Anyone done a USA roadtrip ?

Danny1969

In a couple of week I'll be driving from Cape Canaveral up through Atlanta, Georgia then up to Nashville, then down to  Mississippi and finally on to Texas where we fly home

Anyone done that kind of thing before, any advice on what car to hire,  should I get a convertible or is a hardtop with aircon better ? How hard is driving on the right ? 

Nitefly

I don't know the answers to any of the questions, but it sounds like a real blast - hope you have a great time!

Cheers,

Al.

Stevepage

If you can afford it, go for a hardtop Mustang. Excellent car to drive, all part of the American experience. I hired one on my honeymoon to Florida last year, real dream come true. Driving on the right is a doddle after the initial worry.

Phil_aka_Pip

Nitefly said:

I don't know the answers to any of the questions, but it sounds like a real blast - hope you have a great time!

Cheers,

Al.

I'll second that!

Danny1969

Stevepage said:

If you can afford it, go for a hardtop Mustang. Excellent car to drive, all part of the American experience. I hired one on my honeymoon to Florida last year, real dream come true. Driving on the right is a doddle after the initial worry.

Not exactly a Mustang but there is a Chrysler 200 convertible available, good to hear about the right hand driving thing

Jez6345789

Hi 

Did NY to MIami and about everything in between back in the day. 

You will soon acustom to the driving just watch when you first pickup the car I ended up in a strange car having never driven an automatic etc etc on a Friday rush hour on the Garden State Parkway. Also whilst I am on cars make sure you are going to get a proper American car no point doing a road trip in a Nissan Sunny. Quite often you can end up with a Japanese compact, on the last trip we ordered a mid priced car and got a fracking Nissan after a little gently moaning we got a cheap upgrade to a Dodge Charger which was the business for a hire car

Not sure I would want to do that sort of distance in open top for me thats a hell of a lot of Factor 50 :-)

Also I might be paranoid but its easy to take a wrong turn and be stopped at a red light on the wrong side of the tracks where all the faces look threatening. Driving around the US I like to be able to up my security at a touch of a button, probably getting old considering the jams I got in as a sailor.

You will be covering a lot of serious musical landmarks along the way in the South so I certainly would put a bit of planning in as there is loads to see and do. Last time I was in Texas you need to plan a couple of nights to see some of the bands and the live music scene around Austin make it for a weekend if you like live music you will be well impressed.  

I am off to Denver on business this week so will be looking at a few nice guitar stores and hopefully sampling some rocky mountain hospitality.

stickyfiddle

I did the east coast (down and up) with my old band in 2006. Great fun.

Driving on the right is fine - you'll be ok after a day or 2 of hard concentration! I find switching to auto was more of a headlock than LHD.

Danny1969

Thanks guys, I'll be fine in an auto as I used to drive Jags before I decided to skint myself by building a studio. I'm working out a schedule that's putting in around 200 miles a day of driving some days but I'm thinking over there that's not particularly  taxing once your on the open highway

Phil_aka_Pip

Pix & written report compulsory !

Grunfeld

Danny1969 said:

In a couple of week I'll be driving from Cape Canaveral up through Atlanta, Georgia then up to Nashville, then down to  Mississippi and finally on to Texas where we fly home

Awesome. 

Richardj

Have toured western Canada a couple of times (in winter too) and after the first hour or so getting used to the car and the roads it will become second nature.  It doesn't hurt to have a little advance knowledge of the towns you will be travelling through, Not wishing to cliche, it can get a little wild west/gangster in you end up in the wrong part of town, especially in a nice rental car.  Use a bit of common sense and you will have a blast.  

Do not trust the sat nav!  We made sure we had good old fashioned paper maps as well.  

We liked exploring off the beaten track a bit but you will find that some of the local roads are gravel so make sure you have good windscreen cover.  Last time we went I think we paid an extra small premium to cover us beyond the usual collision damage waivers etc.

capo4th

Avoid the Chrysler Sebring a common convertible rental car in America.

chrispy108

Sounds awesome!

I did Boston to Montreal and back via Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine for my honeymoon nearly three years ago.

Got a big Lincoln, very comfy.

