USA - NY to LA, Drive or Fly?

[earlyriser]

Chicago to LA by car sounds great. Just my preference but I would do something like this with as many National Parks as possible (would have added more if google allowed it but this would be my main stops):

https://goo.gl/maps/8z7nJzmAkZF2

 

[casanovawa]

A year or so ago i flew to Las Vegas and hired a car and did a drive around several national parks/sites in Utah/Arizona, its in my trip reports below....

I'd drive often times at evening/night for 3 hours or so and leave the days to spend walking and seeing sites, hiking in national parks etc... I thought it worked out pretty well...

In April of this year i flew to Orlando and hired a 25ft RV/winnebago type motor home and drove across the US to LA, stopping in at Dallas, Las Vegas, New Orleans etc... Had it for $1 a night and they chucked in US$500 for fuel against receipts, no one way fee as it was relocating it... I rented it for a 11 days so was a bit of a whistle stop but some amazing viewing along the way... Could have had it for like 20 days or so but after 15 days at $1 a day it would have gone up to about $75 a day for the last 5 or so....

But no having to pay for accomodation, didn't even bother to stop at RV parks, just found places to park it in the cities or at car/truck stops along the way.... Was a bit of a gaz guzzler but i figured out getting in behind a semi trailer and driving a few hundred miles made the fuel consumption a lot better....

All up the whole thing in extra fuel above the US$500 included and a few other incidentals probably came to about US$300 or A$500 which isn't bad for a nearly 2 week holdiay... There was a mileage inclusion which was for a pretty straight route but about 32 cents for each mile after that, so an extra 900 miles taking less direct routes would be US$300???

Just some another option and some food for thought.... Not a top down, sporty Mustang convertible by any means...

 

[DT95WA]

A year or so ago i flew to Las Vegas and hired a car and did a drive around several national parks/sites in Utah/Arizona, its in my trip reports below....

I'd drive often times at evening/night for 3 hours or so and leave the days to spend walking and seeing sites, hiking in national parks etc... I thought it worked out pretty well...

In April of this year i flew to Orlando and hired a 25ft RV/winnebago type motor home and drove across the US to LA, stopping in at Dallas, Las Vegas, New Orleans etc... Had it for $1 a night and they chucked in US$500 for fuel against receipts, no one way fee as it was relocating it... I rented it for a 11 days so was a bit of a whistle stop but some amazing viewing along the way... Could have had it for like 20 days or so but after 15 days at $1 a day it would have gone up to about $75 a day for the last 5 or so....

But no having to pay for accomodation, didn't even bother to stop at RV parks, just found places to park it in the cities or at car/truck stops along the way.... Was a bit of a gaz guzzler but i figured out getting in behind a semi trailer and driving a few hundred miles made the fuel consumption a lot better....

All up the whole thing in extra fuel above the US$500 included and a few other incidentals probably came to about US$300 or A$500 which isn't bad for a nearly 2 week holdiay... There was a mileage inclusion which was for a pretty straight route but about 32 cents for each mile after that, so an extra 900 miles taking less direct routes would be US$300???

Just some another option and some food for thought.... Not a top down, sporty Mustang convertible by any means...

Hmmmm, that sounds a lot better then spending 2.5k for a mustang. Will do some searching and see what I can find. Thanks

 

[Mattg]

I don't know if there would be anything suitable in the USA, but have you checked any one-way car hire relocation websites? Sometimes you can get a very low rate on car rental when the car needs to be moved from one city to another. The dates and origin/destination are usually inflexible but you can get some very good prices.

This is one site that advertises these deals (there may be others)... Relocations

 

[mviy]

Oops. Wrong thread.