Report: NY to LA month long road trip

daycent

Hi,
Myself and my girlfriend went on a road trip from New York to LA in April/May. It's something we've always wanted to do but never thought we would get the chance. Everything went surprisingly smoothly (except one or two things), and I couldn't recommend it more. Bloody expensive though! (it was worth it:))
We rented a car in JFK and dropped it off in LAX. Hope I remember the main stuff! (long post warning:D)

Planning
Research was key to a good trip. We spent ages on the internet before we went, and also while there we planned every night what to do the next day. A motel with WI-FI is the way to go. Tripadvisor and google maps are great.

Getting there
We booked our flights through USIT in Cork. We were surprised at how cheap they were. About €1200 return for both of us. That was cork to NY and LA to cork, both via Heathrow. We flew with Virgin Atlantic. Very good, but not great leg room. It's worth considering flying direct from Ireland though. We had to sprint through Heathrow to make the NY flight because of a delay in Cork. Only barely made the flight. Or else maybe leave a few hours between flights.

Driving
We booked the car through ebookers.com. We booked a midsize (which turned out to be a 2.4litre Hyundai!). One word of caution; we were worried about the infamous "one way fee", as we were dropping off the car in a different location. We rang ebookers and yer man said it would be a nominal fee. When we got to JFK, we were told it would be.....$1000!! Ouch! Watch out for that one! Two panic attacks later it worked out $2200 for the month. Petrol roughly $500-$600.
The driving was fine. I ended up doing it all myself (5000 miles!) and it was grand really. Cruise control is essential, plus while it may cost more than buying and selling on a used car, you don't have the worry of a breakdown with a rental.

Accomodation
We stayed in motels everywhere except NY. Every state has coupon books which gives discounts for accommodation. They are available in gas stations etc. We averaged about $50 a night for the two of us. Breakfast usually included. Comfort Inn was our favourite (bit more expensive) If you stay on the Interstates you can't not find accomodation, but you may get bored pretty quick. The back roads are where the interesting stuff is!

Itinerary
This is the short version!

New york - spent about 4 days before getting the car. Really liked it. Because of the budget, we didn't do everything, but almost (which applied for most of the journey). Would recommend Grayline bus tour. Top of the Rock - great view. Central park, ferry tour, Times square at night, usual stuff really. Got the car on day 5, had to drive through Manhatton straight away!
P.s. Only go for the yellow cabs in JFK. We got ripped off by an unofficial taxi driver, even after reading all about it here on boards (don't ask!:rolleyes:)

Baltimore

Washington - just spent the afternoon here around the Whitehouse and the memorials etc. Definitely worth seeing.

Virginia

Tennessee - Had one of our best days here in Memphis. We went to Graceland and Sun Studios. Would definitely recommend both, especially if you are into music. You don't have to be a big Elvis fan to visit Graceland, the audio tour is excellent. Sun studios is the birthplace of Rock n Roll. Elvis recorded his first ever song here. It was also used by Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, U2 and loads more. It was weird to stand on the spot where songs like Walk the Line, That's Alright and Great balls of fire were recorded. The tourguide was great. Graceland was $27, sun studio $10.
We also stopped in Nashville but didn't see a whole lot.

Arkansas

Oklahoma - We went to the Oklahoma City bombimg memorial. 168 people killed there in 1995. this is where we joined Route 66. We saw some cool scenery along the way, although as a lot of the original route doesn't exist anymore, it can be hard to not get lost. Not a whole lot else to see, except a ridiculous amount of churches! This applies to most of the south!

Texas - Texas is gas. The people were sound, it was all "pardon me ma'am!" (to the gf like:p) and that kind of thing. We stayed in Amarillo. We went to the famous Big Texan restaurant, home of the 72 ounce steak! A 22 ounce was more than enough for me.... Got collected and dropped off for free in a limo, with a bullhorn on the front and driven by a real(ish) cowboy!! Palo Duro canyon and Cadillac ranch are also worth a look.

New Mexico - Stayed in Santa Fe here. Cool little town. All the buildings done in Adobé (i think) style.

Colorado - It was really strange the contrast in landscape as soon as we got into Colorado. All mountainous all of a sudden (like the Coors lite bottle!) Went to see the Mesa Verde ruins here, about a thousand years old. Built into the cliffs, very interesting tour here too.

