Road Trip from Toronto to LA Summer 2015

[ShaqG09]

Do NOT assume that "Unlimited Miles" means unlimited range. Often rentals, especially cross-border rentals and/or underage rentals will come with geographic restrictions such as you can only take the car into neighboring states/provinces. If you wonder how they would know, pretty much every rental car these days comes with a GPS tracking device so that they can check for off-road and/or out-of-area usage. And bear in mind that if you break the contract by any such usage, or letting someone drive who didn't sign up as an extra driver at the time of pick-up, you are essentially driving a stolen vehicle and can be cited accordingly. I'm not saying or implying that any of the above conditions apply in your case, but you will need to check the details and keep the terms of the rental agreement in mind at all times.

AZBuck

Thank you for bringing this up AzBuck as I was pointing out to Donna I have been looking into this and from what I've read and understand different branches off different mileages for the rental

[ShaqG09]

As others have stated, you really need to plan on a minimum of 4 days each way - so 8 total round trip. Doing that will already require you to drive nearly 650 miles every day, which is already going to be about 12 hours on the road each day, leaving very little extra time for anything but driving, quick stops for food/fuel/rest/etc, and is at the very top end of what you can safely do. If you wanted to actually see anything along the way, you'd need to plan for more time on top of that.

I will note, that for your return trip, you could look at taking I-40, and then cut up through St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Detroit just for some different views. The mileage is about the same as taking I-80 and I-70 through Chicago and Denver, so you'd still need a minimum of 4 full days, and if you wanted to make any extra stops (like the Grand Canyon, which is just an hour away from I-40) you'd need to plan for another day on the road, but at least you'd be looking at something different out the window.

While I'm sure the young driver fees are already very expensive, make sure they include every underage driver - as additional drivers also mean more extra fees, and if the driver isn't listed on the contract, they can't legally drive the car.

Yep thanks a lot man as I said nothing is set in stone yet so there is flexibility and an ability to manuever the planning of the trip. I just really wanted other opinions and suggestions to make this a trip that's enjoyable but not tedius so this advice from every one is really helpful. Any other suggestions on possible points of interest along the way?

[ShaqG09]

Just wanted to let all of you know how greatful and thankful I am for all your contributions & advice. Still have essentially 6-7 months of planning this trip so it's great to have all this feedback in the early stages