Help with driving East to West

Old Aug 30th, 2015, 05:41 AM
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Help with driving East to West

Hello All,

Please could i get some advise on a road trip me and my friend plan to take in January for a month.
We are looking to fly into New York hire a car or an RV and drive along the coast down to Miami then head on over west through New Orleans, Texas, Arizona up to California and over to Las Vegas.

I have a few questions that maybe some of you could answer...

1. Are we better off hiring an RV and looking for places to hook it up to stay or hiring a car and staying in Motels along the way?

2. Which will be more expensive the RV option or the Car/Motel option?

3. Is it realistic to be able to do this in a month?

4. Is there anywhere anyone would recommend we see along the way?

5. Could we get into any danger on that route and should we stay away from anywhere in particular?

Im sure there will be plenty of questions along the way, Thanking you in advance.

Springiwell
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Old Aug 30th, 2015, 06:07 AM
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In January you might be better off flying to Las Vegas and renting a car or an RV for a week or 10 days to see Nevada and California. Once you get back to Las Vegas fly to New Orleans and rent again. Turn in your second rental in Washington DC or Baltimore and take a train to Philadelphia and then to New York to fly home.
I believe you can find cheap car rentals at Carhire3000.
You will have a hard time finding an RV rental in New York in January. You don't want to drive either in snowy/icy conditions.
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Old Aug 30th, 2015, 08:56 AM
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In Jan the weather can be iffy in most of the country - snow, sleet, ice, etc. And if you don;t have experience in driving in this there is now way I would even consider an RV - and would avoid it in a car if at all possible.

And while you can get to all of those places in a month you won;t have time to see much of anything. When my parents did road trips after they retired it took them a minimum of 6 weeks to get to Yellowstone (not as far as CA) and back. And that was a LOT of driving, not lolly gagging.

The plan is a good one since you will be taking public transit where you have the potential for worst weather - but do be aware that except for NO you can get bad winter weather everywhere - even if not blizzards you can hit ice storms even in the Texas panhandle as well as the mountains and elevated areas of the southwest. Even Las Vegas has a winter and the Grand Canyon often has substantial snow.

If I were you I would do this trip in April or May to have many fewer chances of losing time due to bad weather.

Also an RV is not realistic in many of the cities. You would often have to stay an hour or more away and spend a lot of time taking public transit into cities unless you have a car in tow.

Renting a car and staying in hostels or basic motels would definitely be not only cheaper but much more convenient.
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Old Aug 30th, 2015, 11:38 AM
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Definitely rent a car and stay in motels.
RVs get low gas mileage usually, and unlike a rental car they do not come with unlimited mileage. Often things like linens or pots and pans cost extra. You would have to stay in RV parks, you cannot just pull over and sleep by the side of the road in the US. In San Francisco, for example, one of the closest RV parks is in Pacifica, from there you would have to travel somehow into the city.
I am also not sure how many of the rental RVs are winterized.
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Old Aug 31st, 2015, 03:32 AM
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Here's the other RV problem:

You take the RV and park it in an RV park outside an area you want to tour -- let's say Miami or New Orleans. Now, how are you going to get around in that area if your RV park isn't in a central part of the city (which it won't be)? Pack up and unhook the RV and drive it to a parking garage in the city?

Many people who take RVs also tow cars for the very reason that RVs aren't good for getting about locally.
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Old Aug 31st, 2015, 03:35 AM
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As a road trip, you can do this in a month. It is about 9 days of 500 miles of driving, leaving you a theoretical 21 days of sightseeing.

You are going to be driving through a lot of stuff, some of it remarkably uninteresting (I-95 from NYC to Miami, for instance), much of Texas. You will pass by a lot of really interesting and enjoyable places like Washington, DC; Richmond, VA; Charleston, SC; and Savannah, GA.

If I really wanted to do a roadtrip, I would fly to Miami and rent the car there. Save the East Coast for another trip and not have to worry so much about weather.

