traveling12345

Hi everybody,
we would like to ask your help and extensive experience with our trip itinerary.
We are a couple, both 31 years old, This is not our first time in the U.S. but it will be our first time travelling (and probably last in the near future, so we want to do and see as much as possible).
We already purchased the ticket, we will be landing in Los Angeles 2/9 and departure from JFK 10/10.
We have several anchors, places and things we really really want to see and do, but overall we don’t mind changing our plan if something won’t work out.
Were both love the outdoors, like camping , sightseeing and quaint places.
This is our “dream” itinerary, we hope it will be practical enough to implement…

2/9 Landing in Los Angeles 4 pm
3-4 Los Angeles
5-6 Highway 1 to San Francisco
7-8 San Francisco
9 early drive and arriving at Yosemite
10 Yosemite
11 from Yosemite to Vegas through Tioga pass, lodging on the way (Lone Pines?)
12 travelling to Las Vegas through Death Valley. arriving to Vegas.
13-14 Vegas
15 Zion Park, lodging Mount Carmel junction.
16 Bryce Park, lodging Page
17 Horseshoe Bend, lodging and travelling Grand Canyon
18-19 drive to Roswell NM, through Albuquerque and Santa Fe (Nice things to see on the way?)
20 Roswell and Carlsbad Caves
21-22 drive to Houston Tx (through San Antonio / Austin?)
23 Houston - NASA 's space center
24 Drive to NOLA (through Avery Island and Baton Rouge)
25-26 NOLA
27/9-1/10
a 5 days road trip from NOLA to Niagara Falls (according to Google a 19 hours drive), this is the least planned and most awaited part of our trip. we would love some recommendations how to make it the best road trip ever.
2 Niagara Falls (Canadian side)
3 driving to Lancaster county PA (through the Finger Lakes).
4 Lancaster county - Amish, lodging Washington DC
5 Washington DC
6 Driving to NYC (through Philadelphia / Baltimore?)
7-10 NYC, departure 11 pm.

we will kindly appreciate any tip or advice!

PS please ignore any mistakes... English isn't our native language

nytraveler

OK - you have a couple of problems.

You have no idea of how big the US and how long it will actually take to get anywhere. Many of the days you have listed simply can;t be done unless you are willing to take turns driving and sleeping in the car. Many days you have no time to stop and actually see or do anything.

If you want to stop to sleep - or actually see anything - you will have to cut out about half of your destinations.

Separately, you may well not be able to take a rental car into Canada and you need to be sure you have the necessary documents to enter the US more than once - or you may find yourself stuck there rather than back in the US.

As for your driving calculations - you have not figured in:

1) traffic - or delays due to bad weather or accidents
2) stops for meals, fuel or stretching your legs (it doesn;t take 5 minutes when you pull into the rest stop and there are 20 cars ahead of you waiting to get gas)
3) time to see anything at less than 60 mph

I can only suggest you pick your top 10 sights - and let someone help you put together a doable trip based on actually seeing them.

(As for 2 days in LV versus 1 in DC - sheer madness!)

WhereAreWe

I'm sure I'm not the only person that was or will be confused by the way you write your dates. It took me awhile but I realized you are flying in on September 2nd and departing October 10th. Usually in the U.S. we write those dates at 9/2 and 10/10...the 2/9 confused me, especially when your detailed itinerary went from 2/9 to 3-4, etc.

|"We have several anchors, places and things we really really want to see and do, but overall we don’t mind changing our plan if something won’t work out."

What are those anchors? It would be helpful to know what are the most important things on your list to do, and then ask us to help plan an itinerary around those.

As for this.."Many of the days you have listed simply can;t be done unless you are willing to take turns driving and sleeping in the car. Many days you have no time to stop and actually see or do anything. "

Completely unhelpful without giving specific examples. I'm seeing where the OP allows two days to go from LA to San Francisco, 2 days from Yosemite to Las Vegas, 2 days to drive from the Grand Canyon to Roswell, and 2 days to drive from Roswell to Houston and 5 days to drive the 19 hours from New Orleans to Niagara Falls. Exactly which of those are not doable without driving non-stop?

Certainly the itinerary can be reworked and tweaked but just discarding it without giving any real alternate suggestions or realistic drive times is pointless.

hetismij2

I can't see why the way the dates are written really matters. Most of the world writes dates as the OP has them, and it is easy enough to figure out which month they mean as you start reading the itinerary.

