Road trip LA to NYC

[yaronaz]

Hi,

My name is Yaron, I’m 35 years old from Israel. I’m planning to travel to the USA during mid September until mid October, for about a month.

I want to visit LA (3 - 4 days), Vegas (3 - 4 days) and to finish in NYC (4 days), that leaves me with 18 days for a road trip.

I’m not sure from where to start to drive to NYC, and rather I would need in states flight and from where to where.

I’ll be traveling alone, my budget is pretty flexible and want to stay in hotels and motels and renting a car when needed.

I want to combine cities and sight seeing with a easy hikes sometimes but especially to enjoy the road and what in between.

I want to see Grand Canyon, Zion national park and Bryce Canyon, maybe Death Valley and open for other suggestions.

Thought about Austin and New Orleans although they are not “on the way” just because I heard a lot of good stuff about them cool cities with cool vibes and music, to catch a concert or a festival could be great.

That’s it I think that’s enough information but if not I’ll be happy to elaborate more.

Thanks in advance!!:)

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to RTA

With the time you have I would drive across country with one rental. Doing flights and multiple rentals will be expensive and take away valuable time. Now you have some places to visit start by joining those dots and keep working east. Once you have a basic plan we can help with the finer detail.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

That’s it I think that’s enough information but if not I’ll be happy to elaborate more.

I guess the one big thing you left out is any questions - what kind of help are you looking for?

Along the lines of what Dave mentioned, I think the first thing you need to figure out is if you just want to do some hub and spoke trips - where you spend a few days exploring the area around Vegas (Zion, Grand Canyon, etc) - and then fly to Texas, spend a few days exploring there, etc eventually flying to NY. Or do you want to drive across the country.

Driving cross country does give you the chance to see a wider range of things, but flying point to point could potentially give you more time to explore the places you do visit. If you drive one way, you will have to look out for one way drop fees which can be expensive, but that still might be cheaper than multiple plane tickets and car rentals at each stop.

[AZBuck]

I'd like to throw out another idea for your consideration. Rather than just choosing between a straight-through drive from LA to NYC and a series of internal flights/rentals, think about doing two complete cross-country drives.

First, this will save you money. You could fly into/out of New York, saving you money on the flights. Also, the cost of doing a one-month 'local' car rental from New York would run you about $850 vs. a one-way, one month rental from LA to NY which would cost about $1500. Compare those savings to the 'extra' cost of gas to drive between the two cities a second time of roughly $300. Your hotel/motel costs would remain about the same.

Second, you have the time. With four weeks at your disposal and spending a total of 11-12 days or so in your three major target cities, that still leaves you 16 days for the RoadTrip portion of your holiday. Since the shortest route(s) one-way drive time(s) between NY and LA is roughly 6 days, you'd have a total of about four full days of time to spend visiting sites along the way. While that may not sound like much, remember it's time spent out of the car in new and different places and does not count the normal time taken each day to just get out of the car and walk around in some small town or natural setting.

Third, it would let you see more. You could take two completely different routes west-and east-bound. For example, one route might stay a bit farther north and see the Great Lakes and some of the major cities on their shores, the old Oregon Trail, the Colorado Rockies, a couple of the major national parks in Utah, and Las Vegas. The other route might stay a bit farther south and include Washington DC and the Chesapeake Bay, a bit of the Appalachians, Nashville/Memphis, the southern Rockies, the Petrified Forest, and the Grand Canyon. Now obviously you wouldn't have time to do everything I just listed, but you very well might be able to do more than if you're spending a good bit of your time flying (and standing in check-in lines, security lines, and lines to get and return multiple rental cars).

I know the above plan will not appeal to everyone, or even to most people, but when I was younger, it certainly would have appealed to me (and did!). So I just offer it for your consideration.

AZBuck

[landmariner]

Think big, then think practical.

New York City and Washington, D.C. are best treated as areas you do not want a car. They are good gateway cities: then, walk around and adjust to jet lag/time-zone changes and enjoy the town. Go via train between NYC & DC (Amtrak Northeast Regional is economic). From one of those cities you could fly to St. Louis, Minneapolis-St.Paul, Denver or Salt Lake, maybe Denver, and begin a loop drive. Or fly between hub & loop cities.

Distances are huge in the USA, so do not underestimate REAL road time. And the scenic areas are not meant for speeding. Focus on your high interest areas.

[travelingman]

Don’t overlook Spirit Airlines for really cheap airfare.

Sure, there are a lot of bad things about Spirit Air. They shoehorn you into uncomfortably cramped seats which do not recline at all. They charge you for every piece of luggage except for a small “personal” item that fits under the seat in front of you. They even charge you extra for your seat unless you take what they give you. But, they are cheap.

I just checked. New York to Las Vegas September 17, three flights at $116. You can’t drive there for that.

To avoid the cramped seats, there are several premium Big Front Seats for about $60 or so. These are huge seats. That’s what I try to do. They usually sell out fast.

I don’t know if you can get their Spirit MasterCard from where you live. If you can, they give you 30,000 bonus miles. That is enough for anywhere from one to 15 one way flights depending on time of year and distance. Something worth checking into.

Good luck and welcome to America! You’re going to LOVE Utah’s five National Parks.

[landmariner]

Southwest Airlines is another airline that doesn't show up on the big airfare sites. Free bags, no seat charges, no rescheduling fees (credits if fare goes down).