I found the driving easy, there are a few oddities (stop signs everywhere, undertaking is legal, some highway exits are from the middle of the road), but in general, it's not hard to adapt to being on the wrong side. You'll have to concentrate the hardest when it's quiet, as theres no one to follow!

If your car doesn't have built in GPS (they often don't), then it might be worth buying one from Best Buy or whatever when you're there, as it may well be cheaper ($120 ish vs $15 a day), and it'll be a better quality, newer unit.

When I was in Florida in June we had a Dodge Challenger, which was great fun, except most speed limits in America are 50/60 mph, so be sensible!

Jalapeno

Wouldn't bother with a soft top for touring - it's usually a choice of hood down or bootspace - so with the top down the luggage has to go in what passes as a back seat.  A Mustang is a great experience though, really chuggy, but crap on corners.

Aircon should be standard - but I can tell you it is fugging hot in Texas today 40C/100+F

It'll be a blast - just book your accommodation a couple of days ahead to keep stress low. Take loads of pictures !!!!!

Unorthodox

Jez6345789 said:

Hi 

Did NY to MIami and about everything in between back in the day. 

You will soon acustom to the driving just watch when you first pickup the car I ended up in a strange car having never driven an automatic etc etc on a Friday rush hour on the Garden State Parkway. Also whilst I am on cars make sure you are going to get a proper American car no point doing a road trip in a Nissan Sunny. Quite often you can end up with a Japanese compact, on the last trip we ordered a mid priced car and got a fracking Nissan after a little gently moaning we got a cheap upgrade to a Dodge Charger which was the business for a hire car

Not sure I would want to do that sort of distance in open top for me thats a hell of a lot of Factor 50 :-)

Also I might be paranoid but its easy to take a wrong turn and be stopped at a red light on the wrong side of the tracks where all the faces look threatening. Driving around the US I like to be able to up my security at a touch of a button, probably getting old considering the jams I got in as a sailor.

You will be covering a lot of serious musical landmarks along the way in the South so I certainly would put a bit of planning in as there is loads to see and do. Last time I was in Texas you need to plan a couple of nights to see some of the bands and the live music scene around Austin make it for a weekend if you like live music you will be well impressed.  

I am off to Denver on business this week so will be looking at a few nice guitar stores and hopefully sampling some rocky mountain hospitality.

I'm thinking about doing the NY to Miami road trip for two weeks in November. Google maps reckons it's around 18 hours driving, and I figure do a few hours each day and stop off and see stuff along the way. How did you approach yours? And anything that's a must see?

holnrew

I'd love to do Seattle (or even Vancouver) to San Diego and Tijuana, via Portland and Las Vegas.

Roland

Driving on the right is no problem, particularly since you'll have a right hand drive car. What does get me in the US is that most of the road signs in the interstate highways give you road numbers rather than town names.

chillidoggy

Make sure you either rent, or take, a SatNav system with you. You can get the USA maps for them here. The distances we have in our UK heads don't equate to anything in the US.

RaymondLin

Stevepage said:

If you can afford it, go for a hardtop Mustang. Excellent car to drive, all part of the American experience. I hired one on my honeymoon to Florida last year, real dream come true. Driving on the right is a doddle after the initial worry.

The Americans that I know, who are from PA but now lives in Atlanta, thinks Mustang drivers are all red necks...when I told them that's what I want in a road trip, that's what they told me. Lol

The car has a totally different image in the US.

CabbageCat

I've done Washington (DC) to Kansas City. Don't bother with a sporty car. The interstates are mostly just dual carriageways and Americans drive pretty slowly. A convertible is risky - continental US is prone to some pretty interesting weather. We got bombarded with hailstones "the size of quarters" (the radio storm alerts measure seem to measure dimensions and currency in the same units).

Do a bit of research on the cities you are going to. You can't just drive to the middle of a city and expect something interesting to be there. Many of the city centres are just office blocks.

Majorscale

There are loads of USA road trip guide books that will help you plan your trip. Due to the distances involved planning is essential if you don't want to spend all your time driving aimlessly! My other tip is, you'll never see as many cops on the roads as you will do over there, they are very hot on speeding so don't go all Dukes Of Hazzard! 5mph over the limit is ok but beyond that can be risky which is kind of silly based on their low speed limits, wide straight roads and huge engined cars....