1st Post - Am I being ridiculous!? New York to Miami? Help!

[staceyisabel24]

Hi Everyone,

It's my first post but I have been reading the forums here for a fair few months now & I'm hoping you guys can help me out!

Me & my partner (He's 27, I'm 25) have flights booked to land in NY next July 1st, for 3 weeks (fly back from NY on the 22nd).

What we do whilst we are there, is really budget permitting, we have absolutely NO plans yet. I know there are a million bazillion things that we could do, but I'm a realist & don't want to make crazy & elaborate plans to find that it's just not feasible due to funds.

I'm excited to see NY, so I think when we land, we'll maybe want to spend a few days there (maybe 4?). We also definitely want to party in Miami at some point. (We don't want to just party for 3 weeks though! We definitely want to take in some culture, meet lots of different people & have some great experiences)

After starting in NY, we would ideally like to spend the rest of the time on the road, ending up in Miami (possibly?).

Our flights are booked & paid for, & for the 3 weeks we are there, including accommodation, travel (car hire) ect ect we have budget of about $5.75K for both of us.

So, my main question, (I think) is, do you think that £3000 dollars would be enough for 2 of us to survive on, on the road, from the 5th July until the 21st. (presuming we spend the first 4 days & nights in NY). This would need to cover petrol, accommodation, food & some spending money for fun things! (I'm thinking that the car hire itself, 4 nights in NY to start, one in NY before we fly home, NY spending money & a flight from Miami to NY will take up the other $2.75K?)

Other posts seemed to have figured budgets out themselves & are more focused on the actual itinerary.. but I'm struggling to get to that point!

We have found that this budget WOULD permit us to stay in New York for one week, then catch the train straight to Miami, to spend 2 weeks there (so spending a minimal amount of travel costs) But, his would be plan B, I would be happy to see NY, & then have 2 weeks on the beach & exploring in Miami - but we would MUCH prefer to do a road trip as we'll miss seeing SO much by doing it this way.

So, I am hoping I'm not way off & a road trip is possible for us. What do you guys think?

If I sound crazy & like I've got my head in the clouds.. maybe somebody could give me a little advice on how to spend 3 weeks in The states, with a budget of 5.75K, incorporating some kind of road trip!

I hugely hugely appreciate any help you guys can give me.. :)

Best wishes
Stacey

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

I would say your budget for the entire trip is healthy enough and being a road trip forum we would always recommend plan 'A'. You could also consider driving back to New York from Miami, [or wherever you decide to go] which could be done in 2.5 days quite comfortably and get rid of the expense of a one way drop fee on your car hire and an internal flight for the cost of fuel and maybe another 3 day car hire. You could take a different route and visit different towns and sites in each direction. You won't need a car in New York and if you plan to visit Washington DC you could catch a train there and then rent your car. You will get the best rental deals by booking in advance on-line through places like carhire3000/Rentalcar.com.

To the right of each page you will see the RTA travel centre where you can find different deals and idea of hotel costs. Apart from fuel which is much cheaper, I usually find that the cost of a meal or room is comparable in dollars to what we would pay in Sterling, we just have the advantage of the exchange rate and you normally get more 'bang for your buck'. ;-) For example if you are used to a £75 hotel room, you will get one for $75, but quite possibly everything will be just a little bit better in the US.

[AZBuck]

I agree with Dave that your budget is quite healthy, both in terms of dollars and time. When my wife and I travel, we budget airfares and car hire as 'fixed' costs and then we figure to add to those at a rate of about $150/day for the two of us to cover lodging, meals, and gas. For New York City you should at least double that rate, but you won't be there for that long, and while there you won't need a car. In fact a car in New York and Washington (another town you should add to your itinerary) is more of a hindrance than a help. Use the subways and busses instead. Dave is also right on that you should use Amtrak (train) between those two cities. Then you won't need a car except for the two weeks or so between Washington and Miami. Drop the car back in Washington to avoid one-way charges, and hop the train again back to New York for your return flight.

With roughly two weeks for the RoadTrip portion of your holiday you can see quite a lot of the eastern and southern United States on your way to Miami and back. Here are a couple of suggestions for routes that skip heaviest traveled motorways but get you to the coast and mountains.

Happy planning.

AZBuck

[janelouisestockdale]

Hi Stacey
I think your budget looks ok. My daughter and I did a road trip across the USA in September. We had 3 weeks and 3 days from New York to San Francisco taking in 16 US states and part of Canada (5000 miles in all). We spent the first two days in New York then picked a hire car up in New Jersey for the road trip. Our flights were £1200 (UK to NYC return and a one way trip from San Fran to NYC). Car Hire from National was around £475 for the car, $250 for the one way drop off fee and around $390 for extra driver insurance (3 weeks hire). Petrol is much cheaper in the US. We did the whole 5000 miles on less than $500. We stayed in motels at around $70 to $80 per night for the room including taxes. We also stayed in a couple of youth hostels where you may get a better deal. I did find food to be more expensive than I had thought. If you are on the road it is cheaper to get coffee from the gas stations than to go somewhere like Starbucks. They have really good coffee machines in all the gas stations and often have pastries and things you can buy for breakfast. Also the supermarkets off the interstates have self service buffet style counters where you can get hot fried chicken and salad or soup and a roll etc for lunch. This is much cheaper than going to restaurants all the time. We took $3500 on a dollar card from FairFX and $700 in cash. We used the dollar card to pay for all petrol and hotels and then when the cash ran out we used the dollar card for everything. Just a word of warning if you use a prepaid dollar card for buying petrol you need to go to the kiosk to pay. The cards will not work at the pump. Hope this info is of some help to you. I hope you have a really great time.