Having a look into possible travel plans of a trip across mainland America (skipping Alaska, Hawaii, etc.), most interested in the nature and the food.
What would you recommend for a road trip or general travel?
Perhaps something like the cannonball run, Lincoln Highway route, snaking up and down to hit every state, etc.
What would you suggest for amount of time to stay in each place, would it be fine to just go day by day and not stay in one place, or focus around some key cities like NYC, Chicago, and so on?
I would probably only do America once as this kind of trip, so wanting to know what the best way to do it would be.
30 comments
Before you make any plans, how are you going to get a car? Renting will be expensive
First, as mentioned in the other comment you need your own car. You can *technically* go without but you are not going to be able to do 1/3 as much as you could with your own car. Look for a long term rental that doesn’t charge extra for mileage.
Second, you need to decide how long of a trip you’ll be taking. If it’s anything less than two weeks, you’re going to be spending more time driving than sight seeing. My wife and I did a tour of just the American West and Southwest that was 5 weeks long. That trip excluded anything east of Ohio and anything south of Kentucky and east of Arizona and it was still 5 full weeks.
Third, you need to know what type of trip are you taking. Do you want to see major cities, small towns, national parks, a mix of both? That will influence your route.
Once you know those three things, make a list of the 5 or so places that are on your must visit list. Draw very basic lines connecting them by the interstate system. Then find all the places that are in the general direction from one to the next. You can go way of course, but then find other stuff to do on that path. Once you’ve got your map, decide if you can afford it and begin checking on reservations. Hostels aren’t really a thing but you can generally find a cheap if sketchy hotel if you aren’t picky. Camping would be even cheaper if you rent a vehicle you could sleep in or buy some basic camping equipment.
Feel free to ask follow-up questions. Our trip was an incredible experience and we met people from all over the world while camping. We are truly spoiled by natural beauty in the US.
No matter what, you could spend anywhere from weeks to years on this road trip and probably still not discover everything, so I’m not going to tell you a time. It depends on how much time you want to spend in each place.
I would start in New York City. It’s kind of a food mecca. They have restaurants from just about any cuisine you could ask for. I’d then go to Boston and get crab. Then I’d go North to Vermont and try the cheddar and maple syrup. From there, cut across Toronto and give our neighbors in Canada a shout, because Poutine is worth the trip.
Cross from Canada to Michigan. We have lots of local breweries if you like beer, otherwise Detroit Coneys and Detroit style pizza are where it’s at. You can also pick and eat apples right off the tree if you come during the fall. From Michigan, I’d go to Wisconsin for their cheese. Then Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City, From Kansas City, going NorthWest to Seattle will take you through the great plains and a lot of national park land.
From Seattle, you can travel the West coastline down as far as you want to go into California. From there you can hit Vegas, Phoenix, and Albuquerque. You can pinball around Texas as much as you’d like for their barbecue styles, and there’s lots of it. Stop in New Orleans for some Creole cooking and travelling the Bayous. I would hook back North to get to Tennessee for Memphis BBQ and Nashville wings. Cut across Georgia for the peaches, then down to Florida for all kinds of food and nature. Finally, you’re back on the East coast, and can go through the Carolinas for their BBQ offerings and Philly for their cheesesteaks.
How long (timewise) of a trip are you planning?
The good news: I don’t think you have the same issue as our European cousins with this question. Australia is *roughly* the same size as the US, so scale is easy to grasp. I’d first look at time, as the trip from DC to Vegas is about the same as Brisbane to Perth. A non stop drive from NYC to LA, will take about 40 hours, depending on the rout you take( about 4500 km). add in sightseeing, rest stops and other overnight ideals, you are probably looking at 6-7 days.
As for actually planning the trip. I’d use a road trip planner like [this](https://roadtrippers.com/) and budget for an rental car or [RV](https://indiecampers.com/rent-an-rv/usa?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA4smsBhAEEiwAO6DEjYwBUE4GISv_9tEHHbQ6f7jzZjcDXSogVP6uVCETl5HHP5Kpe29VBhoCtLsQAvD_BwE). Although an RV could limit your city visits (parking can be a nightmare!) Finally, weather and season. A winter (Summer for you) trip could all but eliminate a northern route, as winter snows in the north can get heavy and temps can drop pretty low (-9c is average)
I’m gonna be pretty vague about this but this is the best route imo:
Fly into NYC, shoot down 95, get off and head to Raleigh, get on the 40 and take that all the way to California. Take like 3 weeks to do the things you wanna do.
