Recomendations for a rookie

[Wwiper]

Hi Forum

Greetings from Denmark... ;D

Planning a roadtrip (first one ever) with my 2 children (23 and 20 and maybe they partners) - so 3 maybe 5 people - we have 21 days. Any feedback would be appreciated..

One of my children would like to see the "Walk of fame" (and Beverly Hills) - Hollywood, Universal studio and Disneyland are also on the list...and then New York...so the initial idea was to start in Los Angeles and maybe use 2-4 days there and then drive of to NYC where 2-3 days should be for shopping.

Visiting Las Vegas along the way and (all) other attractions on the way to NYC.. (so many to choose from)... :D

I would also like to see San Francisco and San Diego, but maybe that's should be the next trip... :D

Is it doable within 21 days?

Can someone give me some pointers, so we can have the best trip ever?

Is't possible to get a Motel/Hotel room for 5 people? - or do I need to plan for 2 rooms?

[AZBuck]

Velkommen! Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

A direct drive from Los Angeles to New York would take about a week. You've listed at least a week to a week and a half worth of activities in just L.A., Las Vegas and New York. You plan to add San Francisco, which will cost at least another two days. With just that your 21 days are gone and you will be able to see nothing else. So, yes, you need to scale back on your plans. One possibility would be to do a loop over two weeks of Los Angeles, to Las Vegas, to San Francisco, and back to Los Angeles. Then you would fly to New York and spend your final week or so there (no car needed) before returning to Denmark.

But you'll also need to scale up in at least two aspects of your trip. Even if you have just 4 people making the journey, a standard sedan/coupe is probably not going to be comfortable enough to spend the bulk of two weeks in. Having a 7 passenger minivan or SUV would give you room to stretch out as well as space for a cooler and all the other paraphernalia (maps, books, souvenirs, cameras, etc.) that will be taking up the cabin with you. And with 5 people you will absolutely need to get a second room as most motels limit single room occupancy to 4 people. Besides, after even a few days of family 'togetherness' you all will be longing for any sense of privacy and/or down time.

AZBuck

[Wwiper]

Hi AZBuck

Thank you for your reply

The idea was also to rent a SUV/Minivan... But maybe I also should scale back on the partners to my kids so we only travel 3 persons...that's more "agile" i think...;D

I would like to take the trip to NYC by car so I could see as much as possible...

San Francisco and San Diego can be left out of this roadtrip. (next one).

[Southwest Dave]

You can certainly do the trip you have planned with the time you have. With say, 3 days in each of the 3 Cities and a 7 day drive, you have 5 days to do a little exploring on route.

I would like to take the trip to NYC by car so I could see as much as possible...

The one thing to keep in mind here is that covering a whole lot of miles doesn't always mean you will see more, other than the 'black stuff' and what you see view through the windshield that is. Sometimes, more is less, so to speak and I actually believe that you would see more following Buck's recommendation above. That said, if you want to drive across the country and stop along the way, then that's what you should do. You will have to pay quite a hefty one way drop fee on your car rental.

You have many routes and options open to you and you will need to look around the forums and road trip planning pages above, with a good map to hand and start to plot the things that appeal to you and try to create a route around the dots. One route from Vegas would be to head to the South rim of the Grand canyon and head through Monument valley and up through Moab [home to Arches and Canyonlands NP's] to I70 and into Colorado. Rocky mountain NP is close to Denver and there are many other options along the way. As you head east you could head for St Louis and it's famous Archway.

Have a look around and once you have some more dots on the map we can help to fill in the blanks.