USA driving coast to coast

strawb_shortcake

Has anyone here done this?

Off the back of a random Facebook post yesterday, my OH and I had the idea that we could visit 2 specific locations either side of the States. 

It's not something we are likely to do any time soon but would like to start looking at the feasibility of it. 

The I 40 California to North Carolina could possibly be used partially, but would need to take in Oregon and Virginia. Not too fussed about California, North Carolina would be good, I seem to recall they do some good shark spotting boat trips. 

Looking at the map I was thinking

Virginia

Kentucky - see a rodeo

Missouri

Kansas

Colarado - would like to see Aspen and Boulder

Utah - National parks/monument Valley.

Idaho or Nevada - Idaho seems a better route but not somewhere I know much about

Oregon - Mount Hood

I've probably only spent 20-30 minutes looking at a map but would appreciate any thoughts or tips from people that have planned a USA road trip. 

Also how long would you allow for this sort of trip? We wouldn't want to rush but understand it would probably be around 40-45 hours of driving going coast to coast.

TY

El_Torro

I have done various road trips in the US, none coast to coast though. 

I drove from Yellowstone down through Utah to Las Vegas. The National Parks are, in my opinion, pretty great. I even cut my time in Las Vegas short to go see some more rock formations. Your idea of fun may or may not be different

Monument Valley was especially memorable. It was about a 5 hour detour from the route I was taking but well worth doing. 

It's hard to say how long you should spend on your planned itinerary, especially since I haven't been to a lot of the places you're planning to go to. You could probably do it in 2 weeks, though might be more rushed than some people would like.

strawb_shortcake

Thanks @El_Torro I've been to Vegas and California, I'd happily spend more time in California but in no rush to go back to Vegas. 

I love landscapes so quite happy to just see different scenery, I'd take rock formations over bright lights.

I'd rather take longer than 2 weeks, but having children at uni and secondary school would mean going July/August if we were to do in the next few years, then the knock on affect on the budget they'd have. 

hugheskevi

Has anyone here done this?

Off the back of a random Facebook post yesterday, my OH and I had the idea that we could visit 2 specific locations either side of the States. 

It's not something we are likely to do any time soon but would like to start looking at the feasibility of it. 

The I 40 California to North Carolina could possibly be used partially, but would need to take in Oregon and Virginia. Not too fussed about California, North Carolina would be good, I seem to recall they do some good shark spotting boat trips. 

Looking at the map I was thinking

Virginia

Kentucky - see a rodeo

Missouri

Kansas

Colarado - would like to see Aspen and Boulder

Utah - National parks/monument Valley.

Idaho or Nevada - Idaho seems a better route but not somewhere I know much about

Oregon - Mount Hood

I've probably only spent 20-30 minutes looking at a map but would appreciate any thoughts or tips from people that have planned a USA road trip. 

Also how long would you allow for this sort of trip? We wouldn't want to rush but understand it would probably be around 40-45 hours of driving going coast to coast.

TY

I drove 6,000 miles in a big circle around the West coast last year, starting in Seattle, going out through Yellowstone, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, down to Phoenix, then out to Los Angleles and up the coast road through San Francisco back to Seattle.

Roads in the USA are almost all great, with low traffic, excellent garages (cheap fuel, good coffee and soft drinks) and you can make good distance very reliably.

My rule of thumb was 200 miles of driving per day was easy (about 4 hours, including stops), 300 miles was fine (6 hours) and 400+ miles was a long day I'd prefer to avoid if possible. You can get into a nice routine of stopping for coffee maybe 30 minutes after setting off, maybe stop after a couple of hours more to go to a supermarket to buy things for lunch and have a soft drink, then stop somewhere nice for lunch and a walk (lots of places with benches, tables, and toilets are usually readily available near highways). If only driving a couple of hundred miles that can be combined with seeing something, but once you get up past 300 miles, that is probably just a drive day. You can reduce this by not stopping of course, but then you are in for some very long, dull days of driving. Looking at Google maps, a coast-to-coast trip is similar mileage to what we did, so I'd guess something like 5-7 weeks would be a good amount of time to enable seeing things along the way.

