guide me

Greetings to all Roadtrip gurus,

I have been lurking on this forum from a long time...,

I think this is one of the best forums in supporting and advising people who take roadtrips...,

so when comes to my situation...,

I am new to america


me and my friend are planning a roadtrip

what i expect in it is...,

1) want to feel countryside of america and the culture, food

2) want to camp near villages

3) want to visit some historic places

4) want to travel in the most scenic routes

5) want to see some barn and farms.., if possible with proper admission

6) want to spend more time in western part...,(I saw sideways movie.., want to spend some time like tht.., tasting wine and feeling wine yards)

limits:

1) financially 2500 per head for everything

2) starting by the end of april for 25 days

3) whole country

4) see natural parks

5) can allocate 12 hrs for drive, sight seeing and some breaks..., 8 hrs for night camping

6) start at newjersy

7) already saw newjersy, newyork, tenesse, orlando.., try to exempt these places

gear:

1) nissan murano or leasing a high mileage honda

2) basic camping gear

- tent
- stove
- sleeping pad
- mosquito repellent

3) copilot live 7 GPS

questions:

1) which states are best for this kind of trip

2) THE BIG QUESTION....,please walk me through the best route and palace we can take, starting at jersy and arriving at jersy

3) how much would the whole trip will cost on an average

4) moderately good hotels or inns to stay

5) how much speed can we go through the country side roads

6) places to beware of..., i don't want to touch any discriminative communities

lot more questions to pop up..,

thanks in advance for the people who advising here..

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

While you've laid out a nice list of idea, I think we need to work on your focus a bit. You seem to be all over the place with your planning.

As far as what states to visit, you say you want to see the whole country and in general your other interests indicate you are looking at things you'd find in a cross section of the US, so I think coast to coast is probably the type of trip you are looking for?

That said, you really are looking at too much stuff for anyone else to start coming up with a route. You need to find a few more specifics for yourself so you can really start building your trip. That said, if you've got just 25 days and you need to start and finish in NJ, you will have a few more limits on what you will have time to do if you decide to go all the way from coast to coast and back again.

Your cost questions also have a lot of questions within them. You've listed two possible cars, but do you own them already, or will you have to pay to rent/buy one? You're talking about camping, but then ask about the cost of moderate priced hotels. You also at this point don't appear to know how far your going. Without those things, its hard to talk about budget. However, with $5000 you should probably be able to get by for a month, its just hard to say for sure without having more exact plans.

yes I am in the nascent stage of planning. as far as 25 days limit, how many days will you suggest for it.

I own murano.., If mileage is a concern for this kind of trips...then planning to rent a honda

I asked about motels, because i want to stay once in 4 days...,

why i dint start planning by myself is..., here lot of people have cruised US .., so they can add list of places and routes based on my request...,

once i get a basic list of suggestions on these things, I can make a concrete plan..,

thank you michael for starting up

I really wouldn't worry about your background. You'll find friendly people all across the country, and there is no place where you shouldn't travel.

As far as most of your other questions, I think you need to do a little work on your own to find the places you'd be interested in. The US is a huge place, and having a month to work with means you can go nearly anywhere, but that also means its virtually impossible just to come up with a list of places you should go. As you've said, you want to see the whole country, so the options are just too large in number and too broad in topic to start listing individual possible places. The number of interesting places that are worth seeing in the US couldn't all be viewed in one lifetime, much less one month, so there is no way anyone else can just come up with a list of things for you to do on this trip.

Start by looking at some cities, national parks, states, etc where you might want to go. Get a little footing on the places that interest you. There are plenty of resources, including the thousands of threads and articles on this website to help you get started. Certainly, you can ask questions about places and look for help filling in gaps, but you need to take the first step so we can help you.

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Start by looking at some cities, national parks, states, etc where you might want to go. Get a little footing on the places that interest you. There are plenty of resources, including the thousands of threads and articles on this website to help you get started. Certainly, you can ask questions about places and look for help filling in gaps, but you need to take the first step so we can help you.

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I think the easiest way to do this is to get a good, big map of the US that has major cities, roads, and various attractions like state and national parks on it. If you can, put it on the wall and use push-pins to mark the places that jump out at you as places you really want to visit. It's possible that a general route will visually emerge from this exercise.

Of course, feel free to come on back and ask specific questions about these places, the routes between them, etc. so we can help you fine-tune things to have a great trip!

As for the issue of using your Murano vs. renting a car....I've never understood that. A car is not an investment. A car is a tool to get you from place to place and, if your lucky, it's a tool you really enjoy using. If you enjoy driving the Murano, that's what I'd take. The only times it would make sense to me to rent a car are (1) your car is too small for your needs so you need to rent something bigger; (2) your car consumes way too much gas and you will save money by renting a more fuel efficient car (if cost of rental is factored in); or (3) your car is not in good enough mechanical condition to make the trip. By that's just my criteria. I know some here would disagree with me on that.

Enjoy the planning and let us know how we can help you further!