Travelling across the States

[womble]

Me and a small group of friends (there will probably end up being 3 or 4 of us) have decided that next summer we're going to spend a month travelling from the West Coast of America to the East Coast. Now we're all from Scotland, so we will be looking for flights from either Scotland or London (depending on prices) to travel over in Early June and return at the end of June. We're having a bit of trouble pricing flights, as most places seem to be extortionate for one-way flights. We'd ideally be looking to fly over to the west coast (probably LA), and buy an Amtrak 30 day pass to travel by train all the way accross the country before getting a return flight from New York. I just have a few questions, if you have any answers or suggestions I'd really appreciate hearing them.

1) Is this even possible? Our budget is small, about £1500/$3000, so the max we can spend on flights is probably £400, and then £340 for the Amtrak pass. That would leave us around $50 a day to live on (including accomodation, although we are in no means looking for anywhere fancy. Hostels and motels would do us fine.) I know I can get a return ticket to the US for about £400, but is it impossible to get 2 one-way flights for a similar price? Time-scale wise, I think we'd like to get maybe 10 stops along the route, taking in some of the big cities and maybe something like Yosamite (probably spelt wrong, but ive heard its one of the most amazing places on earth). Taking travel time into account, can we even travel by train accross the states in 30 days while still giving us time to explore cities, rest and party? Sleeping on trains probably wouldn't be a problem so overnight trains will be a possibility.

2) Where would you suggest going? I personally wanna see San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Yosemity, The Grand Canyon. Touristy places really, but we'd also like to see stupid things like 'the worlds biggest ball of yarn'. Its my friends dream to see Orlando Magic play live, would this be a possibility? Or are tickets extremely expensive/scarce? I'd love to go to Canada as well for a few bit.

3) What sort of price are we looking at for basic accomodation? Motel/Hostel/Hotels, the lowest of the low really (preferebly sans cockroaches.)

4) Its going to be really hot, isnt it? I dont deal to well in heat, but theres not really any other time of year when we could go due to university holidays availability etc.

5) Would it be cheaper to go for the Amtrak 30 day pass (and then probably take 10 trips) or to just book our trips in advance online?

Theres probably way more questions I'll think of, I'm going to speak to a Sta Travel rep this afternoon to see about flight prices, hopefully theyre more able to organise cheaper non-standard flights.

Thanks guys, any advice would be mucho appreciated.

[Sawyer]

I can't really comment on all of the specifics of your trip but I would suggest renting a car not Amtrak. I travled in Europe by train and it was easy but everytime I have tried to travel by train in the US its a bit more complicated (outside of the ne corridor that is. NY transit area has a great train system). I remember I tried going from New Orleans to New Mexico and I had to go through Chicago. Maybe you can figure it out better maybe it has gotten easier I don't know. Also keep in mind that the US does not have a great public transportation system in general and most cities are pretty spread out. So train station to hostel, to fun part of town may be a big chore. For our Honeymoon my wife & I took a bus from the Seattle air port to downtown and it was a 30 min drive it took us close to 3 hours on a public bus. Now when I was was in Europe I could take a train into say Paris and then a subway into almost any area of town. New York works that way and San Francisco has a limited BART system LA has a few trains but many US cities make it a bit harder to get around.
To me your budget is on the low side. I just stayed in a hostel in San Diego it was 60 per night and that was with shared baths. The room was as small as you could make it and it was a minimal as you could imagine. It was a really good location however so maybe it would have been cheaper in another part of the city. But you will have more flexability with where you stay if its easy to get around. Get a car.
Now I traveled much more on the cheap in Europe than I have here in the US. The times I traveled here and was on a really tight budget I camped. I don't know if there is a good train travel system like a Eurail pass. I would be curious to know how well the trains would serve you for a trip like this.

Good Luck.

[womble]

Thanks Sawyer, to be honest other forums i've asked this on have echoed your concerns at US public transport. It doesn't seem to be very good at all. The car might not be possible however as only one of us can drive, and its probably a bit much to ask him to do all the driving.

What we're now thinking is to buy a 20ish day West-East camping tour, thats only a bit more expensive than the train ticket, but includes accomodation (either on bus or tent) and then spend the last week or so in NY or Boston.

[Frosty]

Train travel in N.America is NOT what it is in Europe. Most people drive or fly here. If you can do it by train it may save you some stress and at $340, may save you some money.

I figure it would cost about $500-700 in fuel to cross the US in a modest vehicle (I spent $300 to drive 2200 miles in an Accord this summer). On top of fuel you would have to pay daily car rentals, insurance and milage to drive. That isnt going to be cheap. The plus side of the car is you can go wherever you want whenever you want and you wont need a taxi.

Additional advice I have is DO NOT underestimate how big N. America is. It will likely take you 70+ hrs to drive across the US in a straight line.

[wilky9]

What if you didn't try to see the whole country in one go, and instead just focused on, say, the west coast? Maybe work your way down from Vancouver to L.A.? You could always make a side trip from there out to Las Vegas and then on to the Grand Canyon. Google maps says it's about 4.5 hours from LA to LV, and about the same from LV to the Grand Canyon.

I second the car rental idea. I travelled from New Jersey to Kansas City on Amtrack, and it was horrible. Small seats, smelly train, and it never went far enough without stopping to get that nice rythmic thump-da-thump train sound. Seriously, it felt like the train stopped every 5 miles in 2.5 days of travel. Not exactly your European "bullet train."I'd try to find places that you can really explore on foot, or enjoy some of the nice national forests and parks (Yosemite). A few years ago, a friend and I camped in a RV park. It was nice because they had bathrooms, showers and electrical connections. Not roughing it, but cheap and fun.

Look into bringing bicycles with you. Some airlines won't charge extra for them.

[Frosty]

Chris, I think thats an excellent idea. Condense the trip, see more with less driving and stress. There is a lot to see on either coast or even Chicago to NYC.

[womble]

Car rental is probably impossible in our situation. Only one of us can drive and I don't think it'd be fair to ask him to do all the driving.

To be honest we sort of have our hearts set on doing the coast-coast thing, annoying I know! We are now looking at booking with a student tour company that would pick us up in San Francisco for 4 nights camping in Yosemiti (2 nights on bus, 2 nights tent) for £100 each. Then go with the same company on a 14 night Northern Tour which would encompass:

0.San Francisco1.Ruby Mountains 2.Salmon River3.Idaho Hot Springs4.Grand Tetons NP 5.Yellowstone NP 6.Yellowstone NP 7.Devil's Tower 8.Badlands NP 9.Jeffers Petroglyphs
10.Great Plains 11.Chicago 12.Niagara Falls 13.Catskills 14.New York/Boston

This would then give us a week or so West Coast (maybe stay in New York with a trip to Boston or DC) which as I understand has better public transport links (specifically NY). I know thats a hell of a lot of ground to cover in 14 days, but at least that way we can sleep on the bus, so we save accomodation fee's, also its only a bit more expensive than the Amtrak ticket and it includes most food. We also get to meet other people on the tour. It's not as exciting as doing it all yourself maybe, but I guess our budget/time restrictions just dont stretch to that!

[wilky9]

That sounds like the perfect solution! Too bad you don't get to come through Colorado. It's quite nice in June.

Maybe you can get to San Fransisco a few days early and explore around? I don't really care for baseball too much, but their stadium is pretty nice, and you can ride the train to get there.

[Sir Fuse]

What about Greyhound (bus) - You can probably get on and off just about anywhere you want.

[AJLynn]

New York and Boston both have great transit and you can take the bus between them for $15 (fungwahbus.com)