Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
Jan 27th 2009, 10:16 am
#1
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Joined: Jan 2009
Location: London
Posts: 1
Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
Hi all,
I am trying to plan a road trip, flying into New York and driving to LA over the period of a month with a mate. We have pencilled a route at the moment and cleared time off work but am having trouble trying to cost the trip aprt from the flights?
Does anyone have any experience of driving this? Would we be better to buy a 'bargain basement' car for around $1000 in New York and see if it makes it? Spend more and try to sell it at the end? Hire a car and drop it off in LA? Too many options but dont know which would be cheapest!
We are planning on staying 45% in motels / hostels and 45% camping / 10% in half decent hotels. Would people thinkn this sounds ok?
Flights seem to be about £440 without the connecting return flight from LA to NY.
I'd REALLY appreciate any help / assistance / advice anyone could give, it's the biggest thing I've tried to plan before and could well end up making some school-boy errors!! lol!
Thanks all!
I am trying to plan a road trip, flying into New York and driving to LA over the period of a month with a mate. We have pencilled a route at the moment and cleared time off work but am having trouble trying to cost the trip aprt from the flights?
Does anyone have any experience of driving this? Would we be better to buy a 'bargain basement' car for around $1000 in New York and see if it makes it? Spend more and try to sell it at the end? Hire a car and drop it off in LA? Too many options but dont know which would be cheapest!
We are planning on staying 45% in motels / hostels and 45% camping / 10% in half decent hotels. Would people thinkn this sounds ok?
Flights seem to be about £440 without the connecting return flight from LA to NY.
I'd REALLY appreciate any help / assistance / advice anyone could give, it's the biggest thing I've tried to plan before and could well end up making some school-boy errors!! lol!
Thanks all!
Jan 27th 2009, 10:38 am
#2
MODERATOR
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Hong Kong, mostly.
Posts: 5,214
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
A cross country trip is a great thing to do, but there are some issues you should address.
Buying the car would have the rather huge problem of insurance and licensing, difficult if you are just here as a visitor.
The other difficulty is that most of the major rental car (car hire) companies will have a minimum age of 25 (which might not be a problem but though I should mention it). Some have other restrictions like 'you can only drive in this state'. I would also price around NY/NJ/CT to see which would have a cheaper car. It might be worth $20 train ticket to save $200 in rental car fees.
You will also likely have a 'drop off' fee for leaving the car on the other coast, which may be as high as $1,000.
Have you consider the 'big circle'? Leaving NY, heading down to the deep South and then over through Texas, maybe Vegas then to LA. And then up the Pacific Coast highway (stunningly beautiful) to San Fran and Seattle, before coming back across the barren NW to Minnesota/Chicago and back into NY? I did a google maps JFK/LAX/JFK and then expanded out the route a bit. 7,600 miles. At 300 miles a day (5-6 hours driving) that's 25 days.
Buying the car would have the rather huge problem of insurance and licensing, difficult if you are just here as a visitor.
The other difficulty is that most of the major rental car (car hire) companies will have a minimum age of 25 (which might not be a problem but though I should mention it). Some have other restrictions like 'you can only drive in this state'. I would also price around NY/NJ/CT to see which would have a cheaper car. It might be worth $20 train ticket to save $200 in rental car fees.
You will also likely have a 'drop off' fee for leaving the car on the other coast, which may be as high as $1,000.
Have you consider the 'big circle'? Leaving NY, heading down to the deep South and then over through Texas, maybe Vegas then to LA. And then up the Pacific Coast highway (stunningly beautiful) to San Fran and Seattle, before coming back across the barren NW to Minnesota/Chicago and back into NY? I did a google maps JFK/LAX/JFK and then expanded out the route a bit. 7,600 miles. At 300 miles a day (5-6 hours driving) that's 25 days.
Jan 27th 2009, 2:06 pm
#3
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Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Cornwall >>> Marin, CA >>> Cornwall!
Posts: 740
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
I'd consider breaking the journey up a little bit.
