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Road Trip USA
EddieDean
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok, some background: I'm twenty now, and when I finish uni I'll be twenty-two, so I should be able to get/go what/where I want to. Lived in the UK all my life, but I've travelled a fair chunk of the world (including a couple of states), mostly with my family, though I've handled myself plenty of times in unfamiliar places. I can drive, and I want an adventure.
So, when I leave uni I want to get some mates and road trip the USA. Probably east to west, starting I-don't-know-where and ending up in California for sunsets on Venice Beach. I was thinking of renting a camper van, something that you can drive and live in and generally be self-sufficient in, though packing sleeping bags and tents for nights out in the desert. Looking to have this trip last in the range 1-3 months.
I don't care about famous attractions like that massive carousel or mount rushmore or anything like that so much, I want a much more personal trek. I want to meet strangers and get invited to parties and chat with bartenders with stories and visit backstreet dives and watch sunsets in the desert and see amazing natural vistas and generally do a bunch of amazing, awesome things. I want to have fun.
So, this is where you step in.
Have you ever road tripped the USA, or know people who have, or wanted to?
If so, what kinda stuff did you need?
What planning did you do?
What places should I check out?
What secrets of the country are worth seeing?
What awesome stuff is there to do along the way?
What's a good route to take?
etc etc
Generally share anything you have about roadtripping. I'd love some advice and hints and stuff, but most importantly I wanna hear all the awesome experiences you guys have had on the road.
Let's go.
So, when I leave uni I want to get some mates and road trip the USA. Probably east to west, starting I-don't-know-where and ending up in California for sunsets on Venice Beach. I was thinking of renting a camper van, something that you can drive and live in and generally be self-sufficient in, though packing sleeping bags and tents for nights out in the desert. Looking to have this trip last in the range 1-3 months.
I don't care about famous attractions like that massive carousel or mount rushmore or anything like that so much, I want a much more personal trek. I want to meet strangers and get invited to parties and chat with bartenders with stories and visit backstreet dives and watch sunsets in the desert and see amazing natural vistas and generally do a bunch of amazing, awesome things. I want to have fun.
So, this is where you step in.
Have you ever road tripped the USA, or know people who have, or wanted to?
If so, what kinda stuff did you need?
What planning did you do?
What places should I check out?
What secrets of the country are worth seeing?
What awesome stuff is there to do along the way?
What's a good route to take?
etc etc
Generally share anything you have about roadtripping. I'd love some advice and hints and stuff, but most importantly I wanna hear all the awesome experiences you guys have had on the road.
Let's go.
EddieDean on
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I can't give too much advice on where to go since the states are so big, but the US does have some great major cities. NYC and chicago, for instance, are both cities everyone should visit at least once. I've always wanted to take a trip out to the theme park with the biggest roller coaster in the world, out in the western states somewhere. I think it's called cedar point or something.
I would bring:
laptop
I pod or other mp3 device (load it up with podcasts and albums for long trips, get a car charger)
fuel efficient, reliable car (unless you get a camper)
some sort of gps/map thing
and general car trip supplies
We did it slightly differently, as only one of us can drive and its a bit unfair to get one person to drive 5000miles on their own. Thats probably thefirst thing that you realise when you get over there... Just how bloody big the place it.
We planned on getting a month long greyhound pass and bussing it accross country. Then we realised that we'd be spending our holiday on a bus and it wouldn't be as much fun as it sounded. So in the end we cut down on the amount of places we visited and just ended up flying between them instead, which didn't work out much more expensive.
We also took a 4 night 'Green Tortoise' bus trip around Yosemiti National Park and it was probably one of the best experiences of the holiday. I would highly recommend travelling with them on any one of their trips (they do 21 day long bus tours all around the country and the like). It's basically just a slightly hippyish bus company that has these old buses that have been converted to the entire back half of the bus is one big fold down bed. And there are beds hanging from the ceiling. They do the driving and you get to meet 20+ cool new people (your milage may vary here, we met some awesome friends on this trip who we've stayed in contact with) and see amazing sights. They sort out most of the food (you cook it with the other people) and its pretty much totally stress free. I can't recomennd them enough and at the very least i'd recommend staying in one of their hostels in San Francisco or Seattle, best hostel environment i've been in.
