Our Last Stand in the US

[PinguRambo]

Hi everyone,

It's time for me and one of my friend to leave your awesome country and come back to ours. But it would be stupid to leave it without seeing all we want to see before our flight. We lived in california for a year and couldn't afford or get the time to visit the rest of the US.

So here is the plan, we want to leave LA on Septembre the 13th and be in Montreal for October the 7th to take our plane back to Europe. We also have to pickup a third buddy in Austin. Bellow a list of cities and place we want to visit during this quick but intense trip:

Los Angeles
Las Vegas
Gran Canyon
Roswell
Austin
Houston
New Orlean
Washington
New York
Boston
Montreal

I know only 3 weeks seems to be really short for all that trip but, we don't have more time (visa) or money to do that more longer.

We are planning to rent a car from LA to Boston, drop it there and take a train to Montreal.

Does anybody have some tips or real warning about our plan ?

Thanks in advance for all your answers !

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Using a reasonably efficient route connecting all your stated destinations, you'd need about a week to do all the driving. So, with three weeks available to you, you get to spend two days exploring for each day driving (which, of course, is also exploring!). As to hints and warnings. The first thing I'd do is to work out where you would get the best deal on dropping the car. You may find that the one-way drop-off fee might be lower, or even nonexistent, if you drop the car in Washington or New York rather than Boston. In fact once you get to Washington, the car will be more of a hindrance than a convenience as parking and driving in your final three cities in America. You could use the train from Washington to New York and/or New York to Boston, and subways and busses while in any of those cities. Otherwise, be sure to use the Map Center to look for additional sites to see along your route.

AZBuck

[PinguRambo]

First, thank you for your answer and the welcoming.

I think I found one of the miraculous agency where I don't pay anything for dropping the car in a different city / state. I need to do more research I'm not totally focused on one right now, I'm still prospecting for the best offer.

I already heard about train and subways for the last part but it's really a departure and we will be loaded for the trip with all our stuff. I'm not sure it's a good idea to travel by train with so many luggage. Besides, I was wondering if anyone has already rent a car in the US and drop it in Canada ?

Also, thank you for the Map Center, the cities on my list of cities on my post was the main roadmap but I was looking for a couple of them between New Orleans and Washington (probably Nashville and Memphis) depending of the time we need to reach them.

[Midwest Michael]

When renting a car one way across country you will pay a significant extra fee. Even places that don't specifically list a "one way fee" will typically increase their daily rate to reflect the significant extra cost of a one way rental on their end. The point ultimately is don't assume that just because you found a place that doesn't include a drop fee that you're getting the best overall deal.

Most companies will not allow you to rent in the US and drop the car in Canada, and those that do typically charge a huge extra fee.