Worried about spending money!

mcsharbo

Hi all

Currently planning a 3 week honeymoon in the USA. We have 12 nights driving from San Diego to San Francisco, 6 nights in Vegas and 3 nights in New York.

I have absolutely NO idea how much spending money we are going to need and are worried we may underestimate with not knowing how much things usually cost over there.

Flights, car hire and accommodation for approximately half the trip will be paid for before we go (San Diego, Vegas and New York). We're not usually massive spenders and tend to go for fairly basic accommodation as we don't plan on spending a lot of time in there. Will be doing a few trips and tours such as Disney in California, Alcatraz etc.

Someone suggested we budget around £50 each a day - does that sound fair? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

richardw

Would you dine at places like https://www.dennys.com or somewhere more expensive?

trev_dalt

My sister goes to USA quite regularly and she always allows around £70 per day, she used to travel all over by car so i suppose you have to allow for petrol, food, drink and hotel bills. if you are staying in one place i would think it would be cheaper then touring America. could be a good idea to find out prices of food, petrol, etc.

C_Mababejive

May i politely suggest that you might consider trimming your 6 day stay in vegas to maybe 3 or 4 days and take in a stop somewhere else...

John259

For budget accommodation you might like to have a look at the web sites for these two motel chains:
http://www.motel6.com - basic, but clean, safe and perfectly adequate for overnight stops. Not suitable for snobs - think Aldi and Lidl, not Waitrose
http://www.super8.com - slightly more upmarket but still good value.
Independent family-owned motels ("mom & pops") can also be good choices but they vary enormously and don't expect everything in the room to be brand new.

Restaurants vary from fast food to fine dining. In the southwest, In-n-Out Burger gets virtually universal high praise and it's very good value for money (but the menu range is limited). Nationally, you might like to try Wendy's, and also one of the Americanised Mexican fast food chains such as Taco Bell. Sonic is a uniquely American experience, it's a drive-in fast food chain where you order by intercom and the food is brought to your car. Arby's roast beef sandwiches (numerous layers of thinly sliced beef in a burger bun) make another nice change. Fast food chains are also good choices for breakfast (a "biscuit" is a scone cut in half with a filling inserted burger-style). Also, you can purchase snacks such as apple pies for lunch from supermarkets.

Between San Diego and San Francisco you can take the Pacific Coast Highway (mainly Ca1), or an inland route via Ca99 and Sequioa and Yosemite National Parks. It's not an easy choice. Anyway, I'd very highly recommend including Yosemite one way or another, it's a truly beautiful place.

I'd agree with the previous comment about Las Vegas and if you'll have a car then, I suggest maybe heading up to southwestern Utah for Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks and Cedar Breaks National Monument - but it all depends what interests you.

There's more information about the places I've mentioned on Wikipedia, YouTube and where relevant the US National Parks Service web site.

photome

C_Mababejive wrote: »

May i politely suggest that you might consider trimming your 6 day stay in vegas to maybe 3 or 4 days and take in a stop somewhere else...

Alternatively increase it

OP how long is a piece of string.

Ultimately you can only spend what you can afford.

Halifax Clarity is one of the best ways of maximising your money.

But £50/$75 a day isnt very much

mcsharbo

Thank you for all your replies.

We have planned 6 nights in Vegas purposely as we are meeting up with family from abroad and spending the time with them. Plus to be fair, we want 6 nights in Vegas and have got a great deal on a hotel! :-)

We're not into expensive dining aren't aren't opposed to buying stuff from supermarkets to make sandwiches/snacks rather than eating out constantly. Plus out of the 3 weeks we will only need to pay for running a car during our San Diego/San Francisco trip so won't have petrol costs after that.

With the rate we're saving at the moment we'll have more than £50 each a day but I was just looking for a rough estimate and seeing if the advice I was given by a friend was right

mcsharbo

Also, John259 - thank you for your really helpful post. We shop in aldi 99.9% of the time so definitely not snobs :-) Will add your suggestions to my list and will use them when we start plotting out route!

Mr_Wang

mcsharbo wrote: »

Hi all

Currently planning a 3 week honeymoon in the USA. We have 12 nights driving from San Diego to San Francisco, 6 nights in Vegas and 3 nights in New York.

I have absolutely NO idea how much spending money we are going to need and are worried we may underestimate with not knowing how much things usually cost over there.

Flights, car hire and accommodation for approximately half the trip will be paid for before we go (San Diego, Vegas and New York). We're not usually massive spenders and tend to go for fairly basic accommodation as we don't plan on spending a lot of time in there. Will be doing a few trips and tours such as Disney in California, Alcatraz etc.

Someone suggested we budget around £50 each a day - does that sound fair? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Prices in the US are the same as in the UK but in dollars. Go by that and you'll be OK.

Obviously there are exceptions, but not when it comes to hotels and food.

John259

This series of YouTube videos might be worth watching - it's a small family (father, mother and son) from Britain on a road trip including the Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica to San Francisco, then Yosemite and Lone Pine (on US395 in Owen's Valley). That's as far as it goes at the moment, but the daily short vlogs on their other channel reveal that the route will continue through Death Valley to Las Vegas, then back to Los Angeles. It's extremely well produced, very informative and entertaining. It conveys the beauty and vastness of the West, and the enormous enjoyment they all derived from the holiday.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb-8Gy55ZLXaVGaWY3_O_KUo2H5cgmb7P

Gloomendoom

Mr_Wang wrote: »

Prices in the US are the same as in the UK but in dollars. Go by that and you'll be OK.

Obviously there are exceptions, but not when it comes to hotels and food.

But don't forget that local taxes are usually not added until you get to the till and, in addition, eat in food will cost another 20% on top for the tip.