DavidJLunt

We are planning a USA tour this time next year. Commencing arrival early May 2012, transatlantic crossing on Cunard into New York.
Then, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, New Orleans, Houston, San antonio, Denver (and Rockies), to califonia (friends in San Francisco), then north to Seattle, east to Milwaukee (stay with friends) etc etc.
Eventually leave New York end of September, again by Cunard.
What is the best way to source a reasonable car?

nytraveler

Your problem isn't a car - it's the registration and insurance. In order to register a car you need a fixed address - and then it's registered to that address. Similarly to get insurance you need a fixed address - and a driving record - so the company can determine what to charge you. Without a driving record they will most probably assume the worse (as in you're a new driver) but without an address they won't have data from which to calculate a premium.

Buying and then selling a decent car (you won;t want to be driving a rent a wreck all over the country) will be hugely expensive -- since it loses so much value once you drive it off the lot.

If it were me I would contact a reliable dealer - perhaps a large Honda dealer - and find out if you can get a short-term lease on one of their 3 year rentals that has just been turned in. But you would have to stay in one place long enough to get registration and insurance.

Alternatively, try the large car rental companies and see if they have some sort of reduced rates if you rent 30 days at a time - then you would have to keep renewing the rental (and let them know up front that's what you plan to do so you're not accused of car theft).

gail

I was all set to give a response similar to nytraveler, but then decided to go to Hertz site and plug in imaginary dates of 5/14/11 - 9/30/11, although I know you are traveling a year from then.

I was shocked to see it is actually possible to rent a car for that long without at least on paper returning and re-renting it. If you rented on these dates from LGA airport in NY the total would be about $5100 according to website.

All sorts of things to consider. Hertz is not usually the least expensive place to rent, so you should shop around. Also, some rentals have geographic limitations - such as I once rented a car in Washington, DC and was not allowed to take it further south than South Carolina (I wanted to go to Florida). This would be in the very fine print - so be sure to check. Also, as a non-US citizen there may be different restrictions, insurances, etc you would have to pay. I would check with major US car rental companies, rather than some local company, since you want to have options if it breaks down midway across the US.

But I would also check with a large car rental dealer to see if, as suggested above, you could get some sort of deal on either a short-term lease or possibly one of the dealer-owned cars for that period of time. Make sure they know how many miles you would be putting on it and also be very careful you are fully insured for the duration of the trip.

Good luck - have a great time planning the trip and while you are on it. I think I might speak for many here who would be jealous of having the opportunity to take such a trip.

tomfuller

My advice: see New York and then take a trip on Amtrak to one of your destinations and rent a car for a week to 10 days and then ride the train to another destination and repeat.
Alternating between train, flying and rental cars you will see a great deal in 6 months. The 30 or 45 day USA Railpass is a real bargain. The topic I just started- Amtrak's 40th birthday.

Ackislander

Tomfuller's advice makes quite a lot of sense, and it is not intuitive.

Placename

Remember you will need a B2 visa to stay in the US for up to 180 days. You must get an extension in the USA if your trip exceeds 180 days, and it costs $300 per person and requires documentation of your plans and your finances.

You can stay for up to 90 days visa-free if you meet the criterial of the Visa Waiver Program.

blueresort3

@tomfuller great advice when i first saw the post i didnt think of anything like that but that is probably the best way to accomplish what you're trying to do

Ryan

I think Tom made a great suggestion. Combining a car rental with air and train may be the best way to maximize what you can see and give you more time on the driving portions that are most of interest. You may conclude that flying from San Antonio to Denver is a far more appealing option than driving north about 1,000 miles through the Texas panhandle.

tomfuller

Your link to Amtrak: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/Conten...mtrak/HomePage

The 15 day-8 segment USA Railpass- $389US
The 30 day-12 segment USA Railpass- $579US
The 45 day-18 segment USA Railpass- $749US
Suggested route- New York to Fayetteville NC (Palmetto) rent a car to see North and South Carolina. Fayetteville to Orlando on the Silver Meteor rent car or take package tour from Disney.
Silver Star from Orlando to Washington DC. Crescent from DC to New Orleans-rent car- City of New Orleans train from NOL to Memphis-see Graceland? CONO train from Memphis to Chicago.
All of that is only 6 segments.
With nearly 6 months you can see this country from Atlantic to Pacific using 120 days of rail passes and 60 days of car rentals. Cost per day for a rental car is $28 plus at least $28 you will will pump in the gas tank to drive 200 to 250 miles. Cost per day on a rail pass will average $18 plus whatever you want to eat on the train.

tomfuller

Flying from San Antonio or Houston to Denver makes much more sense than returning to Chicago to get the train to Denver.
Start a new 45 or 30 day Railpass in Denver to take the California Zephyr to Oakland. Rent a car in the Oakland area for your visit to central and northern California including San Francisco.
The Texas Eagle train goes from Chicago to San Antonio daily.

nytraveler

If you are going to take Amtrak there are a couple of things you should know.

It is NOTHING like training in europe.

Trains are few and far between.

They are slow - not only flying but driving is faster. That's when they're on time - and they're often late, frequently many hours late.

Trains are expensive - again, often cost more than flying.

For the NE corridor (DC up through Boston) Amtrak is a reasonable option. for anything else I would do a lot of investigating.