you into skiing or snowboarding? If so come to Banff, Alberta (in Canada) for a winter season, it's a blast and there is LOTS of other travelers here doing the same.
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Planning a little trip
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raggedjimmi said:
I want to exactly the same thing about four years ago. I had three months off between jobs and wanted to do something I would remember for the rest of my life. As others have said though, buying and renting cars below the age of 25 is prohibitively expensive. If you buy then you have to sell it again at the other end, often with a huge amount of depreciation, and if you rent, it can be difficult to find a company that will accept drop off and pick up and such wildly different parts of the country.
What I ended up doing was getting a three month Greyhound pass, which as blackfox points out was *****, but it was bearable and the places I visited more than made up for the bus rides. Basically I flew in to New York and then had a flight out of San Francisco three months later - the route was pretty much made up on the spur of the moment. We ended up doing New York - Washington DC - Buffalo (for Niagara Falls) - Toronto - Chicago - St Louis - Memphis - New Orleans - Austin - San Antonio (day trip only) - Dallas - Flagstaff (for the Grand Canyon) - Las Vegas - San Diego - Los Angeles - San Francisco.
We spent 2 days to a week in each place and also took trips out to places like Yosemite from the various stop offs. In general I would agree with the others and avoid guided tours, but when you are short of time, it can be a good way to get see places.
I would definitely recommend doing a trip like this. Even if the details like getting a car don't fully work out, it is the experience of the trip that will stay with you and that you will remember for a long time.
I'd definitely wait til you are 21 - and I'd plan on going in 2007 rather than 2006 in any case to allow for more planning to check out what you want to see and when you want to see it.
There are various festivals at different times across the US and you might want to be sure that you're in a particular city or town to experience those. There are other things that you need to book up way in advance - for example if you want to take a mule ride down into the Grand Canyon, you're looking at an 18 month booking period.
I've driven lots of little chunks of the US; San Diego to Vancouver (yes, I know that's Canada!), Denver to St Louis, Chicago to St Louis with stops in Michigan and Indianapolis, Washington through NY to Mass and Vermont then Pennsylvania. It's a lot of fun - mainly the small towns where you don't always expect to find stuff - and meeting people in bars in the evenings and chatting.
The other option is to buy a car from a dealership on one coast and then sell it back to them at the end - or to somewhere else. You might not lose all that much on it - certainly cheaper than renting! I read a book last year called 'Good Vibrations(?)' which was about a couple who rode Harleys across the US. They bought one of them from a dealership in DC and sold it (and the guy's one which they'd shipped from England originally) back to them at the end of the trip for only a few hundred dollars less than they'd paid for it.
There are various festivals at different times across the US and you might want to be sure that you're in a particular city or town to experience those. There are other things that you need to book up way in advance - for example if you want to take a mule ride down into the Grand Canyon, you're looking at an 18 month booking period.
I've driven lots of little chunks of the US; San Diego to Vancouver (yes, I know that's Canada!), Denver to St Louis, Chicago to St Louis with stops in Michigan and Indianapolis, Washington through NY to Mass and Vermont then Pennsylvania. It's a lot of fun - mainly the small towns where you don't always expect to find stuff - and meeting people in bars in the evenings and chatting.
The other option is to buy a car from a dealership on one coast and then sell it back to them at the end - or to somewhere else. You might not lose all that much on it - certainly cheaper than renting! I read a book last year called 'Good Vibrations(?)' which was about a couple who rode Harleys across the US. They bought one of them from a dealership in DC and sold it (and the guy's one which they'd shipped from England originally) back to them at the end of the trip for only a few hundred dollars less than they'd paid for it.
Thoughts from a cross country traveller
My wife and I have both done the cross country thing enough to probably have been half way around the world, but I still love it. But, we still have yet to do it together...
Anyhow, a couple of small thoughts. You may want to do a there and back deal if you have the time and money. The north and south are so different and there is a lot to see on each side. As has been suggested, try and take smaller roads. But, even in the mountains there is nothing to worry about. Honestly, you may find the smaller roads in the mountains offer more places to see and stop than the highways. I'm just thinking of outside of Denver, where I find taking US40 is a lot more enjoyable than I-70.
While visiting the major cities can be fun and all, you will find that the mid-majors tend to be a bit more friendly to the traveller, but that really depends on what you are looking for. When I did western Europe, I spend a coulpe days in each major and a bunch of midmajor cities to get a feel for the place. Next time I know wher to go again (Norway, Sweden) and where not to go even if someone offers to pay me (France, Belgium). Plus I feel like I got to see a lot more than I might have otherwise.
If driving doesn't work out, you may want to consider AMTRAK. While she doesn't compare with some of the European trains, she does outclass a few. But, I would rather drive, and I'm guessing you would too.
My wife and I have both done the cross country thing enough to probably have been half way around the world, but I still love it. But, we still have yet to do it together...
Anyhow, a couple of small thoughts. You may want to do a there and back deal if you have the time and money. The north and south are so different and there is a lot to see on each side. As has been suggested, try and take smaller roads. But, even in the mountains there is nothing to worry about. Honestly, you may find the smaller roads in the mountains offer more places to see and stop than the highways. I'm just thinking of outside of Denver, where I find taking US40 is a lot more enjoyable than I-70.
While visiting the major cities can be fun and all, you will find that the mid-majors tend to be a bit more friendly to the traveller, but that really depends on what you are looking for. When I did western Europe, I spend a coulpe days in each major and a bunch of midmajor cities to get a feel for the place. Next time I know wher to go again (Norway, Sweden) and where not to go even if someone offers to pay me (France, Belgium). Plus I feel like I got to see a lot more than I might have otherwise.
If driving doesn't work out, you may want to consider AMTRAK. While she doesn't compare with some of the European trains, she does outclass a few. But, I would rather drive, and I'm guessing you would too.
nbs2 said:
Agreed. When we do our drives, we tend to stick to the highways rather than the freeways unless we have a time deadline approaching.
I have a friend who crossed the US by train at about the same age as you. He thoroughly recommended it - particularly the cross-Rockies/Sierras route which has amazing scenery - which at least you can look at rather than having to concentrate on the road.
If I was doing it in one hit rather than lots of chunks, I think I'd do a route that went from Washington south through the Carolinas and Tennessee to the Gulf and New Orleans then headed slightly north to Dallas before cutting across towards Arizona to see the Grand Canyon and then going to the coast via Death Valley. Up the Pacific Coast Highway stopping off at San Francisco on the way to Seattle then back partly across big sky country but heading slightly south to Denver, Kansas City, St Louis and then back up Route 66 to Chicago, around the lakes to Cleveland and Buffalo to see the Niagara Falls and then cross NY to go round parts of New England before south again past NYC and back to Washington.