I'm very jealous by the way. We had a bloody amazing time and i'd go back in a second if I could.
http://www.greentortoise.com/ by the way.
there is alot of space in the us. alot. and alot of it is empty, esp the mid west. the biggest dangers are falling asleep and road hypnosis. i found that giving yourself something to do, like dealing with shelled sunflower seeds, was effective in keeping me awake. try and keep straight runs to less than 4 hours at a clip. take a 20 minute break, nap, whatever. this is especially important if you are going by your self.
general overview:
the east and west coasts are probably the most populated, and, to me, the most interesting. west coast, seattle, san fransisco, and the trip inbetween. the midwest is basically 20 hours of flat. there is cedar point, some general stuff to do centered around chicago/cleveland (rock and roll hall of fame), and the great lakes regions. the mountains and the west have alot of really really nice scenery. if you are into nature, this is where you;ll want to hang. esp yellowstone, the grand canyon, ect. east coast, nyc, boston, dc. florida is a wasteland of retirees and tourist traps.
for specifics, you'd wait for someone to chime in on specifics. any idea of the time of year, how long, general trip route?
Flatline, I'd be with friends, there'd be about 4-10 of us. We'd do this in summer, for 1-3 months, and passing generally East to West right through the middle, probably taking route 66 for some of the way.
I've been to the Grand Canyon but would definitely do it again.
And Ponge, that Green Tortoise thing sounds awesome, I'll definitely look seriously into that. Where abouts in Scotland are you, by the way? I'm at Edinburgh uni right now. How old were you when you toured?
Remember hydration, meaning water or juice, not soda, and planning is essential. The camper is a great idea, it will be expensive however you will find it saves you by eliminating hotel costs. All over the country are camp sites where you can park a trailer, or rest stops along the highway, although I know many of those places have like three hour parking limits or things like that.
Depends on where you are, some places are cool with it off the highways, some are not, but you generally can't directly along the interstates.
I actually worked at work on Saturday. Also I went out on a date with a real life girl.
Can you like, permanently break the forums?
But yeah, having driven across the midwest with my family, it is VERY VERY boring/empty, so either plan ahead for stuff to do there or be ready for a lot of boring driving.
Incidentally, the AAA (american automobile association) has some great tourbooks on every state that have huge lists of things to do separated by city, hotel listings, etc... they're free if you're a member, but I believe you can also buy them from the AAA offices
i;ve done trips with anywhere between 2-6 people. and even with four of us in the van, road hyponosis is still real likely. we've mostly travelled the i80 and i90 across the high plains. nothing like meeting a total black metal kid manning a krispy kreme in the middle of the night, talking with a fargo accent. but we were also making time and distance, so not a lot of stops.
as for camping on the roadside... probably better to not. KOA is real cheap, all over the country, and nominally 'safe' (http://www.koa.com/). and with 4 plus people, rolling up on a motel and splitting the cost is not that bad. summer season, prices might be higher. but definately park around the corner and just send in one person. other wise they might try to charge you more. if you have that many people, might want to look into renting an rv. http://www.cruiseamerica.com/ . you can usually park it in a walmart parking lot for free.
and (obviously) make sure you have valid licences, etc. and play by the local rules. you are 22, but if you have friends under 21, we have retarded liquer laws.
which brings up another thing: you may not be able to rent a car. check this out first. you need a major credit card, and i think you need to be 25.
There is some cool stuff in the midwest in terms of landscape - Yellowstone, the Badlands, and the chunk of southern Utah/northern Arizona that encompasses the Grand Canyon and Arches are awesome, and the middle of Wyoming around Cody is really pretty. But yes, it is *very* spread out.
Even with several months, I'd be surprised if you could see all 48 lower continental states. I guess theoretically it's possible, but you would probably go insane from doing coast-to-coast switchbacks for that long, and it would be incredibly expensive. Early on in this planning process you are going to want to figure out which parts of the country you want to see, and plan your route around that.
Camping on the roadside is not going to fly in most states. Most (but not all) states will let you sleep in your car at an interstate rest stop for at least eight hours, but since you're travelling with friends that is kind of impractical. Koa is an option, or if you don't mind getting there before around 4-5PM (when the offices tend to close), you could camp at state or national park campgrounds.
Especially for the more populated states, I would highly recommend going on state highways as much as possible instead of the interstate. It's not as fast, but you will see a lot more of what makes each area unique. One caveat here is that most state highways do not have rest stops or commercial campgrounds, so it often means getting a motel room instead of something less expensive.
