Actually food tends to be more
For most adventures, food costs tend to outweigh fuel expenses -- you can use our Fuel Cost Calculator to nail this down a little.Originally Posted by Rmcm2424
Otherwise, even allowing for your very stringent budgets you might come close to pulling this off... unless you break your truck at the Moab event --that sure does sound like fun!
Mark
Try to get 2 pup tents, a stove and a cooler that has 2 days worth of food, the less stuff you have to put on ice the better. See if you know someone who has this stuff.
Sleeping bags, pillows are a given.
Gas is going to be the biggest drain. Take a "test drive" 150 miles away and back for an overnight trip where you won't get much sleep.
If you're out to experience cultures, go into town, use Craigslist and look up local papers of events going on. Fairs, even churches. Anything that puts you around the locals.
You're going to get sick of long drives, only guys in bands are used to it. It helps to play music and do this kind of travelling.
Get a national park pass before you go and call as many parks as possible to get an idea if it's a popular one that gets filled.
I did cross country in 3 days with one other driver, San Diego to NY for a family emergency. It's not fun doing the marathon drive.
Know the Flying J. Showers.
Almost all libraries have internet, blog your experiences on the road and upload your photos as you go, and your state of mind. This will be forgotten 22 days later.
See if you can pick up a quick and easy cash paying job.
Emergency repair kit, bandages, toiletries, and wet wipes.
Don't keep the entire amount of money with you, see if you can have someone wire it to you when you're ready to head back.
Do put aside money to eat at a restaurant and stay in a room. There will be affordable places along the way, but make sure your credit card is able to handle the charges. Most places won't let you stay without one.
Your trip idea is doable and a good idea! I have lots of experience with road trips, having been to california & washinton multiple times from Tennessee. I even took a roadtrip to Alaska from Tennessee - and that whole trip only took 14 days -- plus we saw a lot along the way. With four people to drive you should be able to easily complete your whole trip in two weeks and see more than enough things. How is this possible? Let me explain:
Leave home in the afternoon the day before you plan to arrive at your first destination. Make sure you eat a huge meal and take as much food from your parent's house as possible. Only fill your tank half-way and pack light and tight - this will further save fuel. Make sure you take opportunities to follow fast-moving semi trucks to gain a fuel-economy advantage.
So you should drive all night taking turns sleeping & driving. That cuts out the first night's hotel problems. See your sights & move along the next day. If you do the math & you can spend all night driving to your next sight - do it. Every night you can spend on the road and not in a hotel/camping spot saves you time and money.
If you're going to sleep in your car I say do it in a Wal-Mart parking lot. That way you will be close to a store that can sell you food, camping supplies, and whatever else you need. Plus there are bathrooms (you should pick 24-hour super wal-marts). You will see RV people camping there too - this is allowed. Just park next to them & no questions asked.
A note on showers - State Parks ususally have these - you can probably use them during the day without any questions asked. Camping fees usually come into play when you're spending the night in an actual camping spot, but if you just park & shower during the day - you're good. Also consider showering in YMCA's and college dorms. Obviously pre-planning is a must for all of this.
Sam's club/Costco has cheap gas - make sure you're a member or you borrow your parent's membership.
The burner-on-top-of-propane-canister camp stove from walmart is the most compact/convenient stove out there. Make sure you forage off the land wherever possible. Beware wildlife when collecting berries. We once discovered a treasure-trove of blackberries in oregon behind a gas station.
If you do stay in a hotel, you'd better make damn sure there is a free continental breakfast - and if there is, you eat the crap out of that thing and take some to go for lunch. We once stumbled onto a breakfast feast in california (at an indian casino) that was free and incredible.
When would you stay in a hotel? When driving all night would put you arriving at your next destination in the middle of the night. A word on hotels: Outside access is key. You tell them one person, but then work in the others over a period of time. Make sure the room entries are not visible from the front office. An inside-acces could be ok as long as you scope it out and make sure there are multiple entry points.
Park admission fees are usually pretty cheap.
Most cultural experiences will be very cheap or free - like local music. Just plan your trip in extreme detail in advance - and print off all kinds of phone numbers so you can confirm events before you arrive.
Good luck and have fun!!
Midwest Michael has given you a pretty good cost breakdown -- and realistically you need either more money or less trip.
