Month long road trip

[fatso89]

Hi, my 3 friends and I are planning a road trip in May...We were planning to travel the West Coast, starting from Seattle and moving down to Portland, San Fran, California, L.A, San Diego, Phoenix, San Antonio before finally hitting Houston...

This is our 1st major road trip and I was wondering if a month would be enough for seeing sights and exploring the West Coast...OR is a month more then enough? If it is more than enough, we were hoping to actually travel further and end up at New York to complete a round along the West and East Coast...

Dunno if i'm being too ambitious here...Hope u guys can help me out...Thks!!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America forum.

Well, let's start by running some numbers. If you hit all the cities you've listed (except for NY), and then head on back to Seattle from Houston, you're looking at driving around 5300 miles. To do that in a month, you only have to cover 180 miles a day. Adding New York would push your total to about 7400 miles, requiring 270 miles per day. So, yeah, you could do the entire trip in a month, especially with multiple drivers.

But, that's not to say you should do it. It is, I think, way too much to try for a first serious road trip, and even if the 4 of you are really good friends,I can almost guarantee that you will get on each others nerves at some point during the journey. Being couped up in a car (pun intended) for days on end is not as much fun as you might think.

So, I think my suggestion would be that you take as much of your month as you realistically think you can enjoy together and just concentrate on the west for this first endeavor. There is more than enough to see and do to keep you entertained for weeks on end, and you're much more likely to end up with fond memories of the trip if you keep the time in the car to a minimum and concentrate on actually doing stuff.

Others may, and should feel free to, disagree.

AZBuck

[fatso89]

Hi, thanks a great deal with the reply! Actually, we were not planning to make it back to Seattle but rather grab our flight back to NZ straight from NY...We were planning to rent a car, drive to the places i mentioned and end up at NY where we drop off the car (it is possible to return the car at another state right?) before taking our return flight...

And yeah, all of us can drive so isit too much for us to handle still? Its our 1st visit to the States and somehw on a personal note, not visiting the Big Apple would seem quite a waste to me.... =) Would it a case of not having enough time to enjoy each of the states for a couple of days? Cos we were thinking of being able to haf at least 1 or 2 full days at each stopover...

[AZBuck]

Yeah, you could even do your trip in a couple of weeks, if you drove a major portion of each day, so with a month you can take every other day off. I didn't mean to imply that the trip was physically impossible, just that it might be a bit of a strain on your friendships. Just make sure that you all take time out of the car to see the stuff along the way, and keep a running clock on where you need to be. But Seattle to New York in a month, even by your circuitous route, is completely possible.

And yes, you can drop the car off in New York. It will cost a fair bit more for the privilege, though.

AZBuck

[RoadDog]

If the NZ refers to New Zealand, that is one great rugby team. I was in your great country a couple years ago and enjoyed it tremendously, especially Queenstown and Rotorua. There is nothing you can explain about a haka until you see one.

I was able to watch two games between yourselves and that place to the west. This rivalry easily matches a Cubs-White Sox game or Bear-Packer contest or Duke Carolina for that matter. I just wish we could get rugby games on the TV here and my apologies to several NZers who had to spend part of the match explaining what was going on.

A month should do it. Make sure you get off the interstates at times to see a real slice of America. I especially suggest Route 66 which you can take from Los Angeles to Amarillo, Texas. It will be running alongside I-40 so you can always get back on if time becomes a factor.

This year marks the 50th birthday for our interstate system.

Welcome to the US and hope you have a great time.



Keep on Down that Two Lane Highway. -- RoadDog