4 Aussies, Miami - L.A. HELP!

[elpoono]

Hi

Myself and 3 mates (all aged 25/26) are travelling from Sydney, Australia to the USA for 31 nights in August/September. First 8 days are being spent in New York/Boston, before we fly south to Miami and make our way west towards L.A.

In between Miami and Las Vegas we have 10 days, which are are planning on driving. Our rough itinerary is Miami - Tallahassee - Nashville - Louisville - Memphis - New Orleans - Austin - Dallas. From Dallas we were planning to fly to Las Vegas, hire another vehicle and spend another 9 days making our way to L.A via San Francisco.

Is this feasible? Is there anything we're missing out on that anyone thinks we should see? Any help at all would be fantastic!!

Cheers

Ned

[glc]

Welcome!

Renting multiple vehicles is going to run your costs up considerably, because each rental is going to incur a substantial one way dropoff charge. I'd recommend you rent one vehicle in NY or Boston or Miami for dropoff in LA. With no sightseeing stops, you can drive from Dallas to Las Vegas in 2 days, but you could certainly see things like Colorado, the southern Utah parks, and the Grand Canyon in between.

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

As well as the extra costs involved in flying and extra car rental fees you would be flying over the Grand canyon and many other places between Dallas and Vegas so I would keep going and enjoy the country, you will lose the best part of a day through airport security and check in anyway. It would be 6 solid days of driving from Miami to Vegas via the places you listed so you might want to pinch a couple of days from elsewhere to make it a little more relaxed and see the sights.

From Vegas to SF, I would head across Death valley to 395 and North to 120 [Tioga pass] and into Yosemite, a truly magnificent National park.

Have a look around the RTA site, you will find a wealth of info and suggestions !

[elpoono]

Thanks for the suggestions! This site along with your input is very helpful and much appreciated! The USA is much, much larger than we anticipated!

Our plan now is to leave Miami on August 26th in a campervan(a 33foot motorhome) and head north to Nashville, then onto Memphis, New Orleans, Austin, and finally Dallas (where we drop the motorhome). We have to be in Las Vegas by the 5th September, so we figured Dallas was the best place to end that leg of our trip, and will fly from Dallas to Vegas. Having never travelled in a motorhome before, what is the procedure when coming into a city and parking/leaving it places?

We fly back to Australia on the 15th September, so do you think 10 days is enough to see Vegas, Grand Canyon, San Fran (via Yosemite) and L.A.?

Again, thank you!

Ned

[Southwest Dave]

To be honest I would much rather have the Motorhome for visits to the Grand canyon and Yosemite than I would heading through the City's on the early part of your journey. I think you should search the Internet for RV parks in and around said City's, and some might offer free shuttle bus service into the centres rather than taking the RV. The other option is to look for major stores such as Walmarts where they have huge car parks and look for a quiet corner to park in.

Ten days to LA is possible but is going to feel a little rushed, especially if you spend more than a couple of days in Vegas