Road Tripping in the USA!

Does anyone have experience with picking up from Hotels in Vegas and Dropping off at the airport? I am attending AWS Re:Invent at the end of November and will have a day to myself so I am thinking of grabbing a car for 48hrs and dropping it back at the airport before the flight home. I'm not sure what the best approach with the Hotels is? I am guessing stock will be limited and it would be good to get something decent to drive around in for a day or so. One of the hotels close to the Venetian would be most ideal, I think they have an Avis on site. The price of the one way drop seems to be pretty much zero.
 
I've dropped at LAS airport on a one way, but I think I'd picked up in Salt Lake City...

Easy airport to get to and drop off at as I recall.
 
Capt Doufos said:
Does anyone have experience with picking up from Hotels in Vegas and Dropping off at the airport? I am attending AWS Re:Invent at the end of November and will have a day to myself so I am thinking of grabbing a car for 48hrs and dropping it back at the airport before the flight home. I'm not sure what the best approach with the Hotels is? I am guessing stock will be limited and it would be good to get something decent to drive around in for a day or so. One of the hotels close to the Venetian would be most ideal, I think they have an Avis on site. The price of the one way drop seems to be pretty much zero.
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There is a dollar desk in treasure island which is almost opposite the Venetian. We hired a mustang from there and returned it in LA 3 weeks later. You should have no problem hiring something decent from there and returning it to the airport, the full range should be available.

The desk is at the back of the hotel on the way to the parking lot, you then pick up the car in the parking lot.

Try usrentacar for prices
 
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Getting excited about our trip now, leaving on Sunday morning, just a couple more days of work to get through :)

Does anyone have any general etiquette tips for driving in the US? I know most of the basics - turning right on a red is permitted on some junctions, you can pass on either side on most freeways, etc....but I always like to know about the really simple things. Is flashing other drivers a "I'm letting you through" like it is in the UK? Things like that. The guys I'm going with have driven in the US before, but it'll be a first time for me, so I'd like to know if there's any behaviour I should be used to.

Can't wait :)
 
Conscript said:
Is flashing other drivers a "I'm letting you through" like it is in the UK? Things like that.
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This doesnt tend to happen really. If you flash someone they will probably look at you a bit weird! A lot of the time people just push their way in, and it's often just accepted. If you give them enough room they will usually go for it anyway.

I've also noticed drivers moving over 4 lanes at a time to take an exit - right through a bunch of traffic! :eek:

Right turn on red is always permitted unless you see a sign saying otherwise. It's quite weird at first!

Just keep your eyes open and observe how other drivers behave.

Enjoy your trip!
 
Back from my 20 day trip to the west coast, absolutely loved it.

Car wise, it was a bit of a nightmare. We had an hour wait at LAX airport for the car hire, as they had ran out of convertibles. They began to make a first come first serve list of names for those renting. Think I got lucky as just as they handed over mine, they then had a meeting with the rest of those waiting for the mustang. I was slightly gutted I couldn't just rock up and choose from a selection of 5 or 6. I was wanting to have a sit in the Camaro to compare, and then I would have liked to pick the colour Mustang I wanted and wheels etc.

Ended up with a nice Black Mustang with the wheels and interior I wanted. But I think I preferred the grey colour.

I even heard him suggest to some that they get a taxi and come back in the morning. I would have been fuming if I had been told that.

Car wise it's no longer the V6 in the Mustang, but the ecoboost. So great on fuel, and has some power, but doesn't have the sound at all. Little things like the luminous 'Stang' that glows on the pavement when dark is cool. The remote start feature. Cruise control is abysmal. But I thought the steering and suspension was very good.

Would I hire one again? Probably not, would depend on the price. The roof down experience is cool, but sometimes it's too hot or windy or noisy to want to have it down that much.
 
rossk26 said:
Back from my 20 day trip to the west coast, absolutely loved it.

