Hi guys, wondered if anyone could offer some suggestions as there seem to be so many options in the States....

A friend has asked me to go to the States next March/April for 14-15 days. His initial idea was to drive the original Route 66 (well, whats left of it plus the new intersections etc) from Chicago to Los Angeles.

This June we did 9 days in California (ending up in Las Vegas) and that was tremendous fun (in a Camaro SS convertible) so this time I fancied something a little different, may be getting off the beaten track a little more.

I wondered, if given the fact, we only had two weeks to do it, would we be better off doing something slightly different this time around? Any recomendations would be greatfully recieved - we'll be hiring a Grand Cherokee or Tahoe for the duration of it and the big downside in doing the above idea is that we'd be charged a big chunk of $$ for not returning the car to the original destination. If we could do a loop of some nice states, that would save this cost.

Thanks.

Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca then down to the Florida Keys to do some shark fishing

Just me then ?

Last trip I did was Atlanta - Chattanooga - Nashville - Memphis (SWMBO Loves Elvis) - Lynchburg (I'm partial to Jack Daniels) - Clarksdale (home of the Blues) - Natchez (on the Mississippi) - New Orleans - Birmingham - Atlanta

Amazing trip with loads of American history - Civil War, Blues, Rock and Roll, Sun Studios, Stax Museum and New Orleans just seems like a different planet. We had a rented Dodge Charger, but only the 2.7 V6 - I'd kick it's arse in my VRS, but it oversteered easy enough and so was good fun to drive. Thoroughly recommend the whole trip.

As you start and finish in Atlanta it's the loop that you asked for and there are direct flights there from London. The flights used to be quite cheap too (£300 even with BA) but that was 3 years ago and I can't find them now.

Edited 14 November, 201213 yr by wurzel77

Off the beaten track? rented an AWD? Moab? Sure there's crazy stuff goes on, but lots of gentler, doable stuff too.

Last trip I did was Atlanta - Chattanooga - Nashville - Memphis (SWMBO Loves Elvis) - Lynchburg (I'm partial to Jack Daniels) - Clarksdale (home of the Blues) - Natchez (on the Mississippi) - New Orleans - Birmingham - Atlanta

Amazing trip with loads of American history - Civil War, Blues, Rock and Roll, Sun Studios, Stax Museum and New Orleans just seems like a different planet. We had a rented Dodge Charger, but only the 2.7 V6 - I'd kick it's arse in my VRS, but it oversteered easy enough and so was good fun to drive. Thoroughly recommend the whole trip.

As you start and finish in Atlanta it's the loop that you asked for and there are direct flights there from London. The flights used to be quite cheap too (£300 even with BA) but that was 3 years ago and I can't find them now.

Did a similar trip this summer with my daughter. She's a fiddler, and much of the trip was music themed. Spent first weekend in Dallas with friends (with trip North on the Sunday to Oklahoma City - memorial to the Oklahoma City bombing quite moving).

Left Dallas on the Monday, spent night in Houston with friends, following night in New Orleans, to hear some Cajun music and eat some Cajun food (Mullates). Couple of nights with friends in Mobile, Alabama, then spent weekend with friends in Newnan, Georgia (Alan Jackson's hometown). Monday morning set off for 3 nights in Nashville - heard some amazing music, and met some well known faces at a small local Monday night gig - Vince Gill and his wife Amy Grant, also Keith Getty - an Irish musician and hymn writer. Then on to Memphis (just missed a Lady Antebellum concert ) and back to Dallas for the final weekend. Realise the name dropping will mean nothing unless you're into Country music

Other road trip I've taken (with my son on that occasion - these were trips to mark them finishing high school) was through Western US, but a fair bit of it was through the mountains - certainly March would see your choice of mountain routes limited by snow, regardless of what you would be driving.

I'm after doing a road trip in the U.S this year and this thread makes me want to do it even more!

I'm going to New york and want to road trip up to New England after. Annoyingly though you have to be 25 to drive the muscle cars and i'll 24 and 9 months when we go :(

Where did you rent your cars from? I even tried to find a basic mustang convertable but had no luck!

If you get the opportunity hire a Harley or trike an drive down the Florida Keys to Key West - awesome

I'm after doing a road trip in the U.S this year and this thread makes me want to do it even more!

I'm going to New york and want to road trip up to New England after. Annoyingly though you have to be 25 to drive the muscle cars and i'll 24 and 9 months when we go :(

Where did you rent your cars from? I even tried to find a basic mustang convertable but had no luck!

Not sure if this was directed at me, but I've just looked back at my e-mails and we booked with Dollar Rent-a-Car. We might also have used one of the online brokers as well (e.g. HolidayAutos) but I can't remember. As I said in my first post the Charger looked the business but in reality it's not that quick and is more of a big saloon than a muscle car. Just had a quick look and if you rent from them from Atlanta, they list the Mustang as an option even if you're 24 but there's none of those from JFK - perhaps you need to request them specially. When I got there they did initially try and 'upgrade' me to another car but I wanted the Charger and they did it in the end, no fuss. One final thing, if you're not taking your own it's probably best getting the package with the GPS - we found it very useful but paid a bit over the odds as we booked it at the desk rather than pre-booking.

If you like nature and wide-open spaces, I can recommend

 

Santa Fe - up through Rocky Mountain national park - Yellowstone - down through West side of Rockies, maybe see Grand Canyon - Santa Fe.

Beartooth Highway, Yellowstone is awe inspiring. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beartooth_Highway

 

There's lots of good advice at http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=7519df154773c171d15d4a07722792f5&board=2.0 again if you like photography / beautiful places

I had a trip round California a couple of months ago,  booked cars with Alamo and no premium for picking up and dropping off in different places.  I found Alamo to be the cheapest overall as well.   Try and fit a couple of days in Yosemite Park on your tour.

