Costing a road trip in the US?

[DecemberDreamz]

I’d like to plan a trip to the US in a year or 2 for my husband and I and our 20 year old daughter. We plan to spend around a month there. A little bit of it will be staying with relatives but the rest will be a road trip. Something I’ve wanted to do since I was a teenager! I’m not sure where to start to cost something like this. We’d be doing it on a budget, but without cutting costs so much that we miss out on experiences too much. Any tips? Or has anyone done this?

Yes, we were tied to school holidays so you would definitely save there and also be able to avoid the August heat!

We’re hoping to do similar next summer - will be watching this thread for tips. Thanks everyone for sharing- some great advice already.

Ditto. Reading with great interest!

Las Vegas can often be a cheap place to fly into. We've flown in, caught cheap flights up to San Fran picked up a car and worked our way back to Vegas before.

And if you end in Vegas, you can ditch the car early!

Yes Vegas sounds like a sensible place to fly into. You can then do your California/Arizona/Utah/Colorado loop and then fly from Vegas to Kansas, and home from there.

If you find that Page and Lake Powell are on your route you must book a Waterhole Canyon walking tour. It’s less packed than Antelope Canyon and is absolutely amazing.

Late spring or early autumn are going to be the best times to avoid the heat while still getting warm weather especially at the lower elevations. The Sierra Nevada mountains will be impassable until early June so Yosemite to Death Valley would be off the cards.

I am envious. Can you tell? 😁

I absolutely loved San Fran, one of my favourite stops on the trip but I hear it's got really bad in the past few years.

It doesn't need to cost anything like £15k 🙄

We did it about 10 years ago (so factor that in!) and hired an RV for 10 days to do California/nevada/utah which was about £1000 I think. Then had did motels for another 10 days which was about £750. Then food etc on top. We would go to supermarkets to stock up on snacks/ sandwich fixings and road food then have food on the go for lunch and one proper meal a day in the evening.

All on for 3 of us I reckon we spent maybe £5K for 3 weeks, including flights.

Oh wow @OhpoorMe it's very encouraging to hear you did it for that, even though it was 10 years ago.

All my trips have been summer holiday 3 weekers, and - apart from Hawaii - I reckon they came in at about £5k per person all in. My last US trip was in 2018.

As a pp said, visit Walmart for car snacks for lunches, and keep them in a cool bag. Some motels include breakfast, and chain restaurants can be really reasonable for evening meals.

I'd tend to stay mostly in chain motels and hotels like Super8 and Red Roof Inn - they're not fancy but they're a bed and a shower! Book them all on hotels.com with Quidco for cash back and free nights.

Don't know why you're rolling your eyes at me @OhpoorMe I was simply stating what WE paid. Didn't say anyone else had to.

We decided we'd only do it once and therefore wanted to do it how we wanted to do it. Which involved staying in some "nice" and some cheaper resorts. Not skimping on activities or eating out in nice restaurants that we'd never try again.

Some people are happy to eat at Denny's and stay in motels every day. I am not. That's not a vacation for me. Might be for others.

I couldn't have done a trip for 4 people for £5k. The flights were £3k alone and then we did things like Alcatraz, Universal, Warner Bros studios, Grand Canyon, buggy rides in the desert, cycle hire, whale watching trips...all adds up. I'm giving a realistic view of what things cost.

But that's no reason to be sniffy just because you managed to spend less.

£5 for 3 weeks is unrealistic.

We last did a 3 week California trip in 2018 and we spent £10k for 2 adults, 2 kids all in including spends and food and attractions. A combo of rental apartments and motels (all in one room), car and airmile flights! I've was in NYC and DC last year easter - prices have gone up since 2018.

I vetoed a US summer holiday last year as I think it is too expensive now, especially as we done lots already so it's not a once in a lifetime type of thing for our family. If we hadn't been it is still a great place for a holiday but you need to be realistic. US salaries are about double the UK now so it's not surprising it is expensive for us.