New! Possible Spring NY-Vegas trip.

[d. gage]

Hello all! This forum is great, i've been thinking non-stop about a cross country trip with my wife lately. After reading several threads on here I'm not really sure we can pull it off. A little background, I live in upstate NY and have done a lot of traveling to the south (SC/NC/GA/FL) for work and pleasure purposes within the last few years. Now my wife and I want to give going out west a shot. The only catch is that I think my work will only allow me to take 2 weeks off at a time, so 16 days total to make this happen and be back home. Last fall for work we went to West Palm Beach FL and back home in 3 days, not saying it was fun, but we did it. We're not looking to do theme parks, or spend a lot of time in one place. The trip will be mostly to see the vast landscapes of this beautiful country and to have a great time together. The two of us aren't afraid of going for long rides, as a 3 hour trip to RI just for dinner isn't uncommon. I would mostly be staying in hotels, with the occasional family and friend stays here and there. I'm not looking to do any night time driving with the exception of the way home on the east coast as i have seen it way to much and too often. Any ideas if I can actually make this happen?? I would drive a northern route to get to Vegas, and take a Southern route home. I know its going to be expensive but cost figures would be greatly appreciated as well. I'm sure my new car will be broken in on time for this trip, so gas mileage should be over 28mpg. I really look forward to hearing from everyone! Thanks

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

It takes roughly a week to drive across country, so with 2 weeks its certainly possible. You've said you like long drives, but you do need to realise that you'll be looking at spending at least 10-12 of your 16 days spending long hours in the car. If that's something that you think you could find enjoyable, then by all means go for it.

Of course, another option would be to do fly and drive trip, were you could fly out west, and spend your 2 weeks really enjoying yourself, driving all over the mountain west and into California. With the bargains on flights these days, it could even be cheaper!

For budgeting, there are lots of articles and threads on the subject. The fuel cost calculator on the left side of your screen can help you gauge those costs. a cheap motel room will cost about 50 a night, but you'll spend a little more if you want to go with more mid-priced options. The rest is basically food and entertainment expenses, which you'll have to determine on your own.

[d. gage]

The fly and drive option is very possible. I have thought about this a great deal and it seems like it would be a great idea. I still have to figure out which car rental company allows you to rent a car and return it to another state without a steep charge. I talked to a local enterprise rent-a-car agent and she told me that if I was to do a fly-and-drive that I would have to pay for them to go retrieve the car from where ever I left it and that could add hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Do you have any ideas on big name companies that do such a thing without steep penalties?

[glc]

It would be considerably cheaper to plan a "loop" trip, where you would fly in and out of the same city - this would also probably be cheaper from an airfare standpoint. I'm not aware of any one way rentals that would not carry a dropoff charge.

2 weeks starting and ending in Las Vegas would let you see a large portion of the Southwest and Rockies.

[d. gage]

I agree with everything said above, but we want to see the vast landscapes along our trip. I bought a new vehicle with this trip in mind and can't wait to use it as intended.

[glc]

I would start working on your employer to allow you to take more than 2 weeks off if you want to head that far west and back with your car. Otherwise you are just going to be piling on miles and sightseeing through a windshield.

[d. gage]

I would start working on your employer to allow you to take more than 2 weeks off if you want to head that far west and back with your car. Otherwise you are just going to be piling on miles and sightseeing through a windshield.

Sadly 2 weeks is going to be my max time off for a single trip. I've been discussing this with my wife and we are both ok with sightseeing through the windshield for portions of this trip. Now all i have to do really is nail down some routes that i want to take.

[d. gage]

Well after some more consideration, it looks like we're going to make LA our destination instead of Vegas. I've also been reading into route 66 but it all seems a bit confusing, esp when trying to use my Garmin navigation to guide us along. Anyone have any info on how i could possibly download a map of RT66 onto my navigation?? thanks in advance.

[Southwest Dave]

You will find lots of useful info on '66 throughout the forums and roadtrip planning pages by using your search button, but your sat nav won't recognise a road that was decommissioned many years ago. The historic 66 site has lots of info where you can click on the gps link for more info about downloading the files to your Garmin.

[Midwest Michael]

Much of route 66 doesn't actually exist anymore, and even the original highway had several different routings in some areas over the course of its history. That's why it not as simple as putting the road into a GPS.

I will say the stretches of highway the do exist are going to be much slower going than an interstate, and when you add in your even longer distance of heading all the way to LA, you are going to have a real challenge trying to fit those kinds of detours into your already overstretched timeframe.