Road Tripping in the USA!

Yea, the 200 is the replacement for the Sebring which is no longer made. Thats the standard convertible class.

But as I keep saying, are you really sure you'll get everything in!? I can't emphasis enough how much of a struggle it was space wise with the Mustang - which has a smaller boot than the Sebring - just for two of us.

With 3 people I'd be looking for a luxury sedan. Far more comfortable for the person who draws the short straw and ends up in the back seats!

They might be 4 seater convertibles but it really only seats 4 in a 'Lets all jump in my Mustang to pop to the cinema' kinda way.
 
Fr0dders said:
We did okay with the Chrysler Sebring in florida the summer before last, but had to put the roof up to get everything in. We left our luggage at the hotel after that but will probably be a bigger pain on a roadtrip since we'll spend a lot of our time moving to another destination with all of our luggage.
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Thats the issue really, you need to get the roof down with all the luggage in otherwise you'll rarely have it down as you'll often be between hotels. Having the roof UP on the PCH for example would suck.

What do end up with if you book luxury sedan ? Its coming out £630 so £80 more than the mustang.

Full size is £430 which is £200 cheaper.
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You'll end up with a Cadillac ATS, Lilcoln XTZ or similar.
 
Fr0dders said:
How long are people allowing for doing San Fran to LA and where are people planning to overnight ?
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If you are doing the PCH allow at least 2 nights to enjoy it.

If you are not doing the PCH you are doing it wrong, so do the PCH and take the above advice :p
 
Fr0dders said:
We're planning on spending Mon,Tue,Wed in vegas (take advantage of the cheap mid week prices)

Thursday in Bishop, Friday in Modesto, Sat,Sunday and Monday in San Francisco.

I was planning on flying back Wednesday. But This leaves only 1 night to do PCH so a bit squashed. Other alternative is to do 2 nights in San fran ?
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I did 2 nights in San Fran. It was fine really, especially as you'll arrive in San Fran from Modesto at lunchtime anyway so it gives you 1.5 days.

Then use the extra night on the PCH. You need 2 to do it justice.

Lethal` said:
Why Modesto? I assume you're going to Yosemite - just drive straight to San Francisco. There really isn't anything worth seeing around there.
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I stayed in Modesto, it's just a convenient stopover from Yosemite which avoids a long drive after spending all day in the park, especially as he has 2 hour or so drive from Bishop to reach Yosemite anyway, then 2 hours or so the other side to Modesto.

There is nothing of note there but there is plenty of accomodation, its just a transit stop and a very convenient one IMHO.
 
Fr0dders said:
Where would you do your 2 nights on PCH ?
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First night around Carmel/Monterary is good, its a nice place to start the next day and a nice town to see as well. Laguna Seca is 15 minutes up the road.

The second night will just be a transit stop, so anywhere you can get a good deal. San Luis Obsipo probably?
 
tlrBeta said:
Thinking about letting Trailfinders do all the booking for me apart from a car. Any thoughts from anyone or experience?

I save a little on flights and hotels but works out about the same myself. Though I might get upgraded on some hotels being a honeymoon couple (I HIGHLY doubt it)

Anyone had a car from Trailfinders before?
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I honestly can't see the point in using somebody like that? You can do better yourself and you get total control over every aspect of your trip. There is no way Trailfinders will do things like put you with the best rental company to give you a good chance of a decent car, etc etc. You'll just get booked into half decent hotels in central locations each time which is fine if you've got an unlimited budget and don't care but controlling it yourself can mean better hotels for less money and more flexibility.

It's really not difficult to organise these trips yourself, and you can pocket trailfinders profit margin as your savings. It's not as if they are going to get exceptional deals you can't match or beat with brokers etc anyway.
 
Simon said:
Going to start reading with interest as planning Honeymoon in September (3wks East coast with driving). Just need to see what reward flights I can get.
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Out of interest why East Coast?

IMHO the Western half of the USA is much better - and there are many many different road trips out there, from Colorado and Utah to California to the Pacfic Northwest.

I'm a total hypocrit obviously because it looks like its east coast for me this year as well but.. I'd always rather go West, especially with 3 weeks. It's just better IMHO. East is nice but West is always epic.

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the various East Coast trips I've done but mostly because I was 'In America' rather than specifically awesome bits.
 
I cannot see why Trailfinders would have access to lower flight prices than any of the other many flight brokers will. I would be amazed if you couldn't match or beat a flight price Trailfinders have offered.

The planning is part of the fun of these trips anyway. Do it yourself! You can board the plane with only a single nights hotel accomodation and a rental car booked, not that I'm recommending that but thats how easy it is to plan US road trip holidays, you can even do it on the fly!
 
Janesy B said:
Booked Hertz with an Amex Platinum CDP and the upgrade from Premium to Luxury was free, same with MasterCard but Amex gives the best discount. One way fee with all the other rental companies took the ****.
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Big gamble, there is some proper junk in Hertz Luxury and unlike Alamo you don't get to select your own car from a lineup. If you are going One-Way you often have little choice as the others tend to ramp the price up but make sure you ask for something else if they try and palm you off with some of the crapper Luxury Cars (The Buick Enclave is a Vauxhall Insignia for goodness sake, Luxury?!).
 
I would not really recommend the Premium class, its a bit of a mixed bag really and you may end up with something thats just a better spec version of something that you'd get as a Fullsize.

It's Luxury thats worth the extra. I would not pick Hertz over Alamo if they were the same price.
 
Fr0dders said:
anybody got any suggestions for where to stay in San Francisco ?

At the weekend its coming up at least £150 a night, with most places charging $45 a night parking on top !
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I found this, so I stayed in Foster City, a modern town where there are loads of corporate head quarters (ie Sony of North America).

This means there are loads of nice hotels for the corporate market which are empty at the weekend and are therefore cheaper than the city centre ones. It is a 19 minute drive up the freeway into the centre of San Francisco. Parking in SF on-street is free on Sundays.

So we just day-tripped in.
 
So we've agreed on a destination, just need to work out a route. Going to fly into and out of Boston in September for 2-3 weeks. Not quite the Colorado trip I wanted but hey, it's still a US road trip :p

So far the only solid 'must do' things are Mount Washington, Toronto and Niagra Falls. I'd like to try and get as far over as Chicago, anyone else done a similar route and what was great/not so great/unmissable/missable etc?
 
I would consider scrubbing the drive to the Grand Canyon - it's not bad but it's nothing you won't already have seen on your drive up to that point. You can fly from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon in 40 minutes and tour the decent vantage points at the South Rim. This will free up more time for other things and perhaps make it feel like a bit less driving, too.

I think we paid about £120ish each for the tour. Left Grand Canyon North airport at 11am, arrived back at 3pm.
 
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