Some of the driving can be bone achingly boring where you're reduced to trying to name different clouds! So perhaps an internal flight or two to cover some ground?
This also frees up time to stay in a couple of places for a decent chunk of time rather than being on the go all the time.
As for buying then selling a car I'd say that even a rental at $100 a day average would be cheaper and less hassle than trying to buy and sell the car.
Although there maybe be cheap deals around I'm not aware of the set up being as easy as it is in Aus or New Zealand where this is a routine thing to do.
I'm not sure if prices have come down some but when I did a drive with a friend four years ago the cheap motels of legend didn't come across as that cheap to us. We were naive a bit I guess but although they were cheaper than say a full service hotel we still had to find as much as a $100 for a night sometimes.
Google drive away USA. This is where people move from state to state and need their cars moved too. If you find one that is convenient then it can be a godsend but we didn't get lucky enough. Some might even chip in for the gas. That said check the age requirements.
And don't forget gas. It might be cheap in the middle but it's not so cheap in CA at the mo and with a car potentially doing a mere 15 to the gallon it will add up.
Good luck and have fun.
Some of the driving can be bone achingly boring where you're reduced to trying to name different clouds! So perhaps an internal flight or two to cover some ground?
This also frees up time to stay in a couple of places for a decent chunk of time rather than being on the go all the time.
As for buying then selling a car I'd say that even a rental at $100 a day average would be cheaper and less hassle than trying to buy and sell the car.
Although there maybe be cheap deals around I'm not aware of the set up being as easy as it is in Aus or New Zealand where this is a routine thing to do.
I'm not sure if prices have come down some but when I did a drive with a friend four years ago the cheap motels of legend didn't come across as that cheap to us. We were naive a bit I guess but although they were cheaper than say a full service hotel we still had to find as much as a $100 for a night sometimes.
Google drive away USA. This is where people move from state to state and need their cars moved too. If you find one that is convenient then it can be a godsend but we didn't get lucky enough. Some might even chip in for the gas. That said check the age requirements.
And don't forget gas. It might be cheap in the middle but it's not so cheap in CA at the mo and with a car potentially doing a mere 15 to the gallon it will add up.
Good luck and have fun.
Jan 27th 2009, 2:16 pm
#4
Septic Sprout
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 7,993
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
I contemplated something like this 7 years ago as part of a round-the-world trip. After much head-scratching finally gave up on the long-distance one-way rental as the fees were just stupid.
Ended up doing a big loop (albeit over 3 months) and getting a car from a smaller, local car-rental firm that offered a much better deal than the big names.
Back then the exchange rate was about as shite as it is now, so it all cost us a bit more than we bargained for. The cheapest motel in any given town will be chocker full of the gun-toting smack-gobbling low-life you might imagine, so we very quickly started to pick places that were just a little bit higher up the ladder.
In this day and age, carrying a laptop so you can research cheapy deals for accommodation as you go along has got to be the way to go. We wasted so much time driving door-to-door asking about rates. We did manage a spot of haggling now and again but not very often.
On the plus side they're practically giving away petrol again now...
Ended up doing a big loop (albeit over 3 months) and getting a car from a smaller, local car-rental firm that offered a much better deal than the big names.
Back then the exchange rate was about as shite as it is now, so it all cost us a bit more than we bargained for. The cheapest motel in any given town will be chocker full of the gun-toting smack-gobbling low-life you might imagine, so we very quickly started to pick places that were just a little bit higher up the ladder.
In this day and age, carrying a laptop so you can research cheapy deals for accommodation as you go along has got to be the way to go. We wasted so much time driving door-to-door asking about rates. We did manage a spot of haggling now and again but not very often.
On the plus side they're practically giving away petrol again now...
Jan 27th 2009, 2:43 pm
#5
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,059
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
Buying a car is easy, all you need is money. For visitors, the hard part will be getting a car titled, registered, plated, and insured. These hurdles will either be insurmountable, or will be much more hassle than you want to deal with while on holiday. As others have suggested, look into long-term rentals. Seek a weekly or monthly rate, rather than a daily rate.
