Road trip for beginners from the UK

Hello everyone!

First and foremost let me just say what a fantastic website this is!

I, and 2 of my friends, all from the United Kingdom, want to take a road trip across the USA. We are just in the preliminary stage of planning, and already it seems that this will take a lot of organisation, but we are definitely up for the challenge.

First we would like a route. Can anyone recommend a route for 3 22 year old men lasting a minimum of 4 months. We want to hit up New York, Washington, Florida, Las Vegas, Los Angelos, Detroit, and anywear in between! Also, can we secure a visa for this length of time?

Next, we would like help with travel. Our plan is not to rent an RV, but maybe to buy an old one cheap. We do not care for resale value, we just need something to get us places and then scrap it! Also, how much would it be to insure and tax such a vehicle? Where can we park it at night?

Finally, can someone provide a rough idea of how much money we would need to budget for food, clothing, and gas? Again, we aim to travel for a minimum of 4 months (preferably 6).

Thank you for your suggestions and advice.

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

There are some very major obsticles that will make your current plan next to impossible.

First is the Visa issue. To do a 4-6 month long trip you would need to get full tourist visas. That is a very time consuming process and will be full of red tape. It would be much much easier to plan for a trip that is 3 months or less, where you could travel under the Visa Waiver program.

The other big issue is transportation. It is nearly impossible for a non-resident to purchase, register, license, and insure a vehicle in the US. Even if you overcome the legal hassles, Buying an "old RV cheap" where you "don't care about resale value" is a very bad idea. Simply put cars are not disposable items - and that's even more true with an RV. To get something even marginally roadworthy is going to cost several thousand dollars, and even that could end up costing you thousands more just to keep it running on a major trip. If a car/RV is worth so little that you don't care about the resale, it will most certainly not be nearly in a condition to be used for the kind of trip you are talking about. The other factor is that RV's are not a cost saving option, as you still will need to look for campsites, and the cost of obtaining and running it will be far more than a car and staying in motels.

Your other questions are simply too wide open to answer at this point. Until you have a bit more of a plan, its just not possible to start listing off "everywhere in between" or and there are a lot of variables when it comes to the costs and budget. You can certainly get more information by looking around this site. That will help you build more of a realistic outline, and once you are farther along in your planning, we can help with more advice on the details.

Hey richardjamair, take a look at the forum i posted 'planning first road trip for 4 students', i am planning a similar road trip and i got a lot of good information...it should answer alot of your questions.

caolanraff