GRP

I have promised my son a USA road trip for his 21st birthday which is later this year. We plan to take a few weeks in June/July 2015 for the trip (mid year break for him, weather, he will be 21 plus and can drink legally - only 18 over here).

We have previously driven Los Angeles - Disneyland - Las Vegas - Grand Canyon - Phoenix and Boston - New York - Washington DC via Intercourse (got to love the Amish).

Not fixed on start finish points. Best points for us to fly in are either Dallas or LA on Qantas using points to go business class .

Thinking 2 to 3 weeks.

Accomodation will be basic motel.

Want to hire V8 performance vehicle - 2 door is fine (last time it was a Linclon Navigator with the family onboard - perfect family tour vehicle).

What so see?

Suggested routes?

Anything is open for consideration. Pop down to Mexico. head across the south and up the east coast. drive through the middle.

Any and all input is greatly appreciated.

Grant

whoover

Popping down to Mexico is probably a non-starter, unless you fly there separately and rent another car. Insurance makes it pretty impossible to drive a US car into Mexico.

You might drive north from LA this time. Up the coast: Santa Barbara, Big Sur, San Francisco. You can cover a lot of territory leisurely along the coast and make it back to LA from San Francisco on I-5 in less than 6 hours.

With that much time you can keep going north. Oregon coast. Portland. Seattle. Then spend three days getting back to LA. Or fly home from Seattle.

My wife and I drive from San Jose (near San Francisco) to Seattle almost every summer to visit family. There are a ton of things to do and see on that trip, and we're never bored. If you're interested in that route, I can give you lots of suggestions. And you can't get a bad meal in San Francisco or Portland or Seattle. Those are three centers of American gastronomy.

BTW, renting the car in LA and leaving it in Seattle isn't a huge deal. They generally add a mileage fee to the bill. I think it's usually about $.25/mile. So if you do 1,500 miles from LA to Seattle, it will cost $375. Something to consider for a trip like this, weighed against a couple days of your time plus gas and lodging for the return trip. Similarly, an "open jaw" air ticket is usually only a little more than a straight round trip. Or "return," I guess you say. I've done quite a few of these. Just something to consider.

m a x i m u s

I'd consider visiting the south and Deep South.

bhamg

That's what I think also. Dallas down to coastal Louisiana and the Gulf side of Florida, continue on to Key West, back up to Miami and up the Atlantic coast into South Carolina, then West to Tennessee and north into Kentucky.

alexmtl

Last year I did a road trip all around the US, from Montreal to Washington, Miami, Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and Calgary.

* For the best roads I've driven on:

If you go on the east coast, I'd strongly recommend you go drive the Tail of the Dragon road, and also the roads around that in the smoky mountains. These roads are truly a blast, and corners have bankings which is really fun.

On the west coast, I felt like I didn't have enough time to do the region between the Grand Canyon, L.A. and San Francisco, there are so many things to do there. I came from the back roads from Las Vegas to L.A, from the top of the mountain and that road was crazy, with really beautiful views and many turns.

Up north the road 1 has some beautiful sceneries also next to the coast, and there's a part just above SF which is just crazy fun too! I did parks Sequoia and Yosemite, those not only give great scenery but have very nice roads too .


* For the best things I've seen:

Hands down, Grand Canyon and Banff National Park in Alberta. Those two were by far the highlight of my trip. In fact, if I were to do a similar trip again, I would just start from Vegas and go up north to Alberta through the coast or through the Yellowstone National Park, which I heard was awesome as well.
In the Grand Canyon itself, once you get there from the south you can drive east along the canyon and every minute you'll stop for a truly breath taking view.
Next to the grand Canyon there are the Havasupai falls, which I stronly suggest you google it if you've never heard of it! It requires pre-booking with the local indians, and it's a 10 miles hike inside the canyon, but it's so worth it! Also, I strongly suggest camping over there since the hike is very exhausting.
I haven't had the chance to take more time to visit around more in the area, but there's a LOT to see there and I'll certainly go there again.

As for the Banff National Park, google it too! Incredible park where every 10 minutes drive you have a crazy lake in a different shade of turquoise ! You can also walk on a glacier, which is pretty cool (even in the summer). I've spent 3 days there and I absolutely loved it. So many things to see! In short: Lake Louise, Lake Moraine, Lake Bow, Lake Vista, Lake Arnica, Johnston canyon, and Athabasca glacier.