Utah - While we had the chance, we went to the 4 corners, where you can stand in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona at the one time. Bit of a gimmick really, strictly for the sake of picture taking!
Another highlight of the trip was Monument Valley. If you don't know what it is, have a look at the photo link at the end. I've always wanted to go, spectacular scenery.

Arizona - The Grand Canyon next obviously. What can I say? One of the most amazing sights you will ever see. No photo can do it justice, you have to see it with your own eyes. Definitely something to do before you die. We spent about 8 hours there, just staring! The view never gets boring. We stayed till sunset, which is worth it. You can do hikes if you're feeling adventurous, but they are meant to be tough. We were at the south rim I think.
We stopped off at Hoover Dam on the way to Vegas. It's considered one of the engineering wonders of the world. The facts and figures of how it was built were amazing.

Nevada - Las Vegas. Simply an insane town. No other word better describes it . You can do practically anything you want here (at a price) So much to see and do, bring a good pair of shoes, lots of walking! I'd advise bringing a big wad of cash. But even if you're not into gambling there's loads of other stuff to do. You can walk around all the hotels (small cities really) like the Bellagio, MGM Grand and all the other ones off Oceans 11! Highlight for me was shooting a machine gun! Just sign your name and take any gun you want! Mental... The thrillrides at the top of the Stratosphere were good too, although not for those scared of heights, they are 8 or 9 hundred feet up!

California - Spent the most amount of time in this state. We drove straight from Vegas to Yosemite National park, in north CA, long drive:D. This was a really cool place, again jaw-dropping scenery. We stayed in a purpose built campsite here for one night. It was nice sitting out under the stars with a campfire.... Until a black bear walked past us about 15 feet away:eek: I actually thought it was gas, the girlfriend not so much:D. Didn't sleep too well after that...
We saw the giant sequoia trees here too, some over 2000 years old, been fascinated with them since I was a kid.
Next we drove on to San Francisco. Cool town, hilly like Cork! but sunny... We went out to Alcatraz, another great audio tour, narrated by former inmates and wardens. Eerie place.
We then drove down the coast through Santa cruz and Big Sur, really scenic drive, if a bit nerve wracking, sheer drops into the ocean and the like.
It was on our list to go wine tasting, so we stopped off in Solvang, near where the film Sideways was filmed. Spent a fortune on delicious local wines, again worth it!
Our final stop was LA. First we went to Magic Mountain (day after wine tasting, bad idea;)) Some great thrillrides. We were shattered after it.
We did the usual tours around Hollywood, spotted no celebs though. The Hollywood comedy club was good. But overall, LA isn't great, one or two days would be plenty there.

So all in all, a trip of a lifetime I suppose. It was tough deciding on a route, but we got to do nearly everything we wanted to do. Hopefully this will help anyone thinking about doing something similiar. Apologies for the very long post, it was fun going through it all again though:)

If you want to see some of the photos we took click on http://picasaweb.google.com/Mickeyormackey/AmericaPhotosSelection A picture paints a thousand words and all that! There are some bigger versions on http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_healy/

Any questions feel free to PM me.

Phew! wrecked after that.......

Rb

Fantastic review and great pics

Thanks!

skibum

Excellent review, would love to do something similar

BuffyBot

Great review - really useful stuff!

rossie1977

great review and excellent photos, glad ye enjoyed it

Moonbeam

We did San Fran to Florida via Ontario around the same time in three weeks.
We stayed mostly in hotels which were a lot cheaper then their chain equivalents here.

I hired the car from Ireland so we got a nice toyota people carrier and incl the one way fee it was about 1k (euro)

I think taking the extra time was a really good idea on your part,if we had another 2 weeks we probably could have filled them and done now more distance!!

It was a great way to get a taste of America and Canada:)

Penguinssmell

Fantastic review there, trip looks unreal!

Just wondering what spots would u have liked to have had more time in? I have friends who said Memphis is quality as well. I'm gonna j1 this summer and i want to find somewhere off the beaten track were the other irish students dont go too...i was even thinking texas? Would love to know what you think, cheers.

Fabio

Just read the review - great review and some really brilliant pictures in the picasweb set that I looked at!

rod flanders

Good review. Interesting holiday and now I would love to do a road trip accross America.

nacl

Cool report thanks