East to West or the other way around - any advice appreciated please

[mac]

Hi we have just booked our flights from UK to Washington DC. We would like to travel East to West or West to East. We have visited the USA every year for the last 15 years so we are no strangers to road trips but we have always flown in and out of the same airport and hired the car and dropped off at same location, obviously this time we will not be able to do that. We have just over two weeks we are wondering several things... Would it be better to start driving from DC and through to LA or fly internally from DC to LA and drive East? We also would be interested to hear from anybody who has done this before and how they found the car rental etc and if there are any tips for reducing the price of rental.
We want to dip into the Northern part of Texas - so a sort of loop through to LA
Thanks in hopeful anticipation
Mac x

[Midwest Michael]

I don't think it really makes that much of a difference.

Going east to west would give you a couple of extra hours with the time changes, and you'd have that historic backdrop of traveling across the US the same direction it was settled, however, both of those are pretty minor things compared to the big picture.

If it were me, I'd be looking at prices, with the biggest factors being airfare and car rental with a one way drop fee. Those can change frequently and there are no real patterns, you just have to see what you can find.