New Orleans to New York - one way

Hi

A friend of mine is doing an internship in New Orleans and the chance of a road trip seemed to good to pass up. The plans are very much in their infancy however I plan to fly in to New Orleans Late April and back from New York middle of May. I think I will want a few days in both citys however apart from that we have no real direction and personally I'm just looking to see as much of the U.S.A in a short time period as possible.

A few questions:
Is 2-3 weeks long enough for this trip? (it might have to be due to work constraints)
Is it best to drive straight to New York stopping on the way or go via the coast?
How much should we budget for the trip?
What’s the best way to sort out a hire car?

And most importantly are there any must see sights/cities along the way?

Any help/advice/ideas would be appreciated

Thanks

Ken

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

You could make the drive in as little as 3 days, so 2 to 3 weeks will be plenty of time to make this trip.

The best thing to do for a car rental is to simply shop around. You will likely be looking at rather expensive extra fee for doing this as a one way trip. You can search for prices right here at RTA (look at the top or right sides of your screen), but you might also look at consolidators based in the UK/Europe which often have good deals available.

The where to go is completely up to you - there is no "best" or "must see" in this case. There are lots of cities and attractions along the coast worth checking out. The scenery taking a more direct route through places like the Smokey Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway is great. You could also go north first, perhaps heading up the Mississippi River towards places like Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago. It really is up to you.

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

As you are just in the preliminary stages of planning your trip, I'll just offer some general ideas for you to keep in mind as you proceed. First of all, 2-3 weeks is plenty of time for your trip. You could easily fly to New Orleans in less than a day and make the drive back in less than three, so you'll have somewhere between 10-18 'extra' days for exploring the eastern US as you work your way back to New York.

If you'd rather see a bit of the country and meet a few people on the way south, instead of being jammed in yet another aluminum tube, think about taking the train and perhaps even getting off in various cities en route and then reboarding the next train. There are three different options for trains including non-stop service on the Crescent from $184 one-way. Each of the three trains runs daily and would take about a day and a half for the run (plus any time you spend off-train exploring cities en route.

Also very generally, for the drive north you and your friend will have a number of options. Two that basically follow the east coast are described here, but you could also drive up the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, or follow the Great River Road up the Mississippi then the Ohio River and across Pennsylvania to New York. Your friend may have a preference for a route he hasn't traveled yet or you may have a preference for certain places, scenery, history, or night life that will help decide your final route.

My personal rule-of-thumb for travel expenses is around $150/day for two people traveling together. That includes motels, meals and admissions, but not the cost of the rental car or petrol which you'll need to budget for separately. You can cut down on that a bit by a number of means. You should probably budget around $400 for gas, but your actual cost will depend on the length of your final route, the mileage your rental car gets, and the cost of fuel at the time of your trip.

As for the car rental, that is going to be a major item. I usually look for a car hire to run around $250/week for an intermediate sedan with unlimited miles, but you are likely to be hit with some high-cost 'extras'. If you are going to leave the car in New York at the end of the trip, expect to be hit with a one-way drop off fee of around $200. If you and your friend want to drive at any point during the trip, you will have to pay an extra driver fee of about $15-25/day for the entire rental period. If either of you is under 25 years of age, you will have to pay an underage driver fee of $25/day (or $50/day if you are both under 25 and both want to drive.) As you can see, such fees start to add up quickly. Our European friends have occasionally reported that they can get some of those fees waived by careful negotiating or going through a European consolidator such as carhire3000.

Good luck in setting up the basics, and once you've got them sorted out, please check back for some more specific advice.

AZBuck