The most difficult part is arranging your vehicle. If you are planning to hire a vehicle then additional fees for a one-way journey may be significant. The costs of insurance (both regular collision insurance but also Supplemental Liability Insurance in case you cause injury in a collision will add up). Getting comparable quotes is extremely difficult due to the poor cost disclosure from USA firms - you pretty much have to go through an entire quote to get the actual cost rather than the cost quoted on comparison sites due to undisclosed costs. 

We originally planned to drive between Seattle and El Paso, but due to costs of car hire ended up doing the big circle and then flying back to Phoenix. This enabled us to use Turo (like AirBnb but for cars) which was much cheaper than car hire companies. In total we drove around 6,000 miles in six weeks, and I would say that was quite tiring and another week or two would have been good (but it comes at a price, as car hire and accommodation will cost around $100 per day before you do anything).

Check if the individual States you plan to travel through require an International Driving Permit.

Places in Utah can be very crowded, and accommodation can be extremely expensive in the areas without a city nearby - we cut back our Utah itinerary quite considerably due to this.

Based on the location of the most interesting sites in the USA, I think there are much more interesting road-trips than coast-to-coast - there is less in the centre of the USA to see than other places, and the scenery can be less interesting too. I ended up really liking the big circle we did through the West, despite originally not planning to do that. The cachet associated with a coast-to-coast drive is over-rated in my opinion as it is so easy to do, and there are much longer, more difficult and more interesting road trips out there to do.

If you want to look at the route I took through the USA, it is at this link, and there is a detailed breakdown of travel, distance and cost in the spreadsheet at this link - we averaged about $170 per day for the USA part of our trip and I would say that is about as cheap as we (two adults, no kids)  could have done it, staying in AirBnbs and cooking our own food.

strawb_shortcake

Thanks @hugheskevi that's really informative and helpful. For the two specific places we thought of seeing perhaps coast to coast is excessive and may be better to split it into 2 trips. 

My OH would like to do part by bike which I'm less keen on. I'd also be happy to do some by public transport, never been keen on driving abroad. I've only driven in Malta which was fine as they drive the same side as us but they have some interesting driving! 

Will take a look at your links

michele-p

We've not done a coast to coast trip, but have done a West Coast Road trip, and an East Coast one. Our last trip was New York, train to Washington DC, flight to Buffalo (for Niagara), flight to Boston, then car up through Main and New England, and flight back to New York, all in 2 weeks - it was a bit much! You could consider doing both things you want to see - say 7/10 days each coast - and flying between them both.

We've learned from quite a few road trips over US and Europe that it's good to schedule a few 2/3 night stops to actually explore some of the areas. Otherwise you might arrive at 6 ish, then need to head off again next morning. I think we've also tried to cover too much area in the past too. We are just starting to think about next year - possibly the US or my husband fancies Japan. I will try to keep driving days to 3 hrs and under.

400ixl

To just do California justice would take a month. Coast to coast I would want at least 2 months to do it if wanting to see it properly. Minimum would be a month and that would be just skimming the surface of what you could see.

strawb_shortcake

I did part of the West Coast years ago, was a relatively brief trip from Las Vegas to San Francisco. 

But would like to see more of Santa Barbara, Santa Monica. I loved Solvang and would like to explore the Napa Valley. 

A friend just spent 3 weeks travelling down Florida and that looked a great trip.

The more I've thought about the more places I want to see.

Work wise I could get 4 weeks off, any longer would likely be retirement or between changing jobs but no real plans for that.

But thanks all, lots of food for thought

Bonhomie

hugheskevi said:

Has anyone here done this?

Off the back of a random Facebook post yesterday, my OH and I had the idea that we could visit 2 specific locations either side of the States. 

It's not something we are likely to do any time soon but would like to start looking at the feasibility of it. 

The I 40 California to North Carolina could possibly be used partially, but would need to take in Oregon and Virginia. Not too fussed about California, North Carolina would be good, I seem to recall they do some good shark spotting boat trips. 

