Our holidays in the United Staates - April 2008

[urgewalt]

Hi there,

I have some questions and hope someone can help me thereby.

First the facts :
- we (my cutie wife and me) want spend our holidays next year in the USA
- date is between the middle of April and the middle of May for 4 weeks
- we want to stop at the folowing places to meet family (my nephew), friends and see some sights :
-- New York
-- Niagara Falls
-- Washington DC
-- Santa Barbara
-- San Francisco
-- Los Angeles
-- Joshua-Tree-Nationalpark
-- Yosemite-Nationalpark
-- Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument

Optional places :
-- Dallas
-- Cuda/Challenger driver/forum member
-- Buy a `cuda 

Not all places are obligatory, this is only something along those lines ...
Actuall plan is : Fly from Germany to New York and back from San Francisco to Germany.


Now our problems :
- For example, is it better fly inside the United Staates from New York to Dallas and from Dallas to San Francisco and rent at all places a car and give it back at the same place ?
- or is it better rent a car in New York, drive across the United States and give this car back in San Francisco ?
- For flexibility I want rent a room at this place we stay in the evening - is this possible or is it difficult to find spontaneous a hotel/motel for only one day or so ?
- How much cost a double bedroom on average ?
- Which Hotel/Motel companies can you advise me (good cost/performance ratio) ?
- which car rentals can you advise me (reliable cars) ?
- Is the time we will spend our holidays there a good choice ?
- Has anybody other ideas what we must absolute see/visit ?
- All other recommendations ...


I hope that no one has problems understanding what I mean, sorry my english is so terrible (another reason to come to you ).
Also I hope that I can ask these questions here, while this is a MOPAR forum.

All helpfull suggestions are welcome !

[73Chally]

It sounds like you will be planning quite the trip.  You have some very nice places planned for your visit, and that is a good time of year.  As far as a rental car vs. flying, a lot of that depends on just how long you will be in the country.  I personally like driving, so my choice would be to rent in New York and return in San Francisco.  Just make sure you get unlimited mileage on the rental, because you will put on probably close to 4,000 miles.  The nice thing is it will let you stop whenever and wherever you want, and stay as long as you want at each location.  If you were only going to visit a couple of cities then flying might be a better option, but when you book the tickets you are tied to specific dates, and any changes will result in large change fees ($$$).  As far as a rental company, I always use Thrifty, but that's because they mostly rent Chrysler vehicles.  Their rates are not bad, but there are probably some other cheaper companies out there.  As for hotels, it usually is not any problem finding one on short notice as you are driving along.  If you are on a major highway, they are very easy to find.  I usually stay at Hampton Inns because they have a decent breakfast included, but again there are definitely cheaper hotels (motel 6, Super 8 to name a couple). 

By the way, I live in Dallas and my mother in law is German from Winweiller (sp?), and she and my wife speak German all the time.  If you do make it through here let me know and maybe we can hook up for lunch.

[Robert1050]

I also agree that driving a car cross county is a better idea - it gives you the time to explore what you want & not be locked into exact schedules.  You might consider either buying or renting a GPS navigation system (TomTom, Magellan, etc) to help you get around (if your rental vehicle does not come with one) - compared to Germany, city freeway systems can sometimes get very confusing.  I have done multiple cross-county trips by car or truck and I always take my navigation system with me (and I live here).

The dates you picked will be good weather-wise, but since I don't have a 2008 calender in front of me, you may overlap with the Easter holiday, which could mean lots of families traveling with kids out of school on some form of spring break.  Hotels are easy, I usually look for Hampton Inns also (I do like their breakfast buffet) and budget about $75 a night for them.

The sites you've picked are among the top travel destinations, but along the way, there may be some good car type events to also check out.  Here in the Los Angeles area, the Mopar Spring Fling will be happening around then and there is a huge auto swap-meet in Pomona (about 30 min east of Los Angeles) that happens every 2 months.  Los Angeles is also home to the Peterson Automotive Museum as well as the NHRA Museum in Pomona.

I'm sure other members will chime in with events that will be happening around them as well.

