Boston to vegas in November 2011

What is the best route for cross country travel by auto with time to spare. This is my goal now that I am retired. I would be driving solo
I am concerned about weather. Ideas on where to stay cheaply along the way would be great.

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

The 'best' route in such a case depends entirely on your interests and your travel style, about which you've told us nothing. What is it you're hoping to experience or get out of your trip?

AZBuck

Weather is my concern. Can I drive straight west? Time is abundant, local sites and any interesting surprises along the way. john

I'm afraid no one can give you an accurate weather forecast for some time in November. Nowhere is immune from the possibility of seeing winter storms. If you can leave things open to change, you will be best of deciding just prior to leaving, if that is your only concern.

With an abundance of time you really shouldn't have to worry too much if you keep updated with weather and travel conditions. Interstates are a priority to keep clear and traffic on the move and in the event of a storm you can simply pull off the road for a few hours, or for the night and relax while the road crews do their job and the storm passes.

The options of I80, I70 [or a combination of both] or 140 has little difference in time over such a distance, so if your goal is to get there and there is nothing you are bothered about seeing in particular, decide when you have the most up to date info available. Allow a minimum of 5 days and keep a couple spare for delays.

Having said that, is there anything in particular you might be interested in seeing along the way ? You will find Lot's of ideas searching through the forums and in the green tool bar above. The Map centre for instance is a place you can create routes and find lot's of interesting attractions along the way. Once you get into more specifics we can help out some more, but a list of interesting places across almost the entire US would run into tens of thousands of options. As for surprises along the way, well there won't be a shortage if you look around and speak to the Local's, but if we told you [or they were listed on the Internet] they wouldn't be a surprise ! ;-)

If you make it down to I-70, and take I-70 to I-15 (which will drop you into Las Vegas), here are your options:

1) Dayton OH - Wright Bros and the National Museum of the Air Force.
2) Illinois - - Land of Lincoln stuff
3) St Louis - the Arch, the Museum of Westward Expansion, the brewery tour, more (some things may be closed for the winter, but I think those three are open year round)
4) Drop down to Hermann MO for some great wineries, and only about 20 miles off I-70!
5) Colorado - - beauty everywhere

Those are just a few of the highlights!

If you go down to I-40 via I-81:

1) If the weather holds and you are driving a car, you can drive Skyline Drive (Shenandoah National Park) and the Blue Ridge Parkway
2) In Tennessee: Great Smoky Mountains National Park is not that far off I-40
3) Nashville (need I say more?)
4) Memphis = Elvis stuff, BBQ
5) Amarillo - Cadillac "museum"
6) Albuquerque - Sandia Peak Tramway, The Petroglyphs NM, National Museum of Nuclear Science, great Mexican food
7) Arizona - Petrified Forest NP and Grand Canyon NP (South Rim open year round)

As they said above, it's all in what you're interested in. Those are the two routes that I'm very familiar with, though, so that's why I decided to detail them a little. There are other ways to drive as well.

Donna

Thanks for the detail.

You also asked about staying cheaply. My husband just got back from a fly/drive from MO to CA. His 3 overnights were between $46 and $58. As is our way of doing things, he had coupons with him for motels along his route. For one city he had 3 choices, for the others he had 2 each. He was driving a U-Haul and I needed to give him a choice because of truck parking issues. With coupons, it's by availability only. He said there was NO problem with that because he was usually in early (before the dinner hour). One night (Kingman) there were only 3 vehicles in the motel's parking lot when he went to leave at 5 am, so it never even got close to full. So availability of lodging along the road in November is not likely to be a problem unless you are traveling during Thanksgiving Week.


Donna

Thank's donna I'm a newbie to this and all the suggestions are great. I plan on departing from Boston about November 20. I'd like to arrive in Vegas about Thanksgiving week. I may try staying there for a time. John

Start watching the Internet NOW for good deals in Vegas. During Thanksgiving, the "good" deals are going to be considerably higher than other weeks, because they fill up easily during that time. You might check the RTA Hotel Finder, or look at one of the many Las Vegas websites.



Donna

Donna thanks you keep coming up many suggestions. Thanks