Help me plan our road trip!

[UKCraig]

Sadly it's been a couple of years since I've had to worry about that lol

It should be covered in the terms and conditions attached to your quote though, I'd have thought? If it's not then I'd call them. They advertise an expensive 0871 number so ring their direct dial number on 01772 550124 and see what they advise.

Hope this helps.

[englebert]

Thanks Craig!

The biggest problem i have now is the flights. I've taken your advise and spent all day looking at the money saving forum and have started a thread there.

At the moment i've estimated £1000 each (including flights and car hire) for the 2 week trip. Am in being unrealistic in trying to beat this do you think? Half of that cost is just the flights.

[englebert]

Since roundtrip tickets are almost always cheaper, you might find your best deal is to get a round trip ticket from London to Minneapolis/Chicago and then just do a one way flight from Las Vegas back to the midwest.

Thanks for the advice. Currently letting the websites do the work for me is proving cheaper. It's $200 cheaper to go from London > Minneapolis and return from Las Vegas that do a simpler return from Minneapolis, somehow. Work that one out!

I thought maybe we should just go to Las Vegas and return from there too, cutting the trip a little and missing some sights. But that option is $300 more! Silly really. I'm worried that what i've found is actually as good as it gets.

[UKCraig]

I do not like to pay more than £300 for return flights but that has gone out of the window since the goverment played the green card and bumped up airport tax :( Generally there are still some very god deals out there, especially to larger airports such as New York, Los Angeles, San Fransisco or Las Vegas. You will likely be paying a premium for flying into/out of different airports so it generally works out far cheaper to do a circular trip. Havng said that, look for flights with US based arlines such as Delta, American, etc. as they can do sme very keen prices if you're happy with a stopover en route. I am in Florida in November and got a LHR-MIA outbound and a ORL-MIA-LHR inbound for the same price as a LHR-MIA/MIA-LHR.

If you are considering changing to a circular route out of, say, Las Vegas, be sure to check out the deals on cheapflights.co.uk as well as those in the Sunday newspapers. There are some crackers to be had.

[englebert]

Thanks for the advice, shame about the tax issue then! So Sunday Times and Mail would be good for flights? I'm guessing this would be nearer the time of the holiday?

[UKCraig]

I would start looking as soon as possible, to be honest. Most of the time it is far cheaper to book flights in advance as they are increased as the plane fills. It is rare for scheduled flight prices to come down as time goes on -- in fact the only instance of this that comes to mind was when BA went on strike last year and suffered the PR backlash after leaving passengers sleeping for three or four days at the airport or, worse still, stuck in a plane and unable to get off. The only way that they could resolve the situation was to slash prices. Virgin and the others had no choice but to follow their lead and, for a while, there were some insane deals to be had.

[englebert]

Ok, i may of made some headway!

I got my sister to speak to her manager (who's american) and she suggested South West as like an EasyJet of the US. She's certainly right, managed to get restricted tickets to only £65 each (not including some small taxes). I can't view July flights for a few months yet though...

Elsewhere, Travelocity/Last Minute are around £300 for a return flight from Chicago. So that is a total of £365.

Going to Chicago means more driving than Minneapolis but it seems the best route so far.

You seem to be right about the whole early/late booking thing. Doesn't matter what date i choose, even if it's next week the price is only £10 cheaper...

So is 14 days from Chicago - Las Vegas plentiful do you think? Here is an updated map. I think it might be worth missing out Mount Rushmore as it is a bit of a long trip... does Omaha have anything interesting?

[PNW Judy]

I've got nothing against Omaha but I think you'll find a lot of things in the Mt. Rushmore area to make it worth the detour. Wall Drug, Badlands, Black Hills, Deadwood, Crazy Horse memorial, Wind Caves are just a few of the other things to see in that area. Of course, you have a time factor to consider but, if you can squeeze it in, I don't think you'll be disappointed with South Dakota.

[englebert]

OK, fair enough then! Do you still think 2 weeks is OK? Is doing it any less (therfore saving a couple of days of hotels and general expenditure) possible, or would it be rushed?

Cheers

-Rob

[UKCraig]

Depends how long you have really! I always manage to squeeze loads in to my trips but, when I travelled with someone else recently, I realised that most people like to travel at a far more sedate pace to me. You could do the trip in two weeks. If you had three or even four weeks you'd still manage to fill that time. Your plans kinda expand and contract to fit the amount of time and money you have.

Personally, and bear in mind what I just said about me travelling fast, I would prefer to take slightly longer if I could.