MA to CA

Hi guys, I just found this site and don't even know where to start on my road trip! I'm moving to southern California from Mass and thought it would be amazing to drive across the country rather than have my car shipped out and fly, it just seems to make more sense and it seems like an opportunity I won't have too often. So I am 20 years old, naive, and full of dumb questions! I'm sorry about that. If this post is too much you don't have to answer anything :)

I have a 1999 Subaru with 90k miles, I think it will be okay. I plan on getting it looked at before I go. It's a great car. Also loading on snacks, my GPS, cellphone car charger, AAA card, $$, ipod/mix cds.. any other really obvious necessities I am missing? Should I form a solid plan of exactly where I am sleeping or is it okay to GPS the nearest hotel and crash? Do you have any suggestions of places I should stop by?

I'm not looking for anyone to form my elaborate travel plans for me, I know it really isn't together yet and I have a long way and a lot of time to do this, just random snippets of advice if you feel like sharing.

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

The most important piece of information you've lest out of the description of your trip is the amount of time you'll have to make it. With a week, you can just start to relax and make the trip as much about seeing things on the way as it is about driving to get some place. As you add more time, then you can start to wander off the 'straight and narrow' that just gets you there, and go to a lot more places that you might not be able to get back to for quite a while.

The second thing that you know and we don't is what interests you. History? Scenery? The art scene? Folk Festivals? Factory tours? Unique dining? We might be able to offer the occasional special item that we've stumbled upon in our own trips, but largely this is going to take research on your part. Surf the web. Contact the states you'll be driving through and ask for their maps and tourist brochures.

Next get a good atlas and learn how to really read road maps. GPS is all well and good but it will never replace the synoptic view you get from a good map. And maps don't need batteries or a clear view of the sky. Pour over your maps for a good long time before you set out. look at all the venues that are marked on them, not just the big well-known places that everyone will be going to, but the little out of the way museums, wildlife refuges, state parks and memorials that are available and may only appeal to you and few others.

This is going to be an adventure, and I'm glad you're just looking for advice on how to plan, rather that for a plan itself. You'll do well.

AZBuck

I just saw this now, quite a while later, but thank you for the advice! :) I have come a lot longer on the planning and poured myself into endless research but the off-gps aspect of it I'll definitely look at and didn't think of! Thanks!

So from when I last posted I developed my trip much more and have more specific questions :) I am traveling from Massachusetts to Southern California with my boyfriend of 4 years, and the itinerary we made put the trip at 19 days but there is lee-way for more time incase we go a little off schedule. It is very roughly Massachusetts-Florida-California. (List of stops: NYC, Washington DC, Charleston SC, Sarasota FL, New Orleans, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles)

-Is it realistic to plan an itinerary? I mean I have day-by-day things, how close do you generally get to your plans?
-My travel days are 8, 9, and 11 hours long roughly. Is this realistic?
-I'm really concerned about driving through the south in August. My car's AC is pretty good, we are getting a big cooler or two for water bottles and planning on buying ice every day, and getting hand held fans. Do you think we will be okay or is it really intense? I have never been to the south. Would driving at night to avoid the heat be a good idea?
-Is it a good idea to make reservations just a few days in advance? What do you do in terms of hotels/attractions on the road? I am hesitant to book all of it in advance.
-How safe are we going to be on the road? Are middle of nowhere areas especially dangerous or less? I don't know how to phrase it or what I really mean- but do you feel safe road tripping if you use general common sense (locking car, etc) ?

Thanks guys :) I am reading and doing a lot of research but some things are just common sense that I do not have. I will probably ask more as things come up :x, this is a really cool community!

Planning your days is as much a personal perference as anything else. Some people like having a day by day schedule while some people like to take things as they go. I'd recommend having a rough outline to at least have an idea of what you'd like to do but thats designed more to let you know how much you can realistically do, and gives you and idea of how your timing will be affected if you decide to spend more or less time in any one given place.

