Route 66

Gavin83

Hello people,

I'm considering driving the entire length of route 66 for my holiday this year, Chicago to LA. Has anyone done this before? I could do with general advice and an idea how much roughly it would cost.

It's still an idea at the moment but I'm currently loving this idea so it'll probably happen.

*~Zephyr~*

No, I haven't done this and to be honest, I can't imagine why anyone would want to! There's this weird romantic dream held by the British about route 66 that no one in the USA quite understands.

Large parts of it no longer exist, more, larger parts of it cut through totally flat grasslands with barely even a barn to see.

The part of it that I know particularly well (and have the obligatory photo of me standing next to the iconic sign) goes through the downtown/financial district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Which, whilst very nice, is only a tourist mecca in the sense that Corporation Street in Birmingham is a tourist mecca (i.e. it isn't).

But, if you really want to do it, it's just under 4,000 kilometers long, some of which is urban driving. You'll need to figure out what car you'd be driving and know the MPG figures to work out the cost. $/gallon in Oklahoma is just under $2 at the moment, but that will vary from state to state.

Gavin83

The other thing I'm considering is flying into LA, driving route 66 as far as Santa Fe, going North into Colorado and then going through Utah back to LA, stopping at the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas along the way. It does seem that most of the stuff that interests me along route 66 is towards the LA end.

*~Zephyr~*

That sounds like a MUCH better trip! The area around Santa Fe is just lovely, Albequerque is gorgeous. Sounds like a great trip.

Except for LA. LA is a hole. Not worth visiting. San Fransciso on the other hand, is pure heaven. Fantastic city. So I'd to your trip in the reverse - fly to SanFran, do Yosemite and Sequioa parks, Death Valley, Mojave, Phoenix, Albuquerque (catching the Petrified Forest on the Way), Santa Fe then up the Rio Grande before heading back west to see the Canyons of the Ancients and the Grand Staircase-Escalante while we wind through the canyon and then on to Vegas to chill and (hopefully!) win back some of the money we'd blown on gas!

Phew! Amazing trip! I'm considering booking that myself now! :rotfl:

John259

If you've done the research and separated the reality of a Route 66 trip from the myth and still want to do it, go for it.

The US National Park Service has information about places of interest along the route: http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66
If that link doesn't work try http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/listofsites66.html

This is a personal video of a Route 66 trip which gives you good idea of what it's really like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuMxWHcs_pA

But if you prefer scenic wonders then the other routes suggested in earlier posts will be far better choices. The Grand Circle right around the Grand Canyon is another very good option: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VAgC6VsHAo

Gavin83

*~Zephyr~* wrote: »

That sounds like a MUCH better trip! The area around Santa Fe is just lovely, Albequerque is gorgeous. Sounds like a great trip.

Except for LA. LA is a hole. Not worth visiting. San Fransciso on the other hand, is pure heaven. Fantastic city. So I'd to your trip in the reverse - fly to SanFran, do Yosemite and Sequioa parks, Death Valley, Mojave, Phoenix, Albuquerque (catching the Petrified Forest on the Way), Santa Fe then up the Rio Grande before heading back west to see the Canyons of the Ancients and the Grand Staircase-Escalante while we wind through the canyon and then on to Vegas to chill and (hopefully!) win back some of the money we'd blown on gas!

Phew! Amazing trip! I'm considering booking that myself now! :rotfl:

Thank you for your post. I'm not familar with that part of America and I'm currently very much still in the research stage so your post will prove invaluable.

LA seems to be one of them love it/hate it kind of places. For every person who says its a hole I can find someone else who loves it. I was always planning on going to San Francisco anyway and I don't think I could give Yosemite a miss either but I'd probably do it seperately to the driving segment of the trip. I was 50/50 on Albuquerque so I'll certainly consider it more now.

Can you do that trip in a normal car or would you need a 4x4? I have this dream of doing it in a V8 Mustang.

Gavin83

John259 wrote: »

If you've done the research and separated the reality of a Route 66 trip from the myth and still want to do it, go for it.

The US National Park Service has information about places of interest along the route: http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66
If that link doesn't work try http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/listofsites66.html

This is a personal video of a Route 66 trip which gives you good idea of what it's really like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuMxWHcs_pA

But if you prefer scenic wonders then the other routes suggested in earlier posts will be far better choices. The Grand Circle right around the Grand Canyon is another very good option: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VAgC6VsHAo

Thanks for the link. I'll take a look through and see what they recommend!

John259

Gavin83 wrote: »

Can you do that trip in a normal car or would you need a 4x4? I have this dream of doing it in a V8 Mustang.

A normal car is fine. A 4x4 would offer no advantage because you still wouldn't be able to drive it on unpaved roads without breaking the rental agreement, voiding all LDW/CDW/insurance etc.

A normal car is a lot more practical and less expensive than a special car. Maybe you could rent a fancy car for one day in Las Vegas?

John259

Gavin83 wrote: »

I'm not familiar with that part of America and I'm currently very much still in the research stage

The US National Park Service web site has loads of practical information about visiting each of the national parks http://www.nps.gov

This YouTube playlist has good videos for each national park https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpz7cLJ1_TwSnUf7XGZAQci-c3omf5Ept

You might also want to use Google to find the web sites for the state parks within each state. And there's also the national monuments, and the national forests...

Here's some links to photos of some of the national parks:
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado http://goo.gl/aYoLh1
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah http://goo.gl/zILtqP
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado http://goo.gl/3dKFZE
Monument Valley, Utah http://goo.gl/vIdUWo
Pacific Coast Highway, California http://goo.gl/xYyVuY
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado http://goo.gl/e8UwSo.
San Juan Skyway/Million Dollar Highway, Colorado http://goo.gl/gK5wJ6
US395 near Bishop, California http://goo.gl/eUU5Xd
Yosemite National Park, California http://goo.gl/pQyX3d
Zion National Park, Utah http://goo.gl/0iJvKz

Gavin83

John259 wrote: »

A normal car is fine. A 4x4 would offer no advantage because you still wouldn't be able to drive it on unpaved roads without breaking the rental agreement, voiding all LDW/CDW/insurance etc.

A normal car is a lot more practical and less expensive than a special car. Maybe you could rent a fancy car for one day in Las Vegas?

If your gonna do it though you might as well do it in style.

theEnd

Gavin83 wrote: »

The other thing I'm considering is flying into LA, driving route 66 as far as Santa Fe, going North into Colorado and then going through Utah back to LA, stopping at the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas along the way. It does seem that most of the stuff that interests me along route 66 is towards the LA end.

Me and a group of mates did a 3 week drive round there. Brilliant.

Was something like (not sure on order, it's a while back)
- LA (spend as little time there as possible)
- Joshua Tree
- Palm Springs
- Grand Canyon
- Bryce
- Archers
- Monument Valley
- Moab / Canyonlands (ended up staying around 5 days)
- Vegas (I thought I'd love, but didn't ... still have to go there)
- Hover Dam
- Death Valley
- Yosemite
- San Fran
- Coast road back to LA

Plus loads more. Cracking trip.

Also cycled Seattle - San Fran, which was nice, but a little dull at times.