If you are at all interested in music, and Blues music in particular then you should certainly spend some of your drive from NOLA exploring the "Blues Route", and highway 51.

Do you have accommodation booked in Yosemite? If not I suggest you get on and book that asap.

emalloy

Your trip is very ambitious and I won't say it can't be done but have a couple of suggestions.

Sept.4, find lodging on the north side of LA to avoid traffic in the morning so you can be on your way up the coast.

Sept. 11 make sure Tioga pass is open. It probably will be, but good to have a plan B.

Sept. 15 either stay in Zion at Zion Lodge or in Springdale

Sept. 16 you haven't given yourself much time to see Bryce, is it to be a drive through/been there /done that/check it off the list? and you won't want to do the drive to Page after dark because the ride is beautiful, but curvy and animals tend to jump out when you least expect them. Either stay in the park or at the entrance or perhaps in Kanab

Sept.17 If you go to Page, then do go to Antelope Canyon and if you stay in Kanab, you could visit the North rim of Grand Canyon and cut miles off your trip.

Sept 18 19 There are lots of things to see between GC and Albuquerque, so let folks know what you want to see/do - Ancient ruins, beautiful scenery, hiking, etc. and Santa Fe is great but is in the opposite direction from Roswell

I hope that is helpful so far, but do come back and give a little more on what you really want to do/see. Personally after Carlsbad, I would drop the car in Las Cruses and fly to New Orleans, but it's your trip.

tomfuller

I'm thinking you will end up dropping several of the destinations before New Orleans. One day in Las Vegas is enough.
As for the route from New Orleans my thought would be going to Knoxville Tennessee then to Washington DC. From Washington DC make a brief stop in Baltimore before heading to Lancaster PA.
Go from Lancaster to Niagara Falls Canada. Make sure you have the visa that allows you to come into the US for a second time.
Travel on the New York State Thruway to get to New York City.

CascadeBob

Overall the trip as planned is pretty rushed. I think the poster has fallen prey to the common temptation to pack too much in for fear of missing something and in the process missing everything.

Also, budget isn't mentioned, so I assume money is no object.

An option to driving is to fly from region to region and rent a car for local exploration. For example, A loop including Las Vegas, San Francisco and Death Valley could be done out of Los Angeles.

The redrock canyonlands of southern Utah out of Salt Lake City. You could fly to New Orleans and visit Texas. Fly to New York or Washington DC and from there either join a tour to Niagra, or rent a car and drive it. The rest of the east coast doesn't require a car, in fact it could be a liability. There are plenty of trains and busses between cities and the cities themselves are well served by public transport.

janisj

I wish you had said where you are from . . . Then we could give you and idea of a similar itinerary in your home country. Be that as it may -- some parts of your plan are difficult to nearly impossible.

For instance >>15 Zion Park, lodging Mount Carmel junction.
16 Bryce Park, lodging Page
17 Horseshoe Bend, lodging and travelling Grand Canyon<<

Trying to 'do' Zion, Bryce, Horseshoe Bend and the Grand Canyon in 3 days, you will drive a LOT and see little.

Also a car will be totally useless in DC, Philly and NYC.

You most likely won't be able to take a rental car into Canada. But even before that issue -- most car rentals and rental insurance are limited to less than 30 days

Michael

Given that the average stay in the Grand Canyon is less than an hour (according to a ranger), what the OP suggests in terms of sightseeing time is not out of line.

I've had cousins from Germany who decided that ten days driving from coast to coast was good enough for them.

I've just had the visit of a friend from France who is on a tour which allowed 1.5 days for San Francisco (of which half a day free), and then driving via Sequoia to overnight in Bakersfield on the way to Las Vegas.


I say just do it.

janisj

>>and then driving via Sequoia to overnight in Bakersfield on the way to Las Vegas.<<

Yep -- overnighting in Bakersfield -- that's for sure a highlight of any trip out west

nytraveler

I think it's important the the OPs realize that they are not going to see most of the major sights - at best they are just going to be driving by them - not actually seeing much of anything. (Yes, if you drive through a national park you will see a lot of outdoors from the car window - and some animals in the distance. The same is not true of cities.

Tour groups do haul people around major cities in a bus for a day - and the tour members see nothing of the cities they have "visited". And driving a car around DC, Philly, NYC or Boston is the equivalent of gouging out an eye. Just sitting in traffic - looking at mobs of cabs, cars buses, and trucks - with no place to stop/park and no way to actually experience the cities you are "visiting" is IMHO a complete waste of time.