That's for my personal experience, of course USA is huge and there are tons of more things to see. Your son it very lucky!

Some of my personal pictures:

Havasupai Falls


Athabasca Glacier


Johnston creek


Arnica Lake


Moraine Lake


Lake Bow

mr747

so nice

Southways

GRP ...
My wife & I spend at least 1 month out of 6 in the US and at least 1 week of that is pure driving - we do about 8-10,000 miles/year. We have driven a lot of the West & Mid-West, and once through the North-East. We have about 12k photos (my wife is an photography enthusiast), so we have a very diverse array of landscapes & sights captured. We don't do the Interstate freeways so much - prefer the smaller (fun) roads.

It all depends on what you & your son are into - scenery, wildlife, cityscapes, people, cultural diversity, roads, driving style, industry etc.
Give me a call (0427454511) or PM me and I can offer some suggestions based on your preferences. I usually do a route on Google Maps first.
Maybe it's a good excuse to catch up for a coffee with some other Melbourne AMG owners.

GRP

Southways - as I read your post I was thinking coffee is in order.


Thanks everyone for input.

Grand Canyon - have been there and done a Euro copter all glass canopy flight down into the canyon (cue Top Gun soundtrck in the headphones) - pricey but one of the best best things I have ever done on tour.

One of the options we were thinking of the head sotheast from Dalls and up through Forida so nice to see those thoughts.

whoover - thanks for the Mexico input - seems scratch that idea.

jcfay

Just remember it gets a little hot in the South over the Summer months... Not sure if you want AC on non-stop, or if you want to do a more Northern route as the temps can be more manageable (CA coast is fantastic, and no one's mentioned Colorado so I'm going to throw it out there although Summer is top season in the parks there IIRC). Of course if you're from Australia you probably eat hot for breakfast... ;-)

Rate

Count me in for that...

mr747

Yeah why not

p30amg08

Zion UT, telluride CO, taos NM, and of course the salt flats...in no particular order.

Dont forget to try the "coffee" in CO

Have fun man!

balthaser

About renting a car, you can contact Hertz to find out some higher end cars. I don't know the price so you need to look into it yourself.

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/vehic...e%20Collection

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/vehic...e%20Collection

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/vehic...y=Dream%20Cars

zibby43

You could try the Midwest/Great Plains region this time.

Chicago would be a must. Lake Michigan is beautiful this time of year.

Ingenieur

Depending on how much time you want to spend in the car each day
Assume 12 days 400 miles or 6-7 hours per day

San Francisco up to Seattle
Possibly on the Vancouver then to Montana
If you do go north Banff & Jasper are worth the drive time
If not Vancouver over to Montana
Then south and meander thru Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho and back to SF

CarHopper

Zion UT was once of the coolest places I've ever been.

I'd fly into LA and head North up towards Seattle. Then head East to Montana to enjoy no speed limits and Yellowstone. After that I'd shoot down through Denver and end in Dallas. That will give you a few days in each place.

I wouldn't focus too much on covering distance. You want to "stop and smell the roses." What I mentioned is plenty of distance

nycphotography

If you've done the desert SW, it might be time for a deep south / east coast adventure.

Some ideas and a general route.

Starting in Dallas (dunno what to do there besides pick up a car and head out).
Austin - "weird texas", mellow johnnies, etc.
San Antonio - the alamo and the river walk. Texas style BBQ (brisket)
Corpus christi - day on the beach. (If that's your thing. I'd skip it myself.)
Through Houston - just to see it - refineries, heavy air, brutal traffic... not sure of any reason to stop though

CAJUN COUNTRY - Eunice LA, Lake Charles, New Iberia, Houma - down the bayous and wildlife preserves. COUNTRY CAJUN FOOD in small out of they way restaurants (boudin sausage, crawfish etouffee, gumbo and gratons) I THINK around Halloween ther are several cajun food festivals... if not find some whenever/wherever you are. Zydeco music. Cajun food.
Day (or TWO) IN New Orleans - French quarter and garden district. voodoo and ghost tours and french cemetaries. creole food (cajun plus french)

Day in MISS - up through Natchez MS - Jackson, Hattiesburg - civil war sites... deep south small towns. Go through the small towns. get out and walk around some and see how things are. Watch "Lalee's Kin" before going.

Make tracks to orlando (Don't bother stopping for biloxi / gulfport - just casinons there) Disney EPCOT, universal studios. CUBAN FOOD.

