need help

[joao pedro]

hello. my name is joao pedro, i´m portuguese, and me and some friends are planning a road trip in the USA for about 20 days, in early october. we want to go from the east to the west coast of the u.s., but we are not sure about the road(s) yet.
based on the "roadtripusa" site, we are divided between the US-50 from new york to san francisco (and in the way maybe going to vegas, grand canyon and los angeles), or the road 66 (driving from new york to chicago, and then catching the road 66 to L.A., and on the way to the grand canyon and vegas too), and then ending in san francisco.
-the thing is, wich one of this 2 options looks better for u?
-wich one has, in your opinion, better countryside views?
-do you think 20 days are enough, with 2/3 days in each big city?
-wich one do you think has better atractions in the way, like small cities, monuments, natural parks...?

if someone could help me, (since its your mother country:) ), i woul be thankful!!!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Both US-50 and Route 66 are good routes with a lot of interesting things to see along the way. I'd say Route 66 goes closer to the other things you want to see, but I would never venture to say that one is better than the other.

Having said that, I personally would not recommend just sticking to one route. If this is your first, and possibly only, chance to see the US, I wouldn't let a road number determine what it is you see. Start looking for the attractions and features that are more interesting to you, and then build your route around them. There is nothing wrong with sticking to one route, I just think in many ways it limiting, and goes against the freedom that makes a roadtrip so ideal.

3 weeks will be a good time to get a fair sample of the country. It takes about a week to drive across country, so you've got about 2 extra weeks to purely sightsee.

[joao pedro]

hello there road trip comunnity!! me and some friends are planning a road trip next october, for around 21/22 days, but we are not getting in agree about the route to follow!!!:) some of us want to visit new york, boston, chicago, monument valley and the grand canyon, vegas, los angeles and san francisco (driving trough route 66 from chicago). the others thinks that this are to many cities, and think that visiting new york, monument valley, grand canyon, vegas, san francisco and los angeles is enough in order to get to know the "real america", stopping in some small cities and driving less milles each day (driving trough us-50 more or less, and some scenic byways)!!!

we were thinking about stopping 4 days in new york, and 2 days in each of the other cities and 2 days for grand canyon and monument valley too!!

what is your opinion?
in the first option we will have to drive a lot more each day, but we will pass trough more cities, but if we choose option 2 we will drive less milles each day and will have time to stop more often and get to know better the places!!! do u think we will get very tired in option 1 or do you think we will have too much time in oprion 2?

so, wich one do you think is a better road trip? do you have some alternative route for us to follow? any atractions in the way (monuments, national parks, small cities/university cities both routes)? we are really in a big dougth over here, so we would apreciate if you could help us. i posted a similar post some days ago but now we have more dougths!!

p.s. sorry for my english, but it has been a long time since i wrote in english!!

[Midwest Michael]

Roadtrips are personal things that really can't be generallized into "which way is better." That's going to be different for every person. I enjoy taking "hit and run" type trips where you only spend a little time in each location and then move on to the next place, but there are plenty of people who much prefer to soak up each place, spending significant amounts of time at each location.

Ultimately, you and your friends will have to decide which type of trip sounds most appealing to your tastes, or reach some sort of compromise. I suggest you take the Roadtrip Compatibility Quiz with your friends to figure out what each of you are really looking for.

[PNW Judy]

I don't see that much difference between your two trip ideas. Except for dropping off Boston and Chicago, they're about the same.

You can figure that it will take 5 days to drive from one coast to the other. So, with 3 weeks, you have plenty of time to explore along the way.

That said...it sounds to me like you need to work through the quiz that Michael linked you to with your friends and determine what type of trip you want and what you want to see the most. Of course, not everybody is going to get to see everything they want and some compromises will probably have to occur. But if you remember that there is no one right trip or best trip and that whatever you choose will be new and fun and exciting, it makes the choices easier to make.

It seems like most of the places on your list are in the western part of the US. Have you considered just doing a loop of one part of the country instead of a one-way, cross-country trip? This would give you more time to explore and would keep costs down. Roundtrip flights and car rentals are usually cheaper. However, if budget isn't an issue, this may not matter to you.

I think you need to get a good US map and look it over with your friends, marking the places you all agree that you want to see, and then seeing if the driving portions are feasible in the time you have. I think alternating cities with natural wonders is a nice mix to shoot for. Sounds like you have friends that like both so that should work.

Anyway, since there's no one best trip, continue to discuss this with your friends and come on back here once you've come up with a bit more ideas to get some feedback from us. We're here to help but you need to do your homework, too.

Also remember that either route will take you through small towns and "real" America.

[Charles]

I have to agree about the comments made. There is an awful lot to see in that short a time period. Truthfully, you could spend that time in just the New England area and still not see everything there. If you are a nature lover, than you must see the grand canyon (they didn't name it "grand" on a whim). If you are more of an urbanite, than longer forays into New York, Chicago and perhaps a stop in Vegas may be a more fun trip for you. As a Vegas resident, I can say that Las Vegas is basically a clone of several other cities all mixed together. So if you have to skip some landmarks, you'll probably see replicas in Vegas. The Arts and Culture options here haven't caught up to cities like Chicago or New York, but there are a lot of entertainment options here besides gaming. Have fun on your trip and if you are bringing a camera, I would recommend packing a lot of extra batteries and flash cards. You never know when you may need them.

[joao pedro]

thanks everyone for the answers, our plan is finally coming to life!!

i have some other questions, between kansas city and kayenta, utah (monument valley), wich way do you think its more pleasent/beautiful, the us-50 (driving until grand junction, then take the i-70, and then the us-191) or the i-70 all the way, until find the us-191?!
wich option is better to see the mountains?!
will it take much longer if we choose the us-50? will we have to drive much more hours each day, if we choose us-50 (and its around 200 kms more by the us-50)?
we have around 3 days to drive from one place to another, but we also want to see some things around, so maybe we should add another day?

what do you think? thanks in advance....

[Mass Tim]

Taking US-50 would definitely put you in the mountains, but as you stated, it is going to take you longer to take the trip. I-70 also gives you some spectacular views of the mountains.

But if your primary concern is time, definitely take I-70.