Our trip of a lifetime

So, this is getting a little frustrating now....

I called Alamo's Boston office, who confirmed that it could be done in 1 rental as long as they re-did the paperwork every 4 weeks, which apparently doesn't require coming in to the office.

However, she couldn't give me prices, only the national reservations line could, so I rang them and the person on the end didn't speak great English. They did eventually understand my plight and managed to get me a price, but the price cost more that making 3 separate bookings! She explained to me that the prices on the website are cheaper, but I can only book for longer than 30 days by taking their prices.

So faced with a bill for over $6k I tried going to alamo.com instead of alamo.co.uk and tried searching for a 90 day rental and guess what? It found availability! at a cost of only $4200, but wouldn't let me purchase it because I had to lie and say I lived in the states, which I don't.

So I still don't have a solution and although we're not going for another year I need to put together a budget.

RE:Lifemagician - Thanks, I would rather go with a well known company if possible but I will certainly give them a try if I can't find anything.

Hi,

This is part of a longer roadtrip but it's the part we're having most trouble planning.

The only thing we really want to do along the way is Yellowstone, but we're not really sure what route to take, where to stay, what to do etc.

I've mapped it out and I think we're pretty much headed straight from Chicago to Yellowstone (maybe a stop at Mount Rushmore if we have time), but that's a lot of driving and I'm not sure how many days to allow and where to stop off on the I-90 along the way. How far along the I-90 do you think we could get each day?

Also, Yellowstone is a big place and we're really not sure where to stay or what to do when we're there? Jackson looks good but it's not really in Yellowstone. Money isn't too much of an issue as it's our honeymoon so we'd like to stay on a nice ranch, get some guided tours . I'd love to do a helicopter tour, some horse riding or a specialist photography tour if possible. Not really into hiking or camping though so want to stay somewhere nice.

Any ideas on the trip or the Yellowstone stay would be greatly appreciated.

My last message seems to have been merged into this thread (as did my previous thread about car rentals).

I thought it would be useful to have it as a separate thread as It's about a specific part of the trip which I thought others might be interested in without having to wade through the unrelated stuff in this thread so it's a shame to have it merged.

Sorry, but as we did before - and as you'd responded to - we like to keep all the questions about a single trip together in the same thread. That way we can get a much better picture of your entire trip, know what advice you've already been given, and all in all, give you better advice. As we have had to do this a few times now, it would be a shame if we would have to suspend your posting abilities because you continue to ignore that policy.

With regards to this leg of your trip, the amount of distance you should cover is very much the same answer that people were giving you in regards to the Southwest portion of your trip (specifically San Antonio to Tucson). In a full day on the road, you can cover about 500 miles, leaving time for a few short stops along the way. Using that guide, its a full 2 days from Chicago to the Black Hills, and another full day onto Yosemite.

Of course, there is a ton of things to stop and see in this area (the Badlands and Black Hills alone could easily take up several days) but I'd check out this thread from just a couple days ago which has several ideas and more links about things to do between Chicago and Seattle.

Thanks Michael.

I'm sorry, I didn't realise it was a policy, I thought it was just somebody trying to be helpful. I genuinely thought this would be more use to others if it had it's own separate thread (otherwise they have to wade through stuff about long term car hire and may not know there's stuff about Yellowstone in here). However, if those are the rules then I'll make sure I follow them from now on.

Thanks for linking me to that other thread. I wish we had time to check out things like the Spam Museum and Sioux Falls but we have to Yellowstone pretty quickly as we have lots more planned before and after. The reason I asked again about driving distances is that I assume there's a big difference between driving the I-90 and driving the roads through Yellowstone. 500 miles in a day sounds like a lot and I'm guessing it's going to be a lot slower when we hit Bighorn and start driving through the parks. Not quite sure what route we take after Buffalo?

Anyway, thanks for all your help, it really is invaluable.

The 500 mile recommendation is for point-to-point travel on Interstate highways and near-Interstate quality roads with "some" sightseeing. When you get off the beaten path, start making a lot of stops, go through towns, and take secondary roads, you have to cut that back accordingly.

To go 500 miles on Interstates with normal fuel and bathroom stops, you can figure on about 9 to 10 hours. Add time to that for meals and sightseeing.

