Starting point, New York City

Hi all, I just registered but I have been visiting this forum from time to time since I decided I wanted to do a road trip in the USA 2 years ago. However, due to financial problems I didnt go through with it, until now.

I have never been to the USA, and never really done a roadtrip either. So I thought I would ask the professionals here ;).

I want to do a roadtip, starting from New York city. I have been looking for a place to end the roadtrip, but it looks like it's easiest to also end it at New York city. (because we have to fly back to amsterdam afterwards). It's just going to be me with a friend = 2 people. We decided we're going for 21 days, possibly a week longer if that would make awesome stuff possible.

We want to hit the following cities:
New york (max 5 days)
Philadelphia (? days)
Washington DC (? days)

But thats where my imagination kind of stops. I guess I would love to see a bit of nature as well. Maybe even get some action? (like rafting, climbing, shooting range, etc) But what's good in the area? No idea.

We are comfortable driving for 6 hours a day, but not much longer. I realize thats not a lot, considering America is really big. But Holland is supersmall so we're just not used to drive for long. On the flipside, we are prepared to stop and rest for the night in small towns, etc. As long as we'll eventually get to the destination we don't mind taking it a bit longer to get there.

We have a budget of 2500 euro's each (3400 dollars?) to do this, but we're willing to go over that budget if deemed necessary/awesome. The flight from and back to Amsterdam is not part of the budget. So the budget is meant for car rental, gas, food, hostels/motels, fun/interesting things.

Like I said, i have no experience with the USA or Roadtrips. So I'm looking for some help picking places to go to and the route to take.

I hope the information I gave will help you help me ;). If more information is needed please ask. In any case, thank you all for taking the time to read this and hopefully help me.


PS: Is it even allowed for a foreign tourist to use a weapon at a shooting range?

Welcome!

The first question that must be asked - if you are planning on renting a car - is your ages. If you are under 25, the rental cost is considerably higher, and if you are under 21, renting a car is almost impossible.

Thank you GLC!

To answer your question: we are 23 and 24 years old. And i just fixed the first post; the budget is meant per person. so we each have 2500 euro available.

Your rental is going to be costly, but I don't think you will have any problem with that kind of budget. You will probably get the best rental rate through a European consolidator.

You can plan on about $100 a night for a decent hotel room for 2, 20 cents a mile for gasoline for the car, and about $30 a day each for food, this would be something like a fast food lunch and a restaurant dinner. You should be able to find accommodations for less, but for budget planning that's a good number to use just in case.

Hi Dutchguy and welcome to RTA !

At this stage I would recommend that you keep digging around for info in the forums to help with planning. At the top right of the page you can use the search button and scroll down the page where you will find 'similar threads' that you can click on and then repeat as many times as you want. Also in the tool bars above you will find routes, attractions and the Map centre to help with your planning. It really is up to you how long you want to spend at each place you visit, and then work with what time you have left to travel with. From Washington you could head inland to Shenandoah NP and head South to the Great Smokey mountains along the Appalachians and perhaps through Nashville, [or Memphis] St Louis, Chicago and Niagara falls. That would be an 8 to 9 day driving loop while only driving for 6 hours a day but that is only one example of thousands of options. If you had a Month at your disposal you could drive just about anywhere in the US, including the West coast and back by a different route.

Start looking around and getting some dots on the map and ask as you have new questions come up and we can help to fill in the blanks.

Enjoy the planning !

Thanks for the help & information guys, I'll continue the planning and will post some updates (probably with questions, lol) along the way.

While looking for a route I changed the parameters of the trip. I stepped away from the driving loop (from new york to new york) and am thinking about starting in miami and drive to new york from there. or the other way around.
This route:
http://i51.tinypic.com/dfl2f.jpg

Locations B, D and E are only there as a possible rest stop, I dont know if its any fun or whatever. so Jacksonville, Florida - Hayesville, North Carolina and White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

Basically I want to see some mountains and forest in that area like Southwest Dave said: "Shenandoah NP and head South to the Great Smokey mountains along the Appalachians "
Do you happen to know some cool places to stop for a day or 2 or even longer?

GLC, this might seem like a silly question but.. 100 dollar a night in a decent hotel room? is that per person? makes all the difference in the budget.

When we arrive in new york and been there for a few days, we might continue the trip (depending on how much money/time/road trip spirit we have left_ by going to the Niagara falls, Holland, Michigan(just because i'm dutch, mystery destination) and Chicago.

In case we do just that, would it be best to avoid driving through Canada for a bit (seeing we'd be renting an american vehicle) would that be allowed? Also, is crossing the border (going into canada and a bit later back into the usa) easy? Or could I expect trouble, being a foreigner and all.

Thanks again for the help!

Quote:

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100 dollar a night in a decent hotel room? is that per person? makes all the difference in the budget

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That would be a reasonable average for a decent Hotel per room for a couple. There are a few decent chain Hotels where you will possibly find what you want for $70 - $80 so that should be a 'safe' average even when looking at some Hotels at $120 per room.

Nice map you made! If possible, keep updating your topic here. We are planning to do a similar trip from (probably) Washington to Miami. Would be nice to look at your map from time to time.

In Florida in 2008, we went to a shooting range and it wasn't a problem at all that we are Dutch. Only thing is, at the time we both had KNSA passes from Holland (we're both used to handle a weapon), so maybe that made a difference.