WestCoastTravel12

Hello everybody,

This spring I am looking to travel the west coast ( Las Vegas, LA, San Fran, Seattle) and this will be my first time dealing with a car rental company. The trip will span approximately 12 days and I'm looking at the cheapest possible way of dealing with this. I am 24 years old and know that I will pay a slightly higher rate for renting a car, so I am aware of that, but I was wondering if it's better to rent the car for all those 12 days or better to rent a new car for each city that I am in, would that be cheaper? Maybe somebody can advise some car rental tips for me. I would greatly appreciate it, thanks!

tracys2cents

Well, it's not SLIGHTLY higher, it's 15 to 25 dollars A DAY higher. Hertz has been having a coupon on it's site to waive the underage fee, so look at that.

Are you flying into one city and then flying home from another? An open jaw trip?

tracys2cents

Also are you U.S. citizen? The rates, especially for "one way dropoff" car rentals, are often much lower if you are from certain foreign countries such as U.K. and Australia.

dbdurand

I'm sure you will get a lot of good suggestions, but don't overlook Hertz. They offer a deal for your age group that eliminates the 20-24 surcharge. (No, I am not pushing Hertz. I think I accidentally became aware of this because I rented from Hertz on a recent trip. Too bad they don't have a deal for 83 year olds.)

http://www.hertz.com/rentacar/q-8010640/save-up-to-$25-a-day-if-you-re-20-24-years-old-special-offer

WestCoastTravel12

@ Tracys2Cents :

I am flying into one city (las vegas) , renting a car , then eventually flying home from another ( san fran ). I am a dual citizen ( USA & Polish ) , don't know if that helps.

@ dbdurand :

I will look into Hertz for sure, thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Any discounts will help tremendously

qwovadis

Supercheapcar.com has cars no underage fee which include all liability/cdw/etc starting at $200/week. The only thing is, you have to rent for the week.Probably will be the cheapest
if you can make that work RoundTrip LAX. Bidding very low on priceline.com can work just ignore all the prompts and bid low and work your way up over several daysuntill you get it.

happytrailstoyou

Try Thrifty or Dollar. I have had very good luck with them (even when I had an accident).

If you can return the car to the place you pick it up, reserve for the full period.

Once you make a reservation, keep checking back for a lower rate. Rates fluctuate from day to day.

HTTY

tracys2cents

12 days doesn't seem like enough time to see Las Vegas (2 days?) Los Angeles (3 days), Seattle (2 days) and San Francisco (3 days?) You've also got to figure in all the driving time between the four places. And those places do not flow together, there is backtracking from Seattle back down to SFO for your flight home.

WestCoastTravel12

My home is Seattle

I should of been more specific, sorry about that.
But yeah, it is not a long time but I figured it would just be a quick trip , seeing the west coast and taking the scenic routes ( pacific coast highway, route 66 , etc etc ). I will have to look more into what would be more sensible thing to do as far as car rental goes, I do not want to be spending too much.

janisj

I think you need to do a lot more research. Route 66 doesn't go through Las Vegas. It goes from LA through central Arizona, New Mexico and eastward.

12 days is not long enough to do Vegas, Rt 66, Hwy 1, San Francisco and on to Seattle.

tomfuller

See if this works for you. Fly on Allegiant http://www.allegiantair.com/
from Bellingham to Las Vegas. Rent the car in LV and drive south on US 93 taking the minor detour over Hoover Dam instead of the new high bridge. Follow US 93 to Kingman AZ and decide if you want to go east on the old 66 all the way to Seligman or follow I-40 west through Needles. About 20 miles west of Needles the Old National Trails Highway turns off I-40 and goes through Amboy (aka Radiator Springs). You can follow National Trails all the way to Victorville without getting back on I-40. Across the street from the Amtrak station in Victorville is a Route 66 museum.
From Victorville go over the Cajon Pass to get to LA.
Head back to LV with the rental car and fly Allegiant from LV to Monterey on Sunday or Thursday. Rent another car in Monterey for your trip to San Francisco returning the car to Monterey. I believe Allegiant also flies from Monterey to Bellingham.

easytraveler

It's much cheaper to pick up and drop off the car at the same location.

I'd suggest that you do a loop trip - at your age, it's possible (at dbdurand's and my age, it's questionable).

Fly into San Francisco, drive to LA, drive to Las Vegas, drive back to San Francisco - certainly very doable in 12 days.

WestCoastTravel12

That indeed does sound very doable. Everyone is saying it is much cheaper to return the car to the same dealer. Instead of driving straight to Las Vegas,Id drive to the grand canyon first and then start coming up North west towards Vegas and eventually San Fran... This could definitely work, thanks a lot for the advice. The drive from Vegas to San Fran will be about 9 hours so that isn't too bad.

easytraveler

The drive from LV to SF is more like about 12-14 hours. If you have the time, try and break it up and maybe do a small detour to Death Valley, which will not be that hot to visit in the spring.

When you reserve the car, make sure it's for unlimited miles.

Then when you rent the car, ask them to give you one with low mileage and tell them that you are going through some desert country.

When you are going to leave Los Angeles make sure that the tires are OK, carry water and some sunscreen and maybe a scarf. You will be going through quite a bit of desert country from then on. It'll be as different from wet Seattle as it'll get.

Have a great trip!

tomfuller

Nine hours even (575 miles) from LV to San Francisco. Definatly 14 if you go by way of Death Valley.
I drove from central Oregon to Las Vegas in 14 hours with a short break in Barstow. Never again.
Cross over from I-5 to 99 on 46 through Wasco.

easytraveler

I really don't believe one could do LV to SF in 9 hours through some very monotonous countryside. There are pit stops, lunch stops, gas stops, fatigue stops - even if all of these stops are combined into one stop, it'll still take more than 9 hours.

What I meant by going through Death Valley is to break up this portion into two days.

I've done LV to SF in one day and like tomfuller - never again!

sf7307

I've done SF to LV in 10 hours without even pushing it.

WestCoastTravel12

Yeah I still want to be able to check out route 66 in Arizona. It's going to be 12 days just visiting the grand canyon, las vegas, los angeles, san fran. I just want to see everything as fast as possible so the 12 days isn't really concerning. The driving doesn't seem too bad, I've driven across the country with no problem and this will be much less driving. It's just a matter of properly planning the itinerary so that I won't spend too much for the car etc.

dbdurand

To "check out" the old route 66, you may find this link useful.

http://www.historic66.com/description/

You probably know this, but US 66 was quietly terminated as a route in 1985.

WestCoastTravel12

Much appreciated! This will come in use!