Hi
Myself and a friend are planning a 77day road trip around the US from the end of Oct-Mid Jan (Not the ideal time of year we know but that's the time that we've got). I'd really appreciate any advice on whether our route sounds feasible/any glaringly obvious mistakes that we've made or advice to make our lives easier. We'd be hiring a camper from San Francisco and return it back there at the end to avoid 1-way hire costs. We're working on an average of 3 nights per place (we'll probably end up doing more in some and less in some) with some extra days of just driving.
San Francisco - Yosemite
San Francisco - Chicago (with stops along the way we just don't have a fixed route for this section yet, we're still working out some options)
Chicago - Detroit
Detroit - Boston
Boston - NYC
NYC - Philadelphia
Philadelphia - Washington DC
Washington DC - Nashville (over 2 days, any suggestions for a stop off points would be appreciated)
Nashville - Memphis
Memphis - New Orleans
New Orleans - Houston
Houston - Austin
Austin - Phoenix (over 2-3days? again advice for stop off point would be much appreciated)
Phoenix - Grand canyon
Grand Canyon - Las Vegas
Las Vegas - Death Valley
Death Valley - Sequoia
Sequoia - San Diego (if time)
San Diego - LA
LA - San Francisco.
This is going to be a budget trip (as budget as we can get) and we are looking at hiring a converted minivan camper rather than a full RV as they work out a similar price to car hire and then try to stay in basic campsites/freedom camp where possible. Even then I know that in the cities it's going to be a pain to have the van but we might look at camping just outside and then taking local transport or if anyone has idea's again they would be much appreciated.
I used the gov's fuel economy website to estimate average fuel costs, has anyone used this before and if so did you find it accurate?
I've used google to calculate mileage, again does anyone know if this is accurate? I know that the timings it gives are often wildly inaccurate but in terms of calculating the additional mileage we would need to pay on the van and fuel costs etc we need an estimate of how many miles we would travel. Obviously google only gives a very rough estimate based on putting two cities into the route planner. Does anyone have any experience/advice on how many miles approx to add for local travel/national parks/going off route on this kind of trip (e.g. 10% more, 25% more, 50% more?).
Any advice on any of the above would be much appreciated!
Thanks
Becca