If you like nature and wide-open spaces, I can recommend

 

Santa Fe - up through Rocky Mountain national park - Yellowstone - down through West side of Rockies, maybe see Grand Canyon - Santa Fe.

Beartooth Highway, Yellowstone is awe inspiring. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beartooth_Highway

 

There's lots of good advice at http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=7519df154773c171d15d4a07722792f5&board=2.0 again if you like photography / beautiful places

 

I have done a similar trip.

 

Start at Denver

Drive North to Wyoming

Yellowstone Park

South out of the park to Jackson

Evanston, and into Utah

(we passed around Salt Lake City)

South to Bryce Canyon

through Hurricane

89A and 67 to North Rim of The Grand Canyon

Monument Valley

The Four Corners (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado)

Mesa Verde

Cortez

Durango

Grand Junction

and then back east over the Rockies to Denver.

 

Awesome trip!!

Hi, if you like some reading I've put some info from our 5 longer road trips in the US ->> here ->>. Unfortunately these are Google translations from my Swedish pages but might work ... Hope you find some of it interesting ...?

 

One fun fact, I drive more in the US each year than I do back home ...

 

Have a nice day!

We did this in August:

San Francisco

Monteray

Yosemite

Death Valley

Vegas

Grand Canyon

Lake Havasu

LA

 

Fantastic holiday!!

 

East Coast around Boston/Maine next time

We did this in August:

San Francisco

Monteray

Yosemite

Death Valley

Vegas

Grand Canyon

Lake Havasu

LA

 

Fantastic holiday!!

 

East Coast around Boston/Maine next time

I did that exact itinerary in 2012! As the OP of the thread I guess I should have posted some of my photos and given details but it ended up being a four weeker driving from Vegas back to Vegas covering Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas. Colorado and Utah, taking in all the National parks on route. The best road trip to date for me, totally love the US now. Planning on seeing some of the East coast in the next couple of years as a good mate is moving to New York in January. 

I have the drive to Florida keys on my bucket list.

Was advised by a colleague i worked with to do this when i rented his house in Florida quite a few years ago.

 

I personally would prefer a road trip across Australia, either way N-S / S-N/ E-W / W-E.

Did a 3 week (leisurely paced) tour in September but it could quite easily be compressed into 2 weeks.

 

Las Vegas

Valley of fire

Grand Canyon North rim

Lake Powell

Monument Valley

Flagstaff

Petrified Forest

Winslow

Sedona

Phoenix

Tuscon

Benson

Tombstone

Bisbee

Grand Canyon South Rim

Hoover Dam

Las Vegas

 

Only reason we took it over three weeks was it was done with my parents who, at 70, are not as fit as they once were and needed more rest.

 

Amazing the differences between various parts of this tour. Also a good number of national parks (we had bought the national parks vehicle pass which saved us a fortune).

That's impressive...maybe another year

This year it was:

Seattle WA

Vancouver BC

Harrison Lake BC

Olympia OR

Astoria OR

St Helens OR

back down the Oregon coast to Gold Beach OR

Valley of the Giants CA

Lake Tahoe CA

Mono Lake CA

Yosemite CA

San Francisco CA

 

In 2011 we did the east coast in the fall.

Boston MA

Cape Cod MA (Plymouth & Hyannis)

Laconia NH (Lake Winnisquam)

Conway NH

drove the Kancamagus Highway through the White Mountains

Quechee Gorge VT

Rutland VT

Lake Champlain VT

Middlebury VT

Bennington VT

Albany NY

Niagara falls US & Canada

Niagara Village On

Buffallo NY

Lake Erie PA

Bellefonte PA

Harrisburg PA

Gettysburg PA

Washington DC

 

We avoid the main interstates as much as possible and stay on the highways, that way you get to stop at some good diners and see more of the small towns etc.

Have done 3 stateside road trips.

1 vegas california pacific coast to los angeles.

2 east coast florida down to key west

3 boston, vermont, new hampshire (in the fall) montreal toronto niagara upstate new york, long island to nyc.

All were amazing but west coast vegas grand canyon death valley monterey cartmell san fancisco santa barbra and los angeles etc. is the best so far ....

Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca then down to the Florida Keys to do some shark fishing

Just me then ?

You're on your own I think Scribbler, 3200 miles in two weeks. You won't have time to stop and admire the scenery, lol. Wife and I did 2766 loop in 12 days on a Honda Goldwing in 2010. Cali, Utah, Nevada and Arizona encountered on the trip. 'Busy' is a mild description.

We are doing our road trip this year, San Fran, Carmel, Pismo, San Diego, Palm Springs, Vegas, Grand Canyon then back to Vegas- am looking forward to it, got 3 and a half weeks,

We are doing our road trip this year, San Fran, Carmel, Pismo, San Diego, Palm Springs, Vegas, Grand Canyon then back to Vegas- am looking forward to it, got 3 and a half weeks,

San fran is brill, if you can fit Yosemite and Death Valley in they're well worth a visit too. Still got the photos on the wall from when we went. Enjoy.

Indianapolis give the old SKODA a good burn..LOL

San fran is brill, if you can fit Yosemite and Death Valley in they're well worth a visit too. Still got the photos on the wall from when we went. Enjoy.

Yeah, I cant recommend Yosemite enough, it was simply breathtaking! Im about to post a new thread as Im heading to the East cost for 2-3 weeks in October. Never been before, looking forward to it though.  

Yosemite...WOW

Just totally awesome: