Really need some guidance

[MoDumont86]

Hi there, me and a friend are currently planning a big road trip of the USA for his 21st birthday in March 2010. We're situated in the UK by the way. Basically, we've hatched a plan to fly into Newark and do a big round trip of the states, getting to the west coast and back ideally within a month, and seeing a good proportion of the states in the process. Now i've been to the states numerous times, and know exactly what to expect in terms of food, the road system etc etc, but what i'm really looking for is some help in getting the best route and the best "sightseeing for mileage" i can. I've looked into flights and the cost of car hire (looking at about $1000 total for the car and around $500 each for the flights) but need a bit of help on how much i can be expecting to spend on various other things. I figured a rough estimate of £1000 per person ($1700ish) should suffice, but i really don't know. If anybody with a bit of experience in road tripping this fantastic country could give me some guidance on what sort of non-obvious expenses i'd be looking at would be amazing. Thanks a lot

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I think your budget for a rental car may be one of the toughest things you have to deal with. While the regular rate for a month long car rental will likely be around $700-1000, depending upon the model and company, you're also going to be dealing with a young driver rates. There is typically a $20-25 dollar fee per day for drivers aged 21-24.. Assuming you want to have more than one driver, you could also be looking at another extra fee there too. When you factor in those charges, plus other taxes that are typically placed on car rentals, I suspect you'll be looking at spending around $2000 for your car rental.

A month will be enough time to do a lap around the US, but as far as a best bang-for-your-buck route, that's going to really depend upon what you want to see. I'd start simply working with your friends and create a list of what places you'd really like to go, then you can work to build a route around them, or decide what might be just to far away to really work into this trip.

[Southwest Dave]

Hi,
Besides your surcharges on the car rental for young drivers I think you need to prepare a bigger budget.

I figured a rough estimate of £1000 per person ($1700ish) should suffice,

I hope you have some good news on the £ v's $ that I don't know about [I hope so ;-) ] but at the moment you will struggle to get $1400 on the high street for £1000, and there isn't much to suggest it's going to get any better, more the opposite.
Over 30 days that equates to around $46 a day per person for food, lodgings and plus their share in the gas. Add to that any spending money on the odd night out, souvenir's and entrance fees and you could run out of money quite quickly.

It's a great trip you got planned so get saving and in the meantime have a good look around the forum's and Road Trip planning pages where you will thousands of ideas.