West to East roadtrip in the summer 2011

Hello RTA!
First of all I’m so glad I found this webpage- I could spend hours surfing around here.

Well, me and 3 guys are packing our bags and leaving Denmark next summer for a 40 day SUV road trip across the country. Starting of in San Francisco and hopefully ending up in New York.

But since it is the first time for all of us going to the states, we would appreciate if you guys could give us some good advice for what we don’t want to miss on the trip.

All of us will be either 24 or 25 at the time. We seek the adventure and need you to help us!

Thanks alot!

Kind regards
Søren, Aske, Jakob and Anders

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

The US is simply to large to start throwing out lists of places to visit on a month+ long trip that covers the entire country. Certainly, this site is filled with ideas and suggestions, so you can spend some time getting an idea of what would be a must see for you, then once you have an idea of a few of the major stops we can help you fill in the gaps.

Logistically, you might consider doing a loop, as it should save you a significant amount of money in a one-way drop fee with the car rental, and with 40 days, you'd have time to do that comfortably. You'll also need to think about if the 24 year olds will be driving. Each driver who is under age 25 will pay a significant premium of about $25 per day for the rental car. That's $1000 for each 24 year old over the course of your whole trip, so certainly an amount that you'll want to think about. And don't think about allowing anyone under 25 to drive if they aren't included on the rental contract, as you'd essentially be driving a stolen car at that point, invalidating the insurance and voiding the rental contract with no refund.

Thanks for the reply!
Think you are right about the route planning. I probably return here for further help when we are more certain about what we actually want to experience.
Well about the car renting issue. We have already bought our flight tickets and booked our rental car(haven’t paid anything yet). Through priceline.com we managed to get a good deal (at least what I think, hehe) with hertz. We get a standard size SUV for 30 days all taxes included for 1300$. As far as I understand the agreements there should be no one way fee. Because of a special offer hertz have on one way trips. But it is pretty complicated to figure out what we actually get for the 1300$ and and what we should expect to pay extra when we pick up the car.
I think the easiest way to find out what we actually have to pay is to contact hertz by email or phone.

I would contact Hertz.

I wouldn't worry about the one way fee in this situation, because Hertz typically rolls that fee into their rental rate.

What would concern me is the underage aspect. It seems unlikely that your quote factors that element into your trip - and at $25 per day that could make for a very unpleasant surprise for your budget.