First Trip to the US

My girlfriend and I are planning our first trip to the US from the UK with a fly drive from San Francisco to Las Vegas at the beginning of May. We are thinking of staying at SFO and Vegas for 3 nights each. The rest of the time will be spent driving between the two stopping off a Yosemite, Sequoia and Death Valley National Parks.

Could you recommend any budget Inns/lodge's were we could stay for a couple of days each along the way.

Also could you recommend any books on driving rules/laws/road signs etc for the US or/and California asI have not been able to find any.

Thanks for your help

Adam.

AAA publishes a digest containing a synopsis of the traffic laws in all 50 states of the USA. It is an easy to use guide for someone in your situation -- I recommend it. I do not know for certain if they offer it for sale to non-members, but if available, it would be my first choice.
Bob

Adam,

You may find these web pages useful to you.

http://www.uk-2-usa.com/absolutebeginners/cars.html

http://www.uk-2-usa.com/absolutebeginners/roads.html

Written for people travelling from the UK

UK

You are in luck. Andrew Vincent, a fellow UKer wrote a really good book about driving in the USA. "Drive USA" offers a variety of useful information and he peppers most pages with odd bits of trivia like: "...distance from Bell, California to Ding Dong, Texas -- about 1900 miles..." But he has a couple of chapters providing insider tips about licenses and driving rules. <a href = "http://www.roadtripamerica.com/read/uk.htm">Click here for our review of the book<a/> and <a href = "http://www.roadtripamerica.com/links/international.htm">here for more infomation<a/> for international visitors.

Mark

Thanks for the tips guys. Great help!

One more question...We are obviously wanting to hire a car. We found the company Alamo, but when we did a quote on the web, they seem quite a lot cheaper than other hire companies. Does any one know why this is?

Thanks again!

Adam.

Alamo frequently is the least expensive of the major US rental companies -- I have used their cars repeatedly over the past 10 years and have never had a problem with them. They recently merged with another of the USA's major rental agencies (National). I don't know why they are (quite often) the cheapest, but it isn't because there are any problems with their product or service! The only problem I've ever encountered is sometimes their vehicles aren't cleaned very well (but I've encountered that with other companies as well). Bob

It turns out that Alamo and National Car Rental are owned by the same mega-firm. I used to use Alamo quite a bit, but now primarily use National (corporate benefits). Alamo has a very aggresive marketing campaign strategy and if you are lucky enough to get a good rate -- should be no problems

mark