Most inexpensive way to travel the southwest (to rent, how much)

[Raven1976]

I'm in NJ< but I would like to get out to Arizona, NM, California, and Texas for possible relocation investigations. Unfortunately it takes a lot of money to just travel by plane to each spot. I'm trying to figure out the best route, transportation, or cheap places to stay to try and hit most of these cities:

Austin, Albuquerque, Roswell, Phoenix, Colorado Springs, Las Vegas, and L.A

[Champ le monstre du lac]

Albuquerque has plenty of cheap and divey motels on E. Central Ave (old Rte. 66) unfortunately lots of crackheads and hookers too. Spring a few more bucks and you can find affordable accomodations in safer areas like in the northern reaches of the city off I-25. Check out Santa Fe while there too. You can take the train up for the day from ABQ and it's pretty affordable. New Mexico Rail Runner Express Official Site

You could probably make a day trip to Roswell from ABQ, it's about a 3 hour drive each way.

You need a car in the southwest, really no getting around it. How much time do you have to hit all these cities? That's a lot of territory to cover in one trip. Arizona, New Mexico, and Vegas in one trip is somewhat doable in an A to B to C sort of way. Add in Austin, Colorado Springs, and Los Angeles and you are really stretching yourself in all directions.

[tfox]

Fly into somewhere central among your cities to visit, (Albuquerque, Phoenix, or Las Vegas would be good choices), then rent a car, and plan your trip.

On your list, Austin is geographically the one that is the least contiguous to any of the others. You might consider just leaving it off entirely for another trip. One thing you do have going for you is that the speed limit on I-10 in West Texas is 80mph.

You could try this route:
Fly Into Albuquerque -> Colorado Springs -> Las Vegas -> Los Angeles -> Phoenix -> Austin (LONG) -> Roswell (LONG) -> Albuquerque (fly out)

You might be tempted to rent a car one-way -- say fly into Los Angeles and fly out of Austin. Normally, the costs of trying that are prohibitive except for the shortest of trips.

[cacto]

That's a lot of driving. I'd leave off Austin for another trip too. It's like a 7 hour drive from ABQ to PHX, and another 5 hours from PHX to LA. Austin's like almost 1000 miles from PHX. With all those driving days hope you have enough time to actually savor the vibe in those places before you're on the road again.
You could do COS, ABQ,PHX, and LV in one trip, probably, though each one of those is a lot to take in by itself, much less cramming it all in in a tight trip itinerary. Sounds like a cool trip though.

[ABQConvict]

Austin is not Southwestern, geographically or culturally.

Roswell and Co Springs are marginal culturally even if they qualify geographically.

Roswell is really more west Texas/High Plains and Co Springs is somewhat Midwestern in feel with an admittedly gorgeous Rocky Mountain backdrop.

[Champ le monstre du lac]

I think the best way to get the most from this trip as a Southwestern experience would be a circle tour of Arizona, New Mexico, and Las Vegas.

Albuquerque/Santa Fe > Flgastaff/Sedona/Grand Canyon > Las Vegas > Phoenix > Tucson > Las Cruces, NM/El Paso > Roswell > Albuquerque.

You could also fly into Phoenix or Las Vegas and do this same loop and get most of the highlights of the Southwest, maybe add in a spur to Los Angeles. Colorado Springs and Austin will take you way off course though.

[Raven1976]

Okay maybe I should leave out Colorado and Texas to make it easier. Thank you for the suggestions