Hi
We have been doing similar trips like yours for the last 20 years or so mainly to Australia and the USA. If you rent a car from Florida you'll save a lot of money because rentalprices are lower from Fl. Our next trip starting september is for 80 days, starting Orlando and ending in San Diego. Must say we've already been to almost all National Parks before so visiting NP's again is not our priority. We are renting a 4x4 SUV (Standard) at Hertz for 76 days at the price of € 3200,-- and that includes all insurances etc. We have to pay a drop off fee of $ 500,-- (plus tax) between Orando and Las Vegas and the maximum rental periode with Hertz was 63 days. We pick up another car in Las Vegas and go to San Diego after that (no drop off fees between NV and Ca. We also checked with Alamo and their maximum rentalperiode was 56 days. We're from Europe and renting a car from Europe often is cheaper. Our last trip to Australia (2009) was 12000 kms. Before that we were in the USA in 2007, drove 8200 miles and the overall speed (in 9 weeks) was 45 mph. You can drive much faster on the interstates of course, but driving in cities, finding your way, stops etc will lower your average speed.
We find best time for Yellowstone end of august and first weeks of september. June also is good but probably too early for you. It's impossible to give you all attractions on a route like this, you need 30 years to explore them all. Chicago to Seattle don't miss Black Hills SD and Glacier NP. Glacier is best in july and august because Going to the Sun road often opens late and close early. With that much time I would suggest to stay at least 4 days in the Black Hills region, 2 full days for Glacier, 3-4 full days for Yellowstone and 1-2 days for Grand Teton NP.
Chicago-Sioux Falls-Corn Palace-Badlands-Black Hills-Devils Tower-Cody-Grand Teton-Yellowstone-Glacier-N Cascades NP-Seattle would be an option.
If you are looking for special places maybe check www.roadsideamerica.com
O yes, don't plan too much and see how things come. We only make a reservation on the arrival date and that's is. Must say we're travelling off season.

Hey Jon,

How's the route planning going?

Being from New York... I would suggest cutting down the NYC portion by a day or two. Unless you do have a lot of stuff planned. I feel like you might just end up wandering around. Which is fine, if you're into that.

Like Mass Tim said, you can probably do most of the touristy stuff in two days or so. Other things people I know who have come over here enjoyed doing; Going to a play (Broadway or off Broadway), going to Long Island - to a beach if it's warm out, Seeing Brooklyn, and lots of walking.

I think someone else also suggested thinking about your favourite movies etc for the South West? You could do the same for NYC. I read once about someone doing a Ghostbusters "tour" of all the different sites it was filmed at.

If you're more into the idea of "old New York" or taking a look at kind of weird kitschy NY stuff try checking out http://www.forgotten-ny.com/
If you scroll down towards the bottom they have different categories of places to visit etc.
They even do walking tours on Saturdays or Sundays I think. It looks like they've gotten pretty popular too.

Let me know how it goes.

K

when in AZ you can not miss Sedona... by far the most beautiful place in AZ

Hi Guys,

I haven't checked this thread in over a year or so. We've just been working hard and saving for our trip. I can't believe we're now only 4 weeks away and we're actually going! I am so incredibly excited.

Just to update you, we're still planning a circular 90 day trip from Boston, getting there on 2nd July so we can see the 4th July fireworks. Anti-clockwise from there taking a few days in Canada, onto Yellowstone then Seattle. Down the west coast taking a week in Lake Tahoe, then through the desert, Texas and down to Key west, then up the East coast back to Boston.

Unfortunately we're not going to get a lot of time to explore Yellowstone/Grand Teton etc. We have a few days in Yellowstone which we're going to fill with a wildlife photography tour and a "paddle and saddle" kayak and horseback riding trip. Oh, and a quick trip to Old Faithful.

We managed to get the car rental through Budget.co.uk in the end. Only by calling their call centre and getting someone there to make a 30-day booking and putting a note on it asking the Boston office to extend it to 90 days at the same rate once we get there.

For now I just have two questions, What's the cheapest way of getting 3G internet on the move and what are the best hotels to stay in (cheaper chain hotels) for cheap/free in-room internet access.

I wondered how easy it would be for a foreigner to get a pre-paid 3g USB stick or something similar by just going into a shop in Boston? I'd like to get something with 4G so could I just walk into a Verizon or Sprint store and buy something or would I need a US address?

Another option is something like this... http://www.gosim.com/internet-access-abroad.html - Anybody got any experience?

Jon