how can it be done?

[ivy0023]

hi, i am new at this whole thing but i really want to tour the states with my friend, im from and live in Scotland. is it possible to hire an RV and start somewhere in Houston, work my way through to Miami, Orlando, Washington, New York, Cleveland, Chicago, San Fransisco, L.A and finish up in either Vegas or Pheonix?? if this is possible how long would it take? what would the fuel be like? and can a RV be hired in one place and dropped off in another? or would i be better splitting this into several holidays? or any suggestions? please this has been on my to do list for a while. any help is much appreciated as my geography is shockingly bad and all i have to go on is google map

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

I suppose that if money were absolutely no object, you could find somebody willing to rent you an RV in Houston and let you drop it off in Las Vegas, but it would be very expensive. Even dropping a car off in a city relatively distant from where you pick it up will cost you several hundred dollars as a rule, and for an RV, with its higher maintenance and lower probability of finding someone who wants to go the other way, even finding someone to rent one-way will be problematic at best. While we're on the subject of cost, you should know that renting an RV is NOT a way to save money. It would be considerably more expensive than renting a small car and camping, and probably even more expensive than a car and a motel room each night.

The complete loop, from any city on your list, through every other city, and back to the original city, is around 7,600 miles. That's about 14 days of solid driving. You'd then have to add however much time you wanted to spend seeing and doing things (besides driving). Gas (petrol) would be about $900 for a small car but that is subject to many variables. You could expect to spend on the order of three times as much to fuel a moderate sized RV.

To go much beyond this in the way of recommendations, we'd have to know what you and your friend want to do and what your realistic time and financial constraints are.

AZBuck

[Southwest Dave]

As Buck pointed out an RV is not budget friendly and with just two of you a car and Motels would be cheaper when taking into consideration campground fees and the fact you can only expect a return of 9.5 mpg. However with one of the major company's such as Cruise America or El Monte a one way drop off is not a problem but they will charge you for it.
As you mention Phoenix I will point out that Cruise America have a depot there and quite often they have special deals [as little as $24 a night] to deliver RV's there for refurbishment although they are from preselected pick up points and the amount of nights can be limited. To get more info you can check out their "hot deals" on their website.
Buck also pointed out that it would take 14 day's of solid driving but to enjoy a trip of this size I would be looking at least a month to complete it.

[Lifemagician]

..... as my geography is shockingly bad and all i have to go on is google map

First thing you may like to do is get a good wall sized map of the USA and get used to its scale. That way you can get a feel for the distances. There are several very good ones available on the internet, but I have found the National Geographics map the best. It has all the national parks, etc. as well as the cities and roads marked on it. You can then as you find out about places, mark these on the map. Sticky notes are really good for this. It will give you a much clearer picture of what is where and the distances between them.

..... or would i be better splitting this into several holidays?

Once you have a map and a real feeling for just how big the US is and how much there is to see in most of the States, make a decision as to whether you want to do a quick dash past all the sites in one big trip, or plan future trips, and concentrate on one region for each trip.

Lifey

[UK Wanderers]

Wow that's a pretty ambitious trip. My wife and I keep an rv over here, currently in Florida, and we visit for two months or so at a time. I wouldn't contemplate that trip in two months let alone anything less. I agree with everybody else that's replied already. Another issue might be your age. You would probably need to be 25 to rent an rv or a car. Assuming you are working and taking a normal holiday, say two to three weeks, then it wouldn't be possible unless you want to spend all your time driving. This is a BIG country, you really need to see it to believe it. Why not just have a taster trip? Say the West Coast, LA, Vegas, Death Valley, San Francisco and back to LA. That's a great trip and would give you a good idea of distances and easily 'doable' in two weeks, although three would be better!!
Good luck, keep us all posted.

Ian.

[ivy0023]

thanks guys, all the info has been useful and will make our decision much easier