You haven't said what time of year you want to make this trip. It will be important to take local conditions into account when planning your route. For example, in mountainous areas, some high routes will be closed by snow in the winter; they might not be open until quite late in the spring depending on how severe the winter was.
You haven't said what time of year you want to make this trip. It will be important to take local conditions into account when planning your route. For example, in mountainous areas, some high routes will be closed by snow in the winter; they might not be open until quite late in the spring depending on how severe the winter was.
Jan 27th 2009, 3:05 pm
#7
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Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Hong Kong, mostly.
Posts: 5,214
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
You haven't said what time of year you want to make this trip. It will be important to take local conditions into account when planning your route. For example, in mountainous areas, some high routes will be closed by snow in the winter; they might not be open until quite late in the spring depending on how severe the winter was.
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/onl...n-snowy-oregon
Jan 27th 2009, 4:47 pm
#8
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 35,082
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
There was a quasi-famous Internet story about a techie named James Kim who tried to drive though Oregon and got stuck in the snow with his family (he died, the rest of the family lived). Some blamed online maps for not being accurate enough about conditions.
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/onl...n-snowy-oregon
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/onl...n-snowy-oregon
I hadn't read the 'online directions failed him' angle before. We all assumed it was the getting-out-of-the-car-to-open-the-gate-on-the-closed-forest-service-road-in-the-blinding-snow problem that led to the tragedy. And the not-listening-to-the-locals-who-told-them-the-road-was-closed angle.
I agree that the digital maps don't tell the whole story though.
Jan 27th 2009, 5:06 pm
#9
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 4,820
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
I think some hire companies still do the car return scheme but you have to take it hit 'n' miss as far as having a car to carry on with to next destination.
Having driven across the country several times working I would chose the round trip and see all I could, the difference between the northern routes and the southern routes is amazing.
NYC into NJ, I-80 across to I-90 through to Seatle, down I-5 along the pacific coast to LA, I-10 into Texas and to Florida then I-95 north back to NYC. To do it properly and see the country you would need at least a month.
Just to drive and stop over night at hotels but don't stop to look would take 2/3 weeks.
Just driving from NYC to LA shortest route ... would take about 5/6 days sepending on your speed.
Having driven across the country several times working I would chose the round trip and see all I could, the difference between the northern routes and the southern routes is amazing.
NYC into NJ, I-80 across to I-90 through to Seatle, down I-5 along the pacific coast to LA, I-10 into Texas and to Florida then I-95 north back to NYC. To do it properly and see the country you would need at least a month.
Just to drive and stop over night at hotels but don't stop to look would take 2/3 weeks.
Just driving from NYC to LA shortest route ... would take about 5/6 days sepending on your speed.
Last edited by Patrick Hasler; Jan 27th 2009 at 5:10 pm.
Jan 27th 2009, 5:47 pm
#10
Not here much
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Highland Park, NJ
Posts: 2,452
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
Have a read of "America Unchained" by Dave Gorman. It's the reverse journey and I'm only half way through the book. At one point he mentioned costs of about $4000 when he'd gone about 3000 miles (he wasn't even halfway across the country because of detours). That didn't include the cost of the car he bought to do it. Annoyingly it doesn't mention anything about how he registered or insured the car.
Jan 27th 2009, 6:08 pm
#11
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 4,820
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
Have a read of "America Unchained" by Dave Gorman. It's the reverse journey and I'm only half way through the book. At one point he mentioned costs of about $4000 when he'd gone about 3000 miles (he wasn't even halfway across the country because of detours). That didn't include the cost of the car he bought to do it. Annoyingly it doesn't mention anything about how he registered or insured the car.
I do remember watching 'Lonely Planet' once and Ian got off a plane on the east coast, bought and old banger, drove across the USA and sold it when he had finished.
