Our Graduation Trip - Help!

[benbergbriggsgarvscott]

Hi Guys,

Myself and a group of mates (4 others) are planning on travelling America, coast to coast, starting in New York and ending up in LA.

We are graduating in the summer of '09 from University (could say we're getting ahead of ourselves in the planning I guess!) and have estimated what we want to do to take around 6 weeks.

We have been looking to rent an RV, and we have come across a website (we're English by the way) thatlooks to do what we're after. We'll all be 22 at the time, the website says you have to be over 21, is this true? Also, any other recommendations on how we would go about RV hire or second hand cheap purchasing, if at all worth it?

(Moderator note: Your link didn't work, perhaps you ment El Monte RV's website?)

So far we have allocated the journay to about 4100 miles, and we have decided a prudent cost for fuel based on a rather (and hopefully) generous rate of $4.00 / gallon for fuel. Based 6 mpg and the distance we'll doing we figured about $2800 dollars for fuel. Is this a relatively safe figure? I guess in today's climate (if the petrol pricing situation is as uncertain as it is in the UK then who knows!) you can't really say.

Now, for the journey, we we're thinking about starting at New York, going up to Niagra falls, around to Chicago and down thorugh the Rocky mountains to Las Vegas, then up to California possibly San Francisco. Now, admittedly our knowledge of the American roads/highways isn't great, so if anyone could direct us to a good place to find out roads around these areas we've flagged that would be great, or if anyone has been on trips they reccommend around these arease please let us know, we'd be truly grateful.

We've read in Paulo99's blog that Rolling Prairy was worth viewing and halfway between New York and San Francisco which could be an option for us to explore. We're quite keen on having some amazing views and scenary, but also keen to learn more about America's vastly differing culture's, societies, people and towns. (After all, not everywhere is not like Hollywood and Disneyland that many English think!)

We're planning on staying in campsites/grounds for an RV in the areas mentioned, so again if anyone has any recommendations then that would be great, of websites or places people have been then that would be a great help.

I guess we're just after general guidance, we've done a fair bit of planning (we're also planning on renting a house/flat in San Francisco/LA for a few weeks at the end), so if anyone could give us anything that could help us on our journey we would be grateful.

Cheers!

Ben, Berg, Briggs, Garv and Scott

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

It looks like you've got a pretty cool trip in front of you, that should be pretty easy to pull off, if you've got enough funds.

Your gas estimate seems a little low, only because I would expect your mileage to be a little higher once you factor in driving around the places where you are spending time.

Yes, 21 is a pretty standard min. age to rent an RV or a car in the US. In fact, typically you'll pay an extra charge if you fall into the 21-24 age range.

Otherwise, we've got a whole host of resources for you to help get going with your planning. How to Rent an RV and other articles about planning an RV trip are must reads. Information in our International Visitors section would also be useful for your trip.

[benbergbriggsgarvscott]

Thanks for the information mate!

What do you reckon the mileage would be then? We thought 4100 because we saw on a guide that was a rough sort of mileage.

As for the funds, we are all hopefully going to have £3-3.5k, so $5.5-6 each roughly (depending on exchange rate).

Thanks for the links, we've been scowering the site and people's journals for a good few hours now, loads of good stuff!

Cheers mate!

[benbergbriggsgarvscott]

Michael,

Just saw you're from Wisconsin. One of us (Scott) has a brother who has a scholarship for footall(soccer!) at a uni in Wisconsin. We was thinking on dropping in on him during our trip, do you recommend it for a good few days?

I guess it all depends what uni doesn't it?

Ben, Berg, Briggs, Garv and Scott

[benbergbriggsgarvscott]

Has anyone got any recommendations for areas to stay when in California? Our requirements pretty much consist of an apartment near to the beach along the coast and an area with some clubs/bars to spend our nights.

Cheers

[AZBuck]

Although I'm not a native, my family lives mostly in Wisconsin, and I just visited there last summer. You can reach anywhere in Wisconsin from Chicago in a day, and it's a lovely state. So by all means plan on visiting Scott's brother. What you might enjoy even more than just driving up from Chicago, though, is making a loop around Lake Michigan from Detroit up to Mackinaw City and then through the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan, entering Wisconsin from the northeast, seeing your brother and continuing to Chicago. Doing this loop gives you a good excuse to see 3 more of the Great Lakes, and if you see Ontario and Erie as part of your Niagara trip, you'll have the complete set! And yes, I think such a journey is worth a few days of your 6 week trip.

As for where to stay in California, I'd suggest looking at the University of California and California Polytechnic (Cal Poly) web sites for where their campuses are. University towns should have a wealth of underused apartments in the summer as well as a plethora of bars and hangouts.

AZBuck

[benbergbriggsgarvscott]

Thanks AZ, definitely looks worthwhile us doing that for an extra few days!

As for California, thanks for the tip, didn't even think about the uni's!

[benbergbriggsgarvscott]

Thought you guys would like to see the route we are planning to take!