Drive up the west coast of Florida, across the Panhandle to Mobile and New Orleans. In Texas I would aim for Austin and San Antonio before heading west on I-10, the southern route (less likely to have bad weather) essentially on the US-Mexico border. Stop in El Paso, Marfa and Big Bend if you can.

I-10 goes all the way to LA, but it would be a shame not to take detours north if the weather permits. Drive north from El Paso to Santa Fe, cross northern Arizona on I-40, go to the Grand Canyon if the weather is okay, then go to Las Vegas on the way to LA. Drive to the Santa Monica pier, and there you go.

If the weather is too lousy for the northern route, drive direct to Santa Monica and maybe fly to Las Vegas for your visit. You will have seen enough desert to bother with driving there, and this more direct route will give you time for Marfa and Big Bend.
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Old Aug 31st, 2015, 04:17 AM
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I like Ackislander's plan, but or course we don't know if you want to explore nature, cities, historic sites, etc. Do not do the RV, many of the RVparks will be closed in January.

In any case, if the weather cooperates, head up to Santa Fe and then down to I-40 and visit some of the National, state, and Native American parks along the way to Grand Canyon, like PetrifiedForest/Painted Desert, Canyon de Chelley, Walnut Canyon etc.
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 02:41 AM
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Wow... Thank you all so much for your help. As you can guess we are not overly clued up about all this.

Everyones ideas have been well and truly taken on board. No RV, thats for sure.

So any other ideas using flights, public transport or hire cars. We are open to any options but would really love to finish in Vegas if possible.

Maybe we should fly to New York have a weekend there and then fly to Miami and start the road trip from there?

We have friends in South Carolina, Maimi, New Orleans, Galveston and LA. I would love to be able to get over to Hawaii too if that would be possible. We have got a little extra time to play with but I think 5 weeks is our max. Unfortunately we have to go at this time as both our work schedule are seasonal.

Thanks again everyone and keep the ideas coming, this is so helpful.
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 03:30 AM
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Vegas is a fine place to fly into as air fare and rental car costs are often less there. You can get direct flights from many cities.

We keep an eye on the weather and then decide where to head next. If it looks clear for a week or so, consider a loop from there to Grand Canyon then toPage for antelope canton,then Bryce, Zion and back to Vegas (or the other direction since it is a loop.

Then either drop the car and fly to LA or San Fransisco or drive to LA and uu to San Fransisco and drop off the car before exploring SF.

Do a little research on costs and stay flexible, If weather does not cooperate when you get to Vegas, do the LA - SF portion first by air then decide how much of the GC portion you could do.
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 07:07 AM
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How does this look?

mon 11th jan - Fly Gatwick to New York (arrive 20.00)
tues 12th jan
wed 13th jan
thur 14th jan - Fly New York to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (arrive 10.43)
fri 15th jan
sat 16th jan
sun 17th jan - Drive to Miami
mon 18th jan
tue 19th jan
wed 20th jan - Drive to Key West
thur 21st jan
fri 22nd jan -
sat 23rd jan - Drive to New Orleans
sun 24th jan - Drive to New Orleans
mon 25th jan
tue 26th jan
wed 27th jan - Drive to Galveston Texas
thur 28th jan
fri 29th jan - Drive to San Antonio
sat 30th jan
sun 31st jan - Drive to El Paso
mon 1st feb
tue 2nd feb - Drive to Phoenix
wed 3rd feb
thur 4th feb - Drive to Los Angeles
fri 5th feb
sat 6th feb
sun 7th feb - Fly Los Angeles to Hawaii (arrive 12.19)
mon 8th feb
tue 9th feb
wed 10th feb - Fly Hawaii to Las Vegas (arrive 17.45)
thur 11th feb
fri 12th feb
sat 13th feb
sun 14th feb - Fly Las Vegas to Manchester (arrive on the 15th 07.55)
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 08:31 AM
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Well I think that Galveston, SA and El Paso are rather odd choices given all of the wonderful places that you could go. Granted you want a road trip - but these are not major tourist areas.
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 10:19 AM
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OP says they have friends in Galveston so visiting there makes some sense. From there San Antonio is about a 4 hour drive so it might be worth an overnight stop to spend the afternoon & next morning visiting the Riverwalk area. El Paso is another 8 hours or so from SA but I would use it as just a stopping point for the night on route to Phoenix. Apologies to those living in El Paso but it's not a place a person from England would really want to spend time visiting.

