarantee a Mustang I would! However doesn't seem to be an option on Hertz in September when I want to go :(
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Book a 'Mustang or Sebring or Similar' - this is the standard convertible. Then when you get there ask them for a Mustang.
 
[TW]Fox;18220647 said:
LA to Vegas is one day pretty much. A day in Vegas. Another day to Santa Barbara. Then a day to get up to Monterary and do the PCH. Then another day to get back to LA but via the freeway or something.

It'll be tight and involve probably two full days where you do nothing but drive but you might just make it provided you only have nights and one day in Vegas.

Personally given how lame Anime is I'd junk the convention and go road tripping :D
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Im all booked up now. Ten days, 4 in central LA for the convention, which myself and my youngest daughter will just do water parks and disney and such like while my eldest is at the convention with her pals. The first 6 days my eldest is staying with her pals, so myself and my 15 year old will be touring around.

Can I ask where you booked the mustang? Ive booked the flights and the hotel for central LA for the last 4 nights, other than that, after dumping child 1 I plan on getting out the city on the first night since ill be in it enough at the end of the trip.
 
rG-tom said:
What time of year was it again? the accomodation in particular is brilliant value! It was $400 for one night at the hotel we stayed at in miami beach and there wasnt THAT much of a saving to be made unless we moved away from collins avenue and into mainland miami (big no no), and we were thoroughly off peak (first week of march)
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Miami in March !!!! That's why you paid so much.. Off season for you? Not for Miami.. Spring Break and also the absolute peak season for there! Did you not notice the many scantily clad women roaming around everywhere?
 
Excellent post by the way. Being a big fan of road trips myself. Made me smile cos I done a very similar trip AND went to Laguna. Same deal as you, I asked the guy at the gate, any chance I can come in to have a snoop, I've driven all the way from England to visit this place.. And he said sure come on in !

I've done a CA road trip similar to yours. AZ / Nevada Road Trip, Florida Road Trip, Georgia, Alabama, Missisippi & Tennessee road trip, and of course a European Road Trip. oh and a France only road trip. But I think the CA road trip was my most memorable.
 
Awesome post! I have to say if you have never done a road trip across the states then do it! I will need to do a write up of the route plan etc in detail at a later stage.

April 2010 a friend and I flew to New York to stay with a friend for a couple of days then the road trip began driving all the way to LA doing a horse shoe route down south. Furtherst point South was Dallas where we picked up two more friends who flew in later on to finish off the rest of the road trip to LA.

In total we drove 4652 miles in 3 weeks in a Chrysler Sebring convertible.

Best experince of my life and constantly looking at pictures and videos!

DO IT!!
 
Some very Michael Mann style shots there Fox.

Excellent thread. Death Valley and San Francisco are the two best places I have been to for natural beauty and vibrant city life.

I remember parking in DV and walking about half a mile into the desert where it was eerily quite, almost dream like.
 
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