NEW YORK and everything in between CALIFORNIA?

[bialy14]

Hey,
I want to take a road trip, from new york and end up in california, and then back. However, I have no idea how to go about conjuring up a trip of such power. Places of interest are boston,arizona, colorado, minnelapolis, texas, wyoming, yellowstone national park, grand canyon, california, seattle, sandiego. These are just places of interest, that if possible I can tackle some of them on this road trip that be awsome. If anyone can start me off that would be great! Thanks!

[Mark Sedenquist]

I want to take a road trip, from new york and end up in california, and then back. However, I have no idea how to go about conjuring up a trip of such power. Places of interest are boston,arizona, colorado, minnelapolis, texas, wyoming, yellowstone national park, grand canyon, california, seattle, sandiego. These are just places of interest, that if possible I can tackle some of them on this road trip that be awesome.

Well, what is more valuable to you -- time or money? Such a trip is very possible -- tads of folks have done it. In fact if you you use the search function on this forum you can read tips and suggestions for hundreds of variations of such trips. A few questions: When will you do this? How much $$ can you afford? How much time? What kind of vehicle? Solo or with friends and what are you looking for?

Mark

[bialy14]

I would be looking to do this trip soon, figure 3 to 4 weeks. Figure 1500-2000 dollars dollars. Excluding gas, that would be another budget for me. It would be atleast 2 guys, Hyundai sonato 2002. v6 4 door. lol Let me know if this helps out a little. The budget was per person too. thanks!

[PNW Judy]

If you plan on doing some camping and eating out of your cooler along the way, that budget should easily last the whole trip...depending, of course, on how much you plan on spending on other activities. If you're planning on hotels, restaurant meals, and a lot of expensive things like clubbing.

If you're going to be visiting more than 2-3 national parks along the way, a National Parks Pass is a great investment and will save you a lot of bucks over the course of your trip.

There are tons of great resources here. I would suggest poking around and getting some more specific ideas of what you want to do and see and then comine back with more specific questions.

Just for fun, I poked your ideas into MS Streets & Trips and came up with the following info that might help give you some idea of how feasible this is for you:
New York-Boston-Dallas-Denver-Grand Canyon-San Diego-Seattle-Yellowstone-Minneapolis-New York

8,850 miles (mostly via interstates)
145 hours driving time
If you average 25mpg, and gas costs $2.50/gal, you will spend about $885 in gas. (or about $0.10 per mile -- if you use the RTA Fuel Calculator, you can get all sorts of data about the costs.)
If you average driving 5 hours per day, it will take you 29 days to make the trek.

Personally, I'd skip Boston this trip. You're close enough to it to go another time. Skipping it gives you:
7,860 miles (almost 1000 miles saved)
129 hours (16 hours saved)
And you can save yourself 40 minutes driving daily, driving only about 4-1/3 hours on average per day, to make the trip in 29 days.