I put your destinations (Philly-Yellowstone-SanFran-Ocean City) into my Microsoft Streets & Maps program, which has proven itself very accurate in the past, and it says that your proposed trip will require 90 hours, 5 minutes in the car. It'll be 6110.4 miles total -- it'll actually be a little higher by the time you include getting-lost miles and driving-around-the-city miles. A google search tells me that a VW Passat gets 27 mpg city /38 mpg highway; usually those are best-case scenerios and in real life drivers don't quite get that mileage -- with the car loaded down with four bodies and lots of gear, let's assume you'll average 30 miles per gallon; you'll need approximately 203 gallons of gas, which will cost you about $609 . . . and it could go up significantly.
Camping . . . we're big campers, and we'd be the first to say that your first camping experience shouldn't be a multi-week trip. Give it a try for a weekend first! See how long it takes you to put up a tent. See if you're okay with walking to the shared bathhouse. See how much of your car space will be dedicated to sleeping bags and tents -- you'll probably have to forgo sleeping pads because of space. Camping in most places will cost you about $15-25 per campsite/night. I've never camped in a place that didn't have showers, but they are in the shared bathhouse. Most campgrounds allow two tents per campsite. If you decide that camping's a good choice for you, I suggest that you get the car-top carrier and pack all your camping supplies in it; that way, you can unpack it only on your camping-nights.
Will the cost of the tents, sleeping bags, and car-top carrier come out of your already-paltry budget? If so, I don't think you'll save much by camping.
You mentioned singles/doubles in hotels -- that's not how most hotels charge. You get a room, and you request either two double (or queen, depending upon the hotel) beds or one king bed. Generally the room cost is the same regardless of whether one person or four people sleep in the room; often there's an extra charge for a 3rd or 4th adult -- you can get away with not mentioning the extra people. $40 is pretty much unattainable; remember that depending upon the location, 11-15% hospitality tax will be added onto hotel rooms. $60 is about as cheap as you'll find on a regular basis, and that'll be for a rock-bottom place.
You'll also want to find hotels that have coin-operated laundries; you'll need to wash clothes every couple days.
You can get a couple free hotel nights by applying for some credit cards; however, DO NOT get yourself sucked into the revolving debt credit card monster! If you go this route, just get the cards, use them once to get the free nights, then put them away.
Finally, there's food. You need to plan on one "real meal" per day; if you don't, you'll burn out on the cooler sandwich thing, and you'll end up blowing your budget big-time. Don't underestimate the cost of food -- you'll need cans of soda, snacks, etc.
Again, I think you need more budget or less trip.
Never Say Never
Dang! Way to reach for the supposedly unreachable. My brother hiked the Appalachian Trail this summer from Georgia to Maryland across more than 1000 miles over the course of 2 1/2 months on less than $800. I know it's a different scenario, but it just shows that awesome trips can be had on a budget.
Just don't get tunnelvisioned into being set on meeting all your goals. The adventure is in the spontaneity. Do the planning that you can, and then just go. See what you can, do what you can. Come back when your money runs out, even if that means you don't even leave your home state. But enjoy the experiences, and enjoy your friends.
Wow -- 1000 miles for under $800!
Thanks for that tip and welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum! This has been and continues to be a great thread, chock-full of suggestions. Thanks!
Mark
Just to add
I know the original trip has come and gone, but for budget travel, I always put out the word about my trip, and every time--US and abroad--I've found friends, second cousins, friends or friends (trusted) happy to host for a night. (IME, one night is the best amount of time, even if they offer more.) People like to hear about adventures, since most people never manage the time to actually take their own trips.
I usually buy or make them dinner, so there is some cost involved, but less than hotels and a night out with friendly locals can be a highlight of a trip. (They know the best places, no worries about getting lost, and sometimes a home--even a simple one--just feels nice and welcome after camping and hotels.
I would think this would be even easier for college students to pull off, since most would have friends at school who are originally from other parts of the country.
While agreeing with the post above mine, in the "trip being over" aspect.
I would also like to bring up the idea of using Hostels.
they can be cheap, affordable, sometimes they have amenities that may be worth your while (as in laundry and showers)
depending on the hostel you can get a nice warm meal.
You will also meet tons of people on a similar journey as yours. and perhaps they could be helpful with some information
i wouldnt over look them :)
I've had great experiences staying in hostels. The only problem is that there just aren't that many of them! If you can locate a couple, don't hesitate to book a stay!
RoadTrip Guru & Enthusiast
As long as this is a sticky, I'm going to add this, in reference to teenagers staying in hotels:
You need to check ahead of time what the minimum age is for getting a room. There are quite a few places that are strict 21, and this isn't just the good places, I've seen this at Motel 6. Most hotels also require a credit card or debit card.
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