Hi !
we already planing our next summer trip (yeah we know...)

After heading in Europe in the last 4 years we have think about California. We have 2 kids (8 and 12 years old) and California should have many great options for them (zoo, theme park, Disney). We have 6 weeks of vacation each summer.

Questions (and options)

1) Is is doable by car from Montreal ? That would allows us to do some camping and give us more flexibility. We would go as fast possible for us (driving 8-9n hours by day would be the max) to Arizona and then begin our travel at a slower pace. We would like to see monument valley, Grand Canyon, Hoover dam then head to California (San diego, National parks, San Francisco.....)

2) If flying where should we go to and from if we want to see same place that are says in number 1 ? Flying would mean to travel less time because of hotel and flight cost.

3) I know renting a car in one country and return in another in Europe meand an hefty fee, is it the same for taking a car in one state and returning it into another ?

Thanks for all ideas and advice !

Hi !
we already planing our next summer trip (yeah we know...)

After heading in Europe in the last 4 years we have think about California. We have 2 kids (8 and 12 years old) and California should have many great options for them (zoo, theme park, Disney). We have 6 weeks of vacation each summer.

Questions (and options)

1) Is is doable by car from Montreal ? That would allows us to do some camping and give us more flexibility. We would go as fast possible for us (driving 8-9n hours by day would be the max) to Arizona and then begin our travel at a slower pace. We would like to see monument valley, Grand Canyon, Hoover dam then head to California (San diego, National parks, San Francisco.....)

From google maps-it looks like a pretty long haul-41 hours from Montreal to Grand Canyon for instance. So really 5 days just to get to that point and back just to start with more driving! Seems like a lot to me. If you do decide to do that then look at alternate routes because there may be some more scenic parts where you can at least have a nicer stop. Another thought might be to look for inexpensive flights to Vancouver and then do a "circle drive from there" dropping the car back at Vancouver. The drive wouldn't be as long and the drive from Vancouver to California and AZ is nicer IMO than the drive from Montreal.

2) If flying where should we go to and from if we want to see same place that are says in number 1 ? Flying would mean to travel less time because of hotel and flight cost.

If you fly-I would take a look for cheap flights to/from Las Vegas-in the summer they can offer some good deals and it makes a great jumping off point for the driving trip for the areas you want to see. You could also price flying into Las Vegas and out somewhere like Los Angeles-but you will have to consider the rental car cost as well


3) I know renting a car in one country and return in another in Europe meand an hefty fee, is it the same for taking a car in one state and returning it into another ?

We have done lots of US road trips with rental cars, and in general we have found that it is more expensive to pick a car up in one city than another. For instance I just tried pricing a car rental for Las Vegas for 1 week and it was $200, but if I drop the car at Los Angeles airport it is $575 for a week. So in general I think the answer is "yes" but you have to look at the whole picture-the time and expense of making a "circle" tour back to the same place versus paying more to fly out of another place, etc.

Also if you aren't familiar with them Southwest Airlines is a budget airlines that might help you in terms of pricing, especially because you can piece together one way flights more easily and cheaply than traditional airlines. So you might check them out to see if that would be helpful.

I was thinking of driving east from San Francisco to do a tour of New England and parts of Canada, including Montreal. I gave up on the idea because I felt that the 6 days it would take (at 500 mi. per day) would be OK one way, but the drive back through much of the same territory was a bit much. We will be renting a car from Pittsburgh to do the tour, returning the car in Pittsburgh to lessen rental charges.

If you are campers, it is still possible to do it, although it would require a bigger (more expensive) vehicle with a roof rack. You can easily pick up camping gear at places like Target, K-Mart etc. and because it is summer season, you would not need top quality stuff. Light sleeping bags would do, low cost tents, etc. You probably could outfit yourself for about $300 which would easily be recovered in savings from not using hotels every night and eating out all the time for your main meal. Camping in National Forests is inexpensive, National parks are more expensive. At the end of your trip you could donate the equipment to a Goodwill or a different charitable outlet.

I would get out a paper map and highlight the major sites you want to visit, then go to one of the mapping programs like mapsgoogle
and plot a circular route.

Try something like that would work for me and includes much of what you want

Montreal > Rocky Mountain NP (4 days drive) camping there
RMNP > Moab UT for Arches and Canyonlands NPs camping
Moab > Monument Valley
Monument Valley > Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon > Los Angeles
Los Angeles > Big Sur
Big Sur > Yosemite (need reservations to camp here)
Yosemite > Jackson WY for Grand Teton NP
Grand Teton > Yellowstone NP
Yellowstone > Glacier NP
Glacier > Montreal (4 or 5 days drive)

Some stops will be longer, but others like Monument Valley or Grand Canyon are easily done in a day or two. How much time you spend in each area will depend on conditions and what interests you, but since you will be camping part of the time you have some flexibility.

Have fun planning and taking your trip.

With 6 weeks it might be doable-but why would you want to drive that far with your own vehicle? Two options come to mind. Option 1: Fly to Las Vegas and make a huge loop in about 25 days. (Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah and Wyoming). The costs of using motels and National Park lodging options will offset the costs of trying to camp and possibly getting a tent wet when you are ready to move to a new site.
Option 2: Take an Amtrak train to Chicago than take the Amtrak Southwest Chief from Chicago to Albuquerque. Rent a car in ABQ and head west for Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon and at least 3 of the "Big 5" in southern Utah. Return the car in Albuquerque and take the Southwest Chief the rest of the way into Los Angeles.

That is a lot of hours listening to "Are we there yet"?
Consider doing loops like fly to LV or someplace and visit Utah and Arizona parks, fly to SFO and drive Highway 1 with a few nights in Yosemite en route (reservations needed well in advance), etc.

