US road trip September 2012 - when to book?

flakmagnet

Hi all,

My partner and I are planning on a road trip in the US next year, starting in New York, and after a lot of driving, finishing in Florida.

We will be booking everything seperately, and I was wondering when would be best (roughly) to book:

Flights
Car Rental
Hotels

Would they be best booked as early as possible, or maybe with 9,6 or 3 months (roughly) to go?

Thanks very much,

Matt

Foxtbh

I do a Road Trip each year. My next is in September and so far I have booked a flight (Which I only did a month ago) and a 24 hour hire car for a single leg of the trip.

I paid the least for the flight I have seen them advertised for in the previous 9 months. I'll probably book the rest of the car hire this month and a few hotels.

With my last trip I only booked half the hotels before I got there and did the latter half using my laptop and free wifi. It worked perfectly gave me ultimate flexibility.

This really isn't the sort of holiday that needs you to book years in advance. Provided you've got your first few nights accomodation, a car and some flights that is in theory all you need this side of checking in for your flight.

moronic50

I would say book your flights in January, there tends to be good sales on then. Also be open to flights that aren't direct, this can lower your costs considerably (e.g. am flying to Tokyo this winter and it was £650 return via copenhagen or over £1000 flying direct). For hotel hire I wouldn't bother booking unless you intend to spend a number of days in one place. So in your case probably book somewhere in advance for NYC and for florida taking advantage again of the sales. If you're on a even tighter budget try looking around for decent hostels that have private rooms. For everything in the middle I recommend motels, they tended to be between $50 and $70 a night. If you can book in advance for them, say the day before, you can get a small discount. On our trip we tended to stay in Super 8 motels as they where cheap, cheerful and included breakfast.

Car hire is a difficult one because, whilst I would normally reccomend booking in advance for the best rate, you'll still be slapped with a hefty one way fee of about $500 dollars. On my road trip we simply wen't in an almighty circle and avoided this, but others I know have booked the car on a pay on arrival basis and then haggled hard in the airport managing to get them to wave the one way fee. If you're brave enough to give that a whirl it'll save you a hell of a lot.

The last thing I would reccomend is paying for the extra insurance that covers windscreen/tyre damage etc. Nothing worst than a stone causing a fat chip in your wind shield and it's not your fault but still having to pay for a whole new screen at the end of the journey.