Jan 27th 2009, 6:17 pm
#12
Septic Sprout
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 7,993
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
Have a read of "America Unchained" by Dave Gorman. It's the reverse journey and I'm only half way through the book. At one point he mentioned costs of about $4000 when he'd gone about 3000 miles (he wasn't even halfway across the country because of detours). That didn't include the cost of the car he bought to do it. Annoyingly it doesn't mention anything about how he registered or insured the car.
Jan 27th 2009, 6:34 pm
#13
I love my brick!
Joined: May 2007
Location: Peachy
Posts: 9,304
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
I think some hire companies still do the car return scheme but you have to take it hit 'n' miss as far as having a car to carry on with to next destination.
Having driven across the country several times working I would chose the round trip and see all I could, the difference between the northern routes and the southern routes is amazing.
NYC into NJ, I-80 across to I-90 through to Seatle, down I-5 along the pacific coast to LA, I-10 into Texas and to Florida then I-95 north back to NYC. To do it properly and see the country you would need at least a month.
Just to drive and stop over night at hotels but don't stop to look would take 2/3 weeks.
Just driving from NYC to LA shortest route ... would take about 5/6 days sepending on your speed.
Having driven across the country several times working I would chose the round trip and see all I could, the difference between the northern routes and the southern routes is amazing.
NYC into NJ, I-80 across to I-90 through to Seatle, down I-5 along the pacific coast to LA, I-10 into Texas and to Florida then I-95 north back to NYC. To do it properly and see the country you would need at least a month.
Just to drive and stop over night at hotels but don't stop to look would take 2/3 weeks.
Just driving from NYC to LA shortest route ... would take about 5/6 days sepending on your speed.
Off the top of my head, I'd take US 6 from NY through Chicago, across to US 61 then to US 53 until you get to US 2, then take US 2 across to Seattle, then take US 101 down the coast until San Fran. Go across to Hwy 99, and Hwy 58 then to I 40 (not really much choice) to US 180 across to Dallas, then on to US 80 to Savannah, then up the east coast on US 17, US 13 and finally US 1 back to NY. Probably would take longer, but you'd certainly see a lot more.
Jan 27th 2009, 8:03 pm
#14
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Joined: Aug 2004
Location: MA, USA
Posts: 92,170
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
Might be worth looking around to see if anyone needs a car delivered and use that to get across the country...
Jan 27th 2009, 8:12 pm
#15
Boston Sep 15th
Joined: Jul 2008
Location: San Francisco, California
Posts: 191
Re: Trying to plan a trip from New York to LA
I did a similar tip to this in 2003. I spent the summer in Boston on a J1 visa, and for the final month we were here it was Road trip time!
The plan was Miami to San Francisco. Due to time restraints we decided to fly to New Orleans from Boston and start from there. Our route (four weeks) went something like this:
New Orleans -
Texas (Huston) (Austin) (Dallas) -
Oklahoma (OKC) -
Kansas (Wichita) -
Colorado (Pueblo) - (Denver) - (Grand Junction)
Utah - (drove though Rockies) (four corner monument)
Arizona - (Grand canyon village) - (flagstaff)
Nevada - (Las Vegas)
California - (Los Angeles) - (San Francisco)
It was not quite coast to coast, it was about 4000 miles in total. So I can definitely give you some pointers.
General Pointers:
Think economies of scale, we managed to get five people on board for the trip, this makes everything split five ways and really takes the pain out of the cost of it.
Transport:
I agree with all the other posters here, buying a car in the US is complicated even for people that are resident here. It is very possible, but will no doubt cost you a lot of money. I'd say you would need a good $3/4k to organise it, you will need a car you can some what rely on too don't forget. You will need an address in what ever state you are going to buy it in too to register/insure it in. Of curse your UK licence state car registration wont match, so you may run into problems if your pulled over, even though technically your not doing anything wrong, police over here don't like to see stuff that's out of place. If you have your heart set on buying a car then find a state that has loser laws for getting cars on the road, and cheaper insurance :-). Oh an remember you will have to sell it at the end too, or find somewhere to dispose of it when you are ready to fly home. If you sell it then you may lose money if you have to sell it in a hurry. I found the whole process of buying a car in MA a headache, I did all the running around myself to get all the docs and crap that you need to do.
