Irish Road Trip Fall 2007

[IrishgraceRT]

Hey guys,
We are two Irish people who plan to head to the states for a fun packed road trip in september this year! Cant wait. Will stay for 3-4 weeks and would love suggestions on must see, must do places. Any advice is appreciated and we would love to hear about your home town for some insider knowledge! Look forward to hear from all. Grace.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

3 to 4 weeks will give you lots of time to see a wide variety of the things the US has to offer. That said, there's still no way to see it all in that timeframe, so you have to pick and choose where you want to travel.

What have you planned so far? Is this going to be a one way trip, or are you planning to do a loop, starting and ending in the same place? Is your idea of a must see place a natural wonder like the Grand Canyon or a more urban environment like Manhatten?

September will be a great time for this trip. The weather is still comfortably warm in more parts of the US, but it is past the end of the peak summer tourist season, so crowds shouldn't be a problem. I'd recommend viewing RTA's International Visitors section for some more tips on what you can expect when you arrive in North America.

[IrishgraceRT]

We have a rough route, that starts in Chicago and drives from there to Texas, Passing through Indiana, Kentucky, Tennesse etc. We then were thinking of an internal flight to Vegas and from there going to see the G. Canyon as well as Bryce national park. I would like to spend a few days between Arizona and Utah as it looks beautiful. We were then thinking of driving via Reno to Yos. National Park and seeing Lake Tahoe. Depending on time we would then drive to San Fran as I hear the road between San Fran and LA is beautiful and then home from LA. We have settled on 24 nights, I would stay forever but my travelling companion has very little annual leave.

[IrishgraceRT]

Hi all,

I have just decided to head to the USA for a 24 night road trip. We want to cover as much as possible and see things that we may never see again. There are two of us and we want to go:

Chicago---Indiana---Kentucky----Tennesse---Texas ( Dallas and nearby regions)

We then wish to fly from Dallas to vegas and do:

Vegas--Arizona ( Grand Canyon) ---Utah ( Bryce and Zion) ---Reno ( May leave this out) ---Yos. NP---San Fran--Coastal Drive to LA.


I have three questions that people may be able to help with:

Is this too far in 24 nights?
How much for a budget to cover everything ( we are thinking of 100$ a day each)?
Is there any MUST sees along the way aside from what an eye witness guide will tell me? #

Thanks a million!!!

[AZBuck]

As Michael noted, there's no way you can do everything in three weeks, but I think you've picked two excellent areas to see, and now you just have to do that efficiently. The one bit that doesn't seem to fit with the rest is Texas. Is there a particular reason you've included that? If you can forego that, then you can do the RoadTrip portions as two very nice loops. The first would be out of Chicago down through Indiana to Kentucky, Tennessee and then back up along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, through West Virginia and down the Ohio River valley before returning to Chicago. This loop could include Mammoth Cave National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Midland Trail, and the Ohio River Scenic Byway.

You would end up back in Chicago, drop off the rental car and fly over to any of Los Vegas, Las Angeles, or San Francisco (or maybe even Phoenix), where you'd rent a second car and do your next loop around all those cities plus the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and Big Sur. That loop has been discussed in detail in several threads, so be sure to use the Search function to find the individual destinations and the routes between them. This post should get you started.

As a rough guess, I'd say one week for the midwest portion and two weeks for the southwest portion would be about right. The beauty of doing it as two loops is that you get to do 'local' car rentals and thus avoid those annoying and expensive drop-off fees. and you just have to book one internal round trip flight between Chicago and whichever southwestern city you choose to serve as your base for that loop, again saving money. (I suspect that Las Vegas will work out to be cheapest) That leaves you more of your resources to devote to exploring a new country and continent.

AZBuck

[AZBuck]

Sorry, but we crossed paths on our last pair of posts, so let me try again.

24 days is quite sufficient to do everything you have in mind. If you do want to make a on-way drive from Chicago to Dallas, it could be done in two days. That leaves plenty of time to sight-see along the way or to visit Chicago or Dallas at either end. I'm still thinking in general terms of one week for the midwest portion of your trip and two weeks for the more expansive distances you want to cover in the west.

I think $100/day per person should be quite adequate to cover gas, food, lodging and attractions. You should probably budget separately for the big ticket items such as plane fares from Dallas to Las Vegas and from Las Vegas back to Chicago (about $300 each). I did a quick search and there really isn't much difference in flying Chicago - Las Vegas - Chicago, or Dallas - Las Vegas - Chicago. The one extra expense in driving to Dallas and then flying to Las Vegas is the one-way drop-off charge for the car. That will set you back an additional $350. (All figures are approximate.)

What constitutes a 'must see' depends in large measure on what the two of you want. Let us know a little bit about your interests and we can be of much greater assistance. You've already named a few of the best places on the Las Vegas - San Francisco - Los Angeles circuit, and from Chicago down to Dallas, some highlights would include St. Louis and/or Mammoth Cave, Memphis, the Great River Road and the Ozarks.

AZBuck

[IrishgraceRT]

We really want to experience life in the towns we visit and it would therefore help if we knew of perhaps one or two stops that arent exceptionally touristy so we could get to know some locals. We basically are hoping to fit in scenic viewing and some fun ( from the guide books it seems memphis may be good for this, and we also thought fort worth ---thats why we aim to fly out of Dallas).

What we aimed to do was keep the internal flight ( budget $100 each ) and the car hire ( budget $50 dollars a day including drop off at end) separate. From the $100 dollars we wish to pay for everything else ( Is that realistic)? I am in the process of divising an exact route. At the moment our longest leg is the drive from Bryce Canyon to Yosemite. This seems to be about 10 hours +.