can anyone help with a travelling around america for a month??

clickerfingers

ok basically i am planning a trip with the boyf this summer but i am only starting now and getting very stressed out trying to decide where to go and how to go there!!

basically we want to spend the month of june travelling america, were both 21 and so planning on staying in hostels etc. we only have a month as we dont want to go away all summer, so decided to travel june and work back home july and august.

i know you dont need a visa for travelling just a month, but with flights etc is it cheaper to do the j1 thing for just the month?? i kinda hate the idea of the j1 thing as a friend did it last yr and it seemed to have so any hidden costs and there was so much red tape involved. but if its much cheaper obviously i want to do that!!

can anyone suggest a possible itinerary perhaps? maybe give me a guideline of how much money would be needed? any tips? ideally id like to rent a car for part of it, but im sure we would need flights within the states also as we dont want to waste too much time driving.

any help appreciated , ive a headache already im so confused!!

Chardee MacDennis

dont bother with a J1 if you dont intend to work, a tourist visa is all you need and you dont need to apply for it. you should be able to pick up flights between 600 and 1000 for most Us desitnations, if you want USIT/Go4Less ect can still sort these out for you but i would say try the airlines sites first. for flights in the states you really want to try out Virgin America, brilliant service, otherwise Southwest Airlines are cheap if you are on the west coast.

where do you want to go? New York, California, Boston, Chicago? if i was to spend a month in the US i would probably go for flying into New York, taking a bus to Boston, then flying to San Fran via Chicago, a few days in Yosemite (couple of nights camping), working your way down to LA (2 days max, make sure you check out 6 flags), San Diego then across to Vegas (go mid week and you can get some nice packages).

clickerfingers

thanks for your help! i began wanting a week in new york, week in san diego, week in La and a week between san fran, grand canyon and vegas.

ive been informed now though that week is too long in new york and la. so thinking 5 days new york, 5 days LA. i wanted a week in san diego by the beach to relax, but again ive been told that this is not a good time of year to go to san diego(JUNE) as it is known as the gloomy month cos of clouds etc. have you any suggestions of where else i could fit in a week by the beach??

would love to rent a car and explore some areas but dont know the distance between these places if it may be too much to drive etc

Fabio

A week in NYC is NOT too much!!!

I was there for 3 days last July and felt like I woulnd;t have known the palce had I stayed a month!

I'm going doing roughly what you're doing OP in June also but I am going to spend my time solely along the East Coast and perhaps in the summer after I'll do the West Coast but ultimatly I'd like to see all "sections" but in more detail than what I'd do if I were to just city-hop.

If I were you I'd seriosuly consider doing that as the US is just so vast.

Here are some tips and if you reply to them then we could help you out more - I'd be gald to as it's get ideas going in my head as regards my own trip!

By the way, remember that more movement means more stress as you pack bags and check timetables!!!

Consider your interests - history, sightseeing, geography, sun???

- Would you like to see big cities or small town Americana?

- What sights are important and that you HAVE to see?

- Do you have to fly across cities, buses and trains can be more fun sometimes (for what it's worth I'm thinking of getting a train pass...like an Inter-Rail pass on mainland Europe).

- Do you like to blend in and get a feel for a city or prefer to just see what you want and head off quickly?


With those things ansered you'll give yourself a better idea of what you want from the trip and how to organize it. I'm thinking I'll need about a grand of spending money (in euros) for the month and that the month of travelling will cost about €1500 (that's flights from Ireland to the US return and my train tickets between about 6 cities and all of my accomodation).

Flights will cost about €400 - €600 return from Dublin or Shannon with Aer Lingus (you can go from Cork now too as Aer Lingus have a linkup with Aer Arann to connect flights from Cork - Dublin - USA).

Check hostelworld.com for hostel rates and bookings...good site!

Monkey61

Hey,

Myself and my girlfriend did exactly that this summer. It was an interesting month. The planning was possibly the most fun part. Basically just think about what your American interests are and what exactly you want to see and do. Then once you have a list of must-sees you can figure out exactly how long to spend in each place.

I'd say roadtripping would definitely be the most fun. The US is a pretty ugly, skanky country in most parts, so a lot of the fun would be in the driving and the stopping in little towns along the way.

I found internal flights super cheap and super convenient. If you book your Aer Lingus flights over now they will be really cheap. We went for about 400 return.

Our biggest surprise was how little there was to a lot of places and how quickly we got sick of them. A lot of cities were surprisingly small once we got there and public transport is not the best outside of New York/ Boston etc. There are buses and stuff in California but it can take a really long time to get from point A to point B.

A week wouldn't be too long in New York if you are sure that there's loads you want to do. Four days was way too much for me personally. Also is there a reason you want to spend so much time in LA? An hour was all I could take. There isn't anything to do except perhaps stroll on Venice beach or Santa Monica. It was the scummiest place we saw anyway.

blue4ever

Monkey61 wrote: »

Hey,

Myself and my girlfriend did exactly that this summer. It was an interesting month. The planning was possibly the most fun part. Basically just think about what your American interests are and what exactly you want to see and do. Then once you have a list of must-sees you can figure out exactly how long to spend in each place.

I'd say roadtripping would definitely be the most fun. The US is a pretty ugly, skanky country in most parts, so a lot of the fun would be in the driving and the stopping in little towns along the way.

I found internal flights super cheap and super convenient. If you book your Aer Lingus flights over now they will be really cheap. We went for about 400 return.

Our biggest surprise was how little there was to a lot of places and how quickly we got sick of them. A lot of cities were surprisingly small once we got there and public transport is not the best outside of New York/ Boston etc. There are buses and stuff in California but it can take a really long time to get from point A to point B.

A week wouldn't be too long in New York if you are sure that there's loads you want to do. Four days was way too much for me personally. Also is there a reason you want to spend so much time in LA? An hour was all I could take. There isn't anything to do except perhaps stroll on Venice beach or Santa Monica. It was the scummiest place we saw anyway.

“The US is a pretty ugly, skanky country in most parts” –

I wouldn’t agree with that!

I never thought I would do a ‘driving holiday’ – esp in the USA – but I have now done three!

a) LA to San Fran – up the Big Sur then drove to Las Vegas – then back to LA – Best thing in LA is the road out of it. The Big Sur is Mega as is San Fran
b) San Fran – Lake Tahoe – Reno. Lake Tahoe is spectacular
c) Dallas across the South to Atlanta (taking in Memphis) – whilst that trip was possibly not as visually appealing as the first two – it was extremely interesting.
Accommodation is easy – I booked it a day in advance so all some flexibility.

Good Luck

C