Crosscountry
 

Plan on traveling crosscountry from New York to California . Driving there flying home . July or early august , taking 14 - 18 days what's the best route ?to see natl parks Grand Canyon 4 corners Yellowstone etc plan on renting car 2questions best route an ball park how much$

Michael,

Your question doesn't make a lot of sense to me. What is the main objective here? A cross country road trip, or to see the Natl Parks you named? Why go all the way to CA if you only want to see parks in WY, UT and AZ?

Are you renting a car? Driving one out for someone? I ask because my aunt and uncle used to live in NYC and would often do this, as they did not own a car while living there.

If not a road trip, why not fly? Are you solo or will you have other drivers?

What are your lodging expectations? Camping? Motel 6?

Budget? Type of car and expected gas mileage?

We can't really help you without more to go on.

What Dayle said and where is California are you going? Do expect it to be HOT in the Utah/Arizona parks.

For contributors to recommend the "best" route you have to define what you mean by "best" - quickest, shortest, most scenic, all interstate, tolls, no tolls, no highways, stops along the way, etc.?????

You can pretty much map out a route yourself using Mapquest or Google Maps- the give you distances and drive times between points, you can use the click & drag feature to alter your route or add 0r subtract destinations.

As for costs, once you know the mileage you can figure average cost for gas (use the average miles per gallon you get in your own car and the price for gasoline where you live - the number come up with will be "in the ball park". Same with food, estimate what you'd spend if you ate the same type & number of meals in restaurants "back home" for the number of days you'll be traveling - again the number you come up with should be fairly close to what you'll actually spend. Then decide what price range you want to spend for accommodations along your planned route and check pricing on the websites for the hotels chains you think are suited to your personal style - you'll find it easy to come up with a budget number that won't be too far off from what you'll spend.

Finally, check the websites for the national parks and attractions you plan on visiting to get admission costs.

Since the three National parks you mentioned - Grand Canyon, Four Corners and Yellowstone - are all fairly far west I'm wondering why you want to drive all the way there from New York especially since you are planning to fly back. Wouldn't it be easier and less time consuming to fly to say Arizona, rent a car there then visit the three places on your list then fly back home (which you were planning to do anyway)?

Have fun planning your trip.

Good advice from RoamsAround.
My suggestion: fly to Salt Lake City. Rent your car and make a huge loop including 2 or 3 of the Southern Utah National Parks.
The 4 corners is not that interesting. Maybe Mesa Verde?
You could also make your loop by flying to Las Vegas.
Fly back from LV or SLC to New York if that is a place you really want to see. It's a lot cheaper and faster to fly to the west if what you want to see is in the west.