Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice and suggestions on a trip I'm planning for July next year. The two of us are hoping to fly out to the USA and spend 3 months travelling around it (along with seeing Vancouver at the end). Essentially it is a giant sightseeing trip as we intend on going to all the major tourist attractions.

The general idea is:

Fly into Orlando
Jacksonville
New Orleans
Memphis
Nashville
Atlanta
Virginia Beach
Washington DC
Philadelphia
New Jersey
New York
Conneticut
Boston
Pittsburgh
Detroit
Chicago
Route 66
Los Angeles
San Fransisco
Portland
Seattle
fly home from Vancouver

Obviously this is a very rough plan as we have no idea what will catch our eye on the way. I'm trying to avoid putting together too much of strict schedule as we don't have much of an idea wht we'll see between the major destinations - is this a wise move?

With regards to travel we've been told to avoid the Greyhound buses. A few people have mentioned buying a car, but then a lot of people have told us it's pointless having a car if we're going to be in a lot of the major cities, plus the cost of buying a car is too much for us. Looks like the best way to get around will be by train, and if we spot a destination we'd like to see more of we figured we could just hire a car for few days and drive it. We will also be hiring a car for Route 66. Thoughts/suggestions?

On the accomodation side of things we have been told to avoid hostels and where possible stay in chain motels (Motel 6 and Super 8 seem to be mentioned a lot) and hotels (if the budget stretches that far!). We'd be looking to average out about 40$ a night on motels, is this possible? What other alternatives are there? Buying an RV is out of the question as we don't hae the money to buy a vehicle AND pay for the trip, even if we will get some of the vehicle money back in the end!

I'm looking for suggestions on destinations that are along our route that we sould really be looking into more! Both of us would really like to see some sports games (Baseball, Basketball, American Football and Ice Hockey) along with some motorsport (Nascar and Drag racing) - what are the best spots to see these and how far in advance would we need to purchase tickets?

Lastly, cost - all in (flights, accomodation, insurance, travel costs and general spending) we were hoping to keep the trip to under £7,500 ($12,500). Are we dreaming with that figure?

Thank you in advance for any views, advice, suggestions and recommendations you all may have!