Has anyone done a multi-week US road trip (eg coast to coast)?

[Another2Cats]

We are in a position to take five weeks holiday in a single block next year and were thinking about doing a trip across the US.

For context, we are both late 50s and the DC have left home so we are quite flexible about when we travel.

We are considering doing quite a long trip to see a lot of things in those five weeks but I just wonder if we've trying to do too much?

I looked at the total distance and, after allowing for a couple of days at the start and a couple of days at the end of the holiday for doing stuff then it means averaging around 150 miles per day during the trip.

Is this reasonable?

I know that some days we'll likely be doing nothing but driving, but I would also like to look round the places that we want to visit.

Also, any other tips for things that I might not have thought about? The one thing I can think about is internet connection.

What we're thinking about doing is going from New York, through various places we want to see, down to Dallas. From there head up to Yellowstone national park and down to the Grand Canyon. From there, cross over to Los Angeles and head up to San Francisco.

Allowing two days at either end of the holiday that works out at 150 miles per day.

Are we trying to cram too much in?

What are you thinking of driving - a car or an RV?

I don't think I'd want to do that in five weeks you won't have much time to explore.

I think it’s doable. Is there a reason you’re going to Dallas?

We did it in 5 weeks (well my parents with me as a kid)!! New York to Santa Barbara. It was the best holiday I've had and I still remember it even though I was a child then.

My worry would be if I had hotels booked and either I wanted extra days to stay where we were or too tired to drive that day. DH and I planned to do the West Coast one year, but didn’t have enough holiday to do what we wanted. We have been to California and Florida, 3 weeks each time. Any reason why you want to do it all in one trip.

Thank you, I forgot to mention that. yes we're thinking about an RV

We have some friends there and they're always telling us that we have to try some Texas barbecue.

But, if we did miss out Texas then our route would likely be Nashville to Denver or Colorado Springs which would save around 250 miles of driving instead of going via Dallas.

The other thing would be to forget a west coast trip this time and leave out San Francisco and just finish in Los Angeles.

Just doing a quick check, leaving out San Francisco reduces the driving by 400 miles.

You may be being a little ambitious. It depends how much you want to see, how relaxing you want the holiday to be. You can drive for miles and miles in the US and not see much.
We did 2 weeks road trip, flew to San francisco, did some of the Pacific coast high way, went inland to Sequioa National Forest, Death Valley, Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, and flew out from Las Vegas. we did around 1600 miles in total, and we could've easily done that trip in 3 weeks. If you look at a map of the US we only did a small corner.
Maybe think whether there is anything in particular you want to see (for us it was grand canyon and for dh it was hoover dam) and go from there.

Highly recommend Denver and Colorado Springs over Dallas.

Reason for the RV question was consider if you're not towing a car it may limit where you can go in towns (RV would be my preference though, it will give you more flexibility to change your route if you want to). You can usually get some kind of router set up for wifi and the main RV sites have wifi now.

Nashville to Denver or Colorado Springs which would save around 250 miles of driving instead of going via Dallas.

This x 1million… Dallas is truly nothing special (sorry fans of Dallas!). I’ve lived in Texas and Colorado, Colorado is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Garden of the Gods in CS, and Rocky Mountain National Park are both highly recommended.

I think you’ll have an amazing trip overall!

The other thing would be to forget a west coast trip this time and leave out San Francisco and just finish in Los Angeles.

Forgot to reply to this bit, are you planning on taking the Pacific Coast Highway if you do go? That’s a classic and stunning road trip in and of itself.

We did a two week road trip and covered more miles than most. What worked well was doing the driving between 12-4 on travel days including a lunch stop as this meant air con at the hottest time of day and we would do a late afternoon /evening in a location then also explore it in the morning e.g. grand canyon for sunset in the evening then grand canyon walkabout in the morning. As long as you plan some longer stops occasionally this worked very well and we had such an amazing trip.

I'm sure you've researched it but just so you know you'll probably be looking at a huge one way drop off fee if picking up in one state and ending in another.
I've done various driving trips in the US and this sounds amazing however there will be days with not much in the middle.

Totally agree with skipping Texas, there's a lot more to see in Nashville and Memphis. However so much more could be seen by just doing a west coast trip for the whole time, it would be a shame to skip the pacific coast highway and places like monument valley, lake Powell, Yosemite, Death Valley are all accessible in this area.

@longdistanceclaraclara @GlowWurm @Daisy03

Thanks for this. Everybody is saying forget Texas so maybe we'll go with the recommendation.

So if we leave Texas out then I wonder if it would be better just to do it as two separate trips?

There are places we want to go on the east coast and places we want to go on the west coast, but not so much in between.

I read Daisy's comment:

"...however there will be days with not much in the middle."

And that got me thinking. There's a whole lot of driving between Nashville and Denver, it's about 1,200 miles and about half of that is just crossing Kansas.

No offence to anyone from Kansas but spending a few days just driving through all the wheat fields and corn fields doesn't really appeal.

So, if we're just going to be on the west coast I was thinking of two different itineraries and I wondered what people thought. Is one better than the other, or just different?

The first one would be San Francisco to Los Angeles and then across to the Grand Canyon. From there, head up to Salt Lake City and then Yellowstone. After that head down towards Denver.