If you have time in Los Angeles, drop me a PM, I can give you directions to a couple of very good German Restaurants and if you get home-sick for some food (or snacks) I know of several German Deli's.

Don't worry about your English, it's better than my German......

Ich Bein Ein DonauSchwab.

Robert

[MEK-Dangerfield]

Not to be a downer here, but given your ambicious plan of sites to see, you will be spending more time driving, than site seeing. You just can not see all that in 4 weeks by car. Plus, you will be wore out. I would advise a longer stay, or fewer sites to see.

  Mike

[whitesatinmopar]

Not to be a downer here, but given your ambicious plan of sites to see, you will be spending more time driving, than site seeing. You just can not see all that in 4 weeks by car. Plus, you will be wore out. I would advise a longer stay, or fewer sites to see.

  Mike

  Also visit us during the month of July, we celebrate the best holiday ever, our independence day. Also the first weekend following the Independence Day celebration we go to the big all Mopar show at Carlisle, Pennsylviana. If your coming to America ya may as well see the best collection of Mopars at one spot. Three grand days of Mopars and Mopar people, ie: Cuda-Challenger.com club tent etc.   

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Here's BIG's   Fly to the places you want to go and rent cars from there! I highly recomend PRICELINE for car rentals. If you can play the game the deals are great.   Anyway I'm personally always on a tight scedule and flying just saves so much time.    GRANTED you dont get to see everything, but belive me when I tell you someplaces there's not alot to see. I don't want to offend anyone of our members, but ever drive though west Texas, north out of Vegas, parts of Montana, anywhere along I-65 through Indiana??? I could go on and on. I wouldn't waste valuable time.    Been there done that. Trust me ...        


BTW I've had relatives come here from Europe. (SE Wisconsin) With the mis-conception that we could just drive to Disneyland.... ahhhhh noooooooo! They just didn't have the concept of how large a place this is. 

[urgewalt]

Hi,

at first => thanks for the answers.

It sounds like you will be planning quite the trip.  You have some very nice places planned for your visit, and that is a good time of year.  As far as a rental car vs. flying, a lot of that depends on just how long you will be in the country.  I personally like driving, so my choice would be to rent in New York and return in San Francisco.  Just make sure you get unlimited mileage on the rental, because you will put on probably close to 4,000 miles.  The nice thing is it will let you stop whenever and wherever you want, and stay as long as you want at each location.  If you were only going to visit a couple of cities then flying might be a better option, but when you book the tickets you are tied to specific dates, and any changes will result in large change fees ($$$).  As far as a rental company, I always use Thrifty, but that's because they mostly rent Chrysler vehicles.  Their rates are not bad, but there are probably some other cheaper companies out there.  As for hotels, it usually is not any problem finding one on short notice as you are driving along.  If you are on a major highway, they are very easy to find.  I usually stay at Hampton Inns because they have a decent breakfast included, but again there are definitely cheaper hotels (motel 6, Super 8 to name a couple). 

By the way, I live in Dallas and my mother in law is German from Winweiller (sp?), and she and my wife speak German all the time.  If you do make it through here let me know and maybe we can hook up for lunch.

Hi 73chally,

thanks, you give me helpfully informations - it seams that THRIFTY is a good deal, much better as I rent a car from a companie here in germany. I must check the if the assurance is equal than here in Germany.
When I see the other answers below, I think that we skip Dallas and fly from the East to the West Coast.
And your wife hasn't teach you german speaking  !

I also agree that driving a car cross county is a better idea - it gives you the time to explore what you want & not be locked into exact schedules.  You might consider either buying or renting a GPS navigation system (TomTom, Magellan, etc) to help you get around (if your rental vehicle does not come with one) - compared to Germany, city freeway systems can sometimes get very confusing.  I have done multiple cross-county trips by car or truck and I always take my navigation system with me (and I live here).

The dates you picked will be good weather-wise, but since I don't have a 2008 calender in front of me, you may overlap with the Easter holiday, which could mean lots of families traveling with kids out of school on some form of spring break.  Hotels are easy, I usually look for Hampton Inns also (I do like their breakfast buffet) and budget about $75 a night for them.

