Driving trip to USA

Nelly 21

Its the timeof the year again to look for help in planning our trip. We try to travel to the US every year to take in a couple of states. Im at the planning stage so nothing is booked. We are hoping to go mid august this year for 24/25 days.

At the moment Im thinking of flying into Chicago and driving to Amarillo. My reasons for this is that we did Route 66 last year and due to some flight delays we missed out on some stuff so we want to take maybe 3/4 days to do this. Reasons for stopping in Amarillo is that last year we stopped in the Texas Steakhouse for the night and loved it so want to spend a couple of days here.

Our next stop will be rockwall texas as we know people here and want to stop to see them for a couple of days. From here we will be driving to Galveston Texas. Last year we stayed here as a stop off point and thought is was lovely so we want to go back and spend few days taking it in. Also its close to Houston so that might be interesting.

From here we plan to go to New Orleans for a few days, again we were there before and loved it!

Next take a couple of days to drive to Nashville and then on to Pigeon Forge (Dolly country) before we head back up for a few days in Chicago.

Any thought and advise on this itinerary would be appreciated!!! Places to stop and see.......... things to do...... TIA

jme2010

Cool trip. 3000 miles according to google.

Do you fancy doing that section of route 66 again? Pretty boring until you reach Texas. Maybe fly close to Amarillo and pick the car up there? It will give you extra days to explore new places.

Only place I can recommend near Amarillo that I've been is the Palo Duro Canyon "The Grand Canyon of Texas". About an hour south of the Big Texan Stake House.

Also you are close to Tucumcari, New Mexico which has a natural cave swimming hole "The Blue Hole" in the desert. It has a year round temperature of 16 C which is basically Irish sea temp in the desert :-)

Nelly 21

jme2010 wrote: »

Cool trip. 3000 miles according to google.

Do you fancy doing that section of route 66 again? Pretty boring until you reach Texas. Maybe fly close to Amarillo and pick the car up there? It will give you extra days to explore new places.

Only place I can recommend near Amarillo that I've been is the Palo Duro Canyon "The Grand Canyon of Texas". About an hour south of the Big Texan Stake House.

Also you are close to Tucumcari, New Mexico which has a natural cave swimming hole "The Blue Hole" in the desert. It has a year round temperature of 16 C which is basically Irish sea temp in the desert :-)

We missed the most of that part of route 66 we basically just drove through it without stopping and wanted to stop at different parts. I agree that that leg of the trip was boring enough. I have read about the Palo duro canyon and plan on checking it out.

We went to see the blue hole last year... very cool!

Our reason for flying into chicago is because my husband has family there but yeah I would love to fly closer to amarillo.............

InTheTrees

I have an ex-wife from St.louis and a current one with family in Oklahoma so i know parts of that route quite well. Its thousands and thousands of miles of...nothing much...flat endless prairie farmland broken up by fairly bland cities.

And in August too. The humidity is draining.

What about Chicago south (via Nashville) to New Orleans, then an eastern route back to Chicago?

Its just a thought.

Nelly 21

InTheTrees wrote: »

I have an ex-wife from St.louis and a current one with family in Oklahoma so i know parts of that route quite well. Its thousands and thousands of miles of...nothing much...flat endless prairie farmland broken up by fairly bland cities.

And in August too. The humidity is draining.

What about Chicago south (via Nashville) to New Orleans, then an eastern route back to Chicago?

Its just a thought.

Yeah Im thinking now it might be a waste of days. Im keen to go as far as Galveston though. Might be better to drive down to nashville and keep travelling south. Actually the eastern route might take us around to Niagra Falls if we drive back north from New Orleans. My husband had mentioned the possibility of seeing Niagra Falls this year

the_freaky_one

I'll be going route 66 from Chicago - Vegas late July..

Any recommendations on car to hire, best car hire company to book with or how to get around the one way drop off fee?

jme2010

the_freaky_one wrote: »

I'll be going route 66 from Chicago - Vegas late July..

Any recommendations on car to hire, best car hire company to book with or how to get around the one way drop off fee?

Strangely the prices will fluctuate based on which site you use.
DO NOT BOOK DIRECT. You will get the same car with identical insurance etc etc etc but will pay 2 or 3 times the price, use the comparison websites.