I would suggest the OPs make a list of what they want to see in each city - and then figure out how long it will take to do.

However, if they just want to drive endlessly - and very expensively - for all this time - they have a plan to do so. Except for Canada - which they need to look into further.

Michael

<i>Yep -- overnighting in Bakersfield -- that's for sure a highlight of any trip out west </i>

Just pointing out that the OP's itinerary could be worse, and the people taking the tour do not know any better.

<i> not actually seeing much of anything</i>

Simply not true when it comes to Bryce and the Grand Canyon, for example. Most people see these sights from the rim.

Gardyloo

<i>We have several anchors, places and things we really really want to see and do...</i>

It might be helpful if you list some of these, so that in the event you're considering some editing of your itinerary, these places can be put into the "untouchable" list.

I think a series of modules, or driving "loops" should be investigated, for two reasons. First, even though your route is technically feasible in the time allocated, there's a risk of dominoes - get held up in one place and all the succeeding stops become more difficult.

Second, the car rental issue - over 30 days - <i>might</i> present a problem, but one that it will certainly present is the premium you might pay for a one-way car hire lasting over a month and over 5000 miles/8000 km. Many car rental companies will charge a very high "one way" fee, but a worse-case scenario is that they'll do that <i>and</i> impose a much higher daily/weekly rate than for cars returned to the same location.

Looking at your itinerary, I could see at least three closed loops that would still give you plenty of time on the road and plenty of variety. Domestic flights in the US are very inexpensive, provided you travel between major hubs.

California/Southwest loop, including the Utah parks and Grand Canyon. Start/finish - Los Angeles.

Texas/Louisiana loop, including Houston, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Delta. Start/finish, Houston.

Northeast loop, including upstate New York, Niagara Falls, and the Amish country. Start/finish, Philadelphia.

At the end of the Northeast loop, I'd take the train to Washington DC from Philly, then another train from DC to New York. I'd pick Philly because getting in and out will be easier than from New York, and car rentals in Philly are generally cheaper than in either New York or Washington. You don't want to drive a car in any of those central cities.

But these are just speculative and still don't address the core issue, which in my mind isn't how much can you see in 39 days, but how much you can enjoy.

hetismij2

I just test booked an Alamo car, from the Dutch site, for the period OP wants. Absolutely no problem with that length of time. Of course there is a big drop off fee involved, but at €1003 + drop off fee for a Toyota Corolla I didn't find the price too horrific tbh.

If OP is a bit flexible in their planning, and willing to either put in a couple of long drive days or skip things if necessary I think they should go for it.

If I didn't have a dog to worry about I would love to do a trip like that, but then I'd probably double the time taken.

We drove Rte 66 in 9 days, plus 2 days in Chicago and several in California at the end of the trip. We stopped regularly and saw an awful lot on that trip. That was avoiding interstates and following the old route as much as possible. We could have done it in less time or in a lot more time to see all we could have seen. We stopped in a few places for multiple days too, so it wasn't all one night stops.

It is a style of holiday which suits some people but is clearly anathema to others. My idea of a holiday from hell would be traipsing around museum after museum in assorted European (or American) cities.

traveling12345

First and foremost I would like to thank anybody who answered, as I said in my first post this is just a tentative itinerary, and we are not oppose to changing our plans. Of course we are tempted to do as much as possible, we don’t know when will be the next time we'll be able to travel the US and would love to experience as much as possible, wouldn't you?
We are trying to transform our “dream road trip” to a practical one and this is why we asked for your help…

Trying to answer some of the questions
We are from Israel, we checked about renting a car and leaving to Canada with our visa, not a problem. we also spoke with Alamo Israel and was notified that the fee for returning the car in NY is 500$ + Tax, adding gas money, car rental and insurance we are talking at about 1500$. this is part of our budget so we don’t mind the expense.

WhereAreWe, sorry if we confused you with our dates, just our habit I guess.

Our anchors were Yosemite, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Roswell (my husband loves all things aliens), New Orleans, Niagara and NY, but after we consulted with other people we were informed that we “have to” see Bryce and Zion, Road Nu 1, SF, Washington DC, etc. The list never ends, you know?
We added Houston because we wanted to visit a NASA space centre, and the Amish because it was on the way...

hetismij2 thanks for the tip about the "Blues Route" and Yosemite, after I read what you wrote I logged in the park website, we want to camp (have our own tent), and registration starts April 1st so we’ll be ready.

emalloy thanks for your helpful suggestions, we will use all of them, especially the one about the lodging.
about Bryce, we’ll take a day from Vegas and add it to the park, we don’t think we would love Vegas but we’re sure we’ll love the park.

tomfuller We also believe stuff will change along the way, again this is only our first itinerary.
We loved your suggestion going from Knoxville to DC, Never thought about doing the route to Niagara the other way around.