OP should keep in mind that the drive from Galveston (either direct or via SA) to Phoenix takes them through some very desolate country (often referred to as "flyover country" for a reason). It's a lot of flat, featureless arid land.
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 10:36 AM
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Sure I don't see any reason you couldn't do what you propose. But know you have a LOT of driving time & miles much of it thru not particularly interesting landscapes.

I'm also guessing once you see Hawaii you will wish you had much much more time than only 2 days there.
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Old Sep 4th, 2015, 03:10 AM
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Right ok, so from Galveston (due to friends) would we best taking another route or maybe flying to Arizona?

I looked SA up and it says there are lots of nice things to see there?

Again thank you all so much for your help.
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Old Sep 4th, 2015, 03:33 AM
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"Apologies to those living in El Paso but it's not a place a person from England would really want to spend time visiting."

It depends. There are all kinds of places in the UK that people think we are weird to visit, but we enjoy them because they are so completely and absolutely different from the US -- any seaside resort, for example. I'm not saying the OP would love El Paso, but it sure isn't anything like home!
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Old Sep 4th, 2015, 04:36 AM
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I would fly to the west, either Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Francisco, or LA, I would not want to miss Grand Canyon and some of the southern Utah parks, or the coast from San Francisco to LA in any case, IMHO much more interesting than el Paso or the drive across Texas.
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Old Sep 4th, 2015, 08:03 AM
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I think you would enjoy seeing San Antonio, so don't skip that. Askislander has some great suggestions. That drive across Texas is long, for sure, but you might find it interesting and the speed limits out there (up to 85 mph in some places) will help move you down the road.

I would save Hawaii for another time in order to give that iconic destination the time it deserves. If you really want to include it, fly from Texas or Phoenix to LA, then to Hawaii, returning to Vegas for the trip finale.
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Old Sep 4th, 2015, 10:55 AM
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Sorry but the drive across Texas especially on the I-10 is dead boring, did it a number of years ago with my late husband, drove from Austin to LA via San Antonio, El Paso, Fort Stockton, Tucson (much nicer than Phoenix IMO), Yuma then took I-8 to San Diego then north to LA.
I agree with emalloy about flying.
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Old Sep 5th, 2015, 04:11 AM
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ok guys...

So taking everything on board this is what I have decided to book...

Fly Gatwick to New York
Fly New York to Charleston
Drive from Charleston to Louisianna (seeing miami etc... on the way)
Fly Louisianna to Phoenix
Drive Phoenix to LA
Fly La to Hawaii
Fly Hawaii to San Fran
Drive San Fran to Las Vegas
Fly Las Vegas to Home

Obviously making the most of everything on the way and spending numerous days in each state.

Hope you think this is a good plan.
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Old Sep 5th, 2015, 05:52 AM
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Yes, January even in the south is iffy and can be cold(ish) and rainy.

We took three weeks to drive from NYC to Houston hoping to bypass the highways and experience "small town America". Sadly, that doesn't exist much anymore, and we ended up at one of the standard motel chains outside of what remained of "town" and usually next to a Walmart. That being said, we did visit some unusual sites and enjoyed the trip.

If you have friends in Galveston, that's one thing, but it's not a place to linger. Houston is much more interesting, but you can do both. You have to go through Houston to get to Galveston and back!

The ride across Texas on 1-10 after San Antonio is a whole lot of nothing, although the scenery is amazing. The best part of that drive is stopping in Big Bend, Alpine, Marfa, Marathon and Terlingua ghost town— all on the way to El Paso which, once again, doesn't offer a heck of a lot.

Agree about the RV. That would be an entirely different trip. A car would give you more freedom (though more motel living and restaurant meals).
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