8-9 hours for a travel day is fine for most people, although 11 will start to get pretty long if you do it day after day. More importantly is how you are factoring those hours. If you are going by online mapping programs that assume you never have to stop, you'll find your days will get much longer than you are expecting. In general, 500-600 miles a day on a freeway is a full day on the road, with time for some short stops but not much else.

As far as traveling in the south and safety goes, remember one simple thing. Everywhere is someone's home town. Thousands of people live and work (outside even) in the south, so simply traveling through in an Air Conditioned car shouldn't be a paralysing experience. The same is true with safety, most people "travel" to some place every day its just usually the same places day in and day out, I don't know why traveling to someone elses hometown would make that more dangerous - unless you start advertising yourself as a potential target by failing to use the same common sense things you probably do every day at home.

Hi.

I am new here, but have been roadtripping for many years.

I typically do not make reservations, unless I know the area is likely to fill up (big tourist area, major event, weekend, etc.), or I know that I will not arrive until late in the evening. There is nothing worse then getting "stuck on the road"..unable to find a hotel room! Other than that, I just pick somewhere to stop. That leaves my options open in case I don't get as far as I wanted, or decide to take another route.

I almost always am able to stick to my plans. Your travel days do not sound unrealistic to me.

I have driven all over the US, with and without A/C in my car. I once drove from CA to FL, in August with no air. It was not that bad. You will be ok.

I am a woman and I have road tripped by myself, as well as with my children when they were small. I always felt safe, because I always kept myself safe! All areas can be unsafe at one time or another, whether the danger is from crime, accidents or other perils. Use common sense and you will be fine.

Don't forget to enjoy your trip!

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Originally Posted by Drive

Hi.
.............because I always kept myself safe! All areas can be unsafe at one time or another, whether the danger is from crime, accidents or other perils. Use common sense and you will be fine.

Don't forget to enjoy your trip!

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I couldn't have said it better myself!

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Originally Posted by AmyAndrina

Are middle of nowhere areas especially dangerous or less? I don't know how to phrase it or what I really mean- but do you feel safe road tripping if you use general common sense (locking car, etc) ?

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Nowhere (known on these pages as "now here") is no more or less safe, on average, than anywhere else. If there truly is nobody and nothing around, then what would you have to be afraid of? Common sense and your own instincts go a long way towards keeping you safe in any situation. If a place doesn't "feel" right to you, then move on.

Some of the trips I take have an itinerary planned in that I wanted to go through a certain area to see a specific place, but usually not scheduled so tightly such that I can say that I will be in town X at 3:45pm. Keeping it loose really helps the enjoyment of the trip, and leaves open the possibility of exploring.

Sorry for posting more than one thread about this trip- I didn't know better and won't do it again :)

Thank you so much all of you for the reality checks! I really appreciate it. I daydream about this trip all the time (leaving in two weeks..) and I'm basically responsible for planning it and don't want to make mistakes thousands of miles from home in a strange place. This really is helping with all these anxieties. I only have one 11-hour travel day and we have the flexibility to stop earlier than that.

Right now basically all I have to do for the itinerary is figure out specifically where to go from place to place at our stops. Like in New York City we want to go to the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building.. in Washington D.C. we want to go to the Library of Congress, Supreme Court, etc. Did you plan how to get from place to place at your stops? These are strange cities and I am afraid of being clueless as to how to get everything done but the task is overwhelming. Did you plan these things or figure them out alright when you got there?

I know we cannot drive around in New York City, we are parking in New Jersey and taking a ferry, but any of these drive-able cities: Washington D.C, Charleston SC, New Orleans LA, Dallas TX, Las Vegas NV? I've never been to these places and don't know how to physically go about them. I don't know which ones I should ditch my car and take a subway, and which ones we can travel about in relatively easily...like Boston you can drive around in it but it is best if you ditch the car in a parking garage since parking is so poor but in other places it is similar to driving in a town.

