Hello!
I’m from Europe and planning to go on a small road trip through some states in the US next year.
The one thing I’m stuck on is how am I gonna get around?
Is there a thing as “cross state car rentals”? So I can rent a car in NM and return it in TN? or something of that sort?
And what about public transport like bus or train? How are those networks over there and are they expensive?
36 comments
Yes, you can rent a car in one city and drop it off in another. That will be easier than public transportation
You can rent and drop off cars at different locations, but it’s more expensive. Public transportation sucks except for some cities. Public rail is slow and expensive for what you get.
Depends on where you are but for the most part buses are only local and trains are sparse. Most people get a car for road trips. Some companies allow you to return the car in another location.
You can definitely rent a car in one place and return it elsewhere. There are a handful of nationwide car rental companies (like Enterprise or Hertz) that make this easy.
There are buses, run by companies such as Greyhound. They get a bad rap as dirty/uncomfortable for long distance travel.
We have long distance trains but their routes are rather limited, so it depends on exactly where you want to go. Amtrak is the rail operator – check their website. I wouldn’t say it’s very expensive but it’s not like $10 to go from NYC to Chicago. Amtrak is most effective in the area between Washington DC and Boston, but it does go elsewhere. Amtrak runs some bus lines as well.
Most people here fly from place to place, unless there is a purpose to the journey itself.
Yes you can rent a car like that. But….are you looking at the times it takes to drive? NM to TN is 17 hrs driving.
Edit: there are buses (called Greyhound) as well but a trip like that would take 5 days on the bus I’m guessing. The ticket would be about $250.
Don’t count on public transport unless you’re in a place like NY, Chicago, maybe San Francisco.
Car rental is the way to go. One way car rentals get pricey. Best to plan a loop. Also consider Outdoorsy for camper vans etc. if you can afford it, it’s a great way to do it. Don’t count on rail unless you plan to just visit Boston to DC and in between. Don’t count on interstate bus transport either. Not saying you can’t do it, just saying you probably won’t like it. At all.
Yes, you can absolutely rent a car in one state and drop it off in another. There can be an added fee for that, but it’s definitely possible.
Public transport is usable within some cities. For example, if you’re in a major city like New York or Chicago, you won’t have a problem relying strictly on public transportation. *Between* cities, trains are mostly only practical between the larger cities on the East Coast — Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and points in between. You can take buses between other cities, but how practical that is will vary. And within smaller cities and in non-urban areas, you should presume that public transit will not be available.
going to a different state is no problem. just don’t take your rental to Mexico or Canada.
crossing state lines in the US is very casual. I’ve done it before without realizing when I crossed a state border. you’ll probably see a sign on the interstate or at most, start encountering different color interstate signs or TOLLS (I’m glaring angrily at Illinois)
also idk if your example was a real road trip you’re considering or if you were just naming random states, but I wouldn’t recommend a 17 hour drive through Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
it really depends on what you want to do or see. if you’re not primarily after a road trip experience, but you want to see different regions of the US, flying is probably the best bet.
Yep, you can drop off rental cars at a different location than where you picked it up.
And just so you are aware, New Mexico to Tennessee is approximately the same distance as France to Ukraine.
public transport is basically only within a city.
A rental car is probably your best option, unless you want to fly, but it is a VERY long road trip.
Also, be prepared for it to be a very, very boring road trip. There are parts of the US where you can do long road trips with lots of interesting stops along the way, but the area you’ll be traveling through is not one of those. Driving through either Colorado or New Mexico to Tennessee will take you through vast areas of *nothing.*
I dunno the flights exactly but Denver, Salt Lake City and Phoenix are all hubs for different airlines. I would start in one of those cities out west. Take your time, see the sights and make a giant loop… then return the car and fly to TN.
Denver to Tennessee is like 1000 miles of not much to see.
Trains between cities are only a good option in the Northeast, in the Chicago / St. Louis area, between Seattle and Portland, and around inland Northern California and coastal Southern California (but not between the two unless you like long slow train rides.)
Intercity buses exist everywhere else, but they tend to not be pleasant at all.
