Road Trip USA

[jollyangler]

Me and my girlfriend are planning to drive across the USA from East to West coast next year. Realistically, what costs should we expect to incur for car hire, accomodation, living expenses on a weekly basis? What is the best type of vehicle to hire?

[loonytunes]

Your first port of call should be the car hire websites, such as Alamo, Dollar, Hertz etc. Some will charge you rather more than others for one way hire, where you will pick up in one state and drop in another. Some will not allow it at all. I think there are insurance problems if they allow you to drive in some states

[jollyangler]

Thanks for that. I will check out the car hire websites and look out for restrictions on out of state driving and additional costs.

[annavc]

One thing you could consider is actually buying a cheap second hand car when you get there, take your road trip, then sell it at the other end. May seem extreme but a trip like that, if done properly will take some time and it could actually work out cheaper and less hassle than hiring. Hire car companies do tend to charge a lot for one way hire.

[Clanad]

Really, the type of car has some dependence on the time of year. We live in the intermountain western U.S., and even the excellent Interstate Highway system can become difficult in the winter months. the distances between populated areas out here can be daunting to Europeans and Brits. It's 2,500 miles from coast to coast and, once you're west of the Missouri River (say, Kansas City, MO.) you can travel for 50 miles without being in a sizeable town. So, a typical standard sedan that will seat 4 adults and have reasonable luggage space in the trunk (ya'll call it something else, no?) will cost between $25 and $40 per day U.S. Generally you are allowed unlimited free mileage, but be sure to check. The larger rental agencies are the more expensive, such as Hertz, National and Avis. Personally, I like Budget, Dollar, Enterprise or Alamo. After all, they're all the same cars. Fuel is averaging about $2.80 per gallon right now, but varies weekly.

There's a brand new travel link that just started up that does a pretty good job of searching all the sites to find the best deals on hotels... it's www.TripMama.com. Travelocity is also a good one for hotel discounts. Depending on where you're staying, reservations are a good idea.

Good, name brand hotel/motel accomodations, such as Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield Inns, Comfort Inns and Suites will average about $80 to $90 per night. The higher end Marriott Hotels, Courtyard, Hilton Inns, Sheraton Inns, etc. will average about $110 per night. (The exchange rate is very much in your favor right now. Decent but lower end rooms at $50 or less can be found... caveat emptor!...Meals will average about $10 for breakfast (most hotels now offer a pretty decent free breakfast as part of the room deal), $12 to $15 for a good sized lunch and sky's the limit for dinner. Figure $18 to $25. Obviously, Fast Food is a lot cheaper...
Welcome to the U.S., by the way...

[jollyangler]

Excellent answers. Thank you. I am at present considering the pros & cons of car rental v buying a car with a view to selling it at the end of our trip. If I bought a car what would be the cost of insurance for a mid-size sedan, say 10 years old? I'm an experienced driver in my forties with a clean UK driver's licence for 25 years.

[Clanad]

Ummm... I think there's probably some merit in the car buy/resell thing, but if you really give it some thought, how are you going to go about it? You'll pay average retail for the car, drive it to the destination in time to prepare for going home. Here you are in a strange town in a strange State... etc., where do you even begin to sell it? You can walk into Johnny's Used Car Emporium and Storm Door Company, I suppose and get, perhaps 10 cents on the dollar, or you might not even be able to sell it. Then you're stuck with a car in the U.S. (where is it parked?) and you in England... not a happy ending to an otherwise great experience. Any reasonably dependable 10 year old sedan is still going to cost in the area of $5,000 on up. If you were able to sell it for even $3,000, I'd be surprised. One can ceratinly rent a new car for a lot less than the difference of $2,000.

Remember , you'll have in excess of 2,500 miles to drive. If the rental car breaks down, a simple phone call relieves you of all problems... Best of luck!

[jollyangler]

Thank you for your thoughts. This is a real tricky one. On the one hand renting a car will hopefully provide reliability and breakdown emergency cover should the need arise but there are other cost considerations such as an additional charge for a different drop-off point and any restrictions to out-of state driving. If buying and selling a car was cost effective, I would be interested, but not if it involves being ripped off when selling to a used car trader. Also, I would be wary of buying a lemon which just breaks down all the time. Hmmmm.

[campbellking]

Most American cars are pretty reliable, which is just as well as American garages are fairly useless, and will take a long time to fix your car. Insurance can be expensive compared to the U.K. If you do go ahead and purchase, consider membership of the AAA, who will give you breakdown cover, free maps, and will get you various discounts on certain things.

[dzug]

Buying and reselling a car in the US is problematical for a non-resident - not so much the buying, but registering, licensing, insuring and the reselling in a hurry at the end.

It's not impossible, but not to be undertaken lightly.

Have a read through:

http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/categories.c fm?catid=26

where the question pops up regularly, usually ending with the advice forget it.

As for car hire - try a consolidator here (eg Holiday Autos, Auto Europe, Carhire3000) - they deal with the majors in the US but are normally chepaer than booking direct, particularly as insurance is included.