Want to Live USA for 1 month.recommend a state? +..finding a room? + cost of food?

Jane_gs

Wanting to spend 1 month in the USA, ~(just to travel, and live there for 1 month)

Just to experience it. Not to work,

Just live in a rented room, cook, and visit sites.
I would also like to meet new people, and friends while there.




Which room share sites are good for finding Rooms to stay in, in the USA ? and are you recommending a room share/rent site from experience ?

which states in the USA are the cheapest states to stay in?

Which state would you recommend, and why?

How much would i be spending on food per week? (as i don't know the USA prices for these basic common things).
{I just get the common things, milk, teabags, chicken, fish, rice, and nothing extra ordinary}.

Just to purchase food, and cook it. (rather than regular takeaways)..

How much would I spend approx on food per week, as a single person there?


The budget isn't too low....but have limits lol.

richardw

How much is the budget?

johnmcga

How much do you have to spend?
What sort of things are you interested in seeing and doing?
What sort of places do you like to live in?

The US is an enormous, diverse country, and without a little more to go on it's going to be very hard for anyone to recommend something for you.

Jane_gs

johnmcga wrote: »

How much do you have to spend?
What sort of things are you interested in seeing and doing?
What sort of places do you like to live in?

The US is an enormous, diverse country, and without a little more to go on it's going to be very hard for anyone to recommend something for you.

site seeing, things you can see and appreciate.
(parks, beeches, shopping malls)

Places? wildlife...

how much? about £2000

Just want the experience of USA life, compared to UK.

would you recommend hiring a car and driving? or it is a risk as driving is right hand side ? (got full Uk licence)

Doshwaster

I can't see £2000 lasting very long in the US, especially if you want to travel around.

Outside of the major cities you can get motels fairly cheap. If you stick to one chain then you'll benefit from loyalty points but you are still looking at $50-100 per night.

Mr_Wang

The general consensus is that to be in the US you need around $100 per day minimum. More in the big cities.

The reality is you can do it for around $50 per day if you do your research and scrimp on certain things and avoid the big cities such as NYC, where frankly, $50 wont even get you a pillow in a hotel these days.

ferf1223

Have you been to the US before?

if you go in the summer maybe consider looking into a university town...I grew up in one and the university offered reasonably priced short-term leases during the summer months when most of the students were away...of course I have no idea whether there were any restrictions on who could qualify for those short term leases but it's worth thinking about..perhaps even non-university affiliated apartment owners in university towns will have short term leases when they might otherwise be empty.

But then again maybe taking a one-month lease somewhere wouldn't work if you wanted to explore a bit...

Given your budget you would be better to consider what part of the US you might be interested in basing yourself to allow some exploring by car., renting a car from time to time. Driving in the US is much easier than it is here, IMHO...having driven for many many years in the US I still find it much harder here.

And if you will only have a car part of the time then you will want somewhere with good public transport which may be more difficult to find than you might think outside of big cities which will no doubt be more expensive overall.

Personally I think you would be better to identify a few places first - then see how pricing might work out for each...there are too many options with too many different potential experiences to look at otherwise.

BritAbroad

Much depends on where you want to be, as others have said. In many ways, each state is like it's own little country - they have a very different feel, culture and attitude.

Budget-wise, again, it depends on where you want to be. New York City is expensive - eating, accommodation, transport, activities will be pricey. On the other hand, the same things in states like Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona (these are the Four Corners states), Wyoming or Montana will be significantly less.

It sounds like you want a variety of experiences, so maybe exploring one or more of the states I just mentioned would be a good plan. Rent a car, get a national parks pass (America the Beautiful pass is $80 and covers entry to all national parks for a year - it's the best bargain in America). You could explore a variety of towns and cities of different sizes - Denver and Salt Lake City are major cities with international airports and big city amenities; Boulder and Fort Collins are smaller, but really nice college towns; Moab and Page are smaller again but are real touristy places with lots to see and do. Estes Park, Jackson Hole and Steamboat Springs are lovely mountain towns and there are numerous small towns, both authentic and 'manufactured', along the I-70 corridor.

Accommodation-wise, for a one month stay you could look at some of the motels - Comfort Inn, Hampton Inn and the like as they will often do a long-stay rate if you negotiate. Another option would be to look at executive or corporate rentals - some do anything from one night to a year-plus with no lease. Another option would be to check vrbo (vacation rental by owner) as they might well be willing to negotiate for a longer stay.

Transport-wise, unless you're in a big city a car is essential. Petrol is cheap and the vast majority of rental cars are automatics which make the driving easier. Driving is pretty straightforward though Americans are not the best at indicating and all too often drive with a mobile glued to their ear.

Food here in the US can be surprisingly expensive. It can be cheaper to eat out than cook at times! I buy organic meat, milk, veg etc though which is more expensive than the normal stuff, because the normal stuff here is stuffed full of salt and sugar! If you were only eating it for a month though I doubt you'd come to much harm. Eating out though can be insanely cheap - as an example, I went to a steakhouse the other day and had a nice sirloin with potato, chilli as a starter and as much bread and peanuts as I could scoff and it was $9. However, if you were in New York or Washington you be paying double or triple that.

ferf1223

BritAbroad wrote: »

Transport-wise, unless you're in a big city a car is essential.

It depends on where though...I grew up in a city of about 70k people and we had a fantastic bus network...mainly because it was a university town, no doubt...but I lived for period without a car without any particular issues when I was just out of university and a bit poor.

And when I lived in Cincinnati which at the time was well over 1m population in the greater metro area, the buses were rubbish.

But in general I would agree...not long after I moved here I read an interview with (of all people) Lionel Richie...it was an interview with a UK magazine and one thing he said has always stuck with me...'in America your car is your freedom'...which is generally very true.

As for Americans not indicating and driving while talking on mobiles, I find that so funny as, at least in London, I would say that would account for well over 50% of the drivers I experience here.

ferf1223

also since you say you want to cook your own meals maybe look at Extended Stay America...they are not posh, very simple...I've only stayed in one and it's basic but they have kitchenettes with hobs...no oven, but microwave and refrigerator and a small selection of dining and cooking utensils.

Our experience with them was that they were clean, basic but pricewise were a lot less than other chains...you probably won't be rubbing shoulders with a lot of executive businessmen but the other guests when we have stayed were all quite friendly.

They have hundreds of locations.

Doshwaster

BritAbroad wrote: »

Food here in the US can be surprisingly expensive. It can be cheaper to eat out than cook at times! I buy organic meat, milk, veg etc though which is more expensive than the normal stuff, because the normal stuff here is stuffed full of salt and sugar! If you were only eating it for a month though I doubt you'd come to much harm. Eating out though can be insanely cheap - as an example, I went to a steakhouse the other day and had a nice sirloin with potato, chilli as a starter and as much bread and peanuts as I could scoff and it was $9. However, if you were in New York or Washington you be paying double or triple that.

I find it's not that supermarket food is expensive (unless you go to Whole Foods) but that eating out is very cheap. I know people who live in the US who hardly every cook because there are so many restaurants nearby and if you want to eat at home almost all of them do take outs.