Renting a car is a good option between cities where trains don’t really work.
But remember, this country is HUGE. For trips over a couple hundred miles, the most sensible thing to do is typically to fly.
Your best bet is a combo of renting a car and using an airplane. NM through UT to CO to TN is a big drive. You’ll spend a lot of time in a car.
I suggest first determine what you want to see in these states. Then go on Google maps and look at the travel time. It may make sense to drive to certain places, then hop a flight. I seriously think you should not drive from the first three states to TN. I would recommend a flight for that.
Also consider that Tennessee is very wide west to east. So somewhere in the east of Tennessee like Chattanooga or Knoxville is several hours drive from a western city like Memphis.
I would strongly urge you to plan your itinerary on Google Maps (or equivalent) to get a sense of how much you’re going to be driving on your planned trip. I don’t know how long your trip is, but as it stands you could very easily be spending multiple days of it sitting in a rental car driving between destinations.
The USA is a *big* country.
Rental cars are the way to go. You don’t have to return it to the place you pick it up. I saw that you were planning on going from New Mexico to Tennessee. It’s a long ass drive. And depending on where you’re visiting in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico it might be worth to fly. Not just because of the distance but geography. I don’t know much about that part of the country. But you’ll definitely be hitting the rocky’s so it can be tricky, especially in the fall since it’s so high up
I’d fly to TN. Definitely check out some national parks if you’re out west! It’s a bit of driving, but Arches and Bryce Canyon are like nothing else on the planet.
I’ve been reading some other comments and saw your trip. Do you plan to go from Denver to Nashville?
If you’re over 25 years old the car rental rate goes significantly down from my experience. Just an fyi.
Yes you can totally do that! I think they call it a one-way rental, not a problem at all, sometimes you will pay a little extra. A lot of people will rent a car in Chicago and drive historic route 66 to Los Angeles then fly home from there. There are probably rental companies that specialize in just this because 66 has become so popular particularly among european travelers. Here in the middle of the country it’s kind of cool seeing all the folks from Europe come through.
You will need a car to get around the US with only a few exceptions – staying in/around NYC or doing the Disney park resort thing. Rail here is nothing like what you have in europe, it’s only useful in a few select regions and bus…personally I’d avoid that altogether. It’s kind of the mode of last resort.
How long will you be in the states and what are you wanting to see? You mention NM to TN. If that is the route you are considering let me suggest starting and TN and going west. Personally I love the feeling of heading west and seeing the landscape gradually become more arid and rugged, sparsely populated. If you’re driving I-40 that will happen mostly across the state of Oklahoma where it’s green forested hills in the east and dry arid plains dotted with mesas in the west. It’s a fascinating wild change of landscape that will happen over the span of just a few hours of driving.
You’re going to need to carve out at minimum 3 days worth of just driving. And I’m talking literally just sitting in the car and driving that’s not stopping anywhere to eat, to sleep, to visit attractions, Etc. And depending on the size of the state you drive through especially if you’re going from west to east the minimum amount of time it’s going to take to get through a single state could be 12 hours. Some will be less than that some will be more depending on the route you take.
If you’re not used to sitting in a car for long periods of time you’re going to want to stop and take breaks. Because becoming hypnotized by the road is a very real thing and can cause some serious accidents not to mention fatigue just from driving and staring at the road and your body aches after long periods of time if you’re not used to it. And if the car you’re driving isn’t perfect match for you physically it’ll make things worse in long drives.
But in all honesty you’re going to really want to just pick one state and maybe a neighboring one to visit. Because each state has multiple things to look through and do and you could be missing out enjoying more of your trip doing the sites and having a good time versus just traveling to point A to point B. And then when you’ve done all you can and those couple of places then move on to the next set working your way across the country. But however you choose to do it I hope you enjoy your trip and that you have a good time
Depends. If you want to do the Northeast (NYC, Boston, DC, etc) you can rely on trains and public transit.
If you want to do the Midwest or the South, definitely rental car.
If you want to do the West Coast cities, you can do it by plane. If you want a “western” experience and want to drive through the national parks or the desert, do an RV.
