tostaky

Hi !
we (2 adults and 2 kids from Montreal) have thought about going in Utah, California ans Arizona for a road trip in a rental car next summer. What we are seeing now is that those places are much more expensive than what we thought ! Sans Franciso, LA, lodging in or near national parks all those cost much more than what we are used to.

We have been in italy, Spain, Croatia, Portugal and many Places in USA (Vermont, Chicago, Michigan, Washington) in the last years and all those p;laces where more affordable dans the south west USA.

We have take a look at airbnb and Booking...no luck, it's expensive everywhere. We now think about going in France which (besides Paris) should cost less...it's a big surprise for us !

J62

Big cities like LA & SF - definitely expensive.
In or near national parks - what $ are you seeing and what $ were you expecting?
- are you looking for luxury hotel or is tent camping ok?
-

janisj

It should not STILL be a surprise because you had this discussion on your other thread.

There you mention your budget is about $350 per day (is that CAN$ or US$ BTW? ) . . . but did not make it clear if that is $350 for everything, or $350 just for accommodations? I suspect you meant $350 all in, which would be really difficult for a family of four. But if you do mean up to $350 for accommodations -- that is not hard at all.

tostaky

Thanks for those answers !
1- )Camping is out of question, we wont carry all our camping stuff by plane and it would mean to go shop camping stuff once in USA, more complicated for food etc. And I have a very bad back, camping could be ok for some nights here and there but not for the whole trip. We are not into deluxe accomodation, we generally go in airbnb that have 4 things: AC, car parking, Clean and not too badly located !

2) in the last years we have manage without efforst to travel in Europe wih a daily budget (lodging, food, car rental or public transport) of 400 cdn$ by day (305 us$)+ airfare. It seems that amount would be impossible in the part of USA we would have liked to visit.

MmePerdu

Since you'll have a car there's no need to stay in the high-rent districts. And if you stick to the coast it's cool and you won't need accommodations with AC. So my suggestion would be to skip the inland & desert areas in summer, do your trip along the California coast, maybe add Oregon & Washington instead of the (very hot) areas of the SW.

Find Airbnbs in suburbs near cities with public transport, leave the car & save on parking and which will be less expensive than city-center locations. With some strategic planning you can do a very nice trip, there are parks to visit all along the coast & other beautiful spots like the California missions, beaches, on & on.

Or go to France. You can do either on a budget. I do it all the time.

jamie99

If your kids are doing well in school, pull them out for a couple of weeks and travel in the fall when costs and crowds (which drives demand of limited coastal lodging) are less My folks did this when my brother and I were in middle school and we did just fine.

tostaky

It's out of question ! I'm a teacher and my wife is a school psychologist, we also need to be in school !

Oregon and California....that could do it but that would take us away from many things we would like to see (national parks, monument valley....)

Birdie

kja

Advance research really can pay off, tostaky.

J62

tostaky isn't actually asking for advice. If you read his post closely you'll see it's simply a statement/rant. Not asking for tips on cost savings ideas, and not willingly share any relevant info that might actually elicit inputs.

tostaky

Kja; Is what i'm doing...no ?
j62...not true. I made that comment just to start a discussion, of course if we could do that trip in our budget range it would be great !

We would have love to go in that region of the USA and we still not have throw the towel. What we must do is to plan very carefully to see if it feasible. We have around 16k (cdn so 12000 us)to travel each year. In that amount we have to include flight cost. We have to see what could be done with that amount and for how many times. Since we have long summer vacanations (8 weeks) we want to jhave at least three weeks of travel with that amount.

It's hard for us to tell exactly our daily food and lodging budget, but we know the total amount we have....

HappyTrvlr

emalloy

For less expensive lodging near the south rim of Grand Canyon, try Cameron Trading Post, near the east entrance to the park. For the north rim of Grand Canyon, Grand Escalante, or even Bryce, look in Kanab.

For the Moab area (Arches and Canyonlands NPs).. we've stayed as far away as Green River, UT where there are several less expensive options, but is about a 1 hour drive to the parks.

For Mesa Verde look in Cortez, CO or Durango, CO.

For Dinosaur NP, look in Vernal, UT

You can also look to the Native American Casino Hotels for less expensive lodging. We stayed at the Santa Clara Casino/Hotel in Espenola, NM when visiting Bandelier NP and Santa Fe. It was very nice and less than$100/night and less than an hour drive from those sites.

Just in general, If you are flying then renting a car, try to plan a loop so that you don't get hit with a drop fee. Check several places to fly into , we've used Albuquerque, NM, Denver, CO, Las Vegas, NV, and Phoenix, AZ depending on price of flight, price of car rental, and what we wanted most to see Salt Lake City UT is also a good starting point. The area is served by many airlines. You might find it much less expensive to start and end your trip with a drive down into the US and flying from Albany, NY, Burlington,VT etc. and using one of the airlines like Southwest or Jet Blue that do not always show up on the sites like Travelocity or Expedia.

To cut on food expenses, look for lodging that include "free hot breakfast". Soon after arrival, buy a cooler, fill it with ice, cheese, colducts, things to drink, etc and refill when you see a grocery store.

Here is a map with many of the sites you want to see:

http://ohiohickstraveltips.weebly.co...-utah-map.html

tom_mn

suze

You are correct. It is expensive.

mlgb

You have time to plan, but EVERYONE wants to go on vacation when their kids are out of school.

Monument Valley is very expensive. For California, you can save a bit of money if you visit the cities on the weekends and the nature places during the week. For Yosemite, look at Curry Village (tent cabins that come fully furnished with mattresses on the bunks.) In summer they run about $160-$180/nt but reservations aren't open yet. Or stay outside the park.

For Grand Canyon, look at Maswick and Yavapai inside the park (they have double-bedded motel rooms). Or stay in Williams.
For the Utah Parks, I also like Kanab. Best Friends is a great place that's worth staying if you can get into on of the cottages (book far ahead, and they are nonrefundable inside 90 days) . Wonderful spot, $150/nt if you can even get one.


Airbnbs are outlawed in many suburbs and cities in California.

I use trivago, tripadvisor, booking.com and hotels.com for research. And don't forget the inexpensive chain Motel 6. Many of them are updated and they have A/C. No breakfast, just bad coffee.

Often hotel breakfasts are not worth the extra, use McDonald's or grocery stores instead. Eating out gets expensive in some places, but most people don't eat out for 3 meals a day.

aliced

Well, Europe is one thing but no comparison to LA, SF or our glorious national parks. LA or SF are no more expensive than big cities in Europe, you pay for location and amenities like anywhere else.

janisj

I think the OP has given up on a west coast/SW trip. We did try to give lots of ideas how to economize but he just just started a thread this AM saying they are traveling to France next summer.

mlgb

Tant pis.

Underhill

Et bonne chance.