Looking at the map I was thinking

Virginia

Kentucky - see a rodeo

Missouri

Kansas

Colarado - would like to see Aspen and Boulder

Utah - National parks/monument Valley.

Idaho or Nevada - Idaho seems a better route but not somewhere I know much about

Oregon - Mount Hood

I've probably only spent 20-30 minutes looking at a map but would appreciate any thoughts or tips from people that have planned a USA road trip. 

Also how long would you allow for this sort of trip? We wouldn't want to rush but understand it would probably be around 40-45 hours of driving going coast to coast.

TY

I drove 6,000 miles in a big circle around the West coast last year, starting in Seattle, going out through Yellowstone, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, down to Phoenix, then out to Los Angleles and up the coast road through San Francisco back to Seattle.

Roads in the USA are almost all great, with low traffic, excellent garages (cheap fuel, good coffee and soft drinks) and you can make good distance very reliably.

My rule of thumb was 200 miles of driving per day was easy (about 4 hours, including stops), 300 miles was fine (6 hours) and 400+ miles was a long day I'd prefer to avoid if possible. You can get into a nice routine of stopping for coffee maybe 30 minutes after setting off, maybe stop after a couple of hours more to go to a supermarket to buy things for lunch and have a soft drink, then stop somewhere nice for lunch and a walk (lots of places with benches, tables, and toilets are usually readily available near highways). If only driving a couple of hundred miles that can be combined with seeing something, but once you get up past 300 miles, that is probably just a drive day. You can reduce this by not stopping of course, but then you are in for some very long, dull days of driving. Looking at Google maps, a coast-to-coast trip is similar mileage to what we did, so I'd guess something like 5-7 weeks would be a good amount of time to enable seeing things along the way.

The most difficult part is arranging your vehicle. If you are planning to hire a vehicle then additional fees for a one-way journey may be significant. The costs of insurance (both regular collision insurance but also Supplemental Liability Insurance in case you cause injury in a collision will add up). Getting comparable quotes is extremely difficult due to the poor cost disclosure from USA firms - you pretty much have to go through an entire quote to get the actual cost rather than the cost quoted on comparison sites due to undisclosed costs. 

We originally planned to drive between Seattle and El Paso, but due to costs of car hire ended up doing the big circle and then flying back to Phoenix. This enabled us to use Turo (like AirBnb but for cars) which was much cheaper than car hire companies. In total we drove around 6,000 miles in six weeks, and I would say that was quite tiring and another week or two would have been good (but it comes at a price, as car hire and accommodation will cost around $100 per day before you do anything).

Check if the individual States you plan to travel through require an International Driving Permit.

Places in Utah can be very crowded, and accommodation can be extremely expensive in the areas without a city nearby - we cut back our Utah itinerary quite considerably due to this.

Based on the location of the most interesting sites in the USA, I think there are much more interesting road-trips than coast-to-coast - there is less in the centre of the USA to see than other places, and the scenery can be less interesting too. I ended up really liking the big circle we did through the West, despite originally not planning to do that. The cachet associated with a coast-to-coast drive is over-rated in my opinion as it is so easy to do, and there are much longer, more difficult and more interesting road trips out there to do.

If you want to look at the route I took through the USA, it is at this link, and there is a detailed breakdown of travel, distance and cost in the spreadsheet at this link - we averaged about $170 per day for the USA part of our trip and I would say that is about as cheap as we (two adults, no kids)  could have done it, staying in AirBnbs and cooking our own food.

Can buy a policy that covers CDW and SLI in the USA, even though booking from a U.K website will include CDW and the minimum liability insurance. Certainly no harm in obtaining the policy. Came in useful to us anyway, as we did book cars from U.S and Caribbean locations. 
First is with BetterSafe, the second with Insurance4CarHire.

retiredbanker1

I watched Matt Bridger on You Tube - Bridger across America - he's a big fan of Vegas and casinos in general - love his Vegas vlogs.
He did a trip but visiting in the main casinos across America.

Might give you a flavour of what is involved.