The sites you've picked are among the top travel destinations, but along the way, there may be some good car type events to also check out.  Here in the Los Angeles area, the Mopar Spring Fling will be happening around then and there is a huge auto swap-meet in Pomona (about 30 min east of Los Angeles) that happens every 2 months.  Los Angeles is also home to the Peterson Automotive Museum as well as the NHRA Museum in Pomona.

I'm sure other members will chime in with events that will be happening around them as well.

If you have time in Los Angeles, drop me a PM, I can give you directions to a couple of very good German Restaurants and if you get home-sick for some food (or snacks) I know of several German Deli's.

Don't worry about your English, it's better than my German......

Ich Bein Ein DonauSchwab.

Robert

Hi Robert,

I have a portable GPS here in Germany, I would fit it with maps from the USA and will take it to this ride ...
My informations are that this date lie exactly between "Springbreak" and the school holidays in all countrys.
We make definitly a stop in LA - that and New York is my wifes dream and so I will fulfil her dream !

When you have an exact date of this swap-meep in Pomona - please let me know.

Not to be a downer here, but given your ambicious plan of sites to see, you will be spending more time driving, than site seeing. You just can not see all that in 4 weeks by car. Plus, you will be wore out. I would advise a longer stay, or fewer sites to see.

  Mike

Hi Mike,

thanks, you are not a downer.
I asked exactly for this reason, this measures you have in the United Staates are hardly to take for someone who wasn't there - I see the naked figures, but this is another thing to see/feel it in reality.
I can't take more vacation because this is my anual vacation ...
So I think you are right - the better way for us is a mix of fly and drive.

Also visit us during the month of July, we celebrate the best holiday ever, our independence day. Also the first weekend following the Independence Day celebration we go to the big all Mopar show at Carlisle, Pennsylviana. If your coming to America ya may as well see the best collection of Mopars at one spot. Three grand days of Mopars and Mopar people, ie: Cuda-Challenger.com club tent etc.   

Hi whitesatinmopar,

sadly at this time we have our school holidays here and then I can't take my vacation because we have no kids and my colleagues which have kids have a claim on these dates. But this is definitly the last visit ...

BTW I've had relatives come here from Europe. (SE Wisconsin) With the mis-conception that we could just drive to Disneyland.... ahhhhh noooooooo! They just didn't have the concept of how large a place this is. 

Hi BIGSHCLUNK,

exaclty that is it !!! Our country is so mini in comparison with the United Staates - with a fast car I can drive across Germany from one corner to the other in only 7 hours (from north to south) or in 5 hours (from west to east).


Thanks again for your answers, this is really nice  - maybe I can meet some guys from here ...

[ChallengerHK]

exaclty that is it !!! Our country is so mini in comparison with the United Staates - with a fast car I can drive across Germany from one corner to the other in only 7 hours (from north to south) or in 5 hours (from west to east).

For what it's worth, I've driven drom Washington, DC to San Francisco, CA and back 3 times.  This isn't quite as wide as the US gets, but it's close.  Each time it took me 3 days, about 14 hours each day, to go one way, assuming that I more or less obeyed the speed limits and factoring in things like road closures and slowdowns. Basically I drove, stopped for lunch, drove, stopped for dinner, drove until I was really tired, got a room, and then got up and did it all again the next day.

Other things I'd think about here:
-- New York - there's a LOT to see in NY, plus it's fairly hard to get around in the city, so this would be pretty time consuming. I'd still recommend it, though.

-- Niagara Falls - beautiful, but there's really nothing else in the area to see, and you're going out of your way to get there.

-- Washington DC - Like NY, tons to see.  The Smithsonian alone could take up most of a week.

-- Santa Barbara - This is a pretty place, but it's not a place I personally would put on a list that I had to see versus other areas.

-- Joshua-Tree-Nationalpark - Nice, pretty, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it vis-a-vis Yosemite (one of the two most beuaitful places in the US I've ever seen) or the Grand Canyon. On the other hand, if you play golf (I  don't) Palm Springs is only about half an hour away, and I'm told it has some great courses.

