First Cross Country Road Trip!! ADVICE PLEASE! :)

[Lizabee]

Hey! So my boyfriend and I are planning a road trip for the month of August to go from Vermont to California! I have taken many trips with family and friends, most by plane and few by car so I have a few questions because this is our first actually cross country road trip alone and were not totally sure what to expect!
Like, about how much money should we bring along for the trip? I already have the gas money saved up, so I'm not worried about that, but from your experiences what would you suggest for spending on the trip? We are going to go as cheap as possible, by the way, we enjoy the "roughin it" kind of camping and such. Also, what are the best routes to take for new travelers like us? We want to take route 66, because it our first time, but do you have any other suggestion? Basically, I will take any advice I can get!
ps. I also have family that we are going to stop and see on our way, so we wont be completely alone or lost. I have an aunt and some friends that have taken a few trips like this before too. So we are asking them for advice on helping us plan it out! Thanks so much for you time!!

[glc]

Welcome to RTA!

Please help us a bit - where in Vermont, and where in California? Where is your family that you are going to see? Is this a whole month just to get to California, or is this for a round trip? Besides "Route 66" (which doesn't exist any more except in a select few spots) what else would you like to see? What are your interests besides camping?

Go to the store and buy a US road atlas and start putting dots on the map. Your trip will start to come together.

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

A start and finish point would certainly help but before that stage I think you need to do a little more research and outline a route with points of interest as there are literally thousands of options and even more miles of road to choose from.

Take a good look around all the RTA pages where you will find pages and pages of good info and inspiration, then we can start to help, Enjoy !

[Lizabee]

Hey! Thanks for helping! We are starting out in Rutland Vermont and ending up in San Fransisco California, that's where my family lives. We plan on using the whole month on our trip, including staying with family on the west coast for some time. We were thinking about going to see Vegas, not spend too much money there just check out the place. We also want to do the roadside attractions and tourist stuff. Oh, and see some beautiful state parks. Other than that I'm not quite sure! Haven't done a trip like this before :/

[Midwest Michael]

You're really at one of the funnest stages of planning: the daydreaming stage.

This is the time where you really need to sit down, do some research, and get an idea of all the things you could do. Get out a good map, read some books, and spend time exploring websites like this one.

As Dave mentioned, There are millions of things you can do and routes you could take, and you really need to take the first step to narrow things down for yourself. No one here, or anywhere else, will have a better idea of what you would like more than you.

Once you've at least got an outline of the major places you'd like to go, then we can be of more help to fill in the gaps.

[Lizabee]

Yeah, you're so right!
Thanks so much.. you might here form me again soon though :) Haha!

[Southwest Dave]

Yeah, you're so right!
Thanks so much.. you might here form me again soon though :) Haha!

Please do ! We want to help so once you have done a little research and narrowed the options down to your tastes, drop by and we can help to "fine tune" your trip. Don't forget to check out the National parks as you will near to some beauty's such as Yosemite and Grand canyon !