I’d buy a small SUV, start in Maine, and travel down the east coast, staying in each place long enough to feel like I’d experienced it (from one day to a couple of weeks), ending in Miami, then head west along the southern states, then up the west coast, hitting all the national parks on the way. When I reached Washington, I’d head back through the midwest, ending on the east coast somewhere.
Your time and money budgets would probably require you to cut down on that quite a lot, but it’s my “one of these days” dream goal.
If you want the real Americana experience, I recommend forgoing the cross country road trip. Interstate travel is extremely boring, especiallythrough the flyover states. Personally I’d focus on the southwest because it has some of the most varied natural terrain, best cuisine, and highest density of national parks, monunents, forests, and public lands. I grew up in a major northeastern city and frankly they all look the same now. Get a national parks pass and rent an RV or adventure vehicle.
I love roadtrips, I think they’re a great way to experience our country given how big it is and how culturally and geographically diverse it is.
I did a cross-country road trip a few years ago, both ways in 18 days. I live near DC so I drove up to Chicago, west from there, down the CA coast, and back east through the southwestern desert (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas) before going back up to DC. It’s hard because, *very* broadly speaking, I think the most interesting parts to America for a tourist to visit are the northern and the southern extremes. In the north you have New England, New York City, Chicago, the Great Lakes, national parks like Yellowstone and Glacier, the redwood forests. And then in the south you have amazing deserts, the Grand Canyon, parks like Zion and Bryce Canyon, New Orleans, the South (meaning the southern states in the eastern part of the country). There’s plenty of stuff in the middle too but it’s harder to recommend to a tourist visiting for the first time. Personally I’d recommend picking one of the two and cutting a more or less straight line across the country rather than spending time going north and south, but that’s a personal choice, you could do it.
I was happy going both ways in 2.5 weeks, but for a foreign tourist, I’d give yourself a month to go one way. There’s just so much more to experience in a new country, and the logistics of traveling are different. If you want to do this and you have the ability to take that long, I think it’ll really pay off for you.
You won’t be able to do the whole country, it’s simply too big (unless you’re doing it over multiple months).
As others said, it can’t be overstated. You need a car.
I would (the way I road-tripped this country of mine) do it in sections. As much as you’d likely love to see everything in one go, it’s not doable, or you will be going so fast you won’t be able to enjoy anything.
Examples of ways to section things:
East Coast – start in Maine, Boston, Providence, NYC (or skip and do Manhattan on a different trip, or skip altogether if big cities aren’t your thing), Philly, DC, Shenandoah valley, Charleston, Tampa, Miami, Key West.
The South – Panama City FL, Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio.
National Parks – Start in Vegas, Lake Mead + Hoover Dam, Zion (or skip cuz honestly this park is so over crowded recently idk), Bryce, Capital Reef, Arches, Canyon lands, Grand Canyon (North rim), back to Vegas.
There’s a million ways to do the national Parks, that’s an example of one loop. Another is like Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton.
Each of the above is an example of a solid 2 weeks road trip. And altogether doesn’t even cover half the country, so you can see how it really should be done over multiple trips.
Driving through NYC and, to a lesser extent, Chicago, isn’t really fun.
An Americana road trip should be focusing on the more eclectic offerings of American culture.
The big thing about a road trip is that unless you’re planning on taking nearly a month to do it, you’re really only staying in a city/town one or two days at most. With that brief of a stay it’s really better to avoid the kinds of cities where it would be better to spend days/weeks in exploring (NYC, Chicago, LA, DC etc etc)
It is really boring and loooong driving through the middle of the country (I say that as someone who lives in Missouri.) I would also do a western trip- heck, even just Olympic national park takes 4 days to drive around. But with a western itinerary you will see a ton of landscapes, cities, and towns and can easily make a 2 month itinerary just catching the biggest highlights. I love New England because it has the quaint towns and colonial era history, but coming from Europe, that will be the least “different.” I am from NyC originally and always think that it’s worth spending a few nights if it’s on the way to your final stop. Lots of people don’t really like cities on this board.
