Planning a cross-country trip for the U.S…?
My friends and I are planning a cross-country road trip. What states/cities/sites would you recommend seeing and why? Also what would be better/cheaper: Renting a camper van and spending the night at camp sites + fuel, or renting 2 cars and spending the nights in hotels + fuel? Thanks =)
There will be about 7-9 people travelling all together, with 3-4 couples and a few singles.
The trip is being planned from anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months.
There are several starting points for us, LosAngeles, Seattle, Chicago, or New York and eventually ending in Boise.
Must see places include New Orleans, Grand Canyon, Chicago, Disneyland, Las Vegas but interested in smaller out of the way places too.
7-10 people with both couples and singles. Mainly ages 22+.
The group is interested in everything from museums to outdoor hikes to amusement parks and malls. Pretty open to anything. Most of them have never been to the US so anything will be new to them!
Thanks for the great responses so far!
Hit Amish country in Holmes County, Ohio, before it goes all touristy and disappears. Developers are drooling to commercialize it.
Most likely the over all comfort level will be better staying in hotels/motels. I think pricing will be fairly close to the same either way but I think a hotel/motel probably has the edge. A decent place to stay will average about $100 per room per night including taxes. The problem with a motor-home/camper is you will have to find public or private campgrounds to stay in and that will be an additional cost.
As far as places to visit I suppose it depends on where you are starting and where you are finishing.
There are so many great places to see and visit, too many to list them all but you can’t wrong visiting Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain Nat. Park., Lake Tahoe, San Diego, Disneyland and on and on and on…..Have fun where you go!
I did something like this a few years back. We stayed in hotels most nights however we took a car that was good on gas. Camping would be cheaper than a camper. I don’t know what states you plan on visiting but I would highly suggest camping in Rocky Mountain Natl park in Colorado. Some other neat places are Santa Fe, New Mexico, Moab, Utah (lots of stuff to do around there if you are the outdoors type. Northern Arizona has alot to offer as far as neat things too see. Different cities to visit I would say St. Louis, San Antonio, Chicago, Cleveland, New Orleans and Ottawa(Ontario). These are all cities I have been to and really enjoyed.
How much time do you have for the trip? Where are you starting from? Are there any specific places that you are SET on seeing? How many people? What kinds of places interest you? What kinds of trips have you done before, so that we don’t suggest places that you’ve already explored in depth?
Can’t really give you good answers without your answers to those questions.
As for transportation, I’d say go with the car route. With a camper, instead of talking about miles per gallon, you’re almost talking about gallons per mile!!! Cars, especially smaller cars, get MUCH more mileage. I say it’s just no contest.
Furthermore, there are many roads, especially in the National Parks, where I wouldn’t even THINK of driving a camper/RV. Narrow, winding, and on steep cliffs. I’d be a wreck behind the wheel of one of those on roads like that.
Play it safe and drive the cars you’re familiar with. You’ll need, at worst, maybe 1/5 of the fuel you’d use in a camper.
One suggestion? AAA membership is a good thing, for emergency roadside assistance. That’s come in handy for us a few times. Furthermore, you get maps and “TourBooks”; the TourBooks provide approved lodging listings throughout the country (and other countries like Canada if you’re going up there). This makes it VERY easy to choose places to stay while you’re on the road.
I do NOT recommend making reservations before you start the trip, except for maybe a few (2 or 3) MAJOR destinations where you KNOW you’ll be staying a few nights. Let your pace dictate where you stay in between. Resist the urge to over-plan everything. Nobody wants to feel bound to anything on a road trip. Leave as many options open as possible.
Furthermore, what if you reserve in advance, and you get there, and the place is a dump? We’ve had that happen a few times, even when reserving on the same day while we were on the road. Usually, we just pick an ending point, pull into town, and see what’s around. We have NEVER been left “out in the cold” in all our years of doing this.
Add details to your question answering my own questions up top, and I think you’ll see some GREAT answers pop up on here.
EDIT: Wow, that’s a long time you have for a trip! A few suggestions:
-New York City; a must for any US visitor. I could write a whole book on it, but just trust me on this one. Do it.
-Niagara Falls; always a great visit.
-Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Glacier, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Rocky Mountain National Parks, etc.; there is a GREAT series of parks through the Rocky Mountains, and these are just a few of them. VERY strongly suggested, many of my best memories come from these parks. Do some research.
-Alaska!!! Many people see it as empty, frozen wilderness, but that is simply not true! It is a BEAUTIFUL place, with wildlife, wilderness, just so much to see! There are things up there that you will not see anywhere else. You CAN drive there, up the Alaska Highway through Canada, which is actually a VERY good road. It’s not a four-lane expressway, but it’s direct, well-built, and VERY scenic. For more, visit http://www.milepost.com ! If you have more than three weeks, and ESPECIALLY if you have three MONTHS, I would consider this a must-do (if you are legally able to enter Canada, of course). In all our years of doing cross-country road trips, this was likely the best one we have ever done. During the summer, it’s actually quite comfortable, and you have almost endless sunlight, which is memorable in and of itself.
-Drive old Route 66 (or parts of it); back in the early days of cross-country road trips, Route 66 was the way to go coast-to-coast. It went through towns, and really became the heart and soul of the American road trip spirit. It’s largely been replaced by Interstate 40, but some segments do still exist between Chicago and Los Angeles. Visit http://www.historic66.com for more.
-The Black Hills and Badlands; in western South Dakota, there are all kinds of great, scenic things. Mount Rushmore is there, but there’s SO much more than that! There’s also Badlands National Park, plenty of American Indian history, and Custer State Park, which is great for wildlife-viewing. Do some research. One of my all-time favorite regions of this country.
-The Pacific Northwest; Seattle’s a beautiful city, and there’s also plenty of natural beauty up there; Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and all kinds of things up and down the coast. Go down to northern California and see the Redwoods. Farther south is San Francisco, one of the prettier cities in this country.
All in all, resist the urge to spend TOO much time in the glitzy, tourist-oriented places. These are often great places as well, but save as much time as possible to see America’s natural wonders; THAT will likely be the best part of your trip.
By far, this is NOT a complete list, but simply a list of some of the best things I remember from our own trips.
If you enable users to e-mail you via your profile, I have a few other things which might interest you, not sure if I want to keep blabbering on here.