cross country fantasy trip or road trip? (to rent, hotels)

[ambermerci]

Howdy, hi, hey, buenas dias to all,
So I've been cross country several times on plane, train, and bus.
I'm from the northeast currently in southern cali. Id love to explore more of the west coast (in a car)
And also drive cross country.
What routes would you suggest?
If you were planing the trips, where would you go?
I've maped out fun road trips for inspiration.
There were some areas I wanted to see, but if I included them, id have a difficult drive or id miss other places. Its so hard to plan a smooth ride.
I want to rent a car, take my time, and stop at cheap motels to rest.
Has anyone done this?

[DinsdalePirahna]

I've driven across quite a few times. You really have to take your time to make it an enjoyable trip. try to limit driving to less than 8 hours a day.

I try to stop at local mom and pops for dinner and lunch but when I am Mid America, I really like wafflehouses (lots of local character).

Ive taken route i70 or i40/44 to Saint Louis then depending on my destination 64 or 70/76 to the east coast.
My favorite trip took ROUTE (not interstate) from Alamogordo to Roswell NM (There is a great little dumpy New Mexican cantina in Roswell off the main drag).
In the summer I like to find hotels with pools and unwind for a few hour before heading out for drinks and a meal.

But if you just need a place to sleep Microtels are a very good value.

[ambermerci]

Thank you. I'm suprised more people haven't responded. Was hoping id hear some adventure stories.

[Verseau]

My adventure story involves myself and three friends (with way too much stuff) packed into a Ford Focus wagon that suffered from severe vapor lock during a 3-week, 9,000 mile cross-country trip in August of 2009. This was our route (departing from and returning to New Hampshire in a counter-clockwise direction):

http://noerf.com/irk/roadmapfinal.JPG (broken link)

Each dot represents an overnight stop (each for just one night except for Yellowstone, where we spent two nights).

It was a lot of driving, but we knew what kind of trip we were getting into. The biggest problem wasn't actually the driving times but rather the unexpected car trouble that added significantly to our travel time and stress for 5 or 6 days of the trip.

To save money we stayed in campgrounds in the rural areas (a lot of KOAs but also state parks, independent campgrounds, and national parks). In the large cities we used couchsurfing. Our one splurge was a night in the Venetian in Vegas. The total cost of gas, lodging, tolls, car maintenance, and entrance fees for the entire trip per person was a surprisingly reasonable $400. Food didn't add considerably more money - we ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches.

Many days involved about 8 hours of driving time, some days as much as 10. Most of the time the Google Maps estimations were fairly accurate, but pit stops and sightseeing really add up quickly, meaning that in many cases we arrived at our destination after dark. One case where Google was way off was when it predicted a bit more than 10 hours between Portland and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in CA along US 101; in reality the driving time was probably closer to 13 or 14 hours.

We also gave ourselves a few "easy days" of 2-4 hours of driving. Ideally, if I were to plan a long distance road trip again, I would suggest trying to keep it under 4 hours of driving per day with a maximum of 6 (to traverse long, uninteresting stretches).

If you want to explore the West Coast, CA 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) followed by US 101 along the entire coast is an amazing drive; Big Sur is particularly beautiful. An excellent detour, running parallel to 101, is the Avenue of the Giants through the Redwoods in northern CA. Simply awesome.

If you want some more ideas for itineraries, there are a lot of good sites online, but here's a very useful one.

[ReluctantGardenStater]

Last summer I did a month (31 days) loop from Northern NJ and hit:

Charlottesville, VA
Richmond, VA
Asheville, NC
Mt. Airy, NC
Winston-Salem, NC
Charleston, SC
Savannah, GA
St. Augustine, FL
Pensacola, FL
Mobile, AL
Vicksburg, MS
Natchez, MS
St. Francisville, LA
Jefferson, TX
Fort Worth, TX
San Antonio, TX
Santa Fe, NM
Albuquerque, NM
Roswell, NM
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Tombstone, AZ
Sedona, AZ
Grand Canyon National Park
St. George, UT
Zion National Park
Las Vegas, NV
San Diego, CA
Los Angeles/Hollywood/Venice Beach, CA
Burbank, CA
Anaheim, CA
Santa Barbara, CA
Monterey, CA
Carmel, CA
San Simeon, CA
San Francisco, CA
Tillamook, OR
Portland, OR
Crater Lake National Park
Mt. St. Helens in WA
Seattle, WA
Coeur d'Alene, ID
Kalispell, MT
Glacier National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Cody, WY
Deadwood, SD
Keystone, SD (Mount Rushmore)
Madison, WI
Chicago, IL
Pittsburgh, PA

Some ideas, but it was just me (solo trip) and an INTENSE amount of driving (just a warning)

[Libohove90]

Originally Posted by Verseau

My adventure story involves myself and three friends (with way too much stuff) packed into a Ford Focus wagon that suffered from severe vapor lock during a 3-week, 9,000 mile cross-country trip in August of 2009. This was our route (departing from and returning to New Hampshire in a counter-clockwise direction):



Each dot represents an overnight stop (each for just one night except for Yellowstone, where we spent two nights).

It was a lot of driving, but we knew what kind of trip we were getting into. The biggest problem wasn't actually the driving times but rather the unexpected car trouble that added significantly to our travel time and stress for 5 or 6 days of the trip.

To save money we stayed in campgrounds in the rural areas (a lot of KOAs but also state parks, independent campgrounds, and national parks). In the large cities we used couchsurfing. Our one splurge was a night in the Venetian in Vegas. The total cost of gas, lodging, tolls, car maintenance, and entrance fees for the entire trip per person was a surprisingly reasonable $400. Food didn't add considerably more money - we ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches.

Many days involved about 8 hours of driving time, some days as much as 10. Most of the time the Google Maps estimations were fairly accurate, but pit stops and sightseeing really add up quickly, meaning that in many cases we arrived at our destination after dark. One case where Google was way off was when it predicted a bit more than 10 hours between Portland and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in CA along US 101; in reality the driving time was probably closer to 13 or 14 hours.

We also gave ourselves a few "easy days" of 2-4 hours of driving. Ideally, if I were to plan a long distance road trip again, I would suggest trying to keep it under 4 hours of driving per day with a maximum of 6 (to traverse long, uninteresting stretches).

If you want to explore the West Coast, CA 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) followed by US 101 along the entire coast is an amazing drive; Big Sur is particularly beautiful. An excellent detour, running parallel to 101, is the Avenue of the Giants through the Redwoods in northern CA. Simply awesome.

If you want some more ideas for itineraries, there are a lot of good sites online, but here's a very useful one.

You skipped Philly? Are you kidding me?

[Desert kid]

Mine was really condensed. It took 10 days last July and I passed through:

Lordsburg, NM
Las Cruces, NM
El Paso, TX
Midland/Odessa, TX
Abilene, TX
Denton, TX
Fort Worth, TX
Dallas, TX
Tyler/Longview, TX
Marshall, TX
Shreveport, LA
Vicksburg, MS
Natchez, MS
St. Francisville, LA
Baton Rouge, LA
New Orleans, LA
Lafayette, LA
Beumont, TX
Houston, TX
Corpus Cristi, TX
San Antonio, TX
San Angelo, TX

It took some doing to drive.

[Verseau]

Originally Posted by Libohove90

You skipped Philly? Are you kidding me?

Um, I live in the Northeast. I have already been to Philadelphia, and can go back easily pretty much any time. We preferred to drive through the PA countryside instead, to see something different.