First time travellers

[Seffy2812]

Hi everyone,
Me and my two friends are wanting to travel from Los Angeles to New York in October this year! we have about 6 weeks and want to do and see as much as we can, we are gonna hire a motor home. Could anyone suggest a good route with lots to see please

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

With a 6 week drive across the country you could choose from thousands of route combinations that take you to places you want to see. Right now we have no idea of your interests or on which route you might find them. At this early stage in your planning I would suggest you do some research and study a good paper map of the US and see what does appeal to you. Once you have a few dots on the map and share a little more info we will be able to fill in the blanks and make suggestions.

An RV can be a nice lifestyle choice if you are more interested in nature than the City, but it will end up costing you a heck of a lot more than a car and motels would do when you factor in all the costs.

[AZBuck]

Besides having all of the US at your disposal and needing to pare down on the number of places you'll visit with some hard choices, there is also the major decision that you've already made which I would urge you to reconsider. That is the decision to make this RoadTrip in an RV. Renting an RV for 6 weeks is going to be expensive. Not only is there the rental fee itself, but then you have to pay for kitchen supplies and linens on top of that (No, they don't 'come with'). And of course you'll have to pay to launder the linens every so often. Then there's the extra cost of fuel. While a good intermediate car may get 30 to 40 mpg, an RV, even a small one, would be lucky to get 10-15, thus at least doubling the cost of fuel. Next you have to add in the cost of a campsite most, if not all, nights. You can't just pull up anywhere you like and set up camp. And if you make use of 'free' parking available at some (not all) Walmarts, you will not be able to display any outward signs that you are camping.

By the time all is said and done, RVing is not about saving money, it's about the lifestyle. If you are familiar with RVing, have a good deal of experience with it, and have thoroughly enjoyed your experiences, then fine. But if not you need to think about what the lifestyle means. Think especially about what it means to take an RV down the road, and not just the open highway. How many cities do you plan to visit or drive through and how easy do you think that would be in an unwieldy RV. Where would you park it? Who gets to sit in the back while you're driving? Most RVs will only come with two seats in the cab, the other passenger will have to be strapped in (Most states have laws require all occupants to be wearing seatbelts) in the back with limited visibility and communication with the cab crew. consider as well, the extra upkeep. Do you know how to keep the various tanks full or empty as the case may be? Do you know when tanks need to be empty? Are you familiar with the processes for dumping gray waste? Brown waste?

You may very well end up deciding that you want to travel by RV, but you need to be aware that it is not as simple as "[W]e are gonna hire a motor home."

AZBuck

[DonnaR57]

The other issue is age of renters. Car or RV, renters have to be 25 or older. Not in the same family? You'll pay extra for each driver after the 1st one.

Usually the RV rental place will give you a once-through on emptying tanks, reading tanks, how to check on propane, etc. The job of learning to drive it is up to you. When I advised on an RV forum, we always told people to take their RV to the nearest empty parking lot (school or church when not in session works well) and practice steering AND PARKING it. Backing into some RV sites is not for the weak. (My husband hit a light pole on his first attempt with our trailer, and the garage with our tent trailer. Thank heavens he is now an expert backer!) Not all RV parks have "pull through" sites, either.

Check out this thread about RV vs Car+Motel.


Donna