Down the west FL coast through Tampa to Cape Coral / Naples. Stringy leathery crispy sun dried NYC expats. Gulf Fishing charters. The south florida w/o being bothered by south beach and/or "miami" crowd. Some working class wanting to be left alone (ft myers / cape coral) some uppity showy (naples).
Drive East across the everglades on alligator alley / tamiami trail to Miami.

Day in South Beach. Art Deco. Clubs. CUBAN FOOD and local restaurants.

Back up through West Palm Beach, Daytona Beach / cape canaveral, St Augustine.. through jacksonville to SAVANNAH. Day in savannah.
To Beaufort then to Charleston. Day in Charleston (historic peninsula) and maybe some low country (summerville, and up 78).
To Greenville - compare faster moving industrial NW SC, to slower, low country SE SC.
Then to Asheville. Biltmore. Day in asheville. Corky's BBQ (if it's still around)
Then to Bristol / knoxville, chattanooga. rest of the smoky mountains. Tenesseee style BBQ.
Day in Nashville. Country music events, museums, etc.
Day in Memphis - Memphis is the BOMB HQ of pulled pork BBQ. (sandwich w/ coleslaw on the sandwich) Don't pick big places.. Find smoky little BBQ dives. Elvis, blues, Beale street.
dunno much about arkansas or oklahoma... - maybe someone else can fill you in... or you can just hightail it back to Dallas to catch the flight out.

Some of the drives would be good at night as theres not much to see (New orleans to orlando for example).
Others are definitely for the day (greenville to memphis) with the smoky mountains and appalachian hill billies to speak for.

Find some whiskey / bourbon distilleries (Jack Daniels or Jim Beam or such) and stop at one big one and one little one.

It would be great to go nashville -> lexington -> louisville -> st louis -> memphis... but I don't think you'll have time for all that. I grew up in Louisville, and Kentucky has a lot to offer... horse farms, ky horse park, makers mark and other distilleries, ft knox, lake cumberland, tobacco country, etc.

The hardest part will be avoiding generic walmart/applebees/mcdonalds america. I've tried to give hints

nycphotography

Mostly I'm trying to think of the "culturally relevant" things you get on a road trip... regional stuff. The things that make different places different.

Need4Speed

Back east is my recommendation

I lived on both coasts and as amazing as California is

I highly recommend the following

West Coast

Seattle
Portland

East Coast

Maine
Connecticut ( my birth state = ) )
Boston is amazing as well and you will have a great time there plus the great bars

p30amg08

I like this thread! Lets keep it going. Giving me good ideas as well

GRP

I looked at the MB forum in general when wanting to post this thread and nothing stuck out so I thought what the hell go off topic in the C63 section on the basis they are drivers rather MB owners.

Please keep up the input.

Any tips on car hire appreciated.

My son and I will carefully review all suggestions as nothing is fixed.

ilovemaui1

There are a lot beautiful places to see in the US and fewer bugs and stuff that can kill you.

If you make up to Oregon I highly recommend a trip up the Columbia River Gorge. Within a hour of Portland you'll go from the Willamette Valley though a rain forest and eventually the high desert.

DuckNcover

Some great places have already been mentioned... here's one more...

Idaho. Or more specifically, Sun Valley/Stanley Idaho. Yea, hard to get to but the extra time spent in transit is made up for by low population, ease of access (to anything) and sensible, road trip friendly laws. For instance: If you are into the two wheel form of transport, this area currently has no helmet law in effect. The threat of animal strikes however are not great for us speed merchants... Keep the speed down and stay alive.

Mikesphotaes

Well, much as I love California, my two pence is for doing Route 66.


Chicago to Santa Monica was the direction I used.

odonnks

Flying into Dallas or LA make choices a little tougher but my ideal multi week road trip would be :
Fly into Las Vegas rent vehicle and head to :
Grand Canyon north rim. AZ
Zion UT
Bryce Canyon UT
Moab UT, Arches UT, Canyonland UT (these three are all very close to Moab.)
In Moab, rent a 4x4 and hit the petrified dunes then take the off road trip across the bottom of the Canyonlands.
Then head norh into Park City UT and off to:
Sun Valley ID
East to NE to Montana to Glacier
South to Yellowstone WY
South again to the Grand Teaton WY
Then to Jackson Hole WY.
Work my way to Denver then into Colorado Springs.CO
Then off to Santa Fe NM
West on 40/66 to Las Vegas to fly out.

I've been to many of those places but never on a road trip, That'd be a blast !