Car wise, it was a bit of a nightmare. We had an hour wait at LAX airport for the car hire, as they had ran out of convertibles. They began to make a first come first serve list of names for those renting. Think I got lucky as just as they handed over mine, they then had a meeting with the rest of those waiting for the mustang. I was slightly gutted I couldn't just rock up and choose from a selection of 5 or 6. I was wanting to have a sit in the Camaro to compare, and then I would have liked to pick the colour Mustang I wanted and wheels etc.

Ended up with a nice Black Mustang with the wheels and interior I wanted. But I think I preferred the grey colour.

I even heard him suggest to some that they get a taxi and come back in the morning. I would have been fuming if I had been told that.

Car wise it's no longer the V6 in the Mustang, but the ecoboost. So great on fuel, and has some power, but doesn't have the sound at all. Little things like the luminous 'Stang' that glows on the pavement when dark is cool. The remote start feature. Cruise control is abysmal. But I thought the steering and suspension was very good.
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Funnily enough I've just returned from the same trip and had a similar experience.

It took around an hour at LAX Alamo to get a Mustang, but it seemed really unorganised - especially the whole "grab a car with the keys in and drive off" approach. My car had a poor specification but the other car in our group had everything, including the luminous glow on the pavement thing.

The car itself was fun to drive although the turbo lag was horrendous.

Short summary of the trip:

- LA: Absolute dump but some nice bars, gig venues and places to eat
- San Diego: Lovely but we didn't explore enough
- LV: Vegas is Vegas
- Yosemite: Probably the most beautiful place on earth but unfortunately/fortunately we didn't encounter any bears
- SF: Amazing city with so much to offer
- PCH/Montery/Pismo Beach: Do roads get much better than this?
- Bishop: Lived up to all of the small town American stereotypes

Also went to see MLB Giants vs Rockies and Athletics vs Rangers + NHL Ducks vs Kings, all incredible experiences.

I could write an essay on my trip but that wouldn't even come close to describing how amazing it was.

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We had our trip in August and I was staying in West Hollywood during our LA leg, so collected my Mustang from Budget at Burbank Airport. It was the 3.7 V6 which was rather nice and there was a ~5 minute queue; the place was dead.

Then hopped round the corner for UStudios.
 
Got back from our West Coast trip two weeks ago and did almost the same trip as you except with sacrificed San Francisco in exchange for New York & Hamptons.


When we got to the airport, there no mustangs available so we got upgraded to a Lincoln MKZ. At first I was gutted but after swapping out for a mustang in Vegas, I must admit that I prefered the MKZ.

About 5 minutes into the drive, the mustang was already irritating me with its shaky drive, tin-can feel and poor visibility. Plus the boot is absurdly small.

By comparison the MKZ was refined, very enjoyable to drive and very comfortable.

Both cars have pretty poor MPG though.

If we do the trip again, and we probably will, will definitely book convertible class and pray there's none available so we can get free upgrade to luxury

In terms of sights - We would probably avoid Palm Springs / Palm Desert as it was a bit boring. Spend more time in San Diego, Yosemite and Carmel.
 
Abyss said:
There is a dollar desk in treasure island which is almost opposite the Venetian. We hired a mustang from there and returned it in LA 3 weeks later. You should have no problem hiring something decent from there and returning it to the airport, the full range should be available.

The desk is at the back of the hotel on the way to the parking lot, you then pick up the car in the parking lot.

Try usrentacar for prices
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Thanks. I will check that out.
 
That was a good shout, they are £40 cheaper than Avis for Mustang convertible. Going to Zion in December I might be better of with a 4x4. I will see how that one pans out. If the is sun out roof is down and all is good. :)
 
Robi said:
Short summary of the trip:

- LA: Absolute dump but some nice bars, gig venues and places to eat
- San Diego: Lovely but we didn't explore enough
- LV: Vegas is Vegas
- Yosemite: Probably the most beautiful place on earth but unfortunately/fortunately we didn't encounter any bears
- SF: Amazing city with so much to offer
- PCH/Montery/Pismo Beach: Do roads get much better than this?
- Bishop: Lived up to all of the small town American stereotypes