At the first national park you stop at, buy the "America the Beautiful" pass. It's about $80, but gives you unlimited daytime (not camping) access to any national park/monument/preserve type of thing. The one I bought this year paid for itself in a few days, since the more popular national parks cost $25 to get into without one.
If you can, try to go over a summer. By the end of September, the days are getting too short to have enough daylight to appreciate things, and it will start to get VERY cold at night in the midwest (since there is no ocean around to act as a heat moderator). On my drives I've slept in my car a lot and several times during the 2006 drive it got so cold I had to wake up and run the heater for awhile to avoid getting hypothermia - and I was in a sleeping bag rated for subzero temperatures, wearing 2 shirts, a sweatshirt, a hat, and gloves.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
http://wikitravel.org/en/United_States
I had no idea there was something like this, and the wife and I have been hoping to do a "Tour of America" in the next few years. This will make it so much easier as we wont have to worry that our car will break down halfway through the trip. Thank you so much.
Hehe, I'm in Edinburgh too. I just finished my degree at Edinburgh Uni (Architecture Design) last year and I'm now working for an architecture firm. Small world.
We were 22 when we travelled by the way.
I would honestly recommend doing at least part of your journey with Green Tortoise, it really takes the hassle out of it, and being able to sleep as you travel through the night/through boring places makes the travel a lot easier. With a group of 10 of you's it would be a great trip.
P.s. don't book anything with STA travel, they overcharge for everything. Book direct with Green Tortoise, and try searching KLM.co.uk for 'multi-city' flights I.E. arrive in one town, leave from another. We flew to San Francisco and flew back from New York. A bit more expensive but means you don't have to travel 'full loop' if you don't want to.
Can i come with you please?
Green Tortoise seem to be the only provider I could find when we travelled. But they really are great at what they do. There was another tour company I found but they were a lot more expensive and the focus was more on staying at hostels/hotels rather than sleeping wild.
But thats chickening out! Absolutely nothing will beat falling asleep with some great mates under the stars in Yosemite.
Dear god I want to go back right now.
*edit*
http://www.trekamerica.com/ are the other provider. But I can't vouch for their awesomeness as much as I can the Green Tortoise.
I've been through some of the most conservative and/or rural parts of the US, and the worst that's happened to me was someone in Memphis yelling "hey! lookit his hayah!" (back when I had blue hair) and someone in rural California asking me if I was a neo-Nazi (now that I don't have hair). I've never even come close to being in physical danger on any of my trips.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
We fixed our igloos and log cabins with heaters we bought with our strong currency. Crossed the border and bought a few dozen from the Wal Mart from a Mexican guy. Our ice fishing village of Toronto will be safe for another Winter season thanks to the mass blunder that is your country.
Also thought of something constructive to add to this thread; Since you're not going to anywhere specific and just having adventure, visit the West Edmonton Mall, it's the world's largest shopping centre (read: mall) with theme parks and a (fake, but ridable) submarine. It's a crazy place to visit (almost doesn't feel like a mall) and it's not far from across the border.
EDIT: also it has wave pools and shit. And all sorts of things that'd take too long for me to list.
Also, even though I live here and love the state, I would recommend against driving through Texas (except for maybe a small corner of it if you really have to). It's a very boring drive, and because it's so big - nearly 1000 miles from one side to the other - you eventually get to the point where you'll do almost anything to get out of the state and be done with it. Especially in West Texas, there is just NOTHING to do or see, so it can drive you really crazy driving through it. Personally, I would cut a more diagonal route through the U.S., maybe starting in NY making your way over to Chicago, then down across through the midwest and through the rockies down to the southwest, then to the west coast. That's just my general route suggestion.
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
Really is a great city, lots to do, both in the downtown proper and the outling suburbs. Can't say I'd want to drive an RV down Michigan Ave., though.
If you do take the high road through the Midwest, someone mention Cedar Point; very awesome amusement park. North of Chicago is Six Flags: Great America. Unless you're really into roller costers, you probably would only need to visit one.
I've been to Vegas and Grand Canyon before, but I'd definitely go again, especially if mates wanted to.
I also did tubing down the Colorado river, which I think I'd definitely try to do again.
What kind of awesome experiences did you guys have on the way?
Since it sounds like you're into outdoor activities, take a look at Mammoth Cave in the state of Kentucky. It'd actually be an indoor activity, I guess, but you get the idea.
We (family) went on the tour linked above, and it was amazing. At one point we were climbing over a huge crack/fissure, with just a few inches on each side for our feet.