HELP roadtrippers from Finland!

[_jackbauer_]

Hello from Finland!

Me and 3 other guys are planning a roadtrip to The States next fall and we would like some information on the cost of the trip. The main routeplan is Miami-Los Angeles-San Francisco-Las Vegas-Mount Rushmore-Memphis-Chicago-Detroit-Toronto-Montreal-Boston-Buffalo-Washington D.C.-New York and everything in between! :) We have 2 months (60+ days) time and about 9500 miles to go...We're planning to sleep in cheap motels/hotels (Motel6 for example,or cheaper??) and of course all the 4 in the same room. :D We're gonna rent a car from Miami and drop it off when we get to New York. We plan to stay for a week in L.A. and maybe 10 days in NY(Manhattan). We don't like to splurge on food so McDonalds and Wendy's are fine. So if someone can lighten us up on the budget for the trip we would be grateful! (sleeping,food,gas and car rental) everything would be split into 4. Plane tickets we can check easier from here.

Thank you in advance!
Niko Korkiakoski and pals!

here's the routeplan

RouteplanUSA09.jpg

[MaxxedMan]

Well I'm jealous

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I suspect your biggest cost will be your transportation. For a 2 month rental, with a one way drop fee, plus extra driver fees, you'll be looking at about $3000. That's assuming you're over age 25. If you're between 21-24, you'll be looking at additional underage fees that usually run about $20-25 per day. That also assumes that you already have insurance and don't have to buy that additionally.

Fuel is kind of hard to judge right now, simply because the price has been so volatile lately. I'd probably guess $4 per gallon to be safe, although that could certainly be much lower if the global economic situation remains sluggish. I'd figure about 20% extra miles for driving in town and things like that, and an average car would get about 25 mpg. That would give you a rough fuel cost of $2000.

Cheap motels will cost about $50, but there certainly will be cases where you spend more than that, plus when you're in NYC, you'll be paying much more than that. I'd roughly estimate $70 a night to be safe, so you'd be looking at about $4200 there for your two months.

Food, even if you love fast food, I doubt you'll really want to eat it for 2 straight months (supersize me, anyone?). Here's some tips for making your own food and eating out of a cooler, but I'd figure $15 per day per person, eating cheaply. That puts you at $3600.

You'll also need some money just for living expenses, attraction tickets, parking, tolls, etc. That's a bit harder to judge and will be very dependent upon how you plan to spend your days, but I'd say $500 per person would be a roughly the minimum you'd want.

So a rough estimate based on those assumptions would be about $15000 total for your trip, or $3750 per person.

[_jackbauer_]

Thanks!

That was pretty much what we had calculated...how much are the entry fees to national parks like Yosemite, Gran Canyon, Arches and so on..? Does anybody know where to check out some film locations besides L.A. and New York? (are there any good sites on the internet?)

[Southwest Dave]

Thanks!

That was pretty much what we had calculated...how much are the entry fees to national parks like Yosemite, Gran Canyon, Arches and so on..?

You can buy an annual pass that will allow you into all parks and federal lands for a one off fee of $80 that you can purchase from the kiosk of the first park you visit. Pretty much anything over 4 parks you are saving money.

Here is the National parks website where you can search all the parks of interest to you and it also contains a link with info about said pass.

[_jackbauer_]

Hello!

I already wrote about our upcoming road trip on another topic, but I would like to know more about car rental...

We're 4 guys from Finland.
We need a minivan for 53 days.
We're all 22 years old.
We'll pick the car up from Miami and drop it of in New York.

So my questions are:
What will this all cost?
What kind of insurances and other papers do we need?(what will they cost?)
Is there a specific rental company you suggest?

From,
Niko Korkiakoski

[Midwest Michael]

I already gave a rough estimate of what I thought it would cost for a rental car. Because you are underage, and because you are looking to rent a minivan (which costs more to rent than a sedan, and might not be available because of your age) this is going to be expensive.

At this point, anything more will just be a guess. You need to start shopping around with the various companies to get some price quotes, and to see who will even allow you to do the kind of rental you hope for.

This thread breaks down the various kinds of insurance that you'll often see offered by rental car companies.

[_jackbauer_]

ok, thanks