But for a western roadtrip:
Utah has some fabulous national parks in close vicinity to each other, Grand Canyon in AZ, Vegas if that seems like fun, San Diego is my fave city in CA, you can skip LA imo, check out the CA national parks and see if you want to go inland to those or drive up the coast; hit up San Francisco and Yosemite for sure, you can continue driving up northern CA coast to Oregon (beautiful coast and different from CA), to Seattle, mt ranier, maybe hit up glacier NP and/or Yellowstone and Grand Tetons, esp if you want a taste of the Wild West, see some buffalo, etc.
It sounds like you haven’t really done much research.
Try [Lonely Planet](https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/usa-best-road-trips) or one of the other well known travel websites for basic advice on how to plan this type of excursion.
The US is massive. You’re asking “How much of Europe should I try to see in one trip”? Should I go to Athens, Rome, and London or should I see Bratislava, Hamburg, and Madrid too? Etc. Driving from Chicago to Denver? That the same as going from Paris to Brest.
General advice for road trips in the US is to choose a region, like the Pacific Northwest, and spend 2-3 weeks there. Similar to spending 2-3 weeks touring the Alps instead of trying to see Oslo, Sicily, Porto, and Belgrade in 2-3 weeks.
Traveling the US is *expensive*. We’re more along the lines of UK/Scandinavia prices for travel.
* Budget lodging will begin around $100/nt or higher in most places
* hostels are not available in places other than major cities or college towns
* car rental will begin around $75/day+insurance+fuel
* A meal in a pub type establishment with a drink or two will be $20-30.
You need to do a LOT of research, a decent road trip around the entire country is a minimum of 6 weeks.
Fly into NYC and do the NE corridor without a car. NYC to Philly to DC all via Amtrak or the Megabus.
From DC drive down the east coast hitting Raleigh, Charleston and Savannah. Cut west and hit Birmingham, New Orleans, Houston, Austin, San Antonio.
After completing this route you will have a better idea the scope of the trip, congrats you’ve done 1/10th. How you want to proceed. Go north west and see the bigness? Go North and see the interior? Stay in the Southwest? Do a loop or zig zag?
Personally from San Antonio I’d do the long cut to Flagstaff, then Denver and the Colorado Ski towns, cross the Rockies and enter Utah and start your National Park Tour. Spend as much time in the mountain west as possible, then do a west coast tour from north to south. Fly to Chicago, rent another car and do the Great lakes cities while making your way to actual New England.
It may not be totally accurate but just to get an idea of the distance I asked a fairly reliable AI to suggest how far you would have to drive to visit the 48 state capitals. The answer was 15,000 miles. Of course, you may not want to visit the all the state capitals but that may give you a rough estimate of how long your trip might be.
Well, you’re not going to find much nature in “key cities”.
I strongly recommend not trying to hit every state. I’m sure a couple of Americans have done it, but those have been to every state tend to do it in multiple trips. There’s a lot of driving through nothing.
If you’re more interested in “Food”, I’d suggest starting in New England, then going on a southern route through Tennesse, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Texas. before heading west and seeing the Grand Canyon.
If you’re more interested in “Nature” I’d suggest a more northern route through Chicago to include Yellowstone, then start heading south to see Zion and the Grand Canyon.
At this point in LA, think about if you want to make a detour to see Redwood and Yosemite national parks.
Make sure you hit the Pacific Northwest. Also, try and hit a bunch of the national parks. In my opinion Glacier and Yellowstone are the best,
America is huge. Pick one area of the nation and explore it. If you fly or drive all over, it will be expensive and you’ll spend most of your time just traveling.
Id visit the areas less traveled. If you’re into nature you should definitely visit West Virginia! We have some of the best wilderness on the east coast! A lot of major interstates run through it so it’s a great place to stop and explore on a road trip.
