Brits looking for East- Coast advice

[jadio]

Hi Everyone,

We are 2 final year medical students who are going to Grenada for 8 weeks for our medical elective. We then have some free-time before starting work so have planned to spend 5 weeks in the US. We get to Miami on May 29th 2016.

We are flying to Miami from Grenada (as it was the cheapest option!) and are hoping to get to both New York and Houston... where else should we go? We are flying back from Miami so it has to be a round-trip. and is this long enough to do such a big loop or should we stick to either/or?

Any recommendations for routes/ accommodation/ car hire would be much appreciated! Thanks! (for car hire info we are 31 and 28)

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

It would be possible to drive Miami-New York-Houston-Miami in just a shade over a week's worth of driving, so having five weeks would certainly allow you all to explore quite a bit of what's available to you. To give you a rough idea of what awaits you check out this discussion for two possible routs on the east coast. I'd suggest taking the coastal route northbound from Miami to New York and the inland, Appalachian route southward as far as the Great Smoky Mountains. Then continue on to Houston via Nashville using the Natchez Trace Parkway. From Houston to Miami, you'll initially be following the Gulf Coast where I-10 is motorway and US-98 is the shore road - mix and match those as you see fit.

When people are going to spend this much time on the road, I often suggest that they decide on a hotel/motel chain and join their rewards program. That way, you won't have to constantly be deciding between competing brands each night, you will have done your homework in picking the chain for the trip, AND you should be able to earn a few free nights during your trip. The three major groups are Hilton (Hilton Honors), Marriott (Marriott Rewards), and Choice (Choice Privileges). As for the car, Just shop around for the best deal. Again, there are really only three major groups. Hertz includes Dollar and Thrifty; Avis includes Budget and Payless; while Enterprise includes National and Alamo. The different 'brands' are aimed at different markets but you will get roughly the same level of service from any of them. Unfortunately, one of the 'services' that is fast disappearing is no or low cost additional driver. If you both want to drive, that will push the cost up fairly substantially so be sure to check each company's policy and fee and include that in your cost comparison.

AZBuck

[Southwest Dave]

You can usually find good car rental deals on-line using consolidators, we have found rentalcars.com to offer good deals, but it is certainly worth shopping around. The same with hotels, depending on whether you want to book before travelling or not, again it's worth shopping around but you can get a good idea of costs searching in the Roadtrip Motels link on the top right of every page. With 5 weeks you could do coast to coast but it obviously depends on what you are looking for based on your interests and style/pace of travel. Get the maps out and search around the RTA site for inspiration and once you have the basics sorted out I am sure we can offer you some meaningful suggestions, but at the moment the number of possibilities would be endless.

[landmariner]

Joining the car groups can also provide some better deals, especially with Dollar and National Car Rental. And maybe Alamo.