Also, judging by maps, I can get on route 66 around Amarillo, TX and it follows our itinerary pretty well. Will it be significantly longer on these roads than it would be for the main highways? I think it is 22 hours from the top of my head from Dallas to Los Angeles.. will it dramatically change the trip in terms of the amount of days we travel vs. taking a highway? (I have no idea what Route 66 is like, just that it is a go-to place)

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Originally Posted by AmyAndrina

Did you plan how to get from place to place at your stops? These are strange cities and I am afraid of being clueless as to how to get everything done but the task is overwhelming. Did you plan these things or figure them out alright when you got there?

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Every place where you stop has a visitor information centre and / or Chamber of Commerce, usually indicated by the blue and white 'I' you see on the side of the highway as you approach / enter. These folk are extremely helpful.

Other informative places are the Welcome Centres on the major highways as you enter a State. Make good use of these, and you will not need to worry about how to get around. Ask all the questions you have in mind for the State and the places you will be visiting, and you too can end up with boxes full of maps and brochures - as have I!

If you are a member of AAA, go get maps of all the places you will be visiting. They too can help with questions as to how to get around most cities.

In NYC I have always found police men and women extremely helpful, whether it is to direct you to the information centre, or give you directions themselves. And then there are good maps available of the public transport in cities such as NY, Washington, etc. I cannot remember where I got mine - have had them for a very long time.

Lifey never worries about getting around until she gets there

I find for cities where I know I'm going to be parking, that its worthwhile to research the cities subway/mass transit system. You can usually get quite complete information online that will at least give you a good background on where each train/bus route goes and stops and how that fits in to where I want to go. If I have at least that, then I'm more comfortable when I'm traveling and am in a better position to make changes if I find somewhere else I want to go - with a little help from a route map and/or asking someone along the way.

As far as your specific cities go, NYC and DC are really the only two places where you won't want to have a car, and in DC most of the major sites are within walking distance of each other.

The other cities you'll probably want to have a car. I looked into using mass transit in Dallas and it was not a user friendly system, and its a pretty easy place to get around in by car. I have used mass transit to get around Vegas, but only as a money saver because I didn't want to rent a car. I've also driven there and found it to be a very easy place to drive.

One other note, Route 66 was decommissioned 25 years ago, so trying to drive it can be a bit of a challenge. There are sections of the road that simply don't exist anymore, so at times at least, you will have to use I-40 (the road that replaced it in that area) some of the time. I'll also mention that the 22 hours spit out by an online mapping computer is very optimistic, to the point it doesn't reflect real world travel times, which will push the time up to about 25 hours. Although, I thought you were going to Vegas, which is going to add another couple hours as a detour from the route.

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Originally Posted by Lifemagician

If you are a member of AAA, go get maps of all the places you will be visiting. They too can help with questions as to how to get around most cities.

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Go load up on maps and tourbooks. It's included in your membership (and subsidized by the advertizing in the tourbooks, so don't feel shy about getting these).

You can also order online (there are limits to how much you can order at one time, and MAY depend on which AAA club you belong to) through their website... and shipping (10 day delivery) is free.

I'm just loaded up for a trip to DC l'm planning for September.

Also don't forget to use your AAA discount if and when you book motels or visit attractions.

Just ordered one of AAA's "Trip Tiks"! Thanks for the tip! I feel silly I just bought 3 books (a road atlas, one about route 66, and a guide to scenic routes) but I guess the more the better.

I am stopping in Las Vegas. We are staying with a relative and spending a few days going to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. I guess what I meant was, it takes roughly 25 hours to go from Texas to Los Angeles on the interstate, would it be a much much larger amount of time taking what is left of Route 66 instead? So instead of allotting 3 travel days, one would need to allot a lot more? I saw the website and a lot of it is gone and some points you do have to take the highway, but I've been told that Route 66 was made instead of a highway so does it have a relatively fast speed limit or is it the equivalent to taking slow back roads through cities?