I recommend http://www.autoeurope.ie/

Find the car type for the days you want and find the best package (GPS, additional drivers) add an additional driver you don't want to do all those miles yourself.

Once you have the price locked in grab a screenshot and search on one of the other comparison sites and take which ever gives better value.

Sometimes the drop off fee is calculated in price as you have chosen 'drop-off at different location'....loads of small print everywhere read it all.

In the end if you can't dodge the fee I think it's about €150 and you pay when you pick up the car. I did a one way rental and never got charged the fee.

Good luck

coylemj

Nelly 21 wrote: »

.... Also its close to Houston so that might be interesting.

Houston is very much a business town where nothing much happens at the weekend so if you're planning to include it on the trip, try to stay over on the weekend when the hotels are very cheap and it's a good base from which to visit the Johnson Space Centre - Mission Control etc.

And pick a good hotel because at night the streets don't look very appetizing for a stroll - the car is king in Texas and even more so in Houston.

Nelly 21

Has anyone used holidaycars.ie? Ive been looking at the site and the prices look fairly good, around 180 cheaper than Argus

jme2010

Nelly 21 wrote: »

Has anyone used holidaycars.ie? Ive been looking at the site and the prices look fairly good, around 180 cheaper than Argus

Wow they look terrible if any of those reviews are an indication.

Trustpilot gave it basically 1/10

Compare that to autoeurope https://ie.trustpilot.com/review/autoeurope.com

€180 is not worth the risk imo for a dodgy website.

Pick two reputable ones and then take the cheaper or which ever offers 'at airport pickup' as thats always nicer than shuttle busing across town :-)

Nelly 21

jme2010 wrote: »

Wow they look terrible if any of those reviews are an indication.

Trustpilot gave it basically 1/10

Compare that to autoeurope https://ie.trustpilot.com/review/autoeurope.com

€180 is not worth the risk imo for a dodgy website.

Pick two reputable ones and then take the cheaper or which ever offers 'at airport pickup' as thats always nicer than shuttle busing across town :-)

Yeah I was looking for reviews, I agree. I regularly go with argus but I was bit badly with charges last year so Im extra cautious!!!

Thanks!!



Edit...... I just read the reviews............................... wow!!!!! So glad I came here to ask!!!

InTheTrees

It turns out one of my co-workers used to manage a Hertz office, so i've managed to get some general ideas about those one way charges.

When you're at the airport and you see an acre of identical cars spread out in front of you, all those cars may have separate owners in different locations. Every Hertz franchise will own a number of cars and as they are rented out they get mixed into the general pool of vehicles.

When an out of state vehicle arrives on a franchise lot they can only store it for a few days because every space they have needs to be makign a certain amount of money, they will try renting it to move it back to its origin but if that hasnt happened in a few days then it gets loaded onto a transporter.

So i have no definitive answer on one way charges except that it can be very random. If you arrive in new york and want a car to drive to LA and they happen to have a car with california plates then you may not pay any charge. Its also possible that you may arrive in new york and want a car to drive to Denver and they have a California car but they wont charge you because you'll be moving it closer to its origin.

Nelly 21

My trip has changed somewhat after spending some time on google maps! We have been thinking of driving from chicago to texas starting at amarillo and going to San Antonio, El Paso, South to the Big Bend Park, Houston and then driving out to New Orleans before driving back to Chicago. I was told before here that Dallas hasnt a lot to offer.

Anyone been to Texas!!!!

InTheTrees

Nelly 21 wrote: »

starting at amarillo and going to San Antonio, El Paso, South to the Big Bend Park, Houston and then driving out to New Orleans before driving back to Chicago. I was told before here that Dallas hasnt a lot to offer.

Amarillo to San Antonio via El Paso is a massive drive. Have you checked out how far it is?

Big Bend Park looks amazing.

Nelly 21

El paso just got threw into the mix because of a park thats like 100 miles east from it. I think it Guadeloupe something? Ill have to look it up. Its not somewhere we really looked at. Big bend looks fantastic. What drew me there was the badlands documentary (the scenery not the murder) so i looked into the area a bit more.