Of course you cant have a road trip with out a car :-) I managed to get a rental from Avis that we picked up in New Orleans and dropped off in San Francisco and as far as I can remember we did not have to pay a drop fee. Now this was 2003, the total cost of the rental ran to about $2000, for about 20/22 days. We did not pick up the car till we were ready to leave New Orleans, and dropped it off as soon as we got to San Francisco. This saved us about 8 days of rental fees and parking in those cities. Petrol was about what it is now then. Keep trying all the rental companies you may get a rate that does not include a drop fee. I often wonder how long it too for our SUV to make it home from California to Louisiana!! Most rentals in the USA have unlimited mileage, but make sure that of you rent your rental does not have a max miles per day as that would hammer you on a long road trip like that. Also you need to factor in the cost of parking. This can be outrageous in the big cities. Expect to pay $50 a DAY for parking in NYC, and in and around $20 for many of the other big cities. It really adds up.
Accommodation:
Ok well there was five of us and we were all fairly young so I made an executive decision and decided that we would only book one room where ever we went. It was much cheaper then having to book two rooms. We implemented a “sleep on the floor” rota, so one person had to sleep on the floor every 5th night! Of course the hotels/motels that we were staying in would have gone nuts if they had thought there was five people in the room, but only two of us checked in any time we got to a new city. There was always murder to get one of the two keys for the door so that you did not get locked out of the room when others with the key went home after being out on the beer. :-)
The pros for this was that is was $20 a night generally for accommodation. The cons being the room was always very crowed and it was hard to sleep some nights with all the messing!! Also in the morning when we were moving to the next city, it took about two hours for every one to get up pack and shower and be ready to leave, only one bath room :-(!
I used priceline.com to get hotels in the big cities, this is fantastic for getting cheap hotels. You may need a US credit card for using the US one, but there is a priceline.co.uk that you can use to book US hotels and pay in UK stg. This site you basically name the general area you want to stay in and name your star level and price. We never paid more then $100 a night for a hotel room. We got the San Francisco Hilton (5*) for 5 nights for a $100 a night (split five ways!), bargain.
There are hostels in some of the bigger cities, but the USA in general does not have a great Hostel culture. We did not bother with them simply as there were five of us and we only ever paid $20 for accommodation per night and this was actually less then most of the hostels (but we were in 5* hotels!)
Out side of the main cities you will be best off staying in Motels, they can be very reasonable. We stayed in them in the south (Texas through to Denver). They are fine. I am glad I drive through the whole south of the country but there is only so many farms you can look at on a 10 hour drive!!
General Information:
If you have the time to do a big trip like this then I would 100% recommend it. I had a blast. You will have to do a mountain of organisation to have it run smooth. You could just move around ad hoc I suppose, but booking anything last minute in the USA (flights/car rentals/hotels/trains) is not recommended as it will end up costing 5 times the price!! you pay a premium for convenience over here, I would advise you to agree a general route and try and get hotels/motels booked in advance. You can leave a few days here and there not organised that's what we did. Oh watch out for the dry reserves in Arizona or where ever they are, no beer! We got stuck in one of them on night between cites that was a nightmare!
The plan was Miami to San Francisco. Due to time restraints we decided to fly to New Orleans from Boston and start from there. Our route (four weeks) went something like this:
New Orleans -
Texas (Huston) (Austin) (Dallas) -
Oklahoma (OKC) -
Kansas (Wichita) -
Colorado (Pueblo) - (Denver) - (Grand Junction)
Utah - (drove though Rockies) (four corner monument)
Arizona - (Grand canyon village) - (flagstaff)
Nevada - (Las Vegas)
California - (Los Angeles) - (San Francisco)
It was not quite coast to coast, it was about 4000 miles in total. So I can definitely give you some pointers.
General Pointers:
Think economies of scale, we managed to get five people on board for the trip, this makes everything split five ways and really takes the pain out of the cost of it.