Obviously, stopping off at nearby places on the way as well.

The second, start in Los Angeles and head up to San Francisco and then Portland. From there head across to Yellowstone and then down to Denver.

The trouble with this route is that there is a lot of travelling through eastern Oregon and Idaho which is the same thing as Kansas, except it's lots of potato fields rather than wheat fields.

Or does anyone else have any suggestions for a route for the five weeks?

I think you could do your original idea but split the trip in 2 parts, taking the RV for first half, before flying to East Coast and taking train.

I would fly into Seattle and rent RV, drive to Portland, and do the whole of the Oregon coast. Please don’t underestimate the beauty of this part of the US - it is breathtaking. Carry on down into California, through the Redwoods, San Francisco, Sequoia NP, Yosemite NP, LA, Vegas. Then into Arizona for Grand Canyon, then head south through Texas all the way to New Orleans & ditch the RV.

After New Orleans I would fly to Washington DC & take trains to Philadelphia, NYC & Boston & anywhere else that you may want to visit.

Or if you did decide to keep the RV, you could head north from New Orleans to Memphis, Nashville, Smoky Mountains, towards DC; or head East to Savannah, Charleston & North to DC.

I think you need 2 weeks for West Coast, 1 week for Arizona, Texas & Louisiana. And 2 weeks for East Coast.

I’d say your first option would be better. There’s a lot to see between San Francisco and Grand Canyon depending on which way you go, there’s Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Death Valley, kings canyon and sequoia national parks, we walked ‘trail of 100 giants’ which was good. Salt Lake City to Denver or vice versa is another road trip on my bucket list, take a look at arches and canyon lands national parks.
the USA is such a huge country, so many options.

My dream is to do Route 66. People say it can be done in 2-3 weeks so 5 weeks in my opinion is plenty of time.

I think with 5 weeks I’d pick two centres for a circular route (or at least start and stop in the same state) and then fly between the two. So, for example fly to NY, do a trip around New England, then fly out of NY to Las Vegas and do the Grand Canyon and all the National Parks in Utah, flying home out of Las Vegas (or San Francisco, and include Yosemite - the hire companies I’ve used don’t charge extra/much extra for Nevada to California drop offs).

Or do a big California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada circular.

DH and a pal did Route 66 back in the 1980's, so I just asked him how long it took and he says it took them two weeks, but they didn't do very much sightseeing along the way. He also says that these days it isn't the same by all accounts, a lot of it is interstate highways and the route doesn't follow the traditional 'old' Route 66 all that much any more.

Spent 4 weeks last year crossing Canada, Halifax to Vancouver Island. We did some driving but also some trains and ferries. We are in our 60's, loved it! If you are not staying long in any one place, take minimal clothes - we took merino wool t-shirts as they take several days wear before they smell and wash and dry overnight - and a travel washing line.

Thank you, that's some very useful practical advice.

Unless there's any real reason to see Yellowstone I'd skip it as it's quite far out of the way.
The same sort of thing can be seen in Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Death Valley, monument valley, etc
I'd consider flying into Seattle and making my way down pacific coast 1 to LA or San Diego and then do a circular of all those mentioned above, perhaps with Las Vegas if that's your thing.
Also like a previous posters suggestion of also flying to east coast if things you want to do there.
Route 66 is iconic but in my opinion not much in the middle, again lots of fields

When I was younger I went on a Trek America tour called Southern Sun, where we went from LA to New York in 4 weeks, through the southern states. I had a few days at each end in each place so was there for 5 weeks in total. I remember it being a lot of time on the road, but also felt like I saw loads and the diversity of the country was amazing. However I didn't have to do any driving, all done by the trip leader. We camped most places, hotels in cities. The company don't operate any more I don't think but if you google the trip name you will be able to find the route and numbers of days in each place etc.

So doable, but a lot of driving. The suggestions of two round trips one east coast one west with a flight in between sounds good.

I agree with pp and suggest you get a map, plot your 'must dos' and 'would like to dos' and see what it looks like. I would probably do at least 2 loops or one way hires and fly between as there is a lot of USA to drive through if they are not on your list of things to see and do. I say that despite doing several driving tours with the kids the first was when DD was 7 DS was 5 and we drove 4200 miles in 3 weeks so we're not squeamish!

We were living there so on the west coast we drove our own car but looked into an RV for an east coast drive but in the end plumped for a car as it gave us more flex.

I'd like to sing the praises of the National Park Service as i think it is a fantastic organisation and strongly recommend you look into them for camping as well as the historic houses etc for visits. Camping in the US is not like camping in the UK but I dont know if thta is something for you. You could easily run into a Walmart and get kitted out if its something for you and the right time of year.

I have the fondest memories of our road trips so will watch with envy as you make plans.

"I'd like to sing the praises of the National Park Service as i think it is a fantastic organisation and strongly recommend you look into them for camping as well as the historic houses etc for visits. Camping in the US is not like camping in the UK but I dont know if thta is something for you. You could easily run into a Walmart and get kitted out if its something for you and the right time of year."

Thank you, that was very interesting. We'll be taking a small RV (well, small by American standards) and were planning on staying on some of the national park campgrounds where this is allowed.

I never thought about actual camping, in addition to the RV, so will keep that in mind when we are planning our route in detail.

Thanks