Also went to see MLB Giants vs Rockies and Athletics vs Rangers + NHL Ducks vs Kings, all incredible experiences.
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See I found this different:

LA - Loved it, we stayed near Beverly Hills which I'm sure improved our experience. I loved it so much we decided to drop a say on the PCH and Santa Monica for another day in LA.
San Diego - Amazing, I very much highly recommend doing the USS Midway museum to anyone. We did on 9/11 without realising, and they had a service on board.
Las Vegas - Wasn't sure on this, probably "didn't do it right", just loads of massive hotels, with huge casinos and shops. Grand Canyon experience was the highlight.
Death Valley - Best roads easily, and getting so close to an F18 jet sweeping down into canyons is an experience I'll never forget
Yosemite - Far too busy, but easily the best scenery on the trip.
San Fran - Probably my least favorite, enjoyed Alcatraz and the other side of the golden gate (Sausolito etc.). Found the roads and piers just far too crowded and not much going on.
PCH - Monterey and Pismo were lovely little places, and watching the sunset on Pismo beach while seeing humpback whales playing in the distance was an unbelievable experience.

kaktus said:
Both cars have pretty poor MPG though.
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Think I got 28-29 US MPG which I though was decent with A/C on, roof down, quick acceleration and loads of things charging.
 
Amp34 said:
Out of interest what do you class as "poor" mpg?
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I think I got about an average of 20-22 MPG which considering most of our driving was highway and very little inner city, is pretty poor imho.

On a side note, we found the "car pool" lane amusing until we realised how many cars that make up daily traffic have only one person in them. Such a terrible waste of resources :/

I don't get why so many of you hate on LA on though, we thought it was really nice as long as you don't go to the industrial areas. Roads are knackered but its a nice lovely city. Santa Monica is gorgeous!
 
rossk26 said:
LA - Loved it, we stayed near Beverly Hills which I'm sure improved our experience. I loved it so much we decided to drop a say on the PCH and
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Did you manage to go to Philippe The Original and try one of their dipped sandwiches? It was amazing, that and Hodad's in San Diego were definitely in my top 3.
 
Robi said:
Did you manage to go to Philippe The Original and try one of their dipped sandwiches? It was amazing, that and Hodad's in San Diego were definitely in my top 3.
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Sounds lovely! I'm Coeliac so eating was limited. Had some lovely pancakes in LA from Hugo's though.
 
Just a friendly warning for those doing a Canadian Rockies trip. As much as it's tempting to speed when going through Banff National Park with what sometimes feels like an intolerably slow 90kmph speed limit on the trans-canada it's inadvisable... They police it pretty tightly.

When I go through there (normally only from Canmore to Lake Louise ~1 hour) there are usually a couple of car pulled over for by police, both marked and unmarked. Went through there today and saw three separate cars pulled over by two unmarked (a Mondeo type Ford saloon and an F150) and one marked police cars, as well as a bunch of police cars pulling various people over after going through a speed trap about km or so earlier*.

Feel free to do 130 outside the park though, everyone else seems happy to, and I haven't seen anyone pulled over. :p

Not sure if it's the same with the other parks, but it's something my other half has been told by rangers at business events about as well.

*Police are quite happy to hide behind trees, lamp posts and signs with a speed gun and call their mate a couple of km down the road on the radio to pull you over.

(And no I haven't been pulled over yet, i'm a good boy. ;))
 
Just planning a very last minute trip to Boston and Stowe over Halloween as my girlfriend has to use her holiday days before the end of the year!

I think a convertible is going to be a waste of time at this time of year although I have enjoyed the hard top camero's and V8 dodge charges on work trips in the US before.

Does it make sense to book a full size or luxury car with Alamo and ask for as upgrade at the airport desk?
 
On the Alamo website there are no coupes listed just

Mid size - Toyota Camry * or similar

Full Size - Nissan Altima * or similar

Luxury - Buick Lacrosse* or similar

SUV - xxx or similar

Im not particularly buzzed about the idea or renting a Lacrosse but thats whats listed?
 
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