Roadtrip across the USA - tips, ideas please

[ae86_16v]

I heard that New Mexico is one of the most beautiful states in terms of Scenary-wise.

Also in California, I-5 is nice and fast, but it is boring as hell. I almost hate driving it, I took Hwy 101 from San Francisco to Los Angeles last time with stops along the way, much nicer drive, but also about 50-60 miles longer.

If you want really scenic drive, that would be Highway 1, Pacific Coast Highway, which runs from LA to SF, but that will take about 12 to 14 hours to complete.

[MidEngine4Life]

Its a shame you'll only be visiting the dirty part of California, but there is plenty to do down there I was just in San Diego last week. Id say if you were coming by my neck of the woods id love to have you photograph the car ill be picking up in a day or two.

I look forward to seeing your C6 shots from across the country

[sameerrao]

Originally Posted by dingo Updated plan....planned out day-by-day (5 weeks now aswell). Thoughts please.

Comments:
- NY section: perfect. No changes

- Florida section: Miami, South Beach, Orlando and Key West are all you need. Tallahassee isnt anything special - might be a quiet beach but is that what you want? Tampa will be something similar in experience to Orlando and Miami. You can skip it.
My recommendation:
Day 5-7 keep as is.
Day 8: Go to South Beach
Day 9: Go to Orlando - do Disneyworld
Day 10: Spend in Univ Studios
Day 11: leave in AM for New Orleans by road - will arrive in evening. Stop over for a drink and Jazz restaurant for food

- Lousiana:
Day 12: Take a half day tour of the French Corner and walk around the place. In the afternoon - go on a Swamp tour - can see alligators and other interesting stuff. Or if you are interested in seeing 18th century grand manors (like the ones in Goen with the Wind) drive up West to Oak Alley Plantation.

- Texas:
I have mixed feelings about this. Positives about Texas include awesome barbecue food and see the phenomenon that is RC. Also the areas in West Texas are pretty desolate - can do triple digits speed easily. Negatives are long distances travelled and really not too much to see.

E.g. Houston - NASA is the only thing I would say is worth seeing. Maybe RC can take you to the Corvette tuner MTI here. San Antonio is quiet and pleasant town but against the offerings in other states is pretty ordinary. El Paso is a boring place - skip it - the only interesting thing is the Big Bend Natural park to the South and a desert vista to the north.

My recommendation is to skip Texas and fly from New Orleans to Denver - costs about $200-300 per person and use the time saved to explore other states more. Rent another car in Denver.

Do the Denver bit. The ski towns of Boulder, Vail and Aspen might be still open for skiing in April. Otherwise its lovely driving thru the various hills and Valleys

Drive from Colorado to Flagstaff, Arizona. This is a good central location to do day trips to the Grand Canyon. Check if you can pass Monument Valley and Four Corners on your route from Colorado to Flagstaff. Spend about 2-3 days in Flagstaff before going west to Vegas (stop over by Hoover Dam on the way). Spend about 2-3 days in Vegas. If you are keen you can drive to the Valley of Fire - couple miles north of Vegas in the evening and watch the setting sun light up the rocks with a reddish hue.

Do the rest of the trip to as is. Since you have seen Disney and Universal in Florida- I dont know if it there is more than 2 days worth of sightseeing in LA. Now with the days that you skipped in Texas, you can drive up the Highway 1 Coast from LA to San Francisco. Stay in SF for at lease 2 days - lots to see here in the Bay Area. Also do a day trip to Yosemite National Park (its awesome, I guarantee you). Fly out of SFO to Perth.

[RC45]

Points to consider, are that most all tourists can fly into the west or east coast and redo sections they missed or intended to see - such as a drive up or down the California coast, but a trip through or to the interior of the US is normally a one time event

The sheer enormity of driving across Texas, is really only something someone from Australia could appreciate

Houston can share a couple great "tourist" sights - NASA being one of course, and something you need to give up part of the day to take in as the tours are a little time consuming, but if someone has any interest in planes and rockets then how could one not go there?

San Antonio has a couple worth while sights to see.. relaxing at the Riverwalk for lunch and taking in the Alamo being prime examples.

If I were driving west I would swing north and go through Midland-Odessa and not head towards El Paso (again, if you are at all interested in real WWII aircraft a visit to one of the Confederate Airforce Airwings and perhaps a visit to the Petroleum museum to the Chaparral cars on display would be enjoyable for a car nut - and again, give soem idea of just how big the place is.

Then continue north up to Amarillo and rejoin I40/ Route 66 to then take in Cadillac Ranch.

Such a trip is already expensive and complex, and to throw away some important "land marks" that are off the beaten path will seem like a waste when looking back on the trip

[dingo]

Ok thanks guys, we’ve revised it a little based on your comments.

Still going to drive through Texas as planned, for some reason it intrigues both of us – maybe coz we are Aussies like RC said.

We’ve taken out Tampa Bay and Tallahassee and added in San Fran for a couple of days. Thai Airways (our cheapest option) doesn’t do flights out of San Fran though so we will have to drive back to LA afterwards and catch our return flight there.

[dingo]

Ok thanks guys, we’ve revised it a little based on your comments.

Still going to drive through Texas as planned, for some reason it intrigues both of us – maybe coz we are Aussies like RC said.

We’ve taken out Tampa Bay and Tallahassee and added in San Fran for a couple of days. Thai Airways (our cheapest option) doesn’t do flights out of San Fran though so we will have to drive back to LA afterwards and catch our return flight there.

[dingo]

Ok thanks guys, we’ve revised it a little based on your comments.

Still going to drive through Texas as planned, for some reason it intrigues both of us – maybe coz we are Aussies like RC said.

We’ve taken out Tampa Bay and Tallahassee and added in San Fran for a couple of days. Thai Airways (our cheapest option) doesn’t do flights out of San Fran though so we will have to drive back to LA afterwards and catch our return flight there.

[dingo]

Attn: Vette owners or anyone who can get to one

Is it possible you could do me a favour? We need the measurements of the boot (heigh, width, depth) and a photo with someone in there we can use as a reference....please.

Gotta sort out how much we can fit in there exactly, thanks!

Secondly, ours will be a convertible so a photo showing how much space that takes up would be great too!

[dingo]

Attn: Vette owners or anyone who can get to one

Is it possible you could do me a favour? We need the measurements of the boot (heigh, width, depth) and a photo with someone in there we can use as a reference....please.

Gotta sort out how much we can fit in there exactly, thanks!

Secondly, ours will be a convertible so a photo showing how much space that takes up would be great too!

[RC45]

Going with a convertible will hurt your luggage space a bit. The regular coupe has a targa roof so you can still get the "wind in the hair feel.

Although taking out the hard roof panel and storing it will also eat up your luggage space.

You sure you want a vert??

[dingo]

Oh sorry we are going with the targa version, thought that was the one they termed as the "convertible".

My bad.

[dingo]

Another question....considering a change in the route.

After Austin we planned to drive West to El Paso then through Alburquerque and Santa Fe on the way to Colorado.

After reading about those places I'm not so keen on visiting them anymore, so I'm looking for alternative routes from Austin - Colorado.

One idea I had was to head North through Oklahoma and Kansas and then head West to Colorado?

[dingo]

Another thought - head North to Oklahoma City and then take Route 66 west towards Santa Fe and join up to our original route.

Route 66 would be really good to do and Oklahoma has a large portion of it so probably a good place to do so.