North American Road Trip

My boyfriend and I live in Portland, OR and would like to take a 6 month North American road trip. We would visit all 50 states (fly to Hawaii of course), Mexico and Canada. We pretty much have our route set in stone (at least for the lower 48 and Alaska). We plan to visit most, if not all, of the national parks, drive about 400 miles or 7-8 hrs per day (not counting when we stay in one location for multiple days), do at least some tent camping, buy most of our food from local markets and groceries, and drive a vehicle that gets 40+ mpg. Not counting airfare (we may be able to use airline miles), does anybody know what we should expect for total costs or even if this is doable with a 6 month time frame? We are still in the early stages of planning, as we won't be starting this trip until March or April of either 2008 or 2009. Has anyone made this trip before? All suggestions are welcome!

Thank you!
A and J in Portland

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Because of the shear number of variables in a trip, particularly one of this magnitude, its really hard to give you a lot of specific help with your budget.

What you'll need to do is break everything down into parts.

Fuel will be your biggest cost - although 40 mph will be a big help. If you've figured out your total mileage, RTA's fuel cost calculator will be a big help.

Then you need to figure out lodging costs. This will depend upon your choices of hotels and how frequent you camp. I'd figure $20 per night of camping, $50 for cheap hotels - you will at times find cheaper, but I'd rather overestimate than underestimate.

Food costs again, you'll have to set a budget depending upon how often you'll eat out, and what sorts of food you'll want to get from a grocery store. Take a look at how much you spend on food at home to at least give you a ballpark.

Then of course, there are all the other expenses for attractions, souveniers, and other things you'll have to pay for on the road.

Once you break those things down, it should be easier to come up with a ballpark figure for your budget.

Hi!

We're wondering if you have taken your trip in the end... We are just one week into a similar adventure, starting from Montreal. We're in Moncton New Brunswick at the moment.

We have found that fixing a daily budget is very useful. We are sarting with a 22K budget for one year. That leaves us with about $60 a day. It is little but we are also combining with camping, couchsurfing.com and wwoof.ca to help lower the coasts and meet with locals wherever we might stop.

Let us know what happenned with your trip...
Ghislain

Since that first post was from 2006 and we never heard from them again, it's unlikely that they will be back....

Mark

Hi Ghislain,

Our trip is unfortunately on hold right now and it will most likely be 5-10 years before we are able to take it. We celebrated the arrival of our first child last year (her birthday is on the 10th!) and have since been hit hard by the recession.

If you happen into Portland, OR and you need someone to show you around, we'd be glad to. Best wishes for a safe and happy trip!

Hi RoadGrl23!

Congratulations for the new road warrior! Give her our best wishes for her 1st birthday...

I am sorry to hear about the hit by the recession. We are from Montreal and I suspect that Canada has not been hit has hard by it than the US. I hope you guys will be OK and on track for your trip sooner than expected.

If you want, you can follow our travels through our blog : ramblingthreedotcom.

We will be around Portland next Spring. I will definately send you and email around that time.

Have a good end of the Summer...
Ghislain

Welcome back to the forum, RoadGrl!

It is extremely rare that we see someone return to make their second post 3 years after their first, and the odds that you would respond within a day to someone's response to your old post is quite remarkable!

Thanks for coming back, and hopefully you can still get out on the road with some smaller trips while you wait for the right time to take your major 6 month adventure!

Yeah, I think this is the first time in a decade of managing this forum to have a member come back and respond after such a long interval of being "away".

Mark