Newbies wanting to join in the road trip fun from over the pond help!!!

[CC&JD]

Hi Guys,

We are from the U.K. and are planning a holiday in the U.S. for 3 weeks and need your advice on part of it.

So we are planning a road trip next year (2010) but we want to integrate it into a family holiday and a trip to Vegas, we need your help and advice because googlemaps is getting boring now!!

So here's the deal, Vegas for 4 nights and then pick up an R.V. on day 5 from there, we want to do a road trip for the following 4 days maybe 5 at a push and then we need to get a flight down to Florida (Orlando or Miami) from wherever we are, to meet up with family for 2 weeks.

We want to do the america thing with the R.V. and would like to visit a national park but please guide us. We are 24/25.

Thanks in advance and be gentle this is our first post!!!

[rossrr]

Since you will be doing Las Vegas... I highly recommend you go across the Hoover Dam and head to the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. You can spend however long you want at the Grand Canyon. However, if you enter the park from the south, you can exit on the eastern side and continue going toward Florida. I'm from Texas and drove up to Flagstaff, Arizona and did the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and got to Las Vegas in two days. It was amazing!! I will selflessly plug my home state and say you should come down through Amarillo and eat at the world famous Big Texan restaurant and head east through Dallas/Ft. Worth area. The Ft. Worth Stockyards can offer a true taste of Texas culture. There's also this website of fun things in Texas that I found today.

[Mark Sedenquist]

One of the best resource sites for planning road trips in Texas is this one, produced by our colleagues at TexasEscapes.com. RTA also has a pretty significant list of articles about trips in Texas. Look at this list (and scroll down to find the ones about Texas, written by Aaron Reed!)

Mark

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

You could either do a one way trip from Vegas or do a full loop before flying out which would save you any extra one way drop off charges. A popular circle tour would be to travel across the Hoover dam to the South rim on I-40/64 as suggested and leave by the East entrance where you could head North towards Page [Lake Powell/Antelope canyon and then to Bryce canyon and Zion NP in Utah before heading back to Vegas via I-15. With 5 days you could also take a trip out to Monument valley between GC and Page. The loop could be completed either way around. A 5 day one way trip leaves you with quite a few options and San Francisco via Death valley and Yosemite would be one and heading to Colorado and Denver via GC, Monument valley and Arches would be another amongst many others. A more relaxed pace would be more time at the GC and head towards Phoenix through Sedona and red rock country. I would have a look at the map and see what appeals to you and search the forums for more info on your finds. Once you have done so post back with an itinerary and we can help you "fine tune" it. The NPS find a park link is a good way to help you decide which one[s] are for you.

[glc]

If you want to RV camp in the popular parks, I'd recommend you make reservations as soon as they allow you to - the slots fill up fast.

[CC&JD]

Thanks for everyones help, sorry we've been a while writing back, we're working hard to pay for the trip!!(he he)

We fancy heading to Texas via Monument Valley, but on google maps its working out to be about 22hours which is quite a long drive each day and wont leave much time for sightseeing, we also calculated Vegas to Monument Valley to Santa Fe and getting a flight from Denver but again this is quite away.

We forgot to mention this will be our second time in Vegas, last time we were there we did take a helicopter trip to the GC, do you think it would be worth spending time driving it?

Its looking more like 4 days than 5 now, also can you reccomend a list of campsites around the US as we are finding it hard to find them on the net and somewhere that will allow us to rent an R.V in Vegas?

Thanks

Charlotte and Jon

[howard]

… we also calculated Vegas to Monument Valley to Santa Fe and getting a flight from Denver but again this is quite away.

Albuquerque is only sixty miles from Santa Fe. I can’t find any non-stop flights from here to Miami (you would have to go through Dallas, Atlanta or Houston), but Southwest Airlines has non-stop service from Albuquerque to Orlando.

[Southwest Dave]

I would say driving to the Grand canyon is well worth it just to soak up the atmosphere and witness a sunset/rise. As you took a heli tour from Vegas I doubt you got to see the National park area as they land on Indian lands at the West rim. The link I gave you to the National parks has all the info on the campsites in them and Mather campground is in a great location for the South rim.
I am not sure what you mean by "finding it hard to find someone who will allow us to rent an RV but 3 of the major rental company's in America have locations in Vegas which are Cruise America, El Monte and Roadbear. Only you can decide what will work for you best but I still think that the loop back to Vegas is a good option. When you have decided where you are heading google the places you may be staying each night and "RV park" and it will bring up a list of options.