Sorry I keep thinking of questions sporadically like this, and I know a lot of things are researchable, I have just been doing so much reading and get overwhelmed.. and it is more of asking experienced adults for advice to college student on how to manage money. How do you protect your finances? I have never gone on a trip without a parent. One uncle said to have at least $2000 cash on me at all times (sounds crazy!) and that travelers cheques are obsolete, and another said to have all travelers cheques. I plan on transferring money to my debit card, and storing the number to call incase it gets stolen somewhere safe, establishing an online bank account incase I need to access a large amount of money in an emergency (my bank isn't nationwide)- but I know it is important to have cash as well. I am terrified of having a stash of cash and being robbed, and really don't know much about travelers cheques to begin with. This might sound silly too- like my "are strange places in the US safe" question- and I know these are people's homes, I just want to be responsible and lack this sort of common sense.

I keep saying this too but I am so grateful for this site, it really really is easing all these pre-trip anxieties. I just want to be safe and get as much out of it as possible. Most of what I am asking is probably common sense/irrational fears, thank you all of you for being so helpful :)

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Originally Posted by AmyAndrina

I am stopping in Las Vegas. We are staying with a relative and spending a few days going to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.

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Going to Hoover Dam from Las Vegas is a day trip (about an hour) but Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon is five hours at top speed -- so that requires an overnight trip. Coming from MA, it makes more sense to stop at the Grand on your way to Las Vegas!

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I guess what I meant was, it takes roughly 25 hours to go from Texas to Los Angeles on the interstate

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I'm not sure what you're considering Texas to LA to be -- but Dallas to LA is about 1400 miles and if you never stopped for fuel, fool, restrooms and ever slowed for traffic delays, it could take you 25 hours. In the real world, it takes nearly three days traveling 8-10 hours per day to cover this distance.

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, would it be a much much larger amount of time taking what is left of Route 66 instead? So instead of allotting 3 travel days, one would need to allot a lot more?

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OK, well on that basis you'd need to factor in at least another full day. Here's an excellent online guide to the Route...

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I saw the website and a lot of it is gone and some points you do have to take the highway, but I've been told that Route 66 was made instead of a highway so does it have a relatively fast speed limit or is it the equivalent to taking slow back roads through cities

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For all intents and practices -- you can't expect to achieve much more than 45 mph average while following Route 66...

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One uncle said to have at least $2000 cash on me at all times (sounds crazy!)

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That is totally crazy! Here's some tips on traveler's cheques.

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I am terrified of having a stash of cash and being robbed,

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$200 cash on hand is the most I would ever recommend. Here are some tips for safety on the road.

mark

$200 in cash is all you would need. Travelers checks are obsolete. Use your debit card, almost everyone takes plastic these days and ATM's are everywhere.

When I need more cash, here is a trick I do to avoid paying ATM fees - I buy something at Walmart and get cash back. You can get up to $100 back at the register with a debit purchase, no fee.

I certainly agree with the above about money, carrying $2000 cash at all times is a pretty silly idea and certainly does put you at risk of theft. Its rare when I'll have even $100 cash on me at any time. Its good to have a small amount in case you stop at the occational restaurant or store that doesn't take plastic, but that certainly doesn't require any large sums.

I too use GLCs idea of getting cash back to save on ATM fees. In addition to Wal-Mart, most grocery stores and pharmacies (Walgreens, CVS, etc) are other good places to get cash.


Back to Route 66, if you are following the old road, its going to be slower than most back roads in many cases, because many sections of the highway aren't in the best shape, and they certainly will go right through towns. I'm not sure what you mean that "Route 66 was made instead of a highway" - back in its day before interstates it was a main highway but it was still a 2 lane road -, its since been replaced by Interstate Freeways which is why it was decommissioned.