First time traveller and LOADS of questions

[Bec Marshall]

Hi, We're thinking about planning a trip to the States in a few years. We'll have 6 weeks.
We thought we'd start in LA and take our kids to Disneyland, then drive to/ through
Arizona, Texas, Louisiana (New Orleans) Mississippi (Jackson) Tennessee (Memphis and Nashville) Georgia (Atlanta) Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, into Canada then back through Chicago, Vegas and back to LA.

We know it's a lot of stops, there were so many on the list but we tried to keep the trip as straight as possible

Now my questions are:
Is this far to ambitious?
Is it insane to think we can do this in an RV with 2 children, (11 and 9 at time of travel) and 4 adults, Self, husband, my mother and my brother?
Will it be very dangerous and cold on the roads?
Also what sort of costs could we expect obviously, fuel/food/camp fees/rv fees anything else?

I would love any advice you could give me!

[glc]

Welcome!

You have posted this in the fall/winter forum - and the feasibility of using a RV as far north as you are proposing is very dependent on exactly when. You do not want to freeze the water lines and tanks!

[DonnaR57]

Renting an RV will cost about $1000 (Amn) per week, plus the overnight fees (which can range from free by staying in a truck stop, to $50/night in the Disneyland area). However, when compared to the cost of renting 2, possibly 3, hotel rooms every night, this might be a cost-saving measure.

When you are in some places such as Disneyland/LA, an RV large enough to sleep 6 people will be difficult to park in parking garages (or at least, a lot more expensive). So you'll either have to find a shuttle (definitely available in the Anaheim area for DL) or a taxi for 6. (The shuttle is probably easier. Some RV parks in the Anaheim area maintain their own shuttle system.)

The nice thing about the RV, food-wise, is the easy ability to cater to everyone's desires at a cost probably not all that much different from what you'd spend at home. That is, when you use the RV for food preparation! You might not have every favorite type of cookware in a rented RV, but you can get by. Where your food budget will vary, though, is when you eat "out".

As for dangerous and cold on the roads, the night before a "travel day", keep an eye on the weather by watching TV (if included in your RV rental), listening to the radio or checking the Internet. If you don't like the weather where you're going, you may be able to plan a more like-able route, or just lay over until the weather passes by.

But GLC has a definite point -- going too far north can require winterization before you even return to LA. Your RV rental place will probably go over that process with you, but warning: it's not cheap.


Donna

[CAnative]

It's great that you plenty of time to research and plan your trip to suit interests of adults and children. RE enough time-- it probably depends on how far north you can and want to go.

[Mayelli]

I'd try to plan the trip so that the northern part is in the warmer part of the year - for example, if you are going in fall, do the northern side first, and if you are going in late winter, go north toward the end. Although there can be random warmer days in the middle of winter, it's often really unpleasant to be walking around outside in NYC, Philly, and Boston in January!