Traveling around the USA

Black Eye Guy

Hey guys, Im gonna be heading to the state later in the year to travel around for 5 months with a few friends. From what I've heard it would work out cheaper for us to buy a car then traveling around by other means.

So my question is can anyone confirm this? OR even better yet done it, and if so how much would a decent car work out as, does anyone know where to get this info?

And if anyones done this how much did the insurance work out as?

thanks!

Andrewf20

I havent bought a car for travelling around the USA but I can give you an idea of car rental rates for comparison.

2 weeks rental from Hertz of a Ford Taurus from Austin, Texas - 700 dollars all in.
19 days rental of Hyundai Entourage from Hertz people carrier from Atlanta - 950dollars all in

These rates included the hertz neverlost sat nav & and fully comp insurance.

Ive done a few road trips in States. Sat nav for over there is essential.

I heard that you may have complications with owning a car if you's dont have an american driving license. It may be totally untrue but check this out. Ive browsed thru car sale magazine handouts over there. I reckon a sturdy saloon say a few years old, you could pick up for 8k dollars = about 5000euro.

What spots are you planning to hit?

Bluetonic

Andrewf20 wrote: »

Ive done a few road trips in States. Sat nav for over there is essential.

Certainly not essential. What did we all do before sat nav?

It's useful but NOT essential.

Ponster

As I've said in many threads, sat nav is far, far from essential. People managed without it since the car was invented by using a good map
To be honest, if you have 5 months you really, really need a good map as it'll be the map that decided where you stop and stay. A sat nav is more useful if you only have a few days and don't want to lose time getting lost

Search through the forum for other threads from people who play to buy cars and drive through the states.

Neamhshuntasach

I drove in the states for a few years when i lived there. A sat nav isn't essential. The roads are great over there and everything is signposted well in advance. Only place you may have trouble is in the smaller neighborhoods. And they probably won't be on the sat nav anyways or you'd pay extra for them. And you'd buy a decent enough car for under 3K dollars. Maybe less.

As for the insurance. It is difficult to get insured if you don't have an address in the US and don't have a US driver's license. The reason for this is because they can't do a check on your driving history and credit history. While it is legal for you drive with a full Irish license or International license, you'll still find it difficult to get insured as insurance companies will insist on a US drivers license.

Insurance is also expensive enough over there. I drove a few cars from a Honda Civic to an Audi A4 over the years and my cheapest insurance was 95 dollars a month. And that was in the 4th year as my premium went down. And i heard auto insurance went up over there lately too.

Also just one other thing. I see you mention 5 months. What type of visa are you getting for that? Just in case that is an aspect you overlooked, you are only entitled to 90 days without a visa. Anything over that and you'd need to apply for a B2 visitor visa.

Black Eye Guy

Andrewf20 wrote: »

What spots are you planning to hit?

We were gonna head to Hawaii first and do nothing for a few weeks, then head to California and move around there to like LA/Orange County/Las Vegas/San Deago then head across to the east coast hit Miami/Florida etc and lastly up to New York before flying back to Hawaii and doing nothing again for a few weeks before we go home.

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

Also just one other thing. I see you mention 5 months. What type of visa are you getting for that? Just in case that is an aspect you overlooked, you are only entitled to 90 days without a visa. Anything over that and you'd need to apply for a B2 visitor visa.

We were just gonna use two 90 days ones, like Stay in the states for 2 and a half months and then go down to Mexico for a while and then head back.

Does anyone know that the deal is with Leaseing a car, are you able to lease one for like a four month period, anyone know company's that do that?

Neamhshuntasach

Black Eye Guy wrote: »

We were just gonna use two 90 days ones, like Stay in the states for 2 and a half months and then go down to Mexico for a while and then head back.

You can't just leave the US, surrender your I-94 form and then cross back into the US on another 90 days. You have to have been back to your home country before you can be readmitted to the US or out of the US for a substantial period of time. Also Mexico and Canada are considered part of North America in which the VWP extends to. So even if your plan of reseting the 90 days was allowed you would have to head to somewhere other than Mexico or Canada. When i lived in San Diego i've heard lots of stories about people who handed in their I-94 form when leaving for Mexico and then tried for re-entry a few days later only to be denied entry. Your records are on the computer and it will be obvious to him/her what you are up to. Although it is at their discretion. I'd really check that out before you go. Contact the embassy or something. Not trying to put a dampner on your trip. Just trying to highlight possible problems so you don't find out the hard way.

Andrewf20

Bluetonic wrote: »

Certainly not essential. What did we all do before sat nav?

It's useful but NOT essential.

I probably didnt word it right, but a lack of sat nav is an unbelieveable pain. I had to do a trip around Phoenix without it. Trying to find places was a nightmare, looking for certain malls, motels, restaurant chains etc. We spent so much energy asking people and working thru maps, taking the wrong roads to figure what way to go. Its a price payed when not familiar with new places. For the sake of 200 euro, id get one.

Try to see Arizona and Utah including monument valley, the grand canyon, valley de shelly, arches national park, meteor crater, the wilcox playa. These really are amazing places. Yosemite is savage as well.

Black Eye Guy

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

You can't just leave the US, surrender your I-94 form and then cross back into the US on another 90 days. You have to have been back to your home country before you can be readmitted to the US or out of the US for a substantial period of time. Also Mexico and Canada are considered part of North America in which the VWP extends to. So even if your plan of reseting the 90 days was allowed you would have to head to somewhere other than Mexico or Canada. When i lived in San Diego i've heard lots of stories about people who handed in their I-94 form when leaving for Mexico and then tried for re-entry a few days later only to be denied entry. Your records are on the computer and it will be obvious to him/her what you are up to. Although it is at their discretion. I'd really check that out before you go. Contact the embassy or something. Not trying to put a dampner on your trip. Just trying to highlight possible problems so you don't find out the hard way.

Oh right, I've only started looking into this now in preparation but I'll deffo get onto the embassy cuz I was told by a few people that you were allowed to leave and come back but your only able to do it 3 times. Thanks.

Neamhshuntasach

Nah that 3 times thing is a bit of a myth. If you search on the thorntree forum at lonely planet you'll see how often that question is asked and how often it is shot down with a negative answer.