Need help!!! Road-trip through the US, car rental, hotel costs, etc...?

Question

Hi. I'm planning a 6 week road trip across the US this summer with my boyfriend, and we have the equivalent to 5000 US dollars saved up so far. Being european, we obviously don't have a car and would need to rent one. We might want to spend a few nights in a nice hotel, and we don't want to live on the tightest budget - meaning we want to go into parks, museums and see things. But as we're not familiar with the prices in America it's very difficult to get an overview of everything.

So my questions are..
- How much would a decent car cost (rental) for approximately 6 weeks?
- Is it possible to rent a car from one state and deliver it in another?
- How much should we expect to spend per day, buying food, gasoline, hotel/motel, entertainment?
- Where would it be best to start our trip? We were thinking going from east to west, but that might be a bit too ambitious!
- Would 5000 dollars be enough for six weeks, and if not how much more would we have to save?

Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

I will suggest you not to search for would be prices as some difference it may be low or high and that can make a whole lot of difference in your budget. You may compare prices of a decent car from any two or three good car rental companies so that you get the cheapest of deal. Also you are looking to hire car for near about six weeks so you are in for some good discounts and offers. You may look at the following companies and select any one which suits you :-



http://www.pointcarhire.com/

Hertz

Economy car hire



Will surely help.

Answer 2

Does the $5,000 include airfare costs? If it does, then no way will you spend 6 weeks in the US.



The best way to figure out car rental costs is to go to any travel website and the individual car rental websites and look up the costs for the weeks you intend to visit. The cost of the rental will vary depending on where you pick it up and when you rent. The additional charge for a one way rental can be as low as $50 or over $1,000. I looked into renting a car and driving across the US from NYC to CA (don't remember the city) and the rental charge was about $250. Tho one-way charge was like $1,500. Needless to say, I didn't go.

To really get a handle on what anything will cost, you need to come up with some at least rough plan for your trip. Hotel prices vary greatly. Fuel prices can vary greatly (and are headed to $5 a gallon easily if things keep going the way they are). Food is relatively inexpensive in the US and to keep costs down you can always pick up a cooler and some groceries to keep costs way down.



Right now, your best plan is to get yourself a USA guide book (Frommer's, Fodor's, Michelin, whichever you prefer or whichever you local library has available) and a good size USA map. Pick the places you want to see most and then figure a way to get there. Adjust the plan as necessary (due to costs and distances).

Answer 3

1. Last week I rented a Kia Elantra for ~$140+ petrol. I had the car Saturday to Saturday, picked up and returned to Denver International Airport, from Budget. Petrol is going for around $3.00/gallon right now, but rumored to be going up due to the BS in Libya.



2. yes, but they will usually charge you more if you do that type of arrangement.



3. Loaded question. Lodging prices will vary by location. A hotel in a popular destination (New York city for example) will be expensive, $250-$400/night. You can also get lodging for as little as $30/night, depends supply and demand. Food depends on the types of places you eat. You can eat at McDonalds for <$10/meal. You can eat at a 5* restaurant and pay over $100/person. I'd recommend looking @ www.hollyeats.com and chowhound.com for recommendations. Avoid chain restaurants (Applebees, Chili's, Ruby Tuesday etc..)



4. Tough call. There is a lot of nothing between the two coasts. Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, Indiana etc.....are mostly farm land with little tourist interest. But then that is the heart and soul of America. I'd suggest starting in Boston, do a short loop into Maine (2-3 days), then go south. The places I'd recommend worth seeing are - coastal Maine, Cape Ann/Salem/Boston/Cape Cod(Chatham > Provincetown), Newport Rhode Island, New York City, Amish country west of Philadelphia, Baltimore Harbor, Washington DC, Williamsburg Virginia, the Outer Banks of North Carolina (you can drive one end to the other in about 1/2 day depending on traffic). Now you need to decide if you want to go west towards Atlanta or keep going south. Atlanta is nothing special, in my opinion. Coastal Georgia would be more interesting. When you get to Florida you need to decide if you want to spend a week seeing Florida. Florida takes much longer to drive than you might think, but then there are also lots of interesting places. The one place in Florida I highly recommend is Key West, which couldn't be further from the GA/FL state line.



Whenever you head west - New Orleans, Austin and San Antonio, followed by mega long stretches of desert to San Diego (best spot in S. Cal), drive through Hollywood to say you've been there(LA blows in my opinion), Santa Barbara, then take the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco.



If you can, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite NP, Grand Canyon, Salt Flats in Utah and Yellowstone NP would be highly recommended too.



5. If you went Maine to Florida to California your talking about roughly 4500 miles. Assume your car gets 30 MPG, you will need 150 gallons of petrol @ $3.50 (high side estimate) = $525. Car I'd plan on $150/week = $900. I'd budget $100/night for a motel = $4200, you won't always need that much, but then sometimes you will need a lot more. For food, depends on your tastes. Unlike Europe, few US hotels/motels provide breakfast (some do, most don't), so I'd budget $10/breakfast, $10/lunch, $25/dinner or $45/person per day * 42 days = $3780. Then you need spending money. Some highways (primarily in the east) are toll roads, you will want trinkets, you will need to pay admission to some parks/museums, you will need buffer funding etc.. I reckon at least $500/week spending $. So another $3K. By my figures you will need $12,450 to do this trip.



If you drove 400 miles a day you could do this trip in less than 2 weeks, so 6 weeks will give you lots of time to see the sights.

Answer 4

1. $1800

2. yes, additional $500

3. $100 to $200

4. fly to NYC is cheaper from europe, but rental car is very expensive in NYC, BOS or DC, you better to pick up a car from florida or california

5. OK to stay in hostel and motel, spending frugly