[urgewalt]

For what it's worth, I've driven drom Washington, DC to San Francisco, CA and back 3 times.  This isn't quite as wide as the US gets, but it's close.  Each time it took me 3 days, about 14 hours each day, to go one way, assuming that I more or less obeyed the speed limits and factoring in things like road closures and slowdowns. Basically I drove, stopped for lunch, drove, stopped for dinner, drove until I was really tired, got a room, and then got up and did it all again the next day.

Other things I'd think about here:
1. -- New York - there's a LOT to see in NY, plus it's fairly hard to get around in the city, so this would be pretty time consuming. I'd still recommend it, though.

2. -- Niagara Falls - beautiful, but there's really nothing else in the area to see, and you're going out of your way to get there.

3. -- Washington DC - Like NY, tons to see.  The Smithsonian alone could take up most of a week.

4. -- Santa Barbara - This is a pretty place, but it's not a place I personally would put on a list that I had to see versus other areas.

5. -- Joshua-Tree-Nationalpark - Nice, pretty, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it vis-a-vis Yosemite (one of the two most beuaitful places in the US I've ever seen) or the Grand Canyon. On the other hand, if you play golf (I  don't) Palm Springs is only about half an hour away, and I'm told it has some great courses.

Hi ChallengerHK,

1. => That is my wifes dream to stay once in New York, so we make it
2. => Is cancelled, also my wifes favorite but we come back and see it a another time.
3. => see 2.
4. => There live me nephew - so we must meet him, the city is minor matter.
5. => We will definitly see the Grand Canyon, the other stops are flexible and I'am not a Golfer, Volkswagen isn't my favorite make (a little joke).

[ChallengerHK]

If you decide to still include Washington DC now or some other trip let me know and I'll try to get up there and show you around.  Within a couple of blocks you have the seat of the US government, the Hope Diamond, Swamp Rat XXX, and the USS Enterprise 

[urgewalt]

If you decide to still include Washington DC now or some other trip let me know and I'll try to get up there and show you around.  Within a couple of blocks you have the seat of the US government, the Hope Diamond, Swamp Rat XXX, and the USS Enterprise 

Hi ChallengerHK,

thanks for this nice offer - when we came a second time I will adopt it willingly !
At this trip we can't make all what we want - so Washington DC is sadly canceled ...

[bordin34]

At the Grand Canyon, get there before sunset. While the sun is setting the view is great. There is a steakhouse in the park that is right on the rim of the canyon, eat dinner there. Also while at the Canyon go see the IMAX movie about it. If you go to the other end of the canyon go onto the skywalk. I didnt get to go on it but it is supposed to be great. http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com/

[urgewalt]

At the Grand Canyon, get there before sunset. While the sun is setting the view is great. There is a steakhouse in the park that is right on the rim of the canyon, eat dinner there. Also while at the Canyon go see the IMAX movie about it. If you go to the other end of the canyon go onto the skywalk. I didnt get to go on it but it is supposed to be great. http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com/

Hi bordin34,

thanks for the LINK - my nephew give it already to me !
I think that my wife didn't go on it too - but I will try it.
The German translation on this side is just as bad as my english  !

[urgewalt]

Hi,

currently we reschedule our trip.

I'am unsure what we should do :
1. Fly to NYC (stay there 5 days), fly from NYC to LAS an take a car (drive to some places at the westcoast) and fly back from LAS.
2. Fly to NYC (stay there some days), take a car (drive to some places at eastcoast) and fly back from NYC.
3. Fly to SFO/LAX or LAS (stay there some days), take a car (drive to some places at the westcoast).

Has anyone some tips for me ?
Mainly we will see/meet the land and folks.

[ChallengerHK]

I think you need a tentative list of what you want to see at this point before you can make this decision. For instance, it's easy to get to the Grand Canyon or the Los Angeles area from Las Vegas, but a lot harder to get to Yosemite or San Francisco.

For my money, I'd want to see San Francisco and Yosemite over LA and the Grand Canyon, so I'd probably choose option 3 and fly into SFO.