Yeah, that is a very long way to drive from Montreal. After 5 long driving days, no one will probably even want to be on the trip anymore - lol. I'd fly and rent a car, even if it means shortening the trip to make the budget work out. And if you want to camp, you could rent an SUV or a van and buy some inexpensive camping gear when you arrive. Even with the cost of the gear, you should come out ahead after a few nights.

Regarding the rental car on-way drop off fees - they can be substancial, but being from Canada, they might not apply - I think that if you rent through the .ca sites (hertz.ca, etc). Or, if that isn't the case, you could do a big loop as suggested - starting and ending in Las Vegas (or wherever you choose to start).

Hi !
Thanks for all those ideas. Still have to figure the best way to get there and the best itinerarry.

But for now we are under the shock of the lodging price in soutwest US. We were in venice (Italy) 3 weeks ago and found lodging to be expensive, but now it seem not so bad when we compare with San Francisco or Grand Canyon or any National parks. We will have to plan carefully because our usual 350$Us per day wont be enough for sure.

You might be able to get close to to your budget if you camp most of the time when not in big cities. When we did it, we usually stayed once a week in a motel to really clean up and also do a laundry. Camping in National Forests will help in amortizing the city costs. BTW there are campgrounds on the peninsular south of San Francisco. Reservations may be necessary. I believe that the closest to SF is the San Mateo County Park. You might also want to check and see if the Marin Headlands have a campground. I would consider the Point Reyes area as too far to visit San Francisco.

>>we compare with San Francisco or Grand Canyon or any National parks. We will have to plan carefully because our usual 350$Us per day wont be enough for sure.

I think like most folks here, it is probably worth staying in the parks themselves IF you are willing to lock them in this early because all the lodges book at least a year in advance.

For San Francisco, when my sister-in-law visited from France with their 4 kids we found the most economical place to stay in the city is an area called Cow Hollow. It is a great safe location bordering on the Marina and near many of the sights visitors want to see. But also just spend some time on booking.com. If you are willing to be in a double queen room I think you will be able to find things between $250-$350/night.

For San Diego with kids we love to recommend 2 hotels that are on Mission Bay-the Catamaran and the Bahia Resort-in the summers they have an old fashioned paddle wheel boat that goes between them and they are both in great locations for walking etc. We especially love the Catamaran with kids because the have little areas set up with animal handlers in the garden with Parrots and other birds and animals.

https://www.bahiahotel.com/

https://www.catamaranresort.com/


Also I would recommend that for both SF and San Diego you check prices for home rentals for a group of 4 people. We prefer to book on booking.com with free cancellation rather than airbnb and I would highly recommend you filter so that it has free parking and A/C. But you might be surprised to find that you may get a nicer place than most hotels with the added benefits of more lounging space and also a kitchen which is great for saving money on breakfast and snacks for example. We used them with our French family in a couple of places even for only a night or 2 since it saved money and felt more like a home which is nice on a six week trip.

What if you flew, rented a vehicle and returned it to the same location four weeks later, rather than a holiday lasting six weeks? Obviously it's less time together, and since we don't know how you and your kids travel, it's impossible to speculate how close you'd be to mass murder with two kids in a car for a week at a time, but if it was me... well...

I've run some imaginary numbers for next June (farther out the fares are less reliable) and here's what I'm seeing. (Note I've used USD as most costs will be in that currency rather than Canadian.)

Round trip airfare, YUL-LAX, $365 per person (Westjet)
SUV rental, LAX to LAX, 28 days, Ford Escape or similar, C$1335, say US$1000 (Several companies.) Note a one-way rental is probably going to double this price.

So counting airfare for 4 and the vehicle, the total comes to just under US$2500. It saves 14 road nights including hotels, fuel, meals, and other expenses, or roughly US$175 per day. Could you drive across the continent twice for $175 per day all in? Obviously you'll still be eating if you stay home for those 14 nights, so even discounting the food part of that, I suspect you'd still be money ahead by flying and renting. And of course there wouldn't be wear and tear on your own vehicle, no chance of mechanical issues arising in the middle of nowhere, and all that.

Four weeks would give you plenty of time to do a circumnavigation of California, or time to run out to some of the red rock national parks, or up to the redwoods... See the Big Sur coast, visit Yosemite, spend a small fortune at Disney, whatever.

Even expensive places can be tolerable if you don't mind staying out of the main tourist areas and use the vehicle or public transportation to travel in and out. For example, in June average hotel costs near SFO airport are a third to 50% less than hotels in the city for the same nights. So yeah, you'd have to drive into the city and pay for parking, or else take the train from the airport and pay for buses or Ubers in town, but $30 to park the car for a day (in a couple of different locations, say) is a lot less than the $150 extra you'd pay to spend the night in town.

So I'd do the numbers, and see how you'd change things with a fly/drive plan.

If you decide to go by plain, then I'd suggest you to fly in San Francisco and then spend a day or two there and rent a car. Then with a car you can visit all the most popular national parks and do a loop like SF- national parks- San Diego, LA and back to SF. Of course it really depends on how much time do you have, but I think to do such route would take about 2 weeks that it wouldn't like running from one place to another.

Since you are still considering this, as far as car rentals, it's usually less expensive if you rent from a city instead of an airport location, since they have added fees and taxes.

Taking a train part way, then renting a car, isn't a bad idea. EG to Albuquerque or maybe Denver. At least to get across the Great Plains bit.

It's now official, we wont go to California this summer. The ratio price/quality is very low for ou cdn money ! Once again, thanks everyone who tried to help us !