Travel in North America & covering large distances

I've begun planning a 3 week vacation in the U.S. to visit as much of my family as possible. I will be on the east coast (VA and NC), then I'd like to go to Chicago, then eventually of course, Austin, where I am from. Since I will take a friend along, we'd like to got to NYC too. This is quite a lot to cover so I was thinking about using air passes. Anyone have experience with them?

We would have a rental car in Austin and in NC/VA and I even considered driving from NC to Texas. I appreciate any tips.

Look on Southwest, both Austin and Chicago are hubs and if you are flying the right time you can always get some dirt cheap tickets from them.

Driving cross country is a fairly miserable way to waste vacation time and with gas/rental prices surely won't be significantly cheaper than just getting budget flights.

And when your in Austin send me back about 20 lbs of Rudys BBQ

Southwest would be your best bargain. The rental car will be tempting but gas prices are still high. Although much cheaper in Texas and eastward bound. West side of the country is still a bit nuts. I was on the west coast for six weeks in May and March so thats where I get my prices from.

If you do decide to rent a car I recommend traveloverland.de. The rates were pretty good plus the insurance was much cheaper and pretty much covered everything.

Where in North Carolina are you going?

If you want to rent a car as a one way rental then I would recommend Alamo. I took a car from Arkansas to Ohio and they hardly charged anything extra for the one way, whereas everybody else almost doubled the price. I would disagree that driving is a waste of a holiday, you see nothing from a plane whereas a car allows you to explore and sometimes stumble upon hidden treasures. I came across the National Corvette museum, which was really good, and I wouldn't have seen that from a plane.

i have family in Chesapeake, VA (near Norfolk) and Raleigh/Chapel Hill/Greensboro, NC.

my bf's brother was supposed to do a post-doc in boston, which is why we started planning this. that has fallen through, but he is still keen on going to the u.s., never having been before, and still doing the 3 weeks. plus he really wants to meet my family.

I've done the east coast thing before (trip 1: flight to Chicago, train to Detroit, drove to Raleigh via West VA, for rafting, then up to Norfolk via Outer Banks, to D.C., then home and trip 2: flight to Raleigh, car to Baltimore/D.C., train NYC then home).

go greyhound!i guess for one person this is a cheap alternative.

Dude, driving from NC to Austin you would pass through South Carolina, Georgia, Alabam, Mississippi, and Northern Louisiana. The only hidden treasure you could find on that jaunt through the bowels of our country would be the sweet release of death. The only saving grace is you wouldn't be taking I-10.

After driving from Georgia to upstate New York to Alaska to Texas I swore I would never do another cross country road trip again.

Anyway, flyings cheaper these days.

Yes greyhound is cheap monetary wise but that really is not the price you pay. I have done greyhound several times and have found after two days traveling you may want to kill someone. If you have not packed healthy food for yourself you will only find junk food along the way also. There are only so many Subways/McDonalds/Quick Stops you can take. Not taking a bath is fine by me but others need to. Still $99 cross country is cheap but over a four 1/2 day period is draining.

Amtrak is pretty expensive for what they offer and they can be unreliable(time delays) in NWest along the mountains. Although the view along the way is splendid. I cannot speak for the east coast but assume it maybe the same.

I would look at flying RT to NY, training to Va., then you're renting a car, somehow get to Austin from NC, and then Southwest/ATA/Jet Blue/whomever to Chicago and back to NY. Easy.

Edit: I know you're not even considering it, but for anyone else reading this that might consider Greyhound: Read Perdido's warning over and over, and over, for days, until you are delusional and unsure where sanity's realm begins and ends. Multiply that by 10 and you're getting close to the experience of a Greyhound trip, minus the dude sitting next to you that was just released from prison and fishes in the storm drains when you hit rest stops. TRUE STORY.

i hadn't even considered that, doh! i kept thinking fly in once place, out another. well, when you're multi-tasking you tend to overlook the obvious, no?

Whatever you do, don't do a one way rental car. Every single one of them will charge you a drop off fee (hundreds) and 20-30 cents per mile. Return the car where you got it and get unlimited miles. Gas is approaching 3 bucks a gallon now. Try to fly in and see your family in one location and have them take you back to the airport for your next leg of the trip. Take one carry on size roller bag and do laundry while you're there. Ship souvenirs. There is an airfare war right now so you can get good deals but they sell out quick. Less than a day with all of the 'email alerts' they send out. I would map out your trip with "must go" with "hope to go" places and see what kind of costs you hit with the airlines. You might get a deal on one flight and pay through the nose for another. I would call a travel agent and give her an agenda too. Buy travel insurance. If you are planning your trip for Dec, Jan or Feb, count on bad weather delays and getting covered for unexpected costs that the airlines won't reimburse you for.

Yes, there is a one-way drop off fee, but normally the cars are still unlimited mileage. We have rented one for next month - pick up in D.C. and drop off in Houston. $300 drop off charge/unlimited miles.

i just rented one way with avis two weeks ago from chicago downtown to iowa for a 24 hour period, and there was no drop off fee and unlimited miles. it was $92 - still a bit pricey, but do able once you convert it back to euros. try to do a drop off/pick up at one airport instead of two airports - that can help sometimes as well if it works with your plans. I start with expedia to see who has decent rates then call them to see if I can get something better.

airtran is another discount airline that might get you across the country cheaply with one way tickets. their hub is in atlanta, i think. remember the baggage limits suck in the usa - check each airline you think you see a good deal on. for our flight back to germany the lady at NW wanted to charge us $50 for our second bag - luckily we had the KLM reciept to prove we were allowed two free check ins each. i seem to recall some us airlines were charging for the first checked bag.

IIRC, the drop-off fee depends on how far away you drop off the car from the place you picked it up. i think the one-way rental I had from raleigh to baltimore in 2007 was around $100-$150. also had unlimited miles. car was booked via holiday auto in germany (since insurance coverage is much better from here).



oh, let me know how that goes. that is basically the same route we are considering.



thanks for the tip. i have bookmarked it.

Not always. Some of them actually haven't been released yet.

Fly between the major destinations, I don't recommend driving. Driving across the states is equivalent to having a frontal lobotomy. and without anesthesia.

I've met tons of them. They are pretty much are no worry in my book. Between Joseph, Oregon and Portland, Oregon about 2 or 3 will ride via Greyhound after being released. I feel sorry for them. Most of them want a conversation to feel normal again. I usually just listen and that makes them happy. In fact on my last trip on Greyhound this was probably the closest I got to obtaining my goal for that trip. Seeing america in ways most people do not. I had planned to write for three days and photograph every town we stopped in. Places everyone forgets or never knows exist outside of the sign they drive by at 75mph.

After six days I felt I came no where what I wanted to accomplish. Yet those last eight hours I realized I got it in a form I had never thought about. An actual prison inmate that for the five or six years he put in he was just a number. Now he could be a person again. So hearing him tell of his life , how he got there, and where he as going was a part of america I truly had never seen. My only regret was not photographing him. He was 24 years old although he acted like he was 40 but he looked 16. Anyway I digress....

Back on topic.