USA Trip
 

Hi all,

I'm planning a US trip next year, traveling mostly by bus. Yeah, I know middle-class Americans see this as 'hobo travel' but I've done it in the north-west states and had a blast. In this respect I just wanted to pick your brains as to the best (ie. cost-conscious) places to stay. Are cheap motels as dodgy as hell? Bed-bug ridden flea pits? Etc. Or can you find good value clean ones. I know it's a broad subject but you must have some opinion/knowledge of doing it.

I plan to go for 3 months, so, as I'm not completely loaded, a budget will be in order. Also how do you extend a 3 month visa?

Any help gratefully accepted. Thanks.

RB

Re: USA Trip
 

You will probably need local feedback to know for sure, a lot of the chains are cheap enough and pleasant enough, but other motels end up being for the homeless, who sell drugs and do prostitution to pay for that nights stay.

Re: USA Trip
 

There is no simple answer to the motel question as they are all franchises and, certainly in the cheaper range, can vary considerably.

How cheap do you want to go? When I travel for work, I usually stay at Comfort Inns and they are reasonable. I think the one in Kentucky I'll be in tomorrow night is costing less than $80 - with taxes. I wouldn't recommend going much lower than that. Remember that the areas around bus stations are usually fairly dangerous places.

As for extending your 'visa', if you use the VWP, you can stay for 90 days only and it can't be extended. If you want/need to stay longer, you'll need a proper visa, for which you need to contact the embassy.

Do NOT even think about coming on the VWP and overstaying as it will lead to a ban on future entry.

Re: USA Trip
 

And there is a Catch-22 right there: if you qualify for the up-to-90 days Visa Waiver, your chances of getting a visitor's visa are slim, and then you have to declare a visa refusal on your ESTA application which will usually result in you being denied an ESTA for 6-12 months.

Re: USA Trip
 

Depends on what visa it is but there isn't a "3 month visa." If you mean traveling on the Visa Waiver Program, the answer is simple, you don't have a visa and you can't extend it.

Re: USA Trip
 

Just an FYI - You may be asked to provide evidence you can support your trip.

If you have a one way ticket, or there is a long period before the return flight, questions about how you plan to fund your trip are likely, and expect a visit to secondary security screening (and possibly a date with mr touchy feely and his happy gloves) :eek:

Re: USA Trip
 

:lol:

Re: USA Trip
 

Depends on the area. Some parts of Maine and you'll get okay motels.. In some parts of MA, you'll end up in areas where the pedo's are because it's the only areas far enough away from schools/churches/parks in which cases chain holiday inn etc might be better but not as cheap.

On highway service stops you can find hotel coupon magazines for discounts which can be good for during the week.

Might want to look at trains.. Buses here, might find taking forever and going to a right shit area, 6-8 hour drive to Montreal will take 28 hours on the bus with all the stops for instance.

But when do you plan to go? Lot of independent places are closed for the winter in New England and during autumn many places can fee booked up months in advance for the leaf peeping season.

Re: USA Trip
 

I think the local knowledge comment is spot on, especially at the bottom end of the market. If I'm out of town with mates for a bike ride, we tend to aim just above the gutter, because a) we're not spending much time there, and b) we're not as concerned as we would be if family were with us. So we normally go for something like Motel 6 which can be cheap as chips, or even cheaper..(think the cheapest we got was 24.99 for a 2 bed room in Wichita Falls TX :eek:) Standard varies massively, as does area of town, but generally they have all been clean....ish. Although there have been a couple where I've slept with one eye open, and pondered the wisdom of never going for a CHL....!
But to be honest, the worst of the bad ones have still been better than most of the good ones I used when I was a student backpacking round North Africa or the eastern Med.....

If I'm on a road trip with family in tow, we will normally go to a slightly better chain....Embassy suites, one of the Marriott chain, or something of that ilk....prices probably more in the 80-100 and a bit range.

Re: USA Trip
 

couchsurfing.com and Air BnB are both fantatsic if you're A) looking for somewhere cheap/reasonable to stay in any city and B) if you're trying to stay away from the tourist traps and actually experience individual cities the way locals do.

Re: USA Trip
 

:thumbsup: Wow!

Many, many thanks for all the detailed replies, and so fast!

I'll be going late August, so finishing end of November. I used Motel 6 last time and thought it was fine - clean, friendly, pool, not miles out of town - as well as casino hotels which were fantastic for $50/60. I'm not a gambler but I did enjoy the bar counter fruit machines which provoke the barman into continually re-filling your glass.

Will definitely look into couchsurfing.com and Air BnB, too.

I'll have easily enough dough to cover 3 months but would like to go home with some :fingerscrossed:

I met a Dutch mr touchy feely about a year ago at Schipol airport. He didn't have his happy gloves on and I didn't have to bend over but he did give my bollocks a bit of a squeeze. It was something to do with the reefer I'd just smoked outside.

Re. the visa, I did just look at the specific forum on here and the number of differing visas is unbelievable. L1A, N-400, N-336, B2, etc :blink:

Does anyone know which one would cover a stay longer than 3 months, if any? Guindalf mentions a 'proper visa'. Do you know the code?

Once again thanks so much.

RB.

PS. Thanks for not giving me a hard time about my pseudonym :thumbup: Nobody on the 'Mid-East' forum even speaks to me!

Re: USA Trip
 

B2

But you don't want it.

Re: USA Trip
 

It's was mentioned earlier in this thread. When you travel to the US you can travel on the Visa Waiver program... you fill in an ESTA and are approved, you can travel for 90 days without a visa (a waived visa - the name gives it away).

If you qualify for this type of travel, you will likely be turned down for a full blown visa (the B2) - if you apply for a B2, but could travel on the Visa Waiver, your application will be rejected. A rejected application has to be declared on an ESTA, and you wont be able to apply again for 12 months.

So you'll be royally screwed.

Re: USA Trip
 

A visa cannot be extended, but that's not what you want anyway.

A request to extend the allowed period of stay in the USA can be made with I-539, but not if one entered using the Visa Waiver Program, as others have already written, so that won't do you any good.

Regards, JEff

Re: USA Trip
 

I think the days of dodgy motels are over aren't they? Especially with tripadvisor putting them out of business. Which is what the OP should be looking at, tbh.