CascadeBob We believe in starting with your dream and then move on to the practical, at least that’s how we do it. I wouldn't say money is not an object but this is our honeymoon /gift to ourselves / dream trip, so we are willing to spend.
We didn't know that travelling the east coast is preferable by public transportation, it means we can return the car earlier which is a plus.

janisj as I said we are from Israel, which is a tiny country, but we travelled south america for a long time and had several 10 hours drive [in a car] so we're not scared about that. The difference is we travelled south america for 7 month (!) and now we only have 39 days (!!!). we understand that we need to spend more time in places to really experience them, and not only to drive by…
about the rental, its ok we talked to the dealership and its not a problem.

Michael thanks for your comment and not judging us, we love you!

nytraveler thanks for your second comment (the first one actually made me upset). We will try to avoid entering with a car to Philadelphia & NY / gouging out an eye.

Gardyloo I listed our anchors before, we liked your idea of loops, it also makes me realise the Roswell+Houston+NOLA loop is the part that doesn't add up. your suggestion made tons of sense and we’ll look into flights from and to those loops. even if we need to drop some places.

hetismij2 Thanks so much for your comment, we are flexible and we don’t mind dropping some places from our list, and your road trip sounds wonderful!


Thanks again for everybody's input, we learned a lot!

Gardyloo

Here are some speculative "loops" per my earlier post.

California/Southwest loop - http://goo.gl/maps/qugDI

This includes the "Extraterrestrial Highway" in Nevada (in lieu of Roswell, later.) I've also substituted Joshua Tree National Park for Death Valley. If you're Israeli, you have plenty of desert below sea level close by. Joshua Tree has the advantage of offering both "high desert" and "low desert" environments, both beautiful, plus you can retreat easily to Palm Springs afterward.

Texas/Louisiana/Blues - http://goo.gl/maps/fMwrF

I have you starting in Dallas (plentiful inexpensive air connections from LAX) and looping through Austin, San Antonio, Houston and NOLA, then up the "Blues Highway" to Memphis, and back across to Dallas. Make music the "theme" of this loop, with everything from country to salsa, zydeco to blues, on the menu.

Pennsylvania/NY loop - http://goo.gl/maps/7M0VF

This includes the Amish country, Niagara Falls, the NY Finger Lakes, and the beautiful Hudson River Valley. You'll probably be getting decent autumn color by the time you're finished with this loop.

Of course these are just suggestions; you're still doing a lot of miles, and if you're okay with one-way rental surcharges, then you could modify them for one way trips, e.g. stop at Memphis instead of driving back to Dallas.

Michael

<i>there's a risk of dominoes - get held up in one place and all the succeeding stops become more difficult.
</i>

Negligible risk given the open spaces from the Pacific to the Mississippi. In fact, I suspect that visitors from Europe (and in this case Israel) look forward to experiencing the vastness of that area by driving through it.

Gardyloo

We have a lot of Israeli relatives and we are frequent visitors there. If the OPs are like our family, high speed touring is not a problem. Breakfast in Tiberias, lunch in Jerusalem, dinner in Eilat. No problemo.

familythattravels

traeling12345 - Congrats on your marriage (or impending marriage) what an incredible honeymoon! I live outside of Philadelphia, PA so can offer tips on the area if you get more specific about what part of PA you want to see. Have stayed in Lancaster a few times and this resort is nice - very family oriented so not a romantic get away - not sure if those options exist in Lancaster http://www.willowvalley-pa.com/willow-valley-story.php The Holiday Inn in the Historic District of Philadelphia is in a great location and moderately priced - near the bell and the Constitution Center can walk to Penn's Landing - take a trolley tour - http://www.philadelphia.com/holiday-...toricdistrict/

Best of luck to you and your husband I am sure you will have a great time.

traveling12345

Thanks again, Gardyloo for your great suggestions and insightful loops (and we *are* like your family )
Michael, you took the words out of my mouth,
familythattravels, thanks so much for your kind words and well wishing, you wormed our heart. we'll definitely come back for tips about PA (should we create a new message or keep posting to this one?)
now comes the heard part in which we'll have to decide what are we going to do...
Thanks again for all your help!