Spend less time in the big cities and more time in parks and small towns. You’ll want to drive through NYC, Chicago, LA.. but if you’re stopping to spend some time someplace, go see some of the spectacular landscapes and national parks. Even just the seemingly endless drive across Kansas is an experience.
Id take route 66 its very scenic and has alot of old abandoned places from the 60s to see.
As an American, I’ve always wanted to do the Route 66 trip that’s Chicago to Los Angeles. I live in Chicago, so I could start right here, but I’ve never had the time/money to do that trip, which would take a couple weeks to do right.
I also really want to do a trip up the Pacific Coast, like Tijuana, Mexico up to Vancouver, Canada. Hit up some of the national parks, hit up LA, SF, Portland, Seattle, too.
Best thing to do is to just either go by bus or train. Busses (check ratings first) usually go to places best for tourists and trains will cut down on time to travel across the country. Don’t take a car because rental companies would hate dealing with cars that leave the state it was checked out in. There are also subtle nuances in driving laws that vary from state to state and some interstate routes travel near the country border where law enforcement may look for “suspicious” people.
What do you want to see? Cities are cities. What you should see are the National Parks.
I would first ask what are your interests? I have found absolutely crazy things you can do depending on if it peaks your curiosity. For instance I went to a town with a pop of 200 where you could mine fossils with help and my dad and I ended up filling up the back of a car with fish fossils. America is just a continent and with it is vast with wonders and opportunities you cant imagine. Its like me asking how can I travel all of Europe.
You wont see everything and so its important to decide what you want to see.
I’ve driven across the US four times solo (salt water to salt water) and have hit all 50 states at various other times. Are you planning to go one-way? Or do a loop? What time of year?
Personally I’d skip all the cities and actually invest most of my time in seeing nature, but that’s my preference; we do 5,000-10,000 miles around the US West every summer. Have driven to Alaska and back as well. If you’re open to camping you can see some amazing stuff. We will usually spend no more than two nights in any one place, unless it’s something like Glacier or Yellowstone NP where we want to see stuff on foot or get into the backcountry.
If you are flying into New York, for example, I’d make a loop through the northern tier of states in mid/late summer, out across Hwy 2 to Seattle, then down US 101 to LA, then a zigzag route through the SW and up the eastern slope of the Rockies to Denver, then down through KS/MO/AR to the south and across to FL, then up the eastern coast back to origin. A month at least, ideally six weeks. Rent a car or better yet a small SUV. Buy camping gear somewhere well outside of NYC along the way.
If you’re mostly into cities I’m sure others will have ideas. Be aware you can’t get anywhere on trains or busses outside the eastern metro corridor unless you have a LOT of time and are up for the adventure that comes with public transit in the US. I wouldn’t consider doing this without a car at all.
I’ve crossed the country several times and been to all 50 states. I recommend you take your full 2 months and make a loop. You can rent or lease a car and return it to the same place, which means you can find bargains that you can’t get if you’re picking up a car and dropping it off 3,000 miles away. You’ll want to cover the East and West coasts, and crossing the country on a Northern or Southern route avoids the boring middle that everybody is talking about. I imagine the cheapest places to fly into are LA from Australia or NYC from the UK. I’ll start the route from NYC, but you can do the same thing from LA. Head up to Boston, then west through southern New England and New York State. Follow the Lake Erie shoreline, cross to Chicago, head north and then across the country on a northern route, dipping down to Yellowstone. Once you cross the Cascades into Seattle, turn left and drive the coast down to LA. Zig-zag around the Southwest for a few weeks, eating and hitting the big National Parks, then head back east to New Orleans. Continue east along the Gulf Coast and its beaches, then cross to Atlanta. Go North through the Carolinas and Virginia to DC, then visit Philly on the way back to NYC. You can do this loop in reverse, or you can start and end it on the West coast. Have a great trip!
If I had unlimited time/money I’d drive from NYC down the east coast, cut over and drive across the south toward Texas. Then I’d spend most of my time in the southwest – Texas, Arizona, New Mexico – and then head over to CA to drive up the PCH and end in San Francisco.
I’d find a kick ass band with a nice party scene and follow them from state to state good music going parties cute girls it’s the only way to travel
I think doing like a small section each time might be the way to go and not overdo it by doing cross country.