Transport:
I agree with all the other posters here, buying a car in the US is complicated even for people that are resident here. It is very possible, but will no doubt cost you a lot of money. I'd say you would need a good $3/4k to organise it, you will need a car you can some what rely on too don't forget. You will need an address in what ever state you are going to buy it in too to register/insure it in. Of curse your UK licence state car registration wont match, so you may run into problems if your pulled over, even though technically your not doing anything wrong, police over here don't like to see stuff that's out of place. If you have your heart set on buying a car then find a state that has loser laws for getting cars on the road, and cheaper insurance :-). Oh an remember you will have to sell it at the end too, or find somewhere to dispose of it when you are ready to fly home. If you sell it then you may lose money if you have to sell it in a hurry. I found the whole process of buying a car in MA a headache, I did all the running around myself to get all the docs and crap that you need to do.
Of course you cant have a road trip with out a car :-) I managed to get a rental from Avis that we picked up in New Orleans and dropped off in San Francisco and as far as I can remember we did not have to pay a drop fee. Now this was 2003, the total cost of the rental ran to about $2000, for about 20/22 days. We did not pick up the car till we were ready to leave New Orleans, and dropped it off as soon as we got to San Francisco. This saved us about 8 days of rental fees and parking in those cities. Petrol was about what it is now then. Keep trying all the rental companies you may get a rate that does not include a drop fee. I often wonder how long it too for our SUV to make it home from California to Louisiana!! Most rentals in the USA have unlimited mileage, but make sure that of you rent your rental does not have a max miles per day as that would hammer you on a long road trip like that. Also you need to factor in the cost of parking. This can be outrageous in the big cities. Expect to pay $50 a DAY for parking in NYC, and in and around $20 for many of the other big cities. It really adds up.
Accommodation:
Ok well there was five of us and we were all fairly young so I made an executive decision and decided that we would only book one room where ever we went. It was much cheaper then having to book two rooms. We implemented a “sleep on the floor” rota, so one person had to sleep on the floor every 5th night! Of course the hotels/motels that we were staying in would have gone nuts if they had thought there was five people in the room, but only two of us checked in any time we got to a new city. There was always murder to get one of the two keys for the door so that you did not get locked out of the room when others with the key went home after being out on the beer. :-)
The pros for this was that is was $20 a night generally for accommodation. The cons being the room was always very crowed and it was hard to sleep some nights with all the messing!! Also in the morning when we were moving to the next city, it took about two hours for every one to get up pack and shower and be ready to leave, only one bath room :-(!
I used priceline.com to get hotels in the big cities, this is fantastic for getting cheap hotels. You may need a US credit card for using the US one, but there is a priceline.co.uk that you can use to book US hotels and pay in UK stg. This site you basically name the general area you want to stay in and name your star level and price. We never paid more then $100 a night for a hotel room. We got the San Francisco Hilton (5*) for 5 nights for a $100 a night (split five ways!), bargain.
There are hostels in some of the bigger cities, but the USA in general does not have a great Hostel culture. We did not bother with them simply as there were five of us and we only ever paid $20 for accommodation per night and this was actually less then most of the hostels (but we were in 5* hotels!)
Out side of the main cities you will be best off staying in Motels, they can be very reasonable. We stayed in them in the south (Texas through to Denver). They are fine. I am glad I drive through the whole south of the country but there is only so many farms you can look at on a 10 hour drive!!
General Information:
If you have the time to do a big trip like this then I would 100% recommend it. I had a blast. You will have to do a mountain of organisation to have it run smooth. You could just move around ad hoc I suppose, but booking anything last minute in the USA (flights/car rentals/hotels/trains) is not recommended as it will end up costing 5 times the price!! you pay a premium for convenience over here, I would advise you to agree a general route and try and get hotels/motels booked in advance. You can leave a few days here and there not organised that's what we did. Oh watch out for the dry reserves in Arizona or where ever they are, no beer! We got stuck in one of them on night between cites that was a nightmare!