Buy a cheap old car – Toyota or Honda seem to last forever. Drive it around the country. Then sale it when you’re about to leave. Any 20-ish year old car will not lose much value if you put 10,000 extra miles on it, as long as it still runs.
My sons and I rented an SUV to drive Route 66 last year. Chicago to LA, 2550 total miles. Believe it was just under $1000 total.
Tennessee is BEAUTIFUL to drive through.
Yes you can rent a car in one state and drop it off in another. However, the price will be quite high for the service. Are you flying? It’s cheaper to just rent a car at the airport, then return it there (use the same airport flying in and out). Most rentals allow you to drive across states, although they require you to tell which states you’ll be going to. Plan ahead to make sure the price includes driving through several states.
Train and bus are useful only in a few situations: If you live in the Northeast Corridor and want to get from Boston>>Stamford>>New York>>Philly>>Baltimore>>Washington DC, then you can go by Amtrak or different bus companies.
But if you want to go pretty much anywhere else, you need a car. There are trains cross country, but the service is spotty and it’s not cheap. Same for buses. To find out of a place you’re interested in has bus/train service, you can use google map and click on ‘public transportation’ to see if anything comes up. Or you can google the name of the town + bus, or town + Amtrak
[www.amtrak.com](https://www.amtrak.com)
[www.greyhound.com](https://www.greyhound.com)
[https://peterpanbus.com](https://peterpanbus.com)
[www.avis.com](https://www.avis.com)
[www.hertz.com](https://www.hertz.com)
You can drop rental cars off at other locations but be sure you’re aware of any “transfer” costs in the contract. It can be hundreds of dollars sometimes.
You can rent a car wherever and drop it off wherever. You rent it by the day. Where you go with it is up to you. You may want to rent a car in New Mexico just for driving around that area, then return it (at the airport) and fly to Tennessee where you would rent another for driving around that area. Would save you days of driving.
Public transit is very hit or miss and depends on which city you are in. Boston? Tons of great public transit. Cleveland? Good luck… you will be walking a lot. I would not plan on relying on any forms of public transit in the US (even a major city like LA will not have anything remotely useful enough for you).
As for pricing, I was just in Boston and it was $2.50 per trip (so $5 round trip) on their subway (called the “L”). So going 1 stop was $2.50 and going end to end was also $2.50… it’s per trip, not per distance or station. It will be different in different cities and the majority will not have anything useful for you (like, maybe a few buses that run with huge amounts of time in between, a crappy unmaintained schedule and hard to buy tickets. Public transit is simply crap in most US cities).
>Is there a thing as “cross state car rentals”? So I can rent a car in NM and return it in TN?
Yes. That’s pretty standard.
>And what about public transport like bus or train?
In major cities you’ll usually be able to get around by train or bus ok. Places like Boston, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Detroit, etc usually have passable public transit within the city.
As for using trains or buses to get from one city to the next… That’s gonna be a lot harder. There’s Amtrak which has a few railway hubs, especially on the east coast. But I can’t in good conscience recommend using that. It’ll be far easier to use a rental car to get from city to city and use public transit within the city.
Worth mentioning that a road trip from one coast to the other will usually take a few days of driving. The U.S. is about as big as all of Europe. So if you’re planning to really go cross country you might be better off taking a flight for any trip that would be longer than a 10 hour drive (roughly a day of driving)
Amtrak offers a rail pass for $500 – you can get ten train rides in 30 days. Been using it to get around the country.
Its coach, and it doesn’t compare to european trains, but its relatively affordable compared to either rental/gas or flying.
Unless if you have at least a few months, I’d focus on a particular region of the US.
All rental cars are cross state.
My partner and I took a four day train trip across the country from Portland, OR to NYC last year and it was incredible. Amtrak is notoriously slow and old fashioned compared to what you’re used to in Europe, but what it lacks in speed and modernity it makes up for with incredibly scenic routes. We did the Empire Builder route in coach for $400 total — based on where you want to go it seems like you could connect a route or two. Gas and rental car prices are high here right now, so it’s worth considering